Less than a month after coming out of the cannabis closet, I found myself a part of the world’s largest annual gathering centered around cannabis: Seattle Hempfest. After several years of working as a local news reporter and anchor and hiding my cannabis use at all costs, I was suddenly speaking to hundreds of people about exactly that.

Calling my Hempfest experience surreal would be an understatement. Being my first-ever cannabis-related event, it was pretty great being thrust into the mix.

Back on May 3rd, I asked, “Will Bernie Sanders Become the Cannabis Candidate?” As regular readers of Marijuana Politics can certainly tell, we are big fans of the Vermont Senator and mainstream presidential candidate, praising his position on cannabis issues and the greater Drug War in post after post. 

HOPKINTON – Police hauled marijuana plants by the truckload from a Fruit Street address this month after they executed a search warrant and allegedly found over $239,000 worth of pot, according to the Hopkinton Police Department.

The police department, who said the search warrant was executed on Aug. 14, recently shared photographs of the seized marijuana plants. An investigation by Hopkinton Police, the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office with help from the State Police Airwing led to the search at 37 Fruit St.

Each year some 300 people in Montana die from prescription drug overdose. Hundreds more become addicted to the strongest opiates developed to date.

To their credit, Attorney General Tim Fox and many health officials are spearheading a drive to reduce those numbers. They have developed a program costing $1.5 million to that end. We do, in fact, have an epidemic on our hands.

However, at the same time, Fox is spending taxpayer dollars to fight to abolish a program that could help stem the tide of prescription painkiller deaths. Namely our once functioning medical marijuana program approved by voter initiative by a margin of 60 percent in 2004.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment and its Board of Health voted last month to deny those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) access to medical marijuana, despite the recommendation from the state’s chief medical officer that it add marijuana to the list of approved treatments.

Misdemeanor marijuana-related crimes have plummeted for adults following legalization, but for minors, marijuana is still very much illegal. Marijuana use among children is relatively flat, though children referred to court on suspicion of possessing marijuana went up slightly from 2013 to 2014.

"I wouldn't put a cause and effect there," said Eric Gilman, program manager at Clark County Juvenile Court.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part III in this series by Dr. Ralph E. Jones. Part I & II can be found at www.valleystar.com.

I began using pot at age 13, introduced to it by my “friends.”

By age 25 with my continued use, I was really hooked on it. Despite my families urging that I get some help with it, I continued to use heavy. Denial and Rationalization were everyday tools I used to justify my use and its continuation: “Everybody does it,” “It’s just harmless marijuana and nobody gets addicted to it,” “It’s safer than drinking,” etc. I eventually loss all my jobs, wife, and my beautiful twin daughters because smoking weed was more important than they were … I just wanted to be stoned all the time.

Bronx elected officials, community leaders and health officials are looking to finally ‘snub out’ synthetic marijuana sales.

At a Wednesday, August 12 press conference at Jacobi Hospital’s Trauma Center, Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, Director of Behavioral Health Services at North Bronx Healthcare Network Dr. Maryann Popiel, Director of the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at Jacobi Hospital Dr. Benjamin Raatjes, community leaders and health officials demanded a crackdown on synthetic marijuana sales.

A cannabis user who did not give up drugs while on a suspended jail term told a judge it was because he had nightmares – and she told him he should be having nightmares about her jailing him.

Burnley Crown Court had been told how Benjamin Myers (32) had earlier been given the non-custodial sentence after being convicted of possessing cannabis with intent to supply. He had been warned by Judge Beverley Lunt not to re-offend, but months later was caught possessing the drug.