With Capitol Hill and the Justice Department locked in a feud over the future of medical marijuana, two leading congressional marijuana reform advocates are warning Justice that it’s violating a new federal law.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Sam Farr (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the Justice Department’s interpretation of their medical marijuana amendment in last year’s spending bill is “emphatically wrong.”

Massachusetts health officials are streamlining the way the state issues licenses under its Medical Marijuana Dispensary program to prevent delays in treatment for those who qualify for it.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel on Wednesday said the licensing system has been "a confusing, overly lengthy process that has delayed appropriate patients from getting access" to medically needed marijuana.

Under the revised process, the dispensaries will be licensed in a format similar to pharmacies and other health care facilities, she said. The process will set high safety and suitability standards for dispensaries to meet, particularly when it comes to security and background checks, she added.

Strict regulatory controls must be part of any Pennsylvania medical marijuana law to ensure that it does not compound the problem of recreational marijuana use, advocates for prosecutors and police told state lawmakers Wednesday.

Spokesmen for three law-enforcement groups registered their mutual concern in testimony at a fact-finding hearing before the House Health and Judiciary committees that focused on of the issues of law enforcement, drug treatment and regulatory services.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, speaking for the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said legislators must ensure that the right people are prescribing, distributing and receiving any medical form of marijuana.

Brett Levin via Flickr The chances of a successful marijuana-legalization initiative in Arizona for 2016 appear to have diminished due to fighting among two competing political groups.

As we reported on March 27, the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona was surprised by the sudden launch of a competing 2016 campaign by their chairperson, Dr. Gina Berman.

A leaked online survey shows that a coalition of Arizona medical-marijuana dispensaries are backing Berman's group.

The Senate health committee decided to delay action on a GOP-backed medical marijuana bill for Tennessee.

A Republican-backed effort to legalize marijuana for limited medicinal purposes in Tennessee is officially dead for the year.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee decided to delay action on the proposal from Nashville GOP Sen. Steve Dickerson until 2016.

Chairman Rusty Crowe said there wasn't enough time to fully discuss the pros and cons of the bill. He said he'd create a summer study commission to look at the bill.

Dickerson didn't seem happy with the decision, but said he deferred to Crowe's opinion.

"I believe this is a conservative bill; it's equally based in compassion and science," Dickerson, an anesthesiologist, told the committee.

A federally-licenced medical marijuana producer in Nanaimo, B.C., is contributing so much to the local economy that city council has approved a proposal to roughly quintuple the size of the facility.

"At this particular point in time, [Tilray has] contributed about $3.2 million in direct wages in just over a year in operations, and they will continue to do so," Mayor Bill McKay told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

"When they are involved in their building process … 95 per cent of the contractors were locals, so you can imagine when you're going from a 65,000 square foot-facility to a 265,000 square foot-facility — that's good jobs, that's great impact."

The cartels are still smuggling harder drugs but advocates point out the success of legalization in cutting illegal trade

In the midst of this seething mountain capital, Mexico’s security ministry houses a bizarre museum — a collection of what the army seizes from drug traffickers. The Museo de Enervantes, often referred to as the Narco Museum, has drug samples themselves (including the rare black cocaine), diamond-studded guns, gold-coated cell phones, rocket-propelled grenades and medals that cartels award their most productive smugglers. It also shows off the narcos’ ingenuity for getting their drugs into the United States, including “trap cars” with secret compartments, catapults to hurl packages over the border fence and even false buttocks, to hide drugs in.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon is racing the clock when it comes to setting the rules for retail pot sales.

Now, some lawmakers are considering letting medical marijuana dispensaries sell recreational weed starting July 1, 2015 when Measure 91 goes into effect.

Marijuana topicals are having their day, particularly in Colorado where cannabis-themed spas are offering therapeutic massage and alternative treatments that use salves, balms and oils infused with cannabis. Generally, these topicals begin with a carrier oil like coconut oil or olive oil that is cooked down similar to butter when baking edibles.

In some cases the cannabis infusion is the main therapeutic ingredient. Most of the time, however, the topicals are blended with other essential oils that also have anti-inflammatory properties like lavender, frankincense or lemon grass.