N.H. lawmakers are considering several bills this session that could change the state's existing marijuana laws.

House Bill 640 would reduce the penalty for one ounce or less to a violation. Currently, a possession may result in up to 1 year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

"I think this is the year for decriminalization," said Matt Simon, New England Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

In light of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Maine and Massachusetts, Simon said he's hopeful lawmakers will adapt the changes to a battle that's decades in the making.

labama Senator Jeff Sessions nomination to be the Donald Trump’s attorney general passed out of the Senate Judiciary along party lines today, setting up his vote before the full Senate.

Georgia parents and advocates are continuing to push for legislation that would expand access to medical marijuana even as they butt up against opposition from conservative lawmakers and law enforcement.

Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, sponsored a bill that would allow patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, AIDS, HIV, chronic pain, or autism to qualify for medical marijuana. It would also remove some restrictions on patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease.

The bill removes some residency restrictions and eases reporting requirements on prescribing physicians.

The Oireachtas Health Committee has recommended that the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) ensure improved access to medicinal cannabis products.

In a report, published this month, the Houses of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health has evaluated medicinal cannabinoids, and, with medicinal cannabis legalisation imminent in the Republic of Ireland, made a range of expert recommendations.

Dr Michael Harty TD, who chaired the committee, prefaced the report with the following description:

This report offers background to the status of medicinal cannabis and cannabinoids and highlights both the risks and potential benefits of those products.

Special interests from the Teamsters to the makers of marijuana-infused mouth spray are sending lobbyists to the California Capitol as the state seeks to reconcile existing medical marijuana laws with the measure to legalize recreational pot voters passed in November.

The cannabis industry is still at risk of being shutdown.

When President Donald Trump needs guidance on marijuana policy in the United States, he will look to a panel of 14 district attorneys from across the nation.

Incidentally, one of the advisors selected by the National District Attorney’s Association to keep the Trump Administration in the know with respect to legal weed is Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett – the only legal eagle from Colorado to be thrown into the mix.

Alaska brothers James and Giono Barrett have a dream: that some of the scores of cruise ship passengers who crowd the streets of the state capital each summer will one day use their shore excursions to kick back and light up a joint in a pot store's lounge.

The Barretts own Juneau's first marijuana retail store and want to tap into the $260 million or so that tourists dropped in the small coastal city last year.

Regulators could decide soon whether to make that happen. At a meeting Thursday in Juneau, they will consider allowing marijuana retail stores statewide to provide separate areas of their businesses for onsite consumption.

It's every stoner's nightmare: marijuana plants as far as the eye can see and not a spliff in sight.

"No, I have never tried it, and I don't have any intention of trying it either," says Antonio Medica, the colonel in charge of the Italian military's cannabis laboratory in Florence.

As he inspects pristine plant buds destined to be cut and dried into a version of the drug for medical use, the veteran officer is nonetheless sure he is producing some really good stuff.

"Absolutely yes, I can assure you of that," says Medica, who is wearing surgeon's scrubs over his uniform. "We have done the tests."

“Marijuana is safe, we know it is safe. It’s our cash cow and we will never give up,” Belita Nelson told an audience of doctors and nurses at the Marijuana for Medical Professionals Conference in Denver, Colorado this month.

Nelson says that was the first thing she learned from her Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) education coordinator, Paul Villaescusa, when she was hired in the Dallas office in April 1998.

“I was having fun, I was very good at my propagandist job—I was the chief propagandist for the DEA,” she said.