More than a year into Colorado's experiment legalizing marijuana, labs testing the plants are able for the first time to take stock of the drug's potency and contaminants — and openly paint a picture of what's in today's weed. At the 249^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), one such lab presented present trends — and some surprises — that its preliminary testing has revealed about the marijuana now on the market.

Last week, a Brookings Institution discussion on international drug policy began with the premise that "no policy has failed as badly in the past 30 years as drug policy," according to moderator and former Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarakhan in his opening statement. But now a group of non-profit organizations are working to change that.

“Most Japanese people see cannabis as a subculture of Japan but they’re wrong. For thousands of years cannabis has been at the very heart of Japanese culture,” explains Takayasu Junichi, one of the country’s leading experts.

According to Takayasu, the earliest traces of cannabis in Japan are seeds and woven fibers discovered in the west of the country dating back to the Jomon Period (10,000 BC - 300 BC). Archaeologists suggest that cannabis fibers were used for clothes - as well as for bow strings and fishing lines. These plants were likely cannabis sativa - prized for its strong fibers - a thesis supported by a Japanese prehistoric cave painting which appears to show a tall spindly plant with cannabis’s tell-tale leaves.

We all know at least one person who fits the “lazy stoner” stereotype.

These people live, eat, sleep and breathe to puff the magic dragon.

And, if you do get them stoned, all they want to talk about are other times they got high.

While these people may be an endless source of entertainment (It’s even a trope used in some of the best classic stoner films.), it sure as hell doesn’t help the legalization movement that’s been taking America by storm.

The issue of marijuana legalization has become a hot one, especially among the young and socially aware.

Politicians are slowly but surely beginning to understand this isn’t an issue that will simply fade away.

It’s war between the states, Supreme Court-style, and this time the stakes are green, marijuana plants that is.

Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing the state of Colorado over its marijuana laws and the Supreme Court wants to know what President Barack Obama thinks about legalizing marijuana.

The two states claim Colorado has created a “cross-border nuisance” by legalizing marijuana and claim their citizens are affected by the increase in marijuana coming from nearby Colorado.

THREE-TIME Grammy winner Bunny Wailer, singer Denroy Morgan and members of the Mystic Revealers band were among the artistes who participated in Saturday's Global Ganja Motorcade/March.

The 74-kilometre trek from Emancipation Square in Spanish Town, St Catherine to Goodyear Oval in Morant Bay, St Thomas was reminiscent of the 1865 march of Jamaica's National Hero Paul Bogle.

"The motorcade was well supported with 40 to 50 vehicles," Maxine Stowe, music insider and ganja legalisation advocate, told the Jamaica Observer.

The Global Ganja Motorcade/March is Wailer's latest attempt to shed light on recent changes in Jamaican law regarding the use and production of marijuana.

The first was in 1996, while the second was on April 20 last year.

Hundreds gathered for the Global Marijuana March held in Guayaquil, Ecuador to peacefully protest against prohibitionist drug laws.

AUSTIN - For the first time, a committee in the Legislature has approved a bill to decriminalize possession of marijuana, a move advocates hailed as a milestone moment in Texas.

The state House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee passed House Bill 507 late Monday, just three days after narrowly voting it down.

Thousands marched across Argentina on Saturday to demand an end to marijuana prohibition.

EspañolA passion for marijuana gripped the heart of the Argentinean capital on Saturday, May 2, as over 100,000 people marched through the streets of Buenos Aires to demand legalization and the right to personal cultivation of the drug.