PHOENIX — Marijuana — a potential 2016 ballot initiative regarding its proposed legalization — will be the focus of a June 4 roundtable discussion hosted by Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Marijuana presently is legal in Arizona if prescribed by a doctor for medicinal purposes only. The roundtable panel will discuss the current status of legal medical marijuana in Arizona and explore questions surrounding potential future legalization of recreational marijuana.

When the cops raided Ginnifer Hency’s home in Smiths Creek, Michigan, last July, “they took everything,” she told state legislators on Tuesday, including TV sets, ladders, her children’s cellphones and iPads, even her vibrator. They found six ounces of marijuana and arrested Hency for possession with intent to deliver, “even though I was fully compliant with the Michigan medical marijuana laws,” which means “I am allowed to possess and deliver.” Hency, a mother of four with multiple sclerosis, uses marijuana for pain relief based on her neurologist’s recommendation. She also serves as a state-registered caregiver for five other patients.

The battle to decriminalize marijuana in New Hampshire faces a key test this Thursday when the state Senate is expected to vote on a bill that overwhelmingly passed the N.H. House earlier this year.

While the bill has a better chance of passing than previous decriminalization efforts, passage is not a slam dunk. In fact, the bill as originally proposed is unlikely to pass the Senate, let alone be signed by Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. Last Tuesday, Sen. Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, offered alternative language for the bill when it was discussed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. His amendment was voted down 4 to 1.

States across the nation — including Pennsylvania — are experimenting with relaxing marijuana laws, with some bringing to an end the long fight to outlaw its use.

That fight gained momentum in the 1930s. An article published in The Scranton Times on June 21, 1934, had the headline “State starts drive on Mexican narcotic weed.” Marijuana, which the article called a narcotic that “incites its users to crimes of perversion and violence and is an important factor in promoting industrial unrest,” had become “the target of an intensive enforcement drive by the state Department of Health.”

As one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists, Anabel Hernández has dedicated the past decade to investigating her country’s drug war -- one of the most dangerous projects a reporter could ask for. Her 2010 book Los señores del narco, translated into English as Narcoland, detailed the extensive government corruption that allowed Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his Sinaloa cartel to become one of the most powerful criminal enterprises in the world.

As Deerfield gets closer to having a medical marijuana dispensary at 151 Pfingsten Road, the biggest certainty may be a lot of uncertainty about a very new and highly regulated business.

Under regulations created by the Illinois General Assembly, all the marijuana sold must be grown and packaged by licensed Illinois growers, it cannot be used at the facility or going to and from the dispensary, and dispensary personnel may not handle the product itself, only the packages.

"This is highly, highly regulated by four different state departments," said Greenhouse Group CEO Mitch Kahn, a Deerfield resident. "Everything we do is regulated by one agency or another."

A bill that would create environmental guidelines for marijuana cultivation in California made a key step forward Thursday.

Assembly Bill 243, authored by Healdsburg Democrat Jim Wood, advanced from the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is scheduled to be heard on the Assembly floor next week.

The Marijuana Watershed Protection Act requires that all of the state’s nine water quality control boards develop environmental regulations to address wastewater discharge from medical marijuana farms.

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Registration opens for medical marijuana

Medical marijuana will be legal in Minnesota — for patients with certain conditions — on July 1 and those patients can begin registering for the program Monday.

To begin the registration process, patients need a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant to certify that they have one of the conditions that qualify them to participate in the program. Those conditions include certain cancers, terminal illnesses, glaucoma and seizure disorders. The Minnesota Medical Cannabis site at mn.gov/medicalcannabis has more details.

NBA players are pushing for a repeal of the league's anti-marijuana policy and hoping to convince league officials to legalize use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

TMZ Sports reports players want to completely abolish current league-wide policy that calls for a five-game suspension for first time offenders and a mandatory entrance into the league's substance abuse program. Penalties for each subsequent violation can be even harsher.

× Marijuana could treat PTSD under new legislation

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (May 30, 2015) — Post-traumatic stress disorder would be considered a debilitating illness that can be treated with medically prescribed marijuana under legislation headed to Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The House approved state Rep. Lou Lang’s measure 68-36 on Saturday. The Skokie Democrat says marijuana can help people suffering from PTSD.

PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event that a person experiences or witnesses. There has been a lot of attention to it in the past decade because troops in combat are susceptible.