While Israel is already a world leader in medical cannabis research, for the first time the government has decided to fuel the blaze.

The Agriculture Ministry’s chief scientist will be investing NIS 8 million in 13 relevant biochemistry and medical research projects, with the hope of improving the growth of medical cannabis in Israel, the ministry announced on Monday. Describing the initiative as “a pioneering step,” the ministry said the funds will enable scientists to perform both basic and applied research for five years, developing the tools and infrastructure “that will lead the next generation of medical cannabis products.”

 There's been a sudden flurry of legislation in Indiana to reform the state's marijuana laws. State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, has introduced a marijuana bill for the seventh straight year. 

Senate Bill 255 would create an an agency to work out details for allowing the use of medicinal marijuana. It would allow patients with a variety of health conditions, including migraines and post-traumatic stress disorder, to use cannabis with the go-ahead from their doctor. It would also give access to patients suffering from "any persistent or chronic illness or condition." 

Tallian said it's one of several proposals to tweak the state laws.

With the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, the United States got a new president. And with that new president comes a long list of new appointees across various federal agencies and departments. While President Trump's cabinet selection process has played out publicly, a variety of folks from former president Barack Obama's administration have quietly stayed on.

One of the most prominent people that's staying on is the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Chuck Rosenberg, who was appointed by former attorney general Loretta Lynch in May 2015.

Recreational marijuana sales in Oregon produced $60.2 million in state tax ­revenue in 2016, the first year of state-taxed pot sales.

For much of the year, ­marijuana sellers collected a 25 percent sales tax. 

To produce the $60.2 million in tax revenue reported by the state Department of Revenue on Friday, total retail sales of marijuana and ­pot-laced products last year would have had to equal about $241 million. 

Marijuana tax revenues ­exceeded projections, said Mazen ­Malik, senior economist for the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office. He had estimated ­marijuana sales would ­produce $44 million during the year, $16 million less than what came in.

After relaxation of rules on possession, campaigners await judgment on punishment for cultivation.

Until recently, anyone caught with cannabis twice in 12 months in Georgia faced up to 14 years behind bars. Today you can carry enough for more than 200 joints, after the constitutional court in effect decriminalised possession of the drug.

The landmark ruling follows the case of 27-year-old Beka Tsikarishvili, who was arrested in 2013 with 65 grams of cannabis, which he said was for his own use. Facing a long sentence, he argued imprisonment was unlawful because it infringed his human dignity.

The marijuana industry had an incredible 2016, and pro-legalization enthusiasts are hoping that momentum carries over into 2017.

Heading into 2016, there were 23 states that had legalized medical cannabis and four (Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska) that had legalized recreational pot. This in itself was impressive considering that, just two decades prior (1996), California became the first state to legalize any form of marijuana with its Compassionate Use Act for a select few medical patients. In 2017, five additional states wound up legalizing medical cannabis, two of which did so entirely through the legislative process, while residents in four more states (California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada) approved recreational marijuana initiatives.

Donald Trump steps in as the president of a nation increasingly at odds with federal marijuana policy.

Throughout the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday, activists hit the streets of Washington, D.C, marching and demonstrating—some breaking the law—for a variety of causes, including LGBT rights, drawing attention to climate change, and immigration law reform.

Among them were a group of marijuana advocates who, in broad daylight in Dupont Circle—the tony neighborhood northwest of the White House—handed out 8,000 free joints to the public. The mass distribution was totally legal, as the city's initiative 71 became effective in November 2015, allowing D.C. residents to own, grow, and distribute marijuana—so long as money doesn’t change hands.

A Massachusetts senator and staunch opponent to the legalization of recreational marijuana is taking aim at the law passed through a statewide ballot initiative last November.

Sen. Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat, has filed a series of bills that nip, tuck and slash pieces of the legislation laid out in a ballot question passed by state voters on Nov. 8.

In an interview Friday, Lewis told The Boston Globe he believes the ballot initiative's support was for the generalities of legal possession and usage of marijuana in Massachusetts, but that defining the specifics is down to the Legislature.