Four business owners missed the July 31 review deadline and now the county will give four new people a shot

Dave DeZutter from the firm Eide Bailly pulls a ticket for the lottery to see which applicant could apply for a license to open a marijuana dispensary on Jan. 27, 2015 at Adams County Government Center in in Brighton. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post file )

MONTREAL — Health Minister Rona Ambrose ordered a crackdown on groups that illegally advertise marijuana and re-stated the Conservative party’s pledge to keep storefront dispensaries illegal Saturday on the eve of the expected launch of a federal election campaign.

“Today I directed Health Canada to create a task force to crack down on illegal marijuana advertising,” Ambrose said in a statement.

“This task force will ensure that those who engage in such illegal activities are stopped, and should these illegal activities continue, promptly referred to law enforcement.”

Health Canada issued a statement saying it will begin actively monitoring marijuana advertising instead of acting mostly on the basis of complaints.

The controversial substance abuse prevention group D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) appeared to have made a surprisingly progressive change in its ideology when it published a letter to the editor endorsing marijuana legalization.

It turns out it was an accident.

The post, titled “Purchasing marijuana puts kids at risk," was published in The Columbus Dispatch.

In the letter, Carlis McDerment, a self-described former deputy sheriff, argues that laws criminalizing marijuana make the substance more accessible to minors.

Republicans, as everyone knows, are advocates of "states' rights," the theory being that power residing in the hands of the federal government is inherently suspect, while power spread out among 50 smaller governments is inherently virtuous — or at least more so. After all, aren't states "laboratories of democracy," where all kinds of interesting experimentation can take place and the best ideas can then bubble up to the rest of the country?

Police should not count minor drugs possession when measuring their performance so they are not forced to unduly target drug users, a study has found.

The number of cannabis possession offences recorded by police almost doubled between 2004 and 2011, while reported use of the drug fell by a quarter, the London School of Economics study also found, while the number of police stop and searches for drugs more than doubled.

The study, by Dr Michael Shiner, also found stop and searches for stolen goods fell from two-fifths to one fifth of all stop and searches in the same period.

Drug possession should be removed from police performance measures, research claims.

The number of cannabis possession offences recorded by police almost doubled between 2004/5 and 2011/12

This would allow officers to concentrate on crimes that "cause most harm" rather than targeting low-level possession of cannabis, according to the study.

Controversy over police approaches to cannabis possession erupted recently after some crime commissioners suggested that personal users will no longer be actively pursued by their forces.

Dr Michael Shiner, of the London School of Economics (LSE), analysed official crime statistics in relation to the reclassification of cannabis.

Maria Green was legally growing cannabis for her multiple sclerosis and her husband's epilepsy. So why did Child Protective Services take their baby away?

Steve Green has epilepsy. His wife, Maria, has multiple sclerosis. Since 2011, they’ve been growing cannabis for medical use. 

Everything they do is perfectly legal under state law in Michigan, where the couple resides. Maria is a registered caregiver—meaning that she’s allowed to grow 12 plants per patient—and both are qualifying patients. 

August 1, 2015 - Ottawa, ON - Health Canada

The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, today announced she has directed Health Canada to take a more proactive approach to monitoring illegal advertising of marijuana by non-regulated parties. This will be done using existing authorities under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Dear Johnny:

The Marijuana Control Board has issued its second round of proposed rules, and the public is invited to comment by 4:30 p.m., Saturday, August 8. Please take a look at the proposal, available here, which provides extensive rules for licensed businesses. While most of the proposed rules offer reasonable regulations, several would clearly violate important protections established under Measure 2.

A blog post denouncing "marijuana hysteria" and claiming "legalizing and regulating marijuana will actually make everyone safer" accidentally ended up on Drug Abuse Resistance Education's (D.A.R.E.) website on Friday.

Instead of articles with headlines like "Number Of Toddlers Being Exposed to Marijuana Skyrockets" or "Marijuana cookies blamed for suspected suicide in Colorado," visitors to the most visible and widespread international anti-substance abuse program briefly read an op-ed column proclaiming "we already tried alcohol prohibition and it was a violent catastrophe, too."