A senior police sergeant in Samoa has lost his job after he was convicted and sentenced to five months in jail for official corruption.

Two constables have been discharged without conviction after they pleaded guilty to charges of being an accessory after the fact and conspiracy to defeat the cause of justice.

The senior officer, Antonio Tausili, was the supervisor at Faleata police post in December 2013 when the two constables attended a call from a family at Vaitale who needed assistance over a family commotion.

The officers, Heta Wilson and Luisa Lototau, found two cannabis joints on one of the family members, but Tausili told Wilson not to take the narcotics back to the police post.

They were later flushed down the toilet by Lototau.

A renewed effort to legalize medical marijuana in Florida received a major boost last month, as the People United for Medical Marijuana political committee raised close to $293,000 in June.

Of that, nearly $233,000 came from the Orlando law firm headed by attorney John Morgan, according to the state Division of Elections. Morgan has been the public image and foremost moneyman of the legal pot initiative.

OTTAWA – Health Canada is spending $1.5 million to air recycled ads on prescription drugs and pot in the run-up to the fall federal election.

The federal health agency started re-airing the ads Monday that will run on TV and online until Aug. 8.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose says the ads illustrate the harmful effects of prescription drug abuse and the impact of marijuana use on the developing brains of teenagers.

“Our government will continue to raise awareness about the harmful effects of drug abuse and encourage youth to choose a drug-free lifestyle,” Ambrose said in a statement.

The government will turn off the publicly funded advertising taps when the writ drops, expected after Labour Day as a result of October’s fixed-election date.

New York’s medical marijuana program is about to achieve liftoff, but so far New Yorkers have few clues as to who will grow the herb, process it and sell it in a non-smokable form.

Despite all the hurdles — such as the fact that marijuana is illegal under federal law — 43 companies have applied for state Health Department licenses to sell pot products. A decision on five licensees could come any day now, though companies competing for the licenses say they remain in the dark about how far along the process is.

One of them is Etain LLC of Katonah, Westchester County. Etain’s proposal calls for a greenhouse growing facility in Chestertown, Warren County, with dispensaries in Kingston, Yonkers, Albany and Syracuse.

Last month, hundreds of visitors mingled outside three conferences being held side by side in New York City’s massive Javits Center. Sharing lines for lattes with their neighbors from the Salesforce and International Franchise Expo meetings down the hall, attendees of the Cannabis World Conference & Business Exposition could only have been picked out of the business-casual crowd by a careful observer thanks to one detail: the green accents on their name badges.

There's a lot of pot talk happening in South Dakota right now.

You might have noticed Steve Young's rundown of the law enforcement issues surrounding the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's plan to sell marijuana on reservation grounds.

Then there's the medical marijuana ballot initiative movement moving merrily along through the petition process. That one would legalize up to three ounces for medical use.

There's a more ambitious initiative, too, this one announced last week by a group called South Dakotans Against Prohibition. That ballot initiative would decriminalize up to an ounce of pot. Instead of being jailed and charged with a misdemeanor, someone caught with that much or less would get a $100 civil fine.

Detroit police arrested two people and confiscated two firearms and drugs during a raid on a marijuana dispensary Tuesday afternoon.

Police seized 4,100 grams of marijuana (about 9 pounds), and removed 12 edible marijuana foods from the shelves at Detroit Medz, said Sgt. Cassandra Lewis of Detroit police Media Relations.

"Our Major Violators Unit executed a search warrant at the location at 4:30 p.m.," Lewis said.

According to state law, only Michiganders who possess state registry cards can legally use medical marijuana, but at the shop "they were just selling to anybody who walked in," she said.

Families of drugs abuse victims are calling on David Cameron to radically review drugs laws as the House of Lords moves to debate the controversial Psychoactive Substances Bill.

On Tuesday a group of bereaved families delivered a letter to Downing Street demanding reform of UK drug laws.

The Anyone's Child campaign is calling for legal regulation of drugs, rather than outright banning, with a vision that drugs would be controlled by medical professionals rather than criminals.

Cara Lavan lost her partner Jake Coe to drugs and she believes that a change in the law could have saved his life.

MP calls for Commons investigation after Telegraph finds hundreds of soldiers being sacked every year for taking ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis

RAMESWARAM: The Sri Lankan navy arrested four Indian fishermen and seized 165kg of ganja from them in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The incident happened a week after four Rameswaram fishermen had been apprehended by the Sri Lankan navy on charges of smuggling ganja.

According to Sri Lankan navy's website, four Indian fishermen were arrested by a naval craft of the North Central Naval Command during a routine patrolling in the seas north-west of Talaimannar and seized 165kg of ganja.

A dhow and fishing gears were also taken into naval custody. The arrested fishermen along the contraband were to be handed over to customs for further action, the website said.