Back on May 3rd, I asked, “Will Bernie Sanders Become the Cannabis Candidate?” As regular readers of Marijuana Politics can certainly tell, we are big fans of the Vermont Senator and mainstream presidential candidate, praising his position on cannabis issues and the greater Drug War in post after post. 

Is the marijuana economy the secret weapon in the battle of the sexes? As Gogo Lidz puts it in Newsweek's latest cover story, "It seems fitting that a plant called Mary Jane could smash the patriarchy. After all, only female marijuana flowers produce cannabinoids like THC...And women are moving into the pot business so quickly that they could make it the first billion-dollar industry that isn't dominated by men."

HOPKINTON – Police hauled marijuana plants by the truckload from a Fruit Street address this month after they executed a search warrant and allegedly found over $239,000 worth of pot, according to the Hopkinton Police Department.

The police department, who said the search warrant was executed on Aug. 14, recently shared photographs of the seized marijuana plants. An investigation by Hopkinton Police, the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office with help from the State Police Airwing led to the search at 37 Fruit St.

The US government has thrown its weight behind the earth-shattering claims that cannabis kills cancer cells.

Everyone from hippies to conspiracy theorists and even several creditable scientists have previously argued that smoking or ingesting the herb can have medicinal benefits.

Cancer kills up to 20,000 people worldwide every day, according to global health estimates.
Health researchers for the US government claim that cannabinoids - the active ingredients in cannabis - can inhibit the illness by causing cell death and blocking key blood vessels needed by tumours to grow.

They say studies in mice and rats show cannabinoids may be able to kill cancer cells - while still protecting normal cells.

Each year some 300 people in Montana die from prescription drug overdose. Hundreds more become addicted to the strongest opiates developed to date.

To their credit, Attorney General Tim Fox and many health officials are spearheading a drive to reduce those numbers. They have developed a program costing $1.5 million to that end. We do, in fact, have an epidemic on our hands.

However, at the same time, Fox is spending taxpayer dollars to fight to abolish a program that could help stem the tide of prescription painkiller deaths. Namely our once functioning medical marijuana program approved by voter initiative by a margin of 60 percent in 2004.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment and its Board of Health voted last month to deny those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) access to medical marijuana, despite the recommendation from the state’s chief medical officer that it add marijuana to the list of approved treatments.

While it is a far cry from rolling back prohibition altogether, the legalization wave appears to be crashing upon the beaches of the British Isles this summer. As of July 31, 2015, the branded “Charlotte’s Web” CBD oil went on sale in England after it was legalized last month.

Misdemeanor marijuana-related crimes have plummeted for adults following legalization, but for minors, marijuana is still very much illegal. Marijuana use among children is relatively flat, though children referred to court on suspicion of possessing marijuana went up slightly from 2013 to 2014.

"I wouldn't put a cause and effect there," said Eric Gilman, program manager at Clark County Juvenile Court.

Here's a look at marijuana's role in traffic fatalities, quality-of-life issues, crime

When recreational marijuana was legalized, Washington entered the unknown, triggering questions — and predictions — about what might happen. Would drug dealers hang around the pot shops? Would it bring riffraff into the neighborhood and make shops easy crime targets? Would people abuse the drug? Or smoke and drive, putting others in harm's way?

As is evident by millions of dollars in sales each month at Vancouver's retail stores, people certainly use marijuana. And it has had some consequences on the community, but there's apparently no evidence of major behavioral shifts.

For starters, it's unclear what percentage of the population uses marijuana.