The Town of Framingham received letters from six applicants to open a medical marijuana dispensary in town.

Selectmen in July approved a process to evaluate and rank the proposals.

Framingham Selectmen have indicated they will support at least one, maybe more, applicants with a letter of support.

Town Manager Bob Halpin said the Town of Framingham received requested of support from six applicants.

They are:

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday signed into law a measure allowing steep civil fines against marijuana farms that damage the environment by dumping wastewater and chemicals, removing trees and killing wild animals.

The measure, one of 16 bills signed by the governor Friday, is meant to expand the powers of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife at a time when illegal marijuana operations are expanding significantly.

Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) introduced the measure based on concern that since California voters approved medical marijuana use in 1996, the number of illegal growing operations in state parklands and forests has increased.

Of all the puzzling policies that the United States holds when it comes to marijuana, the Drug Enforcement Agency's classification of it as a "Schedule I" drug may be the most curious of all. The Schedule I label places it in a class of drugs considered to have the highest potential for abuse. It means the government has determined that it is devoid of medical value. It has ensured marijuana's role as one of the central targets of the war on drugs. It signifies that, in the eyes of the law, marijuana is as dangerous as heroin.

But recently the DEA made an admission that chips away at marijuana's position among the most strictly regulated drugs in the country. 

The National Council of State Legislatures passed a resolution yesterday urging the federal government to amend the Controlled Substances Act and to refrain from interfering with state laws permitting the legal production and use of cannabis.

The National Council of State Legislatures is a bipartisan, non-governmental organization founded in 1975 to unite members of legislature’s from around the United States. The council works to improve the quality and effectiveness of state legislatures, promote innovative policy and communication among state legislatures, and to magnify their voice in the federal system.

In Berlin on Saturday, marchers will come out in force in support of cannabis. Politicians, too, have called for weed's legalization. Many Germans consider prohibition policies to have failed, Matthias von Hein reports.

ANCHORAGE -

The Alaska Cannabis Club, owned by a former TV reporter turned pot supporter, was raided on Friday by the Anchorage Police Department -- the second local marijuana company to be hit in two days by APD officers.

KNIK-FAIRVIEW — Anchorage Police visited a Valley business and residence Thursday as part of an apparent investigation into local drug facilities.

At least one marked APD car was parked on a quiet residential street in a residential neighborhood. Kids played in the open and dogs wandered through neighborhood yards. Several patrol cars arrived at the house about 4 p.m., neighbors said. Five remained by the time a Frontiersman reporter arrived on-scene about 6:30 p.m. Two hours later, police officers quietly entered the home, and could be seen moving from window-to-window. They emerged from the house along Snug Harbor Avenue about 8:30 p.m. carrying several shopping bags, cartons, and a plastic milk jug. By about 9 p.m., they drove off.

The numbers are looking good for ResponsibleOhio, the group behind the move to place a marijuana-legalization amendment on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot.

Ohio’s two largest counties -- Cuyahoga and Franklin -- completed, or nearly completed, their verification of petition signatures today. The numbers suggest the pro-pot measure is headed to a vote in its second go-around in which it submitted about 95,000 more signatures.

Frankin County election officials have certified 4,582 signatures, or nearly 51 percent of those turned in, with only a few more petition forms to examine.

In Cuyahoga County, officials today certified 4,399 valid signatures, or 40 percent of the 11,008 submitted.

Marin County sheriff’s deputies who raided a Northwest Marin ranchland tract Thursday found 350 5-foot-tall marijuana plants thriving in a lush two-acre grove fed by a tributary of Walker Creek.

No suspects were arrested during the bust by about a dozen deputies on the department’s Marijuana Eradication Team.

About 100 pounds of fertilizer was removed from the site, including bags that were spilling into a stream that flows into Walker Creek, home to salmon and steelhead. No immediate assessment of environmental damage was available.

Owners of the 360-acre Cerini Ranch on the 3000 block of Tomales-Petaluma Road near Tomales alerted deputies about a possible pot grow on their property, and the plot has been monitored but no suspects identified.

When it comes to the legalization of marijuana in the United States, the landscape of marijuana in the United States is changing. According to a Gallup Poll, 51 percent of Americans think it should be legal. Compare that to 12 percent in 1969.

Recreational use of the drug is already legal in Colorado, Oregon, Washington state, Alaska and Washington, D.C. And 23 states allow medical marijuana.