lawsuit filed Wednesday takes aim at a fresh Denver ordinance that could shut down dozens of unlicensed nonresidential marijuana-growing collectives by limiting them to growing 36 plants.

The Denver City Council passed the measure 11-0 Monday night. It was proposed by Mayor Michael Hancock’s marijuana office, which says it’s attempting to address unsafe conditions in the unlicensed growing facilities and an “exponential increase” in the cultivation of untracked marijuana.

Hancock signed the bill into law on Tuesday.

But the new limit — which doesn’t apply to licensed commercial grow houses — has drawn protests, in part because of the potential impact on caregivers who grow a large number of plants.

Medical marijuana is coming to Georgia. A bill that would legalize the drug for limited medicinal purposes passed the Georgia House Wednesday and is expected to be signed by Gov. Nathan Deal. Georgia would become the 24th U.S. state to approve the use of medical marijuana.

A bipartisan effort to legalize medical marijuana at the federal level is now underway in both Houses of Congress, and its sponsors acknowledge they face an uphill climb to passage - but they believe the public is on their side.

"Polls show that at least 86 percent of Americans say medical marijuana should be available," said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, in an interview with CBS News. "Legislators rarely lead, they generally follow. I guess it's called cultural lag...Eventually, people in Congress start catching up."

A NEW political party campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis is to field a candidate in the Capital at the general election.

Cista – which stands for Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol – was set up just last month but plans to contest around 40 seats across the UK on May 7, including Edinburgh South West, where former Chancellor Alistair Darling is standing down.

Party leader Paul Birch, who co-founded social networking site Bebo before it was sold to AOL for £570 million, said Britain’s drug laws were “pretty messed up right now”.

He said: “There has been a lot of progress in other countries – there 700 cannabis social clubs in Spain, cannabis has been legalised in four American states and the number is growing every year.

After being sued by MGM, a marijuana company has agreed to stop calling itself “M’Life,” a name almost identical to that of MGM’s member rewards program.

MGM Resorts International filed a federal lawsuit in Las Vegas in September, accusing M’Life Wellness and sister companies of diluting MGM’s “M Life” trademark and “cybersquatting” on the website mlifewellness.com.

The two companies reached a settlement in principle months ago that was finalized last week, according to a notice filed with the court Friday.

Dan Lutz, CEO of the former M’Life, said he was surprised by the lawsuit and had no intention of infringing on MGM’s trademark.

“We weren’t even aware of the loyalty card that they had,” Lutz said, adding with a laugh, “I mean, I’m not a gambler, so…”

The city will look into the legality of licensing any medical marijuana production facility in Barrie.

While giving initial approval Monday to expand permitted uses within the industrial section of the city's comprehensive zoning bylaw, there were questions about a business licence for one particular use.

"I have enough discomfort about this," said Mayor Jeff Lehman of medical marijuana production, noting the Ontario Municipal Act does have restrictions about what local governments can and cannot licence.

"Maybe you can't make it illegal, but you can require conditions," he said. "Maybe we can get some detail on what is and what is not permitted."

The US’s rapidly growing cannabis industry – medical and recreational – desperately needs chemists. That was the conclusion of a session at the American Chemical Society’s spring conference in Denver, Colorado, on 23 March. ‘We need chemists to tell us what we have,’ said Chloe Villano, founder of the Colorado-based cannabis business consulting company Clover Leaf.

One of the major pushbacks that federal marijuana reform faces is the difficulty associated with detecting marijuana on drivers. Marijuana intoxication typically requires a blood test to confirm that the driver has marijuana in their system.

Tougher to detect marijuana than alcohol

Police officers find it much more difficult to detect marijuana on drivers than alcohol. A Durango county police spokesman said that officers will often charge a driver with an alcohol DUI if both alcohol and drugs are suspected because it is the same charge in the eyes of the courts.

You might expect someone running a pot dispensary to have few reservations about legalising marijuana in Oregon, but Lauren Terry is of two minds. “As a manager, I think this business will probably be fine. As a patient, I worry about new taxes. I worry about growers.”

Terry knows the business inside out. But like many working at the retail end of the industry, and many patients, she is nervous about how Salem will reconcile the coming world of legalised recreational sales with Oregon’s large, innovative medical marijuana industry.

Peter Thiel's fund gets into pot Ohio has taken a step closer to becoming the fifth state to legalize marijuana.

A group is gathering signatures to amend the state's constitution so that Ohioans can legally consume marijuana for medical and recreational use.

The group, called ResponsibleOhio, needs to collect more than 300,000 signatures to put the amendment to a vote in November.

If voters approve the amendment, Ohio would join Colorado, Washington Oregon and Alaska as states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Washington, D.C., allows recreational use of marijuana, but it's still illegal to sell pot there. Many other states have legalized medical marijuana.

Related: Pot startups cash in on wave of legalization