An emotional testimony about medical marijuana was heard Wednesday at the Nebraska State Capitol, with supporters pushing to get a bill to the full Legislature.

"They don't understand. If it was a natural disaster in Nebraska, everybody would be rallying around (it), but our kids are Nebraska's natural disaster, and they need the help now," Becky Budden said.

Budden's 4-year-old daughter has epilepsy and gets seizures.

Families like Budden’s support the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act.

"We've tried multiple pharmaceuticals," Budden said. "Right now, we're only on a rescue medicine. She's still having seizures."

The plan to open a new medical marijuana dispensary at a downtown Vancouver condo complex has riled up some residents of 1675 Hornby Street. 

Maxine Clough, one of the residents at the condo near Hornby St. and Beach Ave., said that while she and her neighbours have no problem with medical marijuana, their building is simply the wrong location. She has started a petition to stop the store from opening and has collected roughly 140 signatures so far.

"We have the Montessori school just down the bike path. We have another pre-school on Burrard Street, where the children go by here all the time," she says. "We just don't think this is the right atmosphere [for a medical marijuana store]."

Women must come out of the cannabis closet for marijuana reform according to Cheri Sicard

Doctors and patients emerge in sharper focus thanks to second annual report on program

As New Jersey’s medical marijuana program moves into its third year, state health officials said they will consider expanding it beyond the 10 conditions it currently covers. A panel of doctors and other medical experts will meet in the next few months, for example, to discuss adding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other problems to the list.

Looking for a reliable source of zinc in your daily diet? Vegans, take note — hemp seeds and hemp oil are great for keeping your zinc at a healthy level.

Here at the CNC, we’ve talked often about the nutritional benefits to be found in hemp food products. Today, we take a closer look at hemp as a source of zinc, an important nutrient in keeping your immune system healthy, and which is sometimes hard to find in vegan foods.

Crop King Seeds is the first branded marijuana company in Canada that sells seeds for cannabis genetics at over 140 stores across Canada. 

With their head office located in the Penthouse of Gastown’s Dominion building, Crop King Seeds has over 20 strains of marijuana and 13 employees gearing up to become the next “Molson Canadian” of North America’s fastest growing industry.

Kyle (last name withheld), the owner of Crop King Seeds has been asked over and over during his time in the industry; why the marijuana business? “Why not? I could have gone into the trendy Micro Brewery industry but then I realized that alcohol is far more harmful and destructive than marijuana. I wanted to be a pioneer, a game changer to bring a positive change to our country and communities.”

A common refrain among proponents of continued cannabis criminalization is that there exists a dearth of science specific to the plant’s effects on consumers and society. This claim is woefully inaccurate.

Democratic State Senator Diane Savino, a co-sponsor of the bill that created New York's medical marijuana program, said Wednesday she is pleased with the law's final regulations and urged critics, who accused the Cuomo administration of “abandoning patients and families in need in pursuit of a war on drugs approach,” to be patient with the health department and the fledgling program.

“Look, I understand the role of advocates and it's always [their job] to push for more and I’m not going to debate that,” Savino said. “I think it's a far cry from their insinuation that patients have been abandoned. I just simply don't accept that and don't agree.”

The company behind a plan to produce medical marijuana products in Owen Sound now intends to spend nearly triple its original estimate to retrofit its local facility.

Scott Boyes, president of the Canadian Bioceutical Corporation, said the projected price tag for capital work at the former PPG plant in Owen Sound’s industrial park has climbed from $5 million to $13 to $14 million.

The added costs will be required, he said, so the company can develop, produce and sell alternative forms of medical marijuana — such as cannabinoid-based oils, tinctures, creams and capsules — that meet strict pharmaceutical-level standards.

“Our strategy is to focus on becoming one of the new generation of producers,” he said Wednesday.

Someday this will be a case study in business schools: the creation of a marijuana franchise starting with a lone store in a cute Victorian house on Main Street in Breckenridge. For viewers beyond Colorado, “High Profits” on CNN, an eight-part docu-series premiering April 19, may seem an outrageous curiosity. For locals accustomed to media scrutiny of the state’s legalized recreational weed industry, it’s just one more reality TV effort, hyped for suspense.