In the latest instalment of "peculiar ways to win the drug war", police officers in Camden have handed letters to shops around Camden Lock ordering them to stop selling drug-related paraphernalia, or be faced with raids. That's right: selling that gas-mask bong your sixth form boyfriend lusted after could now actually land you in court.

One day after Prime Minister Freundel Stuart told church leaders the “nefarious” illegal drug – as well as firearms – trade was “haunting” the country and threatening the very safety and security of the Barbadian family, it emerged today that government was examining the possible use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Senior Medical Officer Dr. Kenneth George revealed at a conference on the availability and rational use of opioids that the Ministry of Health was undertaking research into the use of medical marijuana in palliative care.

Medical marijuana may be a billion-dollar industry in California, but it’s a cash business.

Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, most pot shops can’t get bank accounts or accept credit card transactions because the financial services companies fear they would be penalized or shut down by federal regulators for handling money gained from unlawful drug sales. That means marijuana products are typically sold for cash, and dispensary owners pay their employees, their landlords and others in cash as well. It’s not unusual for pot shop owners to haul bags of money — tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars — to the state tax collector’s office.

More than three in five Canadians say companies should be allowed to administer random drug tests to employees when marijuana is legalized, a new poll finds.

The poll from Insights West found 62 per cent of respondents would support drug-testing policies. That number rises to 70 per cent among those aged 55 and over, and 71 per cent among those who voted Conservative in the last election. 

A larger majority — 84 per cent — back giving police the right to arrest someone suspected of driving on drugs, in order to administer a urine test.

Massachusetts likely voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana for people 21 and older, with 55 percent saying "yes" to Question 4, according to a new poll from WBUR/MassINC Polling Group.

Forty percent said they would vote "no" if the election on the November statewide ballot measure was held today. Five percent said they didn't know how they'd vote or they were undecided.

Question 4 seeks to set up a regulatory structure for the taxation of commercial marijuana, under a proposed Cannabis Control Commission, a framework that proponents say will drive down the black market. Opponents have been urging voters to reject the measure, saying marijuana is a potent gateway drug to harder substances.

A fully developed legal market for medical marijuana in Michigan could lead to millions of dollars in new state tax revenue.

Exactly how much is open to interpretation, but some analysts’ estimates suggest it could top $63 million a year.

New regulations for the state’s medical marijuana industry, signed by Gov. Rick Snyder and taking effect in December (though a licensing system won’t be active until December 2017), will require a 3% excise tax on dispensaries’ gross sales receipts.

Pot activists are going to celebrate the two-year anniversary of Philadelphia's marijuana decriminalization Thursday by holding a "pop-up pot garden" outside Philadelphia Art Museum.

The pro-pot lobby will also hold a press conference at City Hall in Center City to release statistics about the number of citations issued for small amounts of marijuana.

Activists at the SNP conference have overwhelmingly backed a motion in favour of the decriminalisation of cannabis for medical use.

Delegates at the party's national conference in Glasgow have urged the UK Government to devolve powers to Holyrood to make the drug legal.

They made the call after hearing from multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferer Laura Brennan-Whitefield, who called on the party to show "compassion and common sense".

She said: "I'm not advocating the smoking of cannabis, what I'm advocating is a progressive and reasonable, compassionate society where you can access pain relief."

Opponents of legalizing marijuana in Massachusetts are launching their first television advertisement Tuesday, a powerful 30-second spot that imagines an almost dystopian neighborhood overrun by pot shops and stoners.

In the ad, a mother drives her daughter through a familiar suburban scene of strip malls, passing one marijuana store after another, signs alighted with green cannabis leaves.

“Question 4 would allow thousands of pot shops and marijuana operators throughout Massachusetts — in neighborhoods like yours,” a female narrator says, referring to the Nov. 8 ballot measure.

Phoenix-based Discount Tire Company and its billionaire owner, Bruce Halle, face a growing boycott movement after making a $1 million donation to help defeat Proposition 205, the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Arizona.