A lecturer from the University of Technology (UTech) is calling on ganja researchers to stop politicising the ongoing studies into the weed's medicinal properties, and to provide accurate information so health-care workers can properly counsel pregnant mothers who have used the substance.

Paulette Larmond, lecturer of the Caribbean School of Nursing at UTech, made the call during a public forum on ganja, which was held during the second biennial Nursing and Midwifery Research Conference at the Holiday Inn Resort and Spa in Montego Bay on Friday.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson calls politicians “absolutely spineless!” on this week’s TNMNewsshow, adding that to them, politics is about “getting up every morning to check which way the wind blows, and making sure that you’re not on the wrong side of anything. Well, this country has been on the wrong side of this issue for five decades, I do think we’re at a tipping point, and we’re going to do it despite lawmakers.”

Washington, D.C. — The evidence is undisputable. Cannabis is an incredibly beneficial plant with medical applications that humanity has only begun to explore. Its harmful side effects are nearly non-existent, and no evidence to date has shown that anyone has ever died from it.

The evidence is undisputable. OxyContin and other opioid-based prescription drugs have a small range of uses from pain management to cough relief. The harmful side effects of opioids are virtually limitless. They are highly addictive, sicken tens of thousands of people a year and kill thousands.

I had a conversation Friday night with a reporter from a very large media company. During that conversation I expressed concern for California’s 2016 marijuana election efforts. I told the reporter that it would really suck if California failed, again, in 2016. Winning in other states would be great, don’t get me wrong, but California is the biggest ‘prize’ of 2016. A 2016 victory in California would signal the beginning of the end for national cannabis prohibition in my opinion. A loss in California would not be the beginning of the end for legalization efforts (as much as opponents like to think it would), but it would delay things on a national scale in my opinion.

It's been five months since the historic medical marijuana bill -- the CARERS Act -- was introduced in the Senate, and as Congress enjoys its summer recess, it's a good time to reflect on where the bill is positioned as we head into the second part of the year.

When the program guide for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival came out this past June, it included advertisements for four dispensaries that illegally sell marijuana. The dispensaries are among the hundred or so pot shops that have opened up throughout the city in the past several years.

Soon after Health Canada caught wind of the ads, the department contacted festival organizers and demanded the ads be pulled from both the online and print versions of the guide. A spokesman for Health Canada told the media that any business promoting the sale of marijuana could face a maximum penalty of $5-million, two years in prison, or both. The organizers, unaware they were illegal, immediately complied.

It used to be just California, and for a long time there was nobody else. A few years ago it seemed novelty that 13 US states allowed some kind of legal marijuana, as if that weren’t enough, 4 states made it recreationally legal, and some others joined- making the number to almost half of the US states (23) plus Guam, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Further, in the past 18 months 16 additional states have passed laws to enable their citizens  access to the marijuana component cannabidiol (CBD).

The total number of states that allow some form of legal marijuana is a resounding 40/50 (thats 80%)

Currently, the only states who do NOT have any pro marijuana laws are:

Colombia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that growing up to 20 plants of marijuana is not a crime. The possession of small amounts of the drug had already been decriminalized.

The court ruled on the private cultivation of marijuana in an appeal filed by a man who had been sentenced to more than five years in prison after he had been caught by police with a recently cut plant weighing 124 grams.

The maximum amount of marijuana that can legally be carried is 20 grams in Colombia.

However, because the plant was meant for personal consumption, the court confirmed that there is no crime unless a person cultivates more than 20 plants.

The court ruling further decriminalizes the cultivation and possession of the drug for personal use.

“Based on the research to date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not recognized or approved the marijuana plant as medicine,” Mario Moreno Zepeda, spokesperson for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said. “However, research on marijuana extracts, called cannabinoids, has led to FDA-approved medications.”

FDA approval of marijuana would require “carefully conducted studies (clinical trials) in hundreds to thousands of human subjects to determine the benefits and risks of a possible medication,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

KINGSTON, Jamaica –  Jamaican narcotics agents have seized a load of marijuana found hidden in two shipping containers at wharves in the Caribbean island's capital.

In a Sunday statement, Jamaican police say investigators found 10 duffel bags stuffed with over 1,000 pounds of compressed marijuana in a shipping container destined for Suriname. Another container destined for the Netherlands had nearly 75 pounds of pot.

No arrests were made.

Jamaica is believed to be the Caribbean's largest producer and exporter of pot. Plants are grown mostly on the sides of mountains, swampy areas or hidden among other crops.