The past few days have been an emotional roller coaster for Texas cannabis activists. Last week, two marijuana reform bills were sailing through the Texas House, making it farther than similar proposals have in decades. By Saturday, both were dead.

The Texas state legislature only meets for a 140-day regular session in odd-numbered years.  Barring a special legislative session—something Gov. Greg Abbott seems unlikely to approve—there will be no cannabis reforms in Texas until the legislature meets again in 2019.

There's a crowd of a few dozen people mingling about the Capitol grounds in dark suits, striped ties, power dresses and sunglasses on a summer-like spring day in the nation's steamy capital. They look like they're ready for a Republican fundraiser, but they're actually marijuana business owners – everything from edible bakers to dispensary owners – from 20 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. There are no Birkenstocks or marijuana leaves in sight, well except one old hippy draped in a marijuana flag and one U.S. Congressman, Democrat Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, rocking a bowtie polka dotted with cannabis leaves.

The State Department of Health sent a cease and desist order to the owners of the North Florida based Trulieve, one of seven licensed marijuana growers in the state.

The letter demands they stop selling their “Entourage” product, which contains smokable marijuana in a mesh container. The leaf product is sold for use in vaporizers, which are legal under current law, but can be removed and smoked.

Confusion over what voters approved and current law has some saying lawmakers need to head back to the Capitol for a special session.

The Medical Marijuana Business Association says if legislators had passed guidelines for marijuana this session there would be less confusion for growers and the public.

Gov. Phil Scott has yet to decide whether he will sign a marijuana legalization bill that passed the Vermont Legislature this month.

The first-term Republican can choose to sign the bill, veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature.

"I'm not philosophically opposed to it," Scott said, adding that he wants any legal marijuana system to address highway safety and protecting children from edible marijuana products. "I'm not sure that the time is right now."

Scott's office has been flooded with calls and notes on the marijuana issue, including identical letters in support of the bill. Scott said they have not swayed his opinion. 

A federal appeals court has sidestepped making a ruling on whether U.S. prison officials can hold people who were convicted of marijuana offences that were legal under state medical marijuana laws.

In a decision Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused instead on a narrower issue.

The court was considering a legal challenge by prisoner Matthew Davies, who was convicted of federal marijuana charges. Davies said he ran medical marijuana dispensaries that complied with California law.

He argued that the Bureau of Prisons could not hold him because of a federal regulation that restricted interference by U.S. officials in the implementation of state medical marijuana laws.

Legalizing cannabis would raise £1bn in tax revenues, according to the Liberal Democrat manifesto, which backs a regulated market for the drug.

The document calls the war on drugs “a catastrophic failure” in which billions were flowing into organised crime rather than the Treasury’s coffers.

The Lib Dems said a legal, regulated market for cannabis would bring in £1bn for the government, based on Treasury figures commissioned by Nick Clegg while he was deputy prime minister.

The commission that oversees Maryland’s fledgling medical cannabis program voted Wednesday to award the state’s first full license to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The Stage 2 license, awarded to ForwardGro LLC, is a final sign-off from regulators for putting plants in the ground. The company will still have to wait for dispensaries to be fully inspected and licensed before it can sell cannabis products to approved patients, which it hopes to do by late summer or early fall.

Gail Rand, chief financial officer and patient advocate for ForwardGro, said “the patients of Maryland will finally have an opportunity to try this medicine that could help tens of thousands of people.”

Tax revenues generated by legalized marijuana, plus shedding the huge costs of arresting and jailing nonviolent offenders, are powerfully appealing to fiscally beleagured states.

As always, nothing breeds success quite like success.

Out West, where states first made medical and recreational marijuana legal, the resulting tax money has been a boon for the state and local governments.

Earlier today, Governor Jay Inslee signed that big "omnibus bill" of pot laws that cleared the Washington legislature last month. The omnibus bill combined more than a dozen different legal changes to cannabis law in our state, including forward progress on legalizing growing pot at home and creating the country’s first state-run organic certification program for weed.

The Parliament of the Canary Islands has asked the Spanish central government and the Cortes to regulate cannabis use, “from the perspective that it is a product that carries risks to health.”  Only the conservative PP, Paritdo Popular, opposed the request.

The non-legal proposal, jointly promoted by the Canarian Coalition , PSOE, Podemos and ASG, also argues that as long as there is no state regulation, cannabis clubs and associations in the Canary Islands establish de facto mechanisms for self-regulation, good practice and collaboration with the administration .