The City of Vancouver's plan to regulate retail marijuana stores has raised the ire of Ottawa.

In a letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson, federal health minister, Rona Ambrose, says she is "deeply concerned" at the city's plan to discuss a proposal to regulate the growing crop of pot shops.

The letter, sent Thursday, says that "legitimizing and normalizing the use and sale of marijuana can have only one effect: increasing marijuana use and addiction."

For the first time ever, the Alabama Legislature will hold a discussion about legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.

A bill is now on its way to the Senate floor.

The committee vote was straight down party lines -- four democrats voted for it, three republicans voted against it and one member abstained.

Sen. Bobby Singleton's bill would require a doctor's complete evaluation and oversight during treatment. It would approve the use of marijuana to treat 25 medical conditions like cancer, AIDS, lupus, fibromyalgia and autism.

Ft. Payne mother Wendy Ponson says it's been a game changer for her daughter, Aurora.

Eight-year-old Aurora has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, insomnia, seizures and autism.

Medical marijuana for pets is now available in Texas. You can buy capsules, treats and other edibles as natural pain relievers online. They are legal because they contain such a low percentage of THC.

A Texas veterinarian says his biggest concern is pets being used as guinea pigs.

"I'm not comfortable with having somebody say, 'well, yeah let's throw it out there and hope for the best and we're going to use your pets as our experimental animals and see what works,'" said veterinarian Dr. Merten Pearson.

Veterinarians cannot prescribe cannabis products to pets, they can only recommend them.

The FDA says it is investigating the benefits of the products.

TORONTO — Ross Rebagliati had just finished smoking his seventh joint of the day. But he was not high, he said, or stoned, or baked or whatever else one might assume another human being would be after smoking their seventh joint of the day — by 3:30 pm.

Young Twitter users favor marijuana. Teen Twitter chatter about “pot” is high and influential for the developing teenagebrain. The popularity of social networkingsites allows an increasingly younger demographic to be intrigued by pot and attracted to the perceived benefits.

Exploring the “Pot” Twitterverse

Efforts to help Indiana gain federal approval to grow and sell industrial hemp have died this legislative session, the bill's author said Wednesday.

"There's some disagreement about just how close it is to marijuana," said Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston. "We just need more clarification about the differences."

While the measure — which would have excluded industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana — drew no opposition in the House, it lost momentum in the Senate. Opponents expressed concerns about relaxing Indiana's marijuana laws — even though industrial hemp differs from medical or recreational marijuana plants in THC content and appearance.

The intended audience is clear from the start of a new medical marijuana promotion video by state Sen. Mark Madsen.

"My name is Mark Benson Madsen," says the Saratoga Springs Republican, grandson of Ezra Taft Benson, 13th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"My grandfather was my hero and my friend long before I knew that he had been the secretary of agriculture or was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles," Madsen says.

Madsen's bill proposing medical cannabis failed by one vote in the Senate this year, and he knows he'll need to appeal to conservative Utah Mormon voters and his colleagues in the Legislature to support the measure next session.

The professional organization that regulates the conduct of B.C. doctors is cracking down on how patients access medicinal marijuana, and some MDs in the province are not happy about it.

In a telephone interview, Dr. Ian Mitchell, a Kamloops-based physician and clinical associate professor at UBC, described the new rules as “excessive” and “beyond Health Canada requirements”.

“This is very restrictive and a big change from the past,” he told the Georgia Straight. “These new regulations make it almost impossible for anybody to comply with them.”

Have you ever considered using CBD for chronic pain relief? I didn’t. I never even considered it. Sure, I read some stuff in the news about marijuana’s ‘awesome’ healing properties, but to be honest I always that it was a bunch of BS. I pictured myself smoking a big spliff, getting really paranoid, feeling out of my head and still having a seriously bad migraine. Oh, and going to bed and not sleeping because I am spinning and, did I say it before, so incredibly PARANOID. Not my happy place.

Cannabis should be legalised for medical use, according to Wales Green Party leader Pippa Bartolotti.

Ms Bartolotti will make the case for a change in approach in a speech at Cardiff University on Thursday night.

Legalising cannabis has been Green Party policy for some time.

Ms Bartolotti said: "No one has yet died from using cannabis, in fact the health benefits of cannabis in the treatment of epilepsy and cancer are already well documented."

She added: "Commercial organisations in the UK are already allowed to patent and sell cannabis extracts, whilst the population as a whole is criminalised for using it - even if it saves their life. This simply has to be changed."