If Breathalyzers and walking a straight line don’t work, maybe brain games will help determine if drivers are too stoned to operate their vehicle.

Drunk driving is pretty easy to spot. If someone is swerving or driving at dangerously high speed, a cop or highway patrol officer can easily ask a driver to blow into a breathalyz or ask them to stand on one leg, touch their nose and count backwards. Testimony from officers who witnessed failed sobriety tests has influenced countless DUI convictions. But what do officers do if they suspect a driver is stoned? Can the same tests determine if a driver is high?

A Massachusetts senator and staunch opponent to the legalization of recreational marijuana is taking aim at the law passed through a statewide ballot initiative last November.

Sen. Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat, has filed a series of bills that nip, tuck and slash pieces of the legislation laid out in a ballot question passed by state voters on Nov. 8.

In an interview Friday, Lewis told The Boston Globe he believes the ballot initiative's support was for the generalities of legal possession and usage of marijuana in Massachusetts, but that defining the specifics is down to the Legislature.

Legislative leaders have made clear they are not through with making changes to the voter-approved recreational Massachusetts marijuana initiative, but it remains to be seen whether future action amounts to an overhaul of or a mere tinkering with the new law.

A committee of House and Senate lawmakers will soon be named to consider potential revisions and make recommendations to the full Legislature.

Courtagen Life Sciences and Medicinal Genomics today announced a partnership with TheAnswerPage.com to provide continuing medical education (CME) credits to physicians and other healthcare professionals for the upcoming CannMed 2017 Personalized Cannabinoid Medicine Conference to be held at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston on April 9-11, 2017.

CannaKorp is a Stoneham-based startup that has earned the title of "Keurig for weed" because of the single-use, pod-based cannabis vaporizing system it has developed, and investors are lining up.

The company announced on Thursday that it has closed a $4.1 million Series A round led by private equity firm Singularity Capital Management, which focuses on the cannabis industry. This brings total funding to $5.7 million.

Across New England, two issues appear to be driving legislatures this year — and they both have to do with drugs.

States are grappling with the emergence of marijuana legalization. But the region is also the epicenter of the opioid crisis, with overdose rates in New Hampshire among the highest in the country.

These two debates — separate, but not unrelated — transcend party. Marijuana legalization efforts have been supported by Democrats and Republicans, but none of the region’s six governors fully support recreational use of the drug. On the opioid crisis as well, there is bipartisan consensus about the importance of the issue — as well as the fact there’s no silver bullet to solve the problem.

2016 is a year that will live in infamy, but one clear winner across the board was cannabis. The United States watched as eight more states legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, and the ripple effect of legalization has been felt throughout the globe. 

Revel in these states' and countries' cannabis victories and look to the future with renewed optimism. What will 2017 bring? We can't wait to find out! 

Even though recreational marijuana has been legal in Massachusetts since Dec. 15, the move by legislators at the end of the year to delay the opening of pot retail stores – coupled with two moves on the federal level – has left the marijuana business industry concerned the long wait will add up to the drug being made illegal again.

"They [cannabis industry] are paranoid, so they react to headlines," said Jeffrey Friedland, international marijuana expert, author and blogger.

Mass. lawmakers on Dec. 28 announced a six-month delay on retail sales of recreational cannabis, saying they required more time to work on the legalization measure. Votes by the House and Senate moved licensing of marijuana shops from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1 of the same year.