This year has been an exciting one for proponents of both recreational and medicinal marijuana legalization efforts. Two states began to allow medicinal use, while two more states and Washington, D.C. have started to permit recreational use. Let’s take a look at the latest in these territories and how laws, regulations and rules have been developed around these measures.

Recreational Use

Oregon

The ridiculous failure of a drug war trudges on here in America. Now researchers at Washington State University are working hard to… CURE CANCER!

Nope.

Save Babies from SIDS!

Nope.

Feed homeless people! Solve the energy crisis! Help old ladies cross the street!

Nope, nope, and extra nope.

They are developing a handheld portable device to screen people’s breath for THC, the chemical that a News10 Rochester reporter so astutely reported, “makes you high” in the video clip below.

David was 17 years old when he entered the United States on a student visa. In 2000, he was convicted of a misdemeanor—marijuana possession for having 5 grams of marijuana within the vicinity of his school.

After his conviction, and completion of his sentence, David’s parents compelled David to return to the Philippines instead of facing removal proceedings before an immigration judge.

David’s father filed an immigrant petition on his behalf, and in October his priority date became current. He is now ready to apply for his immigrant visa “green card” application with the US Embassy in Manila.

Despite the fact that David’s conviction occurred 15 years ago, David will need to disclose the conviction in his immigrant visa application.

I originally wrote this piece by stating that "Don E. Wirtshafter has now taken to blatantly lying about Issue 3." Mr. Wirtshafter, a man of considerable means, then threatened to sue me for libel for publishing that. I have to apologize; it was wrong of me to characterize Mr. Wirtshafter's statements as "lies". In order to prove someone is lying, you have to show that there is a factual truth, they know that factual truth, and they are consciously promoting statements contrary to the factual truth.

Eighteen-year-olds could soon be allowed in Tempe medical-marijuana dispensaries, and stores may be allowed to lengthen their hours.

The changes would be part of a series of tweaks the city could make to its medical-marijuana rules.

Dispensary operator Steve White

is asking the city for some of the changes.

He believes the current rules hurt his customers.

For one, Tempe is the only city in the Valley that requires dispensaries to close at 6 p.m.

Is it better to have drug use made legal, and therefore taxed and regulated, or might this encourage more drugs to be consumed – with the social and other costs associated with that? 

The UN wants its members to decriminalise drugs, and Sir Richard Branson thinks that is just great. Well, it is not quite like that; as so often, the story is more nuanced than the headline. The paper Sir Richard leaked, which urges “decriminalising drug use and possession for personal consumption”, was drawn up for a conference in Kuala Lumpur on harm reduction by Dr Monica Beg, an official at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. It has since been withdrawn and, as you can gather from the outcry, it is certainly a “third-rail issue” – you touch it at your peril.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L. ) is one of the oldest, and most versatile, plants known to humankind. According to The Columbia History of the World (1971), hemp fiber weaving had already begun in 8000 B.C., and we know that for seafaring—rigging, sails, cords, sealants, and anchor cables—hemp was critically important.

Industrial hemp and marijuana are two different varieties of the same species, with hemp containing less than 0.3 percent psychoactive THC compounds and with marijuana typically containing 3 to 15 percent.

So how did hemp, one of the most beneficial plants known to man, become the scourge of U.S. regulators?

If prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau intends to make good on his promise to legalize marijuana in Canada, he might want to start by looking to Washington State, where recreational marijuana stores have been operating for over a year.

King County sheriff John Urquhart says the biggest lesson learned in Washington State is that once pot becomes legal, cities should not have the power to use zoning bylaws to completely ban weed shops. 

"There are several cities in the state and in King County that have outlawed marijuana stores, and that's a big problem as far as I'm concerned," Urquhart told CBC.

"One of the premises of legalized marijuana is to get the grey market and criminals out of it," he continued. 

The retired neurosurgeon and 2016 Republican presidential candidate told Glenn Beck on Wednesday that he would intensify the War on Drugs and that he opposes the legalization of marijuana.

2016 GOP presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told Glenn Beck on Wednesday that he opposes the legalization of marijuana and that he would “intensify” the federal government’s War on Drugs.

Cullman County authorities have carried out the second-largest marijuana seizure in Alabama this year. 

Around 4 p.m. Thursday, Cullman Narcotics Enforcement agents located 1,800 rooted, mature marijuana plants in the Arkadelphia community of Cullman County. 

Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry said it was an elaborate organization with an advanced water filtration system and tents set up where he believes people have been living for months, tending to the plants. 

"This is a huge bust for us in Cullman County, because it seized approximately $3.6 million worth of marijuana," Gentry said. 

With the help of the Cullman police helicopter, Cullman County officials say it took approximately five hours to get all of the plants cut down.