GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Legislature is considering imposing up to a 20 percent sales tax on retail sales of marijuana once it becomes available to consumers.

Proposed amendments to a bill (HB 2041) allowing localities to prohibit marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet of schools would impose a 17 percent state tax on retail sales of marijuana products, from buds to candies.

As more states legalize recreational marijuana, they’re also looking to police people who drive while stoned. Research to create a breathalyzer for marijuana is advancing—but evidence shows that driving under the influence of pot doesn’t actually cause accidents.

Colorado breathalyzer company Lifeloc Technologies, which received a $250,000 state grant last year to develop the equivalent of a marijuana breathalyzer, is moving forward with the new technology, the Durango Herald reports.

ALBANY – Patients and state lawmakers on Tuesday made a final push for New York to pass a bill that would provide emergency access to medical marijuana for ill patients.

New Yorkers with severe illnesses and legislators urged the Legislature to pass the bill and for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign it as the state Department of Health considers medical marijuana growers and hopes to have a statewide distribution system in place by Jan. 1.

Weed culture moved from the air to the airwaves in Colorado last week.

The first thing you notice after entering the Denver studios of “Smokin 94.1″ — Colorado’s first FM radio station devoted to marijuana enthusiasts, which debuted last week — is the lack of smell.

A giant bong and pot-themed posters decorate the offices, the music is in line with the brand (Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory”), but the air is clean.

“It’s a non-smoking building,” said owner Marc Paskin, who doubles as DJ “Gary Ganja” during afternoon drive time. He’s additionally “O.G. Kush,” the announcer of the pot radio “4:20 News,” repeated at 5:20 p.m. “because our listeners can’t remember.”

When he was managing a 3,500-plant medical marijuana grow facility in Denver, Adam Koh would have his staff thoroughly inspect his crops several times a week for signs of infestation. Tiny bite marks on the cannabis leaves could mean two-spotted spider mites were piercing the plant’s skin and sucking up nutrients. Small piles of what looked like powdered sugar could be the beginning of a mildew incursion.

They say it’s not the destination but the journey there that makes it an adventure. And man was this one a trip.

The journey kicked off three years ago with a filmmaker and his mission — shoot a travel series in Hawaii on the best places to get high. He took along a photographer buddy and they both decided on alter egos, calling themselves Dave High and Roland Jointz. Following numerous strange experiences with the locals, they managed to uncover a secret government plot to control the marijuana trade and keep a local advocate in jail for four years without a trial.

Medical researchers are beginning to study whether the hype surrounding a chemical in marijuana matches reality.

Proponents of cannabidiol largely believe that the chemical provides many of marijuana's therapeutic characteristics. And unlike tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, it doesn't get the user high.

But in the decades since its discovery cannabidiol remained difficult to study despite reports that it could improve a wide range of conditions, including epilepsy, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.

As a Schedule 1 drug, scientists need approval from several federal regulators to conduct research. As a result, little has changed since the chemist who discovered THC reported that cannabidiol reduced seizures in seven of eight epilepsy patients in a 1980 study.

AMHERST – As proponents of marijuana legalization move toward asking voters to approve the law change in 2016, the University of Massachusetts wants to begin preparing for the implications of that change.

On Saturday, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass is hosting the "Marijuana Policy Forum: Protecting the Public Health with Good Policy."

The forum is intended for legislators and policymakers and is not open to the public. But there will likely be others, said Risa Silverman from the Office for Public Health Practice and Outreach.

Andrew Freedman, Colorado's director of marijuana coordination, will be the keynote speaker.

With New York State beginning to accept applications for medical marijuana providers last week, criticism of the hyper-strict program negotiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been plentiful. Hinged on concerns about arbitrary regulations and insufficient patient access, advocates for medical marijuana access worry the program will be too small and restrictive to be effective.

On Sunday, New Jersey governor Chris Christie set out his stall firmly against legalised cannabis on CBS’s Face The Nation, vowing to clamp down using federal law on states such as Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska that have legalised the drug.