I can recall a time when it was a rarity to hear or read about a news story about cannabis. For almost two decades I kept a database of every cannabis related news story that I came across. I could never keep up with the torrent of pot news coming out now. 

As someone who was a child in the 1960’s and a counter-culture teenager in the 70s, I recall the intense stigma and controversy that the herb had attached to it. 

Proposed law would raise legal limits and lower fines.

Many motorists punished for driving under the influence of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) – the active ingredient in cannabis – complain that the effect of the drug had long worn off. THC can be detected in the bloodstream for three months after the intake of cannabis.

And now a new bill prepared for Parliament by the Transport and Construction Ministry will seek to address this by lessening the penalties handed out to drivers with small traces of THC.

The new proposal would reduce the penalties for operating a vehicle with less than 0.003 mg of THC in the blood to a clip on the driver’s licence and a half month’s salary in fines.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is considering a policy change to the state’s limited medical-marijuana law that would raise the fees for dispensaries and growers from $6,000 to $1.3-million dollars. 

At the end of 2015, the Public Safety Commission passed an initial set of rules, part of which set the rate that would be imposed on businesses wanting to become dispensaries and grow operations at $6,000.  This month, the state agency proposed raising that fee to $1.3 million dollars.

Cannabis After several years of uncertainty and timid changes, the ball is in Puerto Rico's court. True legalisation is gaining momentum and the process for applying for a Cultivation Licence for Medicinal Cannabis has finally been kick started. The licence's principles will be implemented as per Regulation no. 155.

Even by the usual standards of politics, this election’s campaign against marijuana legalization has made strange bedfellows. The largest donors to the various anti-weed political groups around the country include a billionaire casino tycoon, a woman who believes in reefer madness, a drug-crusading former U.S. ambassador, cops, prison guards, booze merchants, and a pharma company that sells the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

Canada in danger of getting smoked by the competition as Ottawa stalls on cannabis

Canada is in danger of getting smoked by the competition because the marijuana industry isn't waiting for government legislation. American companies know it, and now Shoppers Drug Mart has shown it knows it too.

A public request by Shoppers to sell pot in its stores shows the "pusher" stigma has begun to fade. Shoppers is part of the Loblaws chain known across Canada for its family-friendly Canadian Superstores and President's Choice brands.  

‘The media has ridiculed presidential candidate Donald Trump for suggesting the election is “rigged.” While his comments should always be taken with a grain of salt, a case of a missing amendment in a Florida ballot is raising some eyebrows.

Anne Sallee, an Oakland Park resident and former city commissioner who lives in Broward, Florida, says she was shocked to notice her ballot had arrived in the mail without one of the most discussed amendments of the season. After spending a week trying to get the Broward elections office to listen, she decided to reach out to the Florida branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for help.

Police and crime commissioner Arfon Jones claims the use of cannabis is of 'considerable benefit' to sufferers of many illnesses.

A police boss is calling for cannabis to be legalised.

Arfon Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, wants the drug to be legal for medicinal purposes.

He says the use of cannabis, currently a class B controlled drug, is of “considerable benefit” to sufferers of many illnesses.

Mr Jones, a member of Plaid Cymru and a former superintendent in North Wales Police , has sent a letter to politicians across the region to try and judge support for the proposal. 

Reisa Clardy appears in the latest No on 4 video, which points to drugged driving.

A new video from the campaign opposing marijuana legalization in Massachusetts features the widow of state police trooper Thomas Clardy, who died in a roadside collision in March.

Clardy was stopped at the side of the road on the Mass Pike in Charlton when a vehicle crossed three lanes of traffic and collided with his cruiser. Police believe the man who was behind the wheel of that car, 34-year-old David Njuguna, was under the influence of marijuana at the time.

To the red-and-blue map of American politics, it may be time to add green. The movement to legalize marijuana, the country’s most popular illicit drug, will take a giant leap on Election Day if California and four other states vote to allow recreational cannabis, as polls suggest they may.

The map of where pot is legal could include the entire West Coast and a block of states reaching from the Pacific to Colorado, raising a stronger challenge to the federal government’s ban on the drug.

In addition to California, Massachusetts and Maine both have legalization initiatives on the ballot next month that seem likely to pass. Arizona and Nevada are also voting on recreational marijuana, with polls showing Nevada voters evenly split.