NEW YORK — Soon after Colorado legalized recreational cannabis, Todd Mitchem’s son proposed using the plant for a horticulture project at his Montessori school in Denver.

School officials said no way, despite support from dad, a regular weed user and chief executive of a dating app and social network for fellow enthusiasts.

Todd Mitchem at his home near Denver in June 2015. Mitchem works in the marijuana industry and also is father to three kids ages 11, 9 and 7. (Todd Mitchem via AP)

“They didn’t want to touch it. They weren’t ready to touch it,” said Mitchem, who is divorced and shares custody of his kids, ages 11, 9 and 7.

Jeb Bush has tried it, Joe Biden opposes any legalization and Hillary Clinton thinks it is a chance to test the “laboratories of democracy.”

As more states move to legalize medical and recreational marijuana, more attention may be drawn to the 2016 presidential hopefuls’ stances on legislation. Recovery Brands, an online addiction rehabilitation network, analyzed past interviews and legislative actions of the current candidates -- and some who may become candidates -- to determine where they stand.

Government health experts warn in a new report that the risks of consuming marijuana-infused edibles like weed brownies and other snacks mustn’t be understated following the suicide last year of a man whose death has been blamed on pot.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Friday that there’s “a potential danger” that comes with consuming marijuana-infused edibles, evidenced by an incident last March in which a 19-year-old man jumped to his death from the fourth-floor balcony of a Denver, Colorado, hotel while high.

Erin Cleveland continues the journey to improving her 2-year-old daughter Lainey's life.

Lainey Cleveland suffers from severe seizures(Photo: Hopper, Christopher)

ATLANTA -- A metro Atlanta mother is a few giant steps closer to seeing if now legal medical marijuana will help her 2-year-old daughter.

11Alive is following Erin Cleveland on her journey to getting cannabis oil for her daughter Lainey who suffers from severe seizures.

11Alive first told you about their journey back in June. Since then, Lainey's doctor signed off on her medical marijuana registration card, which officially became legal in Georgia this year.

"Oh it's huge," said Erin Cleveland, Lainey's mom.

One would be hard-pressed to find a pair of more socially divergent cultures than those who have HIV/AIDS and those who use medicinal cannabis.

So it only makes sense that, in one of the United States’ most historically divergent cities, that the two would walk in lock-step toward the mainstream.

Last weekend, for the second year in a row, an organization called Team Cannabis had a very large presence at AIDS Walk San Francisco.

Interestingly enough, it hadn’t always been that way. The recent AIDS Walk, then, was a reunion of sorts for the medicinal cannabis and the AIDS communities.

Introduction

Individuals report using cannabis for the promotion of sleep, and the effects of cannabis on sleep may vary by cannabis species. Little research has documented preferences for particular cannabis types or cannabinoid concentrations as a function of use for sleep disturbances.

Highlights

•Individuals using cannabis to manage nightmares preferred sativa to indica.

•Sativa users were less likely than indica users to endorse cannabis dependence.

•Insomnia and greater sleep latency are associated with using higher CBD cannabis.

•Weekly hypnotic medication use is associated with using cannabis with lower THC.

Methods

The Merced Police Department served search warrants Friday and shut down Kiona’s Farm’acy in downtown Merced, alleging the business operated as a marijuana dispensary.

The police also ordered an investigation into business owner Lakisha Jenkins for possible tax evasion.

But Jenkins says her business is a nonprofit and agriculture cooperative that has been operating in California for more than a decade. Though the Farm’acy does sell cannabis to some members, who Jenkins said mostly are cancer patients, it also sells hundreds of herbs, teas and organic produce. Jenkins calls it a “holistic health center.”

She said the Merced Police Department and Merced County Sheriff’s Department eradicated a cannabis garden Sunday in a raid.

Early this Spring I joined others who spoke in a marijuana conference in San Diego, California, titled: — “Marijuana: The Next Big Thing in Native American Economic Development?” Our panel lectured on what was perceived by some Indian Tribes to be a Policy Shift by the Federal Government related to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act and other drug enforcement laws on native lands.

In recent months the debate around medical marijuana has come to the fore with anecdotal evidence suggesting it should be legalised but what is the actual science behind it? Charles Anderson reports.

The second bathroom drawer down is a pile of painkillers. There are packets and boxes. There is neurontin, a nerve pain medicine, that in the words of its owner "doesn't work". There is morphine and tramadol, that "don't work".

There are hundreds of different products that have been trialled and tested, made legal and brought to the pharmaceutical market on the back of clear evidential success.

"None of which work as well as my medical pot."

The island state of Hawaii, also known as the Paradise State, just got one step closer to that goal this month. On July 15, 2015, Gov. David Ige signed HB 321, a bill authorizing the use of medical marijuana, into state law.