Marijuana users may believe that frequent use helps them sleep, but that perception has been challenged by a BU School of Public Health study.

Laws that prohibit drugs aren’t meant to keep the public safe, they are meant to silence opposition. And, when making decisions at the ballot box, voters must consider and compare how the candidates would spend taxpayer money. Candidates that support the war on drugs must be voted out and it is time voters push for the closure of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

Regardless, the MTV series is at the forefront of a new wave of "must smoke TV."

"The future of marijuana is female," says Deborah Kaplan, co-creator of MTV’s stoner comedy Mary + Jane. "Even marijuana is a female plant. The part you smoke is female."

She pauses.

"You may have to fact-check that," she says. "But I just think the future is female in general."

It’s in the billions.

Legalizing recreational marijuana could be a smart financial move for California.

A new study from the University of the Pacific in Stockton suggests legalizing recreational marijuana in California would create jobs and generate billions of dollars worth of business. The study was commissioned by Truth Enterprises, which is an investment fund focused on the legal cannabis industry.

Call it a crash course in cannabis — Alberta's Justice Minister and Solicitor General is Colorado-bound to see how the state south of the border has handled legal weed.

Kathleen Ganley flies out Thursday to Denver, where she's slated to meet with the attorney general, municipal government, police and fire services, building and licensing experts, and the environmental health department.

California's state capital region could reap 20,000 jobs and generate $4.2 billion in business if it becomes a hub for a legalized marijuana industry, a study released on Monday showed, weeks before voters decide whether to allow recreational use of the drug.

The report from the University of the Pacific in Stockton was commissioned by the cannabis investment company Truth Enterprises, one of hundreds of businesses counting on voters to legalize pot next month.

Minutes after a group of New Jersey lawmakers entered the stark industrial Medicine Man marijuana cultivation center, an employee in blue scrubs rushed between them, pushing a plastic cart filled with pots containing a dozen leafy, two-foot-tall cannabis plants.

There was a scramble by the legislators and their aides to clear a path, and then chuckles and "wow"s.

"Oh, my God, It's like a celebrity just came through," Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R., Monmouth) quipped - referring to the pot, not the worker.

A new survey conducted by the Centre for Addictions Research of BC helps explain why Big Pharma is so afraid of cannabis.

The pharmaceutical and alcohol industries, both powerful influences in Washington, have long lobbied against cannabis legalization in order to protect their profits.

However, the tide has turned as decriminalization of medical and recreational cannabis sweeps the nation and the continent. With legalization, more and more people are discovering how this plant can provide a safe alternative to the dangerous effects of prescription pills.

Mention marijuana advertising to anyone who was alive in the 1970s, and you might draw out of them a famous Cheech and Chong jingle.

“No stems, no seeds that you don’t need,” goes the ditty, “Acapulco Gold is” — cue sound of someone toking on a joint — “badass weed!”

It was a joke at the time, but cannabis cultivators and dispensary owners across California are in a rush to polish their brands and come up with a campaign as effective as that one. Who, after all, hasn’t heard of Acapulco Gold?

Medical marijuana may be a billion-dollar industry in California, but it’s a cash business.

Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, most pot shops can’t get bank accounts or accept credit card transactions because the financial services companies fear they would be penalized or shut down by federal regulators for handling money gained from unlawful drug sales. That means marijuana products are typically sold for cash, and dispensary owners pay their employees, their landlords and others in cash as well. It’s not unusual for pot shop owners to haul bags of money — tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars — to the state tax collector’s office.