Amid a growing push to reform cannabis laws in the Netherlands, a pair of activists have hatched a bold plan: Take the call for tolerance directly to the seat Dutch government with a massive show of support in The Hague.

Set for September 2017—still plenty of time to book a trip—the Tolerance Festival is the brainchild of veteran coffeeshop owner Jo Koopman and Henk Westbroek, one of the country’s best-known pop musicians.

On Election Day, eight states voted to legalize recreational or medical marijuana, bringing the nationwide total of medical states to 29. In Florida, medical marijuana won nearly 2 million more votes than Donald Trump. Added up, 65 million people now live in states that authorize adult recreational use; more than half of all Americans have access to medical marijuana; and almost everyone else lives in a state that permits CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis that helps treatment of juvenile epilepsy. It’s easier now to identify the six states that have done nothing to end the prohibition on marijuana than the ones that are breaking away from the federal law that treats marijuana the same as heroin.

The marijuana industry gets a lot of headlines because of the large dollar figures involved. This year Colorado alone is on its way to selling more than one billion (with a B!) dollars worth of marijuana. Marijuana sales figures are climbing in Washington, and with the exception of the recent slowdown in Oregon due to marijuana testing issues, Oregon’s sales have grown steadily too. Alaska just started marijuana sales, and eventually the ‘2016 class’ of legalization states will start sales.

Hundreds of people spent their Sunday in Lansing to learn about new laws that will impact Michigan's medical marijuana industry.

The laws deal with anything from the growth and sale of medical marijuana to legalizing medical edibles and other non-smokable forms of medical marijuana. 

On Sunday, Dec. 4, the Michigan Cannabis Business Development Group held a conference in an effort to make sure all in the industry know of the upcoming changes.

The Oregon Health Authority is temporarily relaxing its standards for testing marijuana products after reports that strict regulations were hurting the industry.

The new rules, which went into effect on December 2, will balance the cost of testing and public health protections, the OHA said.

Reports said the cost of testing under the rules that have been in effect since October 1 were putting strain on businesses because prices went up and supply went down.

The state has collected more than $40 million so far in taxes on marijuana products and 40% of that revenue goes to Oregon schools.

James Slatic isn't a drug dealer. The owner of Med-West Distributors in San Diego was a successful entrepreneur in California's legalized medical marijuana industry, refining cannabis extractions and providing them to nine local dispensaries. His business was housed in a 14,000-square-foot industrial property that the company owned and which the city had inspected; he says his workers had employer-matched 401(k) retirement accounts and health insurance, and that he spent thousands of dollars to have his products tested by a city-licensed lab.

While the use of dagga is illegal in South Africa‚ products containing the drug for medicinal purposes are starting to mushroom. But most of these are illegal‚ said the Medicines Control Council.

The Department of Health is working to have dagga legally recognised as a prescription drug under controlled circumstances and permits to cultivate and supply the drug are likely to be issued only in the first half of next year.

Medicine containing marijuana is still illegal in South Africa.

But some products are already on the market and the latest to go on sale in the country are Rick Simpson’s Oil and Charlotte’s Web‚ two organic solutions that contain THC‚ the psychoactive ingredient in dagga.

When voters in California passed Proposition 64 they not only created a legal and regulated cannabis market, but also paved the way for low-level cannabis-related crimes to be expunged from criminal records and for the possible release of individuals incarcerated for drug crimes.

The number of individuals potentially affected by this legislation is unknown, but some reports indicate thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Californians could petition for relief.

The key recommendation of the panel charged with outlining the framework for Canada’s legal marijuana regime is that the system should be geared toward getting rid of the $7-billion-a year black market.

Sources familiar with the report, which is expected to be made public Dec. 21, say all the other recommendations flow from that guiding principle.

Provinces will set the legal age for marijuana consumption, but the report is likely to recommend the limit be the age of majority — 18 in six provinces; 19 in B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the three territories — which would keep many young people from turning to criminal sources. (The Canadian Medical Association has recommended an age limit of 21, with limits on the quantity and potency.)

Although voters in Arkansas recently approved an initiative to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, it could be longer than originally anticipated before patients are able to take advantage of the program.

That’s because legislation has been introduced in the Arkansas House that could end up preventing the state’s new medical marijuana program from being implemented in a timely manner.