Rhode Island leaders are looking at following Massachusetts on the path to legalizing recreational marijuana.

Gov. Gina Raimondo said Tuesday she’ll take a more serious look after Massachusetts voters approved a pot legalization ballot measure last week.

The Democrat says it’s not a race to get ahead of the neighboring state. She wants to get the regulations right and remains concerned about safety.

Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello says he’s ready to take up legislation next year because marijuana will become readily available to Rhode Islanders traveling across the Massachusetts border, causing concerns without the tax revenues to address them.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio says he’s also preparing to act.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a temporary ban on growing recreational marijuana commercially Tuesday afternoon in response to Prop 64.

Supervisors approved an emergency 45-day moratorium that makes growing marijuana commercially to be sold for recreational uses, as well as growing outdoors, illegal.

Medical marijuana, and growing weed indoors for personal recreational use, are still legal.

California voters passed Prop 64 last week. 

The purpose of Santa Cruz's emergency moratorium is to give county supervisors time to study, develop, and create regulations over farming and selling. 

San Jose already passed a similar moratorium.

Firearm purchases by drug users are prohibited by federal law; Alaska Republican is taken aback.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s husband and sons ordered her a new Benelli 12-gauge shotgun as a gift, but when the Alaska Republican—and enthusiastic duck hunter—went to pick it up, she was puzzled by a question on the federal background form she had to fill out.

The form asked if she used marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes, both of which are legal in Alaska. If she answered yes, she would be unable to get the gun, because federal law prohibits anyone who uses illegal drugs from buying a firearm.

Canada's medical-cannabis companies say their American counterparts will continue to be stifled under the upcoming Trump presidency, during which Canadian growers will scale up to meet the domestic demand for recreational pot while preparing to enter the U.S. market as global industry leaders once prohibition there ends.

Last Tuesday, voters in California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine legalized the sale of recreational marijuana, joining four western states and Washington, in allowing adults to use the drug. Florida, Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota also voted for medical cannabis, which is now supported by a total of 29 states.

You'll get to vote on whether to make marijuana legal in Nebraska two years from now, that's if one group has its way.

It has now opened an office in Omaha that it will use to try to convince you, but at least one state lawmaker says that's going to be an uphill battle.

Krystal Gabel said, "We can make this happen and it's a really exciting feeling for Nebraska."

Gabel is part of the group Legal Marijuana Now.

"Let us live with the freedom like alcohol users have, that tobacco users have...it just touches my heart how many people could use it medically. They are being forced on prescription drugs."

The war on drugs has failed and doctors should lead calls for change, one of the world's top medical journals has said.

The British Medical Journal says illegal drug use is increasing and alternative policies are needed urgently.

A set of radical proposals has been published in the BMJ, which was founded in 1840 and is seen as a leading voice in the medical community.

The journal says penalties for drug use should be scrapped and governments should regulate legal drug markets.

The move follows decriminalisation of cannabis in Nevada, California and Massachusetts, passed in votes on 8 November.

Berlin is on course to at least semi-legalising marijuana after a cross-party movement agreed on a ground-breaking pilot scheme.

The capital’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party have agreed on a “controlled distribution of cannabis to adults” project.

Cannabis possession is illegal in Germany, although people found with less than 15g are often not prosecuted.

One result of the European Union’s policy of leaving domestic drug policy to individual member states is that each one chooses its own path to medical cannabis, creating a variety of different regulatory schemes across the continent. In Poland, the Parliament has begun debate on new legislation that would make cannabis available to tens of thousands of Poles with a wide range of health issues.

A parliamentary commission had its first meeting on the matter last month, a response to the tireless efforts of recently formed political movement Kukiz’15 as well as activists from the NGO Wolne Konopie (Free Cannabis Association) and the Coalition of Medical Marijuana, which consists of doctors, lawyers, patients, and patients’ families.

Indiana legislators may not want to tackle the issue of medical marijuana in the Statehouse, but one Lake County Council member is looking to gain the support of his peers for a resolution supporting the practice.

Lake County Councilman Jamal Washington, D-Merrillville, said he would like fellow council members to consider a resolution supporting the decriminalization of marijuana for medical purposes when the council meets Tuesday.

Over 63 million Americans now live in states where it's legal to consume recreational weed.

Americans said "yes we cannabis" on Election Day, when voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada passed ballot initiatives fully legalizing the use and possession of marijuana without a doctor's recommendation.