A TED interview with Sir Richard helps explain why he's got so many fans.

Richard Branson may be the most popular businessperson alive. Employees, peers, and even strangers seem to love him. With more than eight million followers, he is by far the most popular Influencer on LinkedIn-almost doubling the next figure (Bill Gates's 4.4 million followers).

I'll admit, I had never heard of Branson before I started working for myself some years ago. I quickly found out that his status among entrepreneurs is legendary.

So what makes Sir Richard so darned likable?

According to a recent report from Europe's drug monitoring agency – the EMCDDA – the amount of Britons aged 15 to 34 using cannabis has almost halved in little more than a decade.

The statistics show that in 2000, almost 20% of the country's young adults were using marijuana whereas the most recent figures, from 2013, indicate that this has dropped to just above 10%.

When first embarking on this research, the question was simple: has Britain fallen out of love with cannabis? The answer, however, was not so clear.

Today in The House of Lords the third question will be raised by Baroness Meacher in regards to the reclassification of cannabis from class 2 to class 3 to enable use for medicinal purposes 

Today's Agenda: 
Oral question 1 - Action to address the risk of climate change 

Baroness Worthington (Labour)

Oral question 2 - Moratorium on use of neonicotinoid pesticides for agricultural crops 

Countess of Mar (Crossbench)

Oral question 3 - Reclassification of cannabis from class 2 to class 3 to enable use for medicinal purposes 

Baroness Meacher (Crossbench)

Expert peers will on Wednesday claim cannabis should be rescheduled so it can be prescribed by doctors for medicinal use

A mum crippled by pain will have a national spotlight shone on her fight to take medicinal cannabis.

Former nurse Lara Smith is one of just a handful of people prescribed Bedrocan for spinal arthritis but must travel to Holland every three months, running a customs gauntlet, to pick up her supply.

But today the House of Lords will hear from experts how re-scheduling cannabis could help thousands of other people suffering from debilitating illnesses, including MS.

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that predisposes humans to long years of pain. Now, scientists have found a way to reverse the condition as they discovered the molecular pathway for chronic pain in laboratory animals. Thus, it has opened doors and gave light to the treatment for Americans.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,chronic pain is now believed to be a chronic disease condition just like other diseases like asthma and diabetes. It varies from acute pain in the sense that it lasts longer and it is more resistant to many medical treatments.

Sometime after 3.00pm, tomorrow, Wednesday, 17th June 2015, Baroness Molly Meacher will ask a question in the House of Lords on the re-scheduling of cannabis to permit it to be prescribed by doctors for medicinal use.  Watch it here on Parliament TV.

A report from one of Britain's leading experts on the benefits on medical marijuana has urged the British government to relax the laws regarding medicinal use of the drug.

Val Curran, professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London, along with co-author Frank Warburton, says British patients are "suffering unnecessarily" with medicinal marijuana not being made available to them.

The report adds patients with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage, epilepsy, chronic neuropathic pain, chronic pain following shingles, the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer, and those with a spate of other ailments are being denied effective treatment.

Legalising the medical use of cannabis has not led to a surge in the numbers of adolescents using it in the USA, according to new research that surprised its authors and will encourage those hoping for relaxation of the law elsewhere.

Since 1996, 23 US states and the District of Columbia (DC) have approved the medicinal use of cannabis. In the states of Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon and DC, recreational use is also legal. These moves towards permissiveness, even where possession of the drug is restricted to medical use, have caused many critics to worry that cannabis use would rise, especially among teenagers.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, founder and chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, one of the most successful start-up pharmaceutical companies leading the way into the use of cannabis for medical purposes, will lead a public lecture at the University of Westminster on Wednesday 8 July.

The lecture entitled Cannabis based medicines - A modern reality will offer the opportunity to hear from Dr Guy and gain further insight into the use of cannabis-related compounds in medicine. The use of cannabis for medical purposes continues to attract much debate and interest, and with over 30 years’ experience in medical research and global drug development, Dr Guy will discuss this hotly debated topic and provide insight into its future potential.

This weekend, a group of volunteers are wrapping up a 420 km bike ride with a very specific goal in mind: making money for a clinical trial of cannabis as a potential treatment to fight brain cancer