About a decade ago when someone asked you if you wanted some milk, your first thought would automatically go straight to “cow”. And why wouldn’t it? Milk was and is synonymous with cows.

But now times have changed and our grocery stores and food markets are flooded with plant-based alternatives to cow milk. You can walk down the diary isle and find yourself staring right in the face of soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut and -yes- hemp milk. And consumers can’t get enough. Their thirst for low calorie, low sugar alternatives to regular cow milk is boosting these plant-based milks to new and exciting heights.

“Right there. You feel that?” my partner whimpers in the dark. The pain and exhaustion in her voice are audible.

I press my fingers hard into her outer thigh and massage in an expanding circle, over ripples of sculpted rock. Her rectus femoris barely loosens as I knead harder, using my knuckles.

“Sssssssss,” she hisses. “Right there…You can press harder.”

Reaching toward the nightstand, I scan a line-up of spray bottles, lotions and balm jars sitting in the dim light. I grab the smallest jar, said to be the most potent, and scoop a large dollop with my index finger and rub it into her hip and get to work. It smells of herb and mint.

If you’re like most Americans, losing a few extra pounds is your goal for 2015. With holiday season in the rearview mirror and all of the leftovers finished, it’s the perfect time to get in shape.  While the idea of working out and using cannabis seem like diametrically opposed concepts to the anti-legalization crowd, it’s a movement that’s gaining steam in Denver—and people are seeing results.

The Pro Athlete

Clifford Drusinsky, 39, is the opposite of the “typical stoner” stereotype. With his own gym, a line of edibles in the works, and three Australian Shepherds, he’s a busy guy. He also placed at nine different triathlons in 2013. What separates Drusinsky’s workouts from others? Cannabis-infused edibles. 

BOULDER, Colo. — Recreational marijuana is both illegal and controversial in most of the country, and its relationship to food does not rise much above a joke about brownies or a stoner chef’s late-night pork belly poutine.

But cooking with cannabis is emerging as a legitimate and very lucrative culinary pursuit.

In Colorado, which has issued more than 160 edible marijuana licenses, skilled line cooks are leaving respected restaurants to take more lucrative jobs infusing cannabis into food and drinks. In Washington, one of four states that allow recreational marijuana sales, a large cannabis bakery dedicated to affluent customers with good palates will soon open in Seattle.

With a drug war against marijuana still raging in more countries than not, the question of how long-term marijuana use effects the human brain is a pivotal question in its legalization.

Although alcohol remains legal despite heeps of evidence to the dangers of long-term use, the fight to make marijuana available both with regard to its medical properties (especially in selectively killing cancer cells) and non-medical uses has frequently hinged on the various claims made about marijuana's effects on the recreational user. 

MOSCOW, December 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Foreign Ministry says it regrets Uruguay’s decision to legalize marijuana. Growing, selling and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes was signed into law by president Jose Mujica on December 24.

“This step has caused a sharply negative response from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the main body for supervision of compliance with international drugs control conventions,” the ministry said.

The board believed the new law contravened the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, confining cannabis consumption to scientific and medical purposes, Russia's statement said.

All cannabis technically originated from the “Cannabis Sativa” species, although it is widely accepted that there are 3 main varieties of cannabis species.

1. Cannabis Sativa

2. Cannabis Indica

3. Cannabis Ruderalis

Each is quite different from one another.

Cannabis Sativa 

Grows tall, anywhere from 5 to 25 feet high.They are easily recognized by their long, serrated, pointy, light green leaves.

The first legal cannabis e-cigarette could soon be landing on British soil. And when we say soon, we mean next Thursday - or so say the Metro.

The company behind the cannabis e-cigarette, KanaVape, claims that the vaporiser is perfectly legal due to the lack of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which is a chemical found in the drug.

THC is known for its mind-altering effects and can induce hallucinations and a change in thinking, as well as cause delusions.

A new treatment derived from cannabis is to go on trial in Scotland in a bid to help sick children.

Doctors have been given the go-ahead to test Epidiolex, a treatment based on cannabidiol (CBD) a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant.

And medical experts are hoping the treatment – which has had success in studies on the treatment of epilepsy in the US – will help Scottish children whose seizures cannot be controlled with existing medications.

‘Many children with serious forms of epilepsy do not respond to the medications that we currently have available,’ said Dr Richard Chin, director of the Muir Maxwell Epilepsy Centre.