It took nearly two decades and the threat of a more sweeping initiative, but California lawmakers are finally ready to regulate medical marijuana.

The last-minute, bipartisan deal was announced late Thursday night in Sacramento, after years of disagreements between key stakeholders over details of a regulatory structure — and weeks of squabbling between the Senate and Assembly over who would take credit for the final legislation.

Vancouver’s police chief says the VPD has better things to do than clamp down on the city’s marijuana dispensaries.

He made those comments Friday following the furor over Health Canada sending “cease and desist letters” to several pot shops.

Chief Constable Adam Palmer says the VPD has acted on 11 search warrants between 2014 and August 2015, and would only act on those dispensaries suspected of selling to youth, or connected with a criminal enterprise.

“We will continue to do search warrants on those, but I’m not retooling all 13,00 officers to be going after marijuana dispensaries, there’s much more important work to do,” Palmer says.

Palmer says as far as the VPD’s response to marijuana dispensaries goes they “just aren’t a priority.”

Colorado pot sales — recreational and medical — were thriving in July 2015, the most recent month for which the Department of Revenue has released marijuana tax data.

After topping $50 million for the first time in June, recreational sales cleared the $55 million hurdle in July when sales totaled more than $56.4 million — a record for retail cannabis in Colorado. Medical marijuana sales numbers in July were also at their highest in the recreational era’s 19 months of recorded data, reaching more than $39.8 million.

LAS VEGAS — Clinicians should educate themselves and their patients if they choose to use medical marijuana in their practice, according to Michael E. Schatman, PhD, a clinical psychologist who has spent decades working in multidisciplinary chronic pain management. He presented on this topic during a session this week.

Breaking on Marijuana Politics: Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley touts his progressive cannabis law reform history in a press release announcing a marijuana legalization listening session in Denver, Colorado, this Thursday. The event will be held at the office of Vicente Sederberg, a law firm that has been instrumental in legalizing and regulating cannabis in Colorado. Could this be an early signal Governor O’Malley will call for a repeal to federal cannabis prohibition? If O’Malley does indeed eventually announce his support for legalization, it will be interesting to see how his Democratic rivals.

BOSTON - When Cristina Barbuto of Brewster took a job with a marketing firm, she told the company that she used medical marijuana to treat symptoms of Crohn's disease.

Barbuto says she worked for only one day for Advantage Sales and Marketing, promoting products in a supermarket, and then the company fired her. The reason they gave was that Barbuto failed a required drug test by testing positive for marijuana.

When she complained, she said a human resources representative told Barbuto that the company, which has offices nationwide and in Massachusetts, follows federal, not state law.

Barbuto's claims were laid out in a complaint she filed in Suffolk County Superior Court accusing Advantage Sales and Marketing of discrimination and invasion of privacy.

Illinois medical marijuana program to continue with 39 qualifying illnesses

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has rejected efforts to expand by 11 the list of conditions for which marijuana can be prescribed in Illinois.

The move came in two parts, both announced Sept. 10.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said it would not add the conditions recommended by an advisory panel established under Gov. Pat Quinn.

The department made the announcement by saying only that its director, Dr. Nirav Shah, had made the decision and the pilot program would continue with the 39 conditions and diseases already authorized.

New York City is joining the places around the country that is allowed to provide medicinal marijuana to those who have a prescription.

The city’s first marijuana dispensary will be opening in January 2016, near Manhattan’s Union Square.

The dispensary will be located on 14th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. It will be operated by Columbia Care, one of only five NYC companies that were awarded licenses to open a marijuana shop. The companies were chosen from among 43 competing companies from all over the nation. The licenses give companies the rights to open a New York State-based manufacturing facility, as well as up to four dispensaries.

Washington, D.C., voters overwhelmingly supported marijuana legalization last November with more than 70% of the vote. While many voters across the nation support cannabis legalization efforts because of the additional tax revenue sales will bring in, D.C. residents couldn’t regulate commerce due to the our nation’s capital weird relationship with Congress and the federal government. Prohibitionist federal lawmakers ridiculously blocked any regulated cannabis commerce D.C., and the ensuing new revenue it would bring to the local community, but they couldn’t stop the ability to legally possess and cultivate cannabis. Following the first legal harvest in the District, marijuana growers have gotten creative with how they dispense the fruits of their labor.

Marijuana continues to be a highly polarizing issue for the United States. Despite growing momentum for the marijuana industry, highlighted by nearly two dozen states passing medical marijuana legalization laws and four states also allowing for marijuana to be sold legally for recreational purposes, marijuana is facing a veritable mountain of hurdles.