Amidst the current political debate over marijuana legalization in Massachusetts (Question 4 on this year’s ballot), state Representative Hank Naughton, chairman of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, recently argued: “Marijuana is a gateway drug to the problems of the opioid crisis that we’re having today. It’s not just a business and it’s not like a six pack of beer. There’s a lot more to it.”

Gary Johnson has seen his poll numbers fall sharply in the final weeks before Election Day, but as he and the Libertarian Party shoot for the benchmark of 5 percent of the vote nationally, there could be an unseen and still uncounted boost from an unlikely source — marijuana.

After consistently polling over 10 percent throughout the summer, Johnson has taken a major dip in the final presidential polls as Election Day nears. The poll aggregator RealClearPolitics show him just a hair under 5 percent in the days before America goes to the polls to pick the next president.

As cannabis wafts back into mainstream America on growing winds of legal change, a west coast company says it has reached a technological milestone that is quickly becoming crucial to the justice system: a device police can use to detect recent marijuana use—and the amount consumed—in the air a driver exhales.

But don’t hold your breath.

Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson, vocal in his support of legalizing marijuana, pulled quite a stunt during a debate regarding the drug. Thanks to the reader who submitted this video, keep them coming! Happy Friday and have a great weekend everyone.

A ban on the sale of marijuana passed in San Jose, California on Tuesday. The actions come as election-day voting on Proposition 64 approaches.

The city’s urgency ordinance “would prohibit commercial use of non-medical marijuana in the city, including commercial cultivating processing, manufacturing, distributing, testing and selling of recreational weed,” according to the Mercury News.

San Jose is only the latest in a run of California cities quickly passing restrictive marijuana laws. Bans are also in place in Berkeley, Palo Alto, Campbell, Foster City, Hayward, Davis, Martinez and more.

A good way to gauge where things stand in the marijuana legalization wars a week before Election Day is to follow the money. And the latest polls, of course.

There are limitations to this approach. Trying to predict the outcome of an election by polling a week or less before the voting ends is a lot like trying to predict how a road trip is going to end by looking out the back window of the car. Ditto with following the money. The financial disclosure reports published, say, 10 days before Election Day don’t tell you how much will be contributed and spent before the polls close.

That said, here’s how things stood about a week ago.

A group pushing to legalize medical marijuana in North Dakota is making a last-minute advertising push thanks to a surprise donation from a national organization.

North Dakota Compassionate Care, which is sponsoring an initiated measure on the state’s ballot, quickly organized the ad campaign after receiving $15,000 last week from Drug Policy Action, said group spokeswoman Anita Morgan. DPA is the political arm of a group that advocates for the overhaul of drug laws.

“All of a sudden, poof, we get this money,” Morgan said Thursday. “We’ve wanted to tell the stories of real North Dakotans who would experience real benefits from medical marijuana and now we can. They are people, not a measure.”

Voters in California and four other states on Tuesday could open a wider door to legalized recreational marijuana, posing substantial regulatory challenges and deepening the tension between state and federal drug laws.

Five other states will vote on legalizing recreational marijuana on Nov. 8 and the impact on Colorado is yet to be seen.

The Colorado green rush is credited with bringing an influx of investment and people to the state. Supporters cite a $2.4 billion economic impact in 2015 but opponents point to concerns about crime and homelessness.

After several incidents downtown this summer, city leaders blamed what they called "urban travelers" -- people drawn to Colorado for legal weed. They even told dispensaries on the 16th Street Mall to avoid selling individual joints.

A homeless man who calls himself "L.A." told Denver 7 he moved here from Louisiana because of marijuana, as he said, "For the best weed ever."