Sealed bags of marijuana dangle behind a counter, curved glass pipes glimmer on shelves, and a steady trickle of middle-aged customers gleefully buys cannabis strains nicknamed Charlie Sheen and Godzilla.

"The Gallery" is similar to more than 100 other lawful state-licensed marijuana retail shops and hundreds of medical dispensaries in Washington state, with one exception: It is operating in defiance of local law.

Its opening on Sunday set up a potential showdown with authorities in Pierce County, about an hour outside Seattle, which has effectively banned recreational pot shops in unincorporated areas so long as the drug remains illegal under federal law, even as medical pot businesses flourish virtually unregulated.

Mississauga is set to become the first city in Canada to licence and regulate the production of medical marijuana.

“The federal government legalized these operations, but we’re the ones eventually responsible for where they’re located and the enforcement of them,” said Councillor Jim Tovey, after a committee vote on a new bylaw that passed Wednesday. Final approval will is expected to come when from full council by the end of March.

A staff report dated Feb. 18, 2015, indicated that no other city in Canada has made such a move, following the federal government’s transition in 2013 and 2014 to licence the private production of legal medical marihuana.

“It’s really a public safety issue,” Tovey said.

DENVER (AP) – Former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson says he believes the NFL will have no choice but to remove marijuana from its lists of banned substances in the near future.

Speaking at a marijuana business conference, Jackson called on the league to allow medical marijuana as a means to help players deal with the physical and psychological pain and head injuries inherent to their profession.

Jackson said he avoided opiate painkillers as much as he could during his six-year career from 2003-08. Instead, he self-medicated with marijuana so that he wouldn’t retire addicted to prescription drugs like so many of his contemporaries, he said.

(WLNS) – Lawmakers are still considering measures to define the future of medical marijuana in Michigan.

Legislation discussed in the senate Wednesday aims to eliminate some of the legal gray areas, but critics say lawmakers are focusing on the wrong issues.

Medical marijuana in the state of Michigan has a complicated track record. It was approved for medical use by voters in 2008, but dispensaries became illegal under a 2013 Supreme Court case.

Yet we still see them in Michigan cities.

“How the process works is law enforcement will take a report, they provide that report to the prosecutor’s office, and the prosecutor’s going to decide whether they’ll authorize charges,” said Matt Newburg, criminal defense attorney.

Update:

ELDRIDGE, Iowa (KWQC) — The bill introduced in Des Moines on Monday could change the lives of many patients. It would allow medical marijuana for those with chronic diseases, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, AIDS, glaucoma, hepatitis C, crohn’s disease, colitis, ehlers-danlos syndrom, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A lawmaker on the country's largest American Indian reservation has introduced a bill to reaffirm the tribe's stance against legalizing marijuana.

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Edmund Yazzie says legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational use contradicts Navajo values and tradition.

His bill introduced this week comes in response to an announcement last year by the U.S. Department of Justice to allow American Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana within certain guidelines.

Navajo lawmakers can take action on Yazzie's bill after a public comment period.

Yazzie has said legalizing marijuana would drive up crime rates and drug addiction on the vast reservation that extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

Conroe Police Department Public Information Officer Dorcy Riddle stands amongst 10 to 20,000 marijuana plants waiting to be cut down by authorities Aug. 21, 2013, in Conroe, Texas. Investigators found the plants, but no suspects, through undisclosed procedures with the help of different agencies. They plan to cut them down and incinerate them after they're dried. (AP Photo/ Houston Chronicle, Cody Duty)

Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, filed a bill Monday to legalize marijuana by removing all mention of the drug from state statutes.

Berlin: There is movement in the debate on the legalization of cannabis. The Greens now submit a design that protects children, possession and regulated trafficking - and the State also brings taxes.

The Greens want to legalize cannabis - under strict conditions and for adults only. It was necessary to create a controlled and regulated system that protect children and young people under 18 years of age.

Green Party Vice Katja Dörner stated at the presentation of the draft "Cannabis Control Act."

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, OH – The debate on legalizing marijuana continues.

Just one day after a group pushing to legalize weed filed a new version of a proposal to get it passed, there is now a growing movement to stop them in their tracks.

The organization Responsible Ohio, has raised  more than 35 million dollars to put the controversial topic on the November ballot.

And just this week, resubmitted a new version of its proposal to Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine.

Bolander says, “We know that marijuana is in our communities now, we know that it’s accessible, but it’s not safe.”

But opponents say making it legal would be just as dangerous.

A new study published by the National Institute of Health has found that cannabinoid receptor activation – something done naturally by cannabis – may provide a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term disease that causes inflammation of the joints and tissues.

“Recent studies have suggested immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects of cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2R) activation”, states the study’s abstract.  Despite these recent studies, researchers say that the connection between these cannabinoid receptors and rheumatoid arthritis has been much less observed, leading them to conduct this study.  According to their researchers, data suggests that “CB2R may be a potential therapeutic target of RA [rheumatoid arthritis].”