The United States Healthcare System has been criticized for decades now by both foreign and domestic media outlets. US healthcare costs more, offers less and operates more slowly than most, if not all, countries of comparison. A new, groundbreaking decision out of Israel further thrusts America into the subcategories of global health leadership.

A new app aims to help marijuana users determine whether they are too high to drive. Pictured, medical marijuana user Angel Raich sits in a car on April 20, 2007 in Missoula, Montana. Raich, 41, suffers from an inoperable brain tumor as well as several other medical conditions. Medical marijuana patients like Raich, who use cannabis regularly to treat ailments, could benefit from the new app.

If you read the national headlines or watch the reports on TV, you’d think there was a dangerous epidemic sweeping the nation’s youngsters. According to a recent study, more kids are accidentally ingesting their parents’ cannabis, especially in states where the herb is legal. When marijuana-laced edibles are wrapped in darling packaging to look like delicious cookies, brownies, chocolate bars and ice cream sandwiches, it follows that a few kids will accidentally eat them.

However, the general reaction to the study is waxing hysterical. In reality, as Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project pointed out in an email, the actual statistics of the study aren’t as alarming as they seem.

By Noelle Skodzinski

People often say that no publicity is bad publicity, but the latest news around ResponsibleOhio—which recently submitted signatures to get an initiative on the November election ballot to legalize and regulate marijuana in The Buckeye State—does not seem to bode well for ResponsibleOhio’s already contentious legalization efforts. ResponsibleOhio, however, is crying foul, suggesting it’s being “punished.”

FAIRBANKS — A pair of leaders of an organization looking to influence pot policy in Alaska stepped down owing to a conflict of interest because they both belong to the state Marijuana Control Board.

Brandon Emmett, executive director and founding member of the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Legislation, and coalition spokesman Bruce Schulte have both resigned from the coalition, the group announced in a statement on Wednesday.

Oregon residents will be able to buy marijuana for recreational use starting in October, about a year earlier than originally expected, under a new law backers hope will help curb the black market, state officials said on Wednesday.

The law, signed Monday by Democratic Governor Kate Brown, will effectively let adults visit existing medical-use marijuana dispensaries in the state to buy certain strains just to get stoned.

Possessing and growing pot became legal in July after voter approval in a November referendum, and the state expects to start accepting applications in January for recreational pot retail stores likely to open by the fall.

CHEYENNE (WTE) - The Governor's Marijuana Impact Council met for the first time Wednesday.

The group, appointed by Gov. Matt Mead, said they want "valid and scientifically reliable data" on the pros and cons of potentially legalizing marijuana in Wyoming.

The group was created to study the health, economic and social impacts of potentially legalizing the drug in the state.

The group is also charged with determining how Wyoming has been affected by Colorado's decision to allow recreational sales at the start of 2014.

Their work comes as a signature-collecting effort is about to get underway to ask Wyoming voters in 2016 if medical marijuana should be legalized.

A New York medical marijuana bidder whose principal was the subject of a damning audit in Kansas was the target of a political vendetta, a former Kansas governor and ally of the bidder claims.

The Times Union reported Wednesday on the critical 2012 audit concerning the Kansas Bioscience Authority and its former leader, Tom Thornton. Thornton now runs North Shore Ventures, a New York company that's part of a bidding team seen as having a good shot at landing one of five lucrative marijuana licences in New York.

The decision by the New York Department of Health is expected this week.

Medical marijuana has come as welcome news for plenty of California citizens, but it’s also created a zoning headache for many cities and would-be dispensaries, according to Next City.

Whether you are starting up a company for the first time or you are a serial entrepreneur, someone in your company will inevitably pop the question: “Should we write a business plan?” At this point, many might grumble and opt for the group to pick straws to determine who is going to write it. Simply put, a business plan is no easy undertaking. It requires a considerable amount of time spent researching your industry, scouting the competition, identifying your market, setting realistic milestones, establishing key value proposition, structuring company management, forming financial projections… the list could go on forever.