Fuel hikes have contributed to rising prices in Egypt, and the underbelly of the country is no exception - inside sources tell us that hash prices have seen significant hikes in recent days...

Egyptians are sending even more of their hard-earned cash up in smoke as the recent tax hikes upped the cost of pretty much everything - including hashish.

Naughty CairoScene sources claim that the cost of an average brown finger has now topped 150LE - an increase of up to 50%.

Some consumers also report that the quantity of hash available has decreased due to an unforeseen shortage.

The news is set to give many Cairene pot-heads a serious comedown and leave many feeling more than a little fuzzy-headed this weekend.

In the heart of Cumbria stands a two-bedroomed cottage wrapped in ivy that for half a century has been home to a lady named June. She makes a pot of tea in a cluttered kitchen brimming with fresh herbs in labelled jars, assorted saucepans and drying socks, then potters across the slate floor, and into a garden. Here lies what June calls "her private retreat". An overgrown rose bush dotted with apricot-coloured blossoms creeps over a rusting bench and from one of the many ceramic plant pots comes the scent of rosemary. At the back of the garden stands a decaying shed, lost beneath a white climbing hydrangea, and nestled behind this sits a small grow tent, which June tells me contains a single cannabis plant. She pulls down the zip to reveal the hidden green leaves.

You've undoubtedly heard about what's going on with marijuana in the U.S.

Pot, which was once considered a taboo, is quickly gaining mainstream acceptance. Today, even the President of the United States has openly admitted to having smoked marijuana in his youth. When the news broke, no one even seemed to blink.

We're already seeing how Americans' changing attitude towards the drug has affected our legal system. For example, voters in both Washington state and Colorado have legalized marijuana for recreational use, while some 20 other states have given it the nod for medicinal purposes.

The Islamic Republic has so many problems with heroin and meth, it may be ignoring the rise of weed – a fact that’s making many young Iranians very happy.

When the United States government is pathetically failing in attempts to justify its decades old war on cannabis, a country to the south is hard at work on nationalized legalization. In fact, the government in Uruguay is looking to sign up a few good pot growers!

Although it now appears that rollout of the legal Uruguay cannabis program won’t happen until 2015, they are still marching toward social justice at a much faster pace than the United States. When the delay in the establishment of the legal cannabis market in Uruguay was announced, the political prohibition pushers began predicting that the program was about to go “up in smoke,” but it looks like they were wrong.

Hemp is a fast growing, water efficient crop, which can thrive in the worst soil and can be used for a bevy of products, including paper,food, and medicine. It was around thousands of years ago and it’s still being grown today, just not as much since being banned in the US decades ago. It’s got a bad reputation, being guilty by association since its cousin crop is marijuana.

Handful of startups want to be America's favorite marijuana brand

ng a typical Fourth of July weekend, 1500 Esperanza St., a whitewashed deco warehouse in the Boyle Heights district of East Los Angeles, is deserted. But this year, a line snakes down the broken sidewalk out front and wraps around the bend of Union Pacific Avenue, as 4,000 people suffer the searing heat for an event called theCalifornia Heritage Market.

FIRST it was the hash cake. Now cookery programmes such as The Great British Bake Off could be in danger of hitting a new high with opium muffins.

Poppy growers in Britain are to be issued with new advice on cultivating and processing their crops after scientists warned that seeds widely used in bakery products may contain potentially hazardous levels of morphine.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the guidelines were intended to minimise any risk to consumers and that “morphine-like” effects had been observed in some cases after poppy seed consumption.