EDUCATION Minister Ronald Thwaites has made it clear that decriminalisation of a small amount of marijuana does not mean smoking of the weed will be allowed in schools.

Thwaites, speaking this week at a back-to-school conference for administrators at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, charged school managers to be more vigilant as there is no place for ganja in these institutions.

"When the law was changed I got an indication from several school principals that a number of young persons were saying now that it is free [they will be able to use substance] to help them have a clear mind and stronger exam performances," Thwaites told the Jamaica Observer.

By Noelle Skodzinski

People often say that no publicity is bad publicity, but the latest news around ResponsibleOhio—which recently submitted signatures to get an initiative on the November election ballot to legalize and regulate marijuana in The Buckeye State—does not seem to bode well for ResponsibleOhio’s already contentious legalization efforts. ResponsibleOhio, however, is crying foul, suggesting it’s being “punished.”

FAIRBANKS — A pair of leaders of an organization looking to influence pot policy in Alaska stepped down owing to a conflict of interest because they both belong to the state Marijuana Control Board.

Brandon Emmett, executive director and founding member of the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Legislation, and coalition spokesman Bruce Schulte have both resigned from the coalition, the group announced in a statement on Wednesday.

Oregon residents will be able to buy marijuana for recreational use starting in October, about a year earlier than originally expected, under a new law backers hope will help curb the black market, state officials said on Wednesday.

The law, signed Monday by Democratic Governor Kate Brown, will effectively let adults visit existing medical-use marijuana dispensaries in the state to buy certain strains just to get stoned.

Possessing and growing pot became legal in July after voter approval in a November referendum, and the state expects to start accepting applications in January for recreational pot retail stores likely to open by the fall.

A New York medical marijuana bidder whose principal was the subject of a damning audit in Kansas was the target of a political vendetta, a former Kansas governor and ally of the bidder claims.

The Times Union reported Wednesday on the critical 2012 audit concerning the Kansas Bioscience Authority and its former leader, Tom Thornton. Thornton now runs North Shore Ventures, a New York company that's part of a bidding team seen as having a good shot at landing one of five lucrative marijuana licences in New York.

The decision by the New York Department of Health is expected this week.

Spicing up life behind bars

ALEX CAVENDISH first encountered Spice, a synthetic drug that imitates cannabis, in prison in 2012 when a sleepy looking Dutch man, serving a sentence for drug offences, started trading it. By 2014, Mr Cavendish says, half his fellow prisoners would “literally stagger” down the hall to roll-call each day, high on the drug, varying their routine only so far as to pass out in the grounds, be violently sick in a washroom, or urinate in a six-man dormitory.

The war on drugs is a war on people, where the majority of casualties are black and brown bodies.

DRUGS squad cops are raiding three cannabis farms every day in Glasgow, the Evening Times can reveal.

Thousands of plants - with a street value of more than £1.2million - have been seized by city detectives in the last three months.

We can today reveal police have identified and raided 65 cannabis cultivations across Glasgow since April.

And one drug-busting detectives warned the organised crime gangs behind these operations have infiltrated all communities, from the city centre to city suburbs.

"It could be the house next door or the flat across the flat, they are everywhere.Detective Inspector Alistair Anderson told the Evening Times: "These cultivations can be set up anywhere.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if a senior official follows the recommendation made Friday by an advisory panel.

The state’s Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 to recommend autism as a condition that qualifies for the drug.

Supporters say oil extracted from marijuana and swallowed has been effective in controlling extreme physical behavior by kids with severe autism. Pot wouldn’t be smoked.

The panel was influenced by comments received earlier from some Detroit-area doctors, especially the head of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and parents desperate for relief. Many of the three dozen spectators cheered and applauded after the vote.

The judge told the court that they cannot sit back and let 'lkaw and order break down'

Criminals who raid cannabis farms were warned to expect tough jail sentences by a Crown Court judge.

Neighbours were startled when they saw a gang bursting into a home on a housing estate at Cotgrave in April.

Clayton Peters was caught red-handed in a car carrying £20,000 worth of the drug.

Judge Sean Rafferty QC imposed a five-year prison term on the 24-year-old, of Byron Avenue, Alfreton, who helped to plan the robbery.

Related content

Two years custody were ordered for Andrew Thompson, 29, of Lilac Grove, South Normanton – another of the planners.