On Saturday March 12, 2016 a group of protesters conducted an anti-Trump rally at the Trump International Hotel and Tower located in Columbus Circle, New York City.

The colorful display led by a Brooklyn artist and parodist by the name Tom Hanksy  included a marching band and about a 100 marchers in white overalls holding up artistic depictions of the leading Republican Presidential candidate with the hashtag #DumpAcrossAmerica. 

While the protesters were not allowed inside, they occupied the external areas of the hotel and entrance under the watchful eyes of City police and Trump Hotel building guards.

Across the Americas, the model of prohibition has fuelled inequality, bloodshed, and the mass violation of human rights. We need to understand why it has failed. 

The new commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Robert Califf, told a panel of FDA advisers last week that he will do "everything possible under our authority" to help the federal government curb an epidemic of drug overdoses.

A report released by the US Centers for Disesase Control and Prevention (CDC) in January revealed that drug-overdose deaths reached a new high in 2014, totaling 47,055 people. Opioids, a type of powerful painkiller that requires a prescription, were involved in 60% of those deaths.

The sales figures are in from Colorado for January 2016, and while they are down from the previous month, the figures are still substantial. Last year the State of Colorado sold just shy of one billion dollars worth of cannabis. This year virtually all projections have Colorado eclipsing the one billion dollar mark, and the sales figures from January would put Colorado ahead of that pace. Per The Cannabist:

Abandoning good science has unintended consequences for Iowa's youth

Iowans may be deceived by the controversy surrounding claims of marijuana's miracle cures. This is not about possible medicines for children. The deception is that Iowa must rush to market without heed to the overwhelming advice of medical professionals warning that we should not bypass the Food and Drug Administration and good science in developing medicines.

Cannabidiol is not marijuana, and the difference is huge. CBD is one out of more than 100 compounds that can be derived from marijuana, including the dangerous psychoactive drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

It’s been a winning day for some pharmaceutical companies making drugs based on marijuana.

Especially for those treating epilepsy.

After GW Pharmaceuticals announced that it had successfully treated a form of epilepsy using its cannabis-based drug Monday, Pennsylvania-based drugmaker Zynerba Pharmaceuticals stock also rose in concert by 150% during trading Monday.

Zynerba continued its rise 7% in after hours trading.

For the week ended Friday, March 11, the spot price index for a pound of cannabis was essentially unchanged from $1,920 in the prior week to $1,918. The simple average price for a gram slipped a penny from $4.57 to $4.56.

The futures price for the near month (April) rose 1% from $2,010 to $2,030. For the month of May, the forward price remained flat at $2,110 a pound. The six-month forward price for September also remained unchanged at $2,200.

About two-thirds of the past week’s transactions occurred in a range of $1,564 to $2,577 per pound, according to the analysts at Cannabis Benchmarks. The analysts also commented on the forward price curve:

The Massachusetts Hospital Association has voted unanimously against a proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, as debate over legalizing pot for people aged 21 and over continued to rage statewide. Massachusetts decriminalized cannabis in 2008 and made medical marijuana legal in 2012, and the state has begun seeing a push to legalize pot for recreational use in a November ballot measure, the Boston Globe reported. 

An experimental cannabis-based drug has successfully treated children with a rare form of severe epilepsy in a keenly anticipated clinical trial, more than doubling the value of its maker GW Pharmaceuticals.

The study of GW's Epidiolex in Dravet syndrome is the first of four final-stage Phase III epilepsy trials, with results expected this year, that the drugmaker hopes will confirm the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids, the active ingredients found in marijuana.

As a lawyer for the Cannabis industry, Steve Schain says he helps entrepreneurs, “dodge landmines” and hold onto their revenue. He works on marijuana finance and business issues including application submission, regulation interpretation, and lawsuits. Here he lays out five important things for any budding entrepreneur to remember when they embark on a cannabusiness venture.

If You “Touch The Product” Things Are Much Stricter.