Sorry, Hoosiers, but you probably can't use Indiana's religious freedom law as an excuse to smoke marijuana — although residents like Bill Levin, founder of the First Church of Cannabis, are certainly trying.

Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which takes effect on July 1, allows people to challenge laws that "substantially burden" their religious practices.

Following the RFRA's passage, the Washington Post's Sarah Bailey and Huffington Post's Matt Ferner reported that Levin founded the First Church of Cannabis, which considers marijuana a sacrament, in an attempt to bypass the state's laws prohibiting marijuana for any purpose.

Couple faces five years in jail; plants discovered when police responded to disturbance call

Ostrava, North Moravia, April 5 (ČTK) — A Czech married couple was growing some 20 plants of cannabis in a special box, but the wife told the intervening police these were orchids, regional police spokeswoman Gabriela Holčaková told the Czech News Agency.

The couple then produced marijuana from the plants.

The detectives seized 17 plants, Holcakova said.

If convicted, the couple may be sentenced up to five years in prison, Holčaková said.

The police uncovered the mini-lab by chance, she added.

The man faced some health problems, behaving aggressively. He destroyed the furniture in the flat.

Last November District of Columbia citizens voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana, joining those of Colorado, Washington state, and Alaska. Since then debate continues about where and when it’s okay to ingest the weed, how to regulate and tax it, and the moral implications of approving use of a drug that is illegal under federal law.

The first time I ever smoked weed, I was a passenger in a moving car.

I am not proud of that fact. It’s something I tried very hard to forget I’d ever done. Let’s be clear (not that many young, impressionable folks will likely read the newspaper, though they should, while they are a-gittin’ off my lawn): intoxicants and motor vehicles aren’t just a bad mix. They’re criminal, reckless, and dangerous. Since that time, I’ve written and reported on the consequences of those actions enough to have seen and heard and smelled how close I was (without realizing it) to a grisly, horrible death.

Then I caught a distant whiff of the familiar smell, outside an upbeat meeting of marijuana fans shortly after the vote, and the memory of my previous stupidity came wafting back.

After declaring the U.S. attorney's enforcement of drug-free school zones arbitrary and not based on law, the owner of several medical marijuana dispensaries and recreational pot shops statewide has abandoned a dispensary he was developing near Colorado College, walking away from it just weeks before it was scheduled to open.

Dispensary owner Brian Ruden said Tuesday that he made the decision after federal officials told Side Streets in a March column that Ruden's Tree of Wellness II at 705 N. Nevada Ave. risked being shut down if it opened because of its proximity to two schools north of downtown.

“Today is a celebration of the greatest plant known to me. I’m going to smoke one right now,” the comedian tells the crowd

Comedian Tommy Chong and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero joined thousands of weed advocates at this year’s pro-marijuana rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday.

Chong, 76, famous as half of the duo “Cheech and Chong,” headlined the 44th annual event.

The comedian joked he’s been to hash bashes before, though he doesn’t remember them all.

Good Chemistry will open in Aurora next week.(Photo: Courtesy | Good Chemistry)

DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL - Aurora's newest marijuana dispensary will open next week at 16840 E. Iliff, making it the second location for Denver-based Good Chemistry.

The dispensary will offer recreational marijuana only, while Good Chemistry's original location at 330 E. Colfax Ave. offers both recreational and medical marijuana.

Matt Huron, founder and CEO of Good Chemistry, assembled a team of professionals including a botanist and an investment banker to help grow his company, which he eventually wants to debut on a national scale.

In what might turn out to be the best April Fools’ Day prank, an awkward marijuana sign came up on a college avenue in Arkansas. The sign, surprisingly, announced the future opening of the first marijuana dispensary in Arkansas inside a building that once housed EZ Mart. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for bringing up the sign and the owner of the building has claimed lack of knowledge about who placed the sign there, but what is clear is that marijuana is illegal in Arkansas as it is at the federal level.

Annual marijuana holiday (4/20)

Billed as being the “World’s Largest Legal Cannabis Celebration,” the annual World Cannabis Week will be returning to Denver this coming April. The event, which will be the third one so far, will run from April 16 through April 20 in Denver, Colorado, and tickets and packages are now on sale.

World Cannabis Week is quickly becoming one of the foremost cannabis trade shows and conventions in the industry. It is a much-anticipated convention by both purveyors of marijuana and cannabis-related products and by people who enjoy partaking in the recreational use of pot, or who are prescribed the drug for medical reasons.

More than 70 vendors will sell hemp-based products in Loveland on Saturday, while dozens of speakers discuss the benefits of the crop on a local, national and global scale.

There will be live artists sketching on hemp paper and stations where kids can make jewelry from hemp materials. But don't expect to find viable hemp seeds or plants for sale.