A CONCERTED EFFORT BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS PUTTING SIGNIFICANT PRESSURE ON THE CANNBIDIOL MARKET. WILL IT WORK?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the non-psychoactive cannabinoid cousin of delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC, the molecule mainly responsible for the cannabis-associated "high") and the market for it has simply exploded since the reinvigoration of the global industrial hemp market.

What do we know about CBD?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A push to legalize recreational marijuana in Rhode Island has won support from a top lawmaker.

Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, has signed on as co-sponsor of a bill to treat marijuana like alcohol by legalizing, regulating and taxing it.

Ruggerio says it’s an important conversation to have after watching the experience of states that legalized the drug, such as Colorado.

The bill’s main Senate sponsor, Democratic Sen. Joshua Miller, of Cranston, had introduced his long-shot legislation for several years without success but says there’s more momentum this year. He points to Vermont, where lawmakers are advancing a bill, and Massachusetts, which might ask voters in the November election.

Tokken, a new Bitcoin company, is attempting to get involved in the marijuana industry from a financial standpoint. Tokken, founded by Lamine Zarrad, is using financial software to assist banks and pot dispensaries in monitoring transactions.

SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / February 19, 2016 / Marijuana has been legalized in some form in 27 US states - including four that have legalized recreational marijuana - and an additional 16 states may legalize the drug in one form or another over the next year. Add that in along with Canada's new Prime Minister vowing to legalize recreational Marijuana on a national scale in the near future, and it is easy to see why state regulators and law enforcement officials have been scrambling to develop and enforce marijuana related laws to protect the public.

NEVADA COUNTY, CA (KTRK) --

Eight-year-old Silas Hurd has his good days and his bad days.

Video of Hurd is hard to watch as he suffers from debilitating seizures.

His father, Forrest Hurd, took video of his son as he lay disabled so people can see why he says the boy needs medicinal marijuana.

"The county has banned any production," Forrest Hurd says.

Silas has a rare type of epilepsy resistant to many medications, but after many tries, his family found a compound of cannabis, a medicinal oil, that kept his seizures in check.

"Before we found the strain, we didn't think Silas was going to make it through the year," Forrest says. "He was having 50 seizures a day, and nothing was helping."

Salt Lake City —

(KUTV) Enedina and Michael Stanger's hopes to move back to Utah were crushed when lawmakers made big changes to SB 73 - Utah's controversial medical marijuana bill.

In October, The Stanger's left their life in Utah behind to move to Colorado where marijuana is legal. Enedina needed cannabis for relief of severe symptoms caused by EDS a genetic disease that affects the body's connective tissue.

"It's really sad to be rejected by a community and by a culture and by a state that I love so much," said Enedina of having to leave.

College pothead Jeb Bush now thinks marijuana has "devastating impacts on productivity and brain damage." He said this at the Republican presidential candidates' Town Hall in South Carolina on Feb. 18. 

This time, Florida’s vote on medical prescription of marijuana will be different.

At least, we hope so.

Amendment 2 on the November ballot, allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana when they think its medical benefits outweigh potential risks, almost passed in 2014. The proposal was placed on the ballot by a public petition campaign and got 57.6 percent of the vote, just shy of the three-fifths super-majority required for adoption.

The debate over medical marijuana in Utah will continue Monday after lawmakers ran out of time debating the issue Friday, the Associated Press reported. The Mormon church has come out against proposed legislation that would allow for marijuana use in edible or vapor form for medical purposes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture clarified its policy regarding the organic certification of industrial hemp production this week.

Oklahoma and Tennessee are two of the 14 states that have laws permitting industrial hemp cultivation under restricted conditions. Eight of them specifically permit its commercial cultivation. Another 20 states considered industrial hemp bills in 2015.

Although nonintoxicating and authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill for pilot programs under the supervision of law enforcement, the USDA states that “organic certification of industrial hemp production at this time is premature.”