Signal Hill Patients Access PAC today unveiled amended ballot measure language to permit medical cannabis in the heart of Long Beach by regulating medical cannabis with new sections featuring a labor peace agreement provision and onsite consumption of medical cannabis permission. In addition, the amended ballot measure language also includes sections for “Energy Offsets encouraged” and a residential permission provision that permits cultivation by right in the city with no need for any type of official permit from the municipal government. The measure or the law is file number two attached. The initiative will create new revenue for the Signal Hill general fund, police department, and schools.

California Assemblyman Rob Bonta played a critical function in pressing through policies on the state’s medical marijuana industry, which will significantly change the nation’s biggest MMJ market.

Bonta was a main sponsor of Assembly Costs 266, among three procedures known jointly as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Security Act (MMRSA).

Medical marijuana could be a big topic of discussion for state lawmakers in 2016.

Bills in the state Senate would create protections for dispensaries and people who use non-smokable forms of medical marijuana, such as baked items and oils.

Now, Democratic state Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, has introduced a new bill that would ban employers from firing workers for having a medical marijuana card.

Singh says firings have become a problem in many states where medical marijuana is legal.

“We’re definitely seeing it across the country. And so therefore we know it will happen here in Michigan, if it already hasn’t,” he said.

First, kudos to the Hawaii Department of Health for publishing interim administrative rules for the state’s new medical marijuana industry weeks earlier than anticipated.

The Dec. 15 rollout gave prospective business owners nearly a month to look at how the department will regulate the industry before the license application period opens. The interim rules offer a guideline under the statute, passed last legislative session, allowing the creation of a grow-and-distribution industry for Hawaii. They will guide the first legal marketplace for the medicine since Hawaii first legalized it 15 years ago.

EUGENE, Ore. -- When it comes to using marijuana in Oregon, the lines are still blurred around regulations and usage.

That's why Michael Hirsch is fighting for what he says is his right to be employed and to use - not abuse - medical marijuana.

Hirsch won his fight against prostate cancer in 2011 but he now faces a daily battle with debilitating side effects from cancer treatment.

"I have ongoing issues with my digestive system and such to the point that it required hospitalization from kidney failure," explained Hirsch.

So he says doctors prescribed the best prescription they could to help him function.

"Medical cannabis really helps control and helps my digestive system," Hirsch says, "and is just one example of how it really improves my life."

Whether you realize it or not, marijuana is on track to possibly be one of the deciding factors in the 2016 presidential election. As marijuana's approval rating has soared in national polls over the last decade, it's forced politicians who'd previously tiptoed the issue to take a stance.

Ella Turkington, 5, has intractable epilepsy and autism. Her parents Kim and Rob Turkington administer cannabidiol (CBD) oil in conjunction with her pharmaceuticals — as more families are experimenting with pediatric cannabis — to treat her epilepsy. Photograph by: Tiffany Crawford , Vancouver Sun

Mention Taylor Swift and five-year-old Ella’s eyes light up like the Christmas tree in the corner of her Surrey living room.

The tree scrapes the ceiling, and Ella is eager to play with the decorations, but her parents have set up a barricade so she can’t reach the branches.

That’s because the young girl has severe epilepsy and autism, and, although she is nearly six, the cognitive ability of a toddler.

Re: Legal weed would lead to more use, poll says, Dec. 22

Re: A threat to Ottawa’s pot plan, Opinion Dec. 16

Legal weed would lead to more use, poll says, Dec. 22

About the only good thing about the legalization of marijuana will be a possible reduction in the criminal element attached to its sale. Unfortunately, as in the case of tobacco, there will still be those who sell/buy it illegally to avoid paying government-levied taxes.

While it probably makes sense to sell it through the LCBO if/when it’s legalized, I fear this will somehow endow it with a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve, so marketing of it must be strictly prohibited.

When President Obama signed a huge tax and spending law to keep the government running and avoid a year-end budget showdown, there were a few things tucked into the $1.1 trillion law that directly impact people in chronic pain – namely medical marijuana, veterans who need opioids, and tax breaks for medical device manufacturers.

DOJ to Back-Off on Medical Marijuana Criminal Action

The bill blocks the Department of Justice from taking criminal action against individuals and organizations that are licensed in states that have passed medical marijuana laws.