The Cannabis industry soared in 2016 in the US and Canada. Here's an outlook for what's in store for the market in 2017.

It goes without saying that the cannabis industry reached a new high point in 2016. The US voting in favor of legalization (in four states) on November 8, and the Canadian government releasing its task force  for recreational use of marijuana on December 13 were certainly two of the year’s biggest moments.

Task Force on Cannabis Got it Mostly Right.

Last week’s release of the report by the Canadian government’s Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation largely took a public health approach, which is appropriate given both the initial terms of reference and the evidence they gathered throughout the process. It was heartening to see the government get this right, for the most part, and to see the focus on access to medicine for medical users and fair access to safe and reliable cannabis for recreational users. They crafted a strategy governed by an overarching harm reduction objective, as opposed to the nanny state, control-oriented philosophy that governs so much of what happens in my native province of Ontario.

Israel's Military Prosecutor plans to revise its policy on marijuana use, and permit IDF soldiers to smoke weed up to five times, as long as they're off-duty when they do so, Haaretz has learned.

The new policy is expected to take effect in early 2017.

Current orders call to court martial any soldier caught possessing any narcotics, marijuana included, even in a civilian setting.

Any soldier convicted of such an offense is also tarred with a criminal notice in his or her records which hurt their chances of getting a job in Israel after their discharge from duty. 

IN NOVEMBER 57% of Californians voted to legalise the growing and use of marijuana for recreational purposes. Americans in seven other states and Washington, DC, are now, or soon expect to be, free to puff away at leisure, but liberalisation in the most populous border state will be felt acutely down south. Mexico has just marked the tenth anniversary of a war on drugs. It has spent millions of dollars on eradicating cannabis. Now it will abut a huge regulated market for the stuff—and one where 30% of the population is Mexican or Mexican-American. Changes in the United States may be prompting a rethink in Mexico, too—among ordinary people, policymakers and purveyors of pot alike.

Danish government unlikely to grant request for trial legalisation programme.

Copenhagen officials are trying to legalise cannabis - despite the Danish government rejecting a proposed trial three times previously. 

The city government, led by Mayor Frank Jensen, has made its fourth formal request that the capital is allowed to carry out a trial legalisation programme where sales are exclusively handled by public authorities. 

New medical marijuana laws go into effect across Michigan on Tuesday.

The laws center around creating a new structure and set of businessregulations for the still-budding industry.

Matt Abel, executive director of Michigan NORML, a pro-pot group, says the changes include a new category of marijuana-infused products.

“In addition to dried leaves and flowers being legal to possess for patients, the legislature has added the words resin and extract, so now concentrated forms of cannabis will be legal in Michigan … and topical oils and ointments, tinctures, which are a liquid that someone might put under their tongue, beverages and edibles.”

Toronto police have begun a pilot project testing the use of roadside screening devices for drug-impaired driving.

The project - which continues through to next spring - will test how well officers are able to use certain roadside drug−testing devices on motorists under different weather conditions and at night.

It is part of a national effort aimed at testing how police forces can detect drug-impaired drivers, with forces in Vancouver, Halifax and Gatineau, Que., as well as the Ontario Provincial Police and certain RCMP detachments taking part.

Toronto police say the information they will be collecting will help develop practices for the use of "oral-fluid" screening devices in Canada.

All around the world, different countries are considering the question of whether to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, as well as the growing of hemp for industrial uses. There have been any number of reports and studies to gain support for this movement showing that medical cannabis provides relief from a vast array of illness. Hemp is a product with an astonishing number of uses, as well as actually contributing to the safeguard of rain forests and replenishing of the soil.

Australia might be called the lucky country, but luck has not been with the Victorian people when it comes to cannabis. Despite being one of the most progressive Australian states, with one of the most progressive state governments in the country, cannabis is still perceived by the Victorian Government as largely harmful to society.

As a Victorian MP and leader of the Australian Sex Party, I've long advocated for change, with taxation and regulation of cannabis a founding party policy. I even moved a motion in the Victorian upper house earlier this year to try and make that happen. The six-to-32 loss did, at least, start a conversation about the lack of rational for keeping cannabis illegal.

On November 2, 2016, Lok Sabha MP Dharamvir Gandhi announced that he had received clearance from Parliament to table a Private Member's Bill seeking to amend the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to allow for the legalised, regulated, and medically supervised supply of "non- synthetic" intoxicants including cannabis and opium. India is one of the countries where marijuana is easily available, but is not entirely legalised. In fact, during a United Nations (UN) convention in 1961, India had actually lobbied against a carpet-ban on naturally grown-substances like cannabis or opium. This was also because these substances are used for religious and cultural purposes, in our country.