Regular visitor to Nimbin’s MardiGrass and medical cannabis advocate, Dr Andrew Katelaris, will appear in the Hornsby Local Court today after being arrested yesterday.

Chief Inspector David Hogg confirmed to Echonetdaily that Dr Katelaris had been charged with a number of offences including drug possession, having an indictable quantity of cannabis, and having proceeds of crime.

On Sunday Dr Katelaris featured in a Channel Seven report in which he was shown giving cannabis oil to a four-year-old boy, who has since been taken from his parents.

He had spent the weekend at a Hemp Industry forum at Rosehill in Sydney, where police arrived on the final day after reports that a large crop of cannabis was on display.

Rastafarian elder Ras Iyah V, the chairman of the Westmoreland Hemp and Ganja Farmers Association, says he is against the provision of edible ganja products to patrons at locally staged ganja-related events.

"As it relates to ganja-related events, I am not in support of the provision of edibles to patrons. I reiterate, I am not in support of edibles," said Ras Iyah V, an executive member of the Cannabis Licensing Authority. "Reason being, most of the individuals who provide these products have little to no scientific knowledge about ganja, for example, the percentage of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the ratio of ganja used to the other ingredients in the preparation of these edibles."

While cannabis-related police incidents continue to make the news in other parts of the country (ahem, Toronto), the Vancouver Police Department has ignored Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's call to continue arrests for possession despite plans for legalization.

Instead, the VPD has said it's prioritized the city's overdose crisis.

Released last week, the department's annual report for 2016 reveals a significant drop in cannabis-related offences, from 861 in 2015 to 660 in 2016.

That's a decline of 24.1 percent.

Imbalance of men in positions of power means 'some issues that are just about women have gotten shortchanged', says Democrat who proposed law.

Women living in New York who suffer from severe period pain could use medical marijuana to ease their cramps after proposals allowing its use were approved by a local health committee.

Painful periods – known as dysmenorrhoea – affect around 20 per cent of women to the extent that daily activities are interrupted, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

A zealous prosecutor who was crucial in writing the Justice Department’s new policy encouraging harsher punishments for criminals is now turning his attention to hate crimes, marijuana and the ways law enforcement seizes suspects’ cash and property.

Steve Cook’s hardline views on criminal justice were fortified as a cop on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. The unabashed drug warrior is now armed with a broad mandate to review departmental policies, and observers already worried about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ agenda are wringing their hands at Cook’s ascension.

Andre Shavers was sentenced to five years on felony probation after authorities burst into the house where he was living in one of Oakland's most heavily policed neighborhoods and found a quarter ounce of marijuana.

After the 2007 raid, Shavers couldn't leave the state without permission. He was subject to police searches at any time. He walked to the corner store one night for maple syrup and came back in a police car. Officers wanted to search his home again.

All the while, cannabis storefronts flourished elsewhere in a state where medical marijuana was authorized in 1996.

Detroit's crackdown on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries has shuttered 167 shops since the city's regulation efforts began last year, and dozens more are expected.

Detroit city attorney Melvin Butch Hollowell said that 283 dispensaries were identified last year, all of which were operating illegally.

"At the time I sent a letter to each one of them indicating that unless you have a fully licensed facility, you are operating at your own risk," he said.

An additional 51 shops are in the pipeline to be closed in the coming weeks, Hollowell said. That would bring the closures up to 218, a step closer to the  goal laid out by officials to only have 50 dispensaries in the city.

The legal weed business is booming in Colorado, and the state has finalized plans to spend its pot tax windfall on health programs in public schools, housing for at-risk populations, and a new treatment program to combat the opioid crisis.

Powerful pot strains put developing brains of young people at risk, CMAJ editorial says.

Marijuana legalization will harm the health of youth unless major changes to the proposed law are made to protect their developing brains, a medical journal editorial says.

Dr. Diane Kelsall, interim editor in chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says Bill C-45 fails to safeguard vulnerable youth.

"There are a number of things in the legislation that are truly worrisome," Kelsall said in an interview. "If the intent is truly a public health approach and to protect our youth this legislation is not doing it."

Fewer than 150 people in Australia have ever been given approved access to medicinal cannabis products and there are only 25 authorised prescribers of the drugs, according to evidence at a Senate estimates committee.

Officials from the Health Department told the hearing that figure had only increased by two since February, and most of those doctors were in New South Wales. 

"We now have 25, it would have been good to have a greater increase but we are responsive to what applications we receive from ethics committees, so we can't write these things ourselves," said the department's deputy secretary in charge of drug regulation, adjunct Professor John Skerritt.