Dutch pharmacies expect prescriptions for medical marijuana to rise 45% this year, almost double the 25% rise recorded in previous years, according to pharmaceuticals statistics office SFK.

Medical marijuana is not an official medicine in the Netherlands and is not included in the basic health insurance policy. However, the five licenced brands on the Dutch market, produced by the Bedrocan company, are distributed via pharmacies.

In 2012, pharmacies filled some 11,000 prescriptions for medical marijuana but this year the figure is expected to be twice that. The number of users has also doubled form 2,000 to 4,000, the SFK said.

Now that the Liberals are in power, Canadians want to know if prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau will keep his word and legalize marijuana or if his promise will simply go up in smoke.

According to the party’s campaign platform, Canada’s prohibition approach doesn’t work.

“It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of the drug,” the Liberals say.

“To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana.”

But even the soon-to-be sworn-in prime minister doesn’t know when that might happen.

Any way you look at it, dagga is medicine. Even if you smoke it just to get “high”, the South African weed won’t just alter your consciousness.

It has a host of other powerful pharmacologic effects on body and mind, which make it medicine by definition.

Depending on which side of the legalisation or criminalisation fence you sit on, you’ll see those effects in a good or bad light.

“The dagga couple”, as the media have dubbed activists Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clark, sit on the side of the fence bathed in the glow of a good light. They are part of an influential legalisation campaign in South Africa that has spread faster than the weed grows, and now includes medical doctors, psychologists, lawyers, and other interested parties.

An increase of 45 percent has been recorded for the use of medical marijuana in the Netherlands compared to 2014. This is a much larger increase than in the last four years, which increased a steady 25 percent increase. Patients that are now medically qualify for the use of cannabis no longer have to rely on coffee shops, now they can get there medical marijuana, via prescription, at their local pharmacy, reported the Foundation for Pharmaceutical Studies (SFK).

Dutch group HempFlax has invested EUR 5 million in hemp growing and processing in Romania, where it opened its first factory in October. The factory is located in Alba county, in central Romania.

Hemp growing and processing has been increasing in Romania in recent years, as the processed hemp is mostly exported and used in various industries abroad. Several local and international producers are looking to revive this industry.

Before 1989, Romania was the fourth largest hemp exporter worldwide, but the cultivated surfaces went down dramatically after 1990, reaching a few hectares in the early 2000s.

The Molina plantation was exporting ten tons of cannabis per month to Holland

Eight people have been arrested by the Guardia Civil in connection with a marijuana plantation in Molina de Segura which has been described by investigators as “the most sophisticated yet found in Europe”.

“It smells like Amsterdam” is a well-turned phrase. Each year, about 1.5 million tourists visit the city to legally consume cannabis in specially licensed coffee shops, and every time their doors open to welcome a new customer, a potent waft escapes with the force of a jet missile into the street.

Whatever your views on the subject, the scent of marijuana and hashish is strong. The distinctive and easily identifiable smell curls along the narrow streets of De Wallen, lingers among the pubs, clubs, bars and coffee shops of the red light district and wafts across the open expanse of Stationsplein as newcomers in transit cram in a full, enhanced, poly-sensory experience of the city.

In a letter we obtained from the mayor's office in Amsterdam, mayor Van der Laan announced 15 more coffeeshops will be closed in Amsterdam, in addition to the 41 coffeeshops that have already been closed earlier this year. 

In the letter, referred is to a new report by Intraval’s 12th report on the state of the coffeeshops, which discusses the results of the twelfth measurement of the monitor of the number of tolerated point of sales of soft drugs (coffeeshops) in The Netherlands and the municipal coffeeshop policy.

‘Listen, I don’t want to do any of that cultural stuff,” my dad, John, said, as we planned our trip to Amsterdam, “I just want to get baked.”

I’ll admit I was concerned. My father has a ridiculously high tolerance for THC, following many dedicated decades, but last time I went to Amsterdam, I pulled my first-ever whitey and had to sit reading a burger menu for 45 minutes. But I want to do this trip: we haven’t been abroad together since I was 12, and cannabis helps with the symptoms of his MS. I won’t pretend that’s the only reason we’re going, however. My dad really, really likes to get high.