A report from this past July shows a continued decline in cannabis-related arrests in Canada over the past four years, while arrests for drugs like methamphetamines, heroin, and ecstasy increased. While cannabis-related arrests continue to make up the bulk of drug arrests in Canada, they also are more likely to be stayed or withdrawn or to receive a fine rather than custody if found guilty.

The report also shows that cannabis-related arrests account for 79% of youth drug crime (A decline of 19% from 2014). These decreases are most pronounced in Ontario (-16%) and British Columbia (-17%), although declines were reported in all provinces and territories, except for Nunavut and PEI. Nunavut saw a 9% increase and Prince Edward Island’s rates remained the same.

Next semester, Temple students will have a chance to take a class on a plant they may already be familiar with: marijuana.

But it’s not a class about how to best to enjoy the Three Kings strain. It’s about the plant itself — the difference between cannabis and hemp, the history of its cultivation, the effect it has on a human body, the history of its prohibition, its medical uses and its integration into pop culture. Temple School of Media and Communication professor Linn Washington has partnered with local marijuana activist and writer Chris Goldstein for the class.

If you see a funny video, comic, or article, send it our way and we may feature it on the next Friday Funny! Have a great weekend, happy Canadian Thanksgiving, and happy Columbus Day to our American friends! We'll be back on Tuesday.

Like gay marriage, climate change and a host of other issues before it, Hillary Clinton’s painfully slow evolution on marijuana legalization has again left the Democratic presidential nominee behind the curve in her own party — and her position represents a squandered opportunity to potentially win over millennials.

Polls have shown that about two-thirds of Democratic voters support legalizing pot, and the party, largely due to Sen. Bernard Sanders bringing the issue to prominence in his White House bid, called for a pathway to legalization in its platform last summer.

In the evening of September 24, 2014, Max Lorincz, a 35-year-old father living in Spring Lake, Michigan, discovered his wife passed out on the kitchen floor.

Erica Chittenden was barely breathing.

Lorincz called 911. Then he took the couple’s four-year-old son Dante to the boy’s room and told him to stay inside. Lorincz wanted to spare Dante the sight of his unconscious mother.

Paramedics arrived few minutes later. Patrick Gedeon, a deputy with the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department, also responded to the call.

There are some things that opponents of the marijuana regulation initiative in Massachusetts don’t want to talk about. They’re not interested in addressing how the commercial alcohol industry bankrolls their cause and fills the campaign piggy banks of elected officials. Nor will prohibitionists answer for apparent election and ethics law violations being committed by influential Question 4 (marijuana legalization) opponents, or the lies that have been used to artificially buttress their position.

Hezekiah Allen is a third-generation marijuana farmer in this Northern California county, where the cool coastal fog pours off the Pacific Ocean, coaxing pot plants to heights of 20 feet.

The executive director of the California Growers Association trade group, Allen has long sought an end to what he calls “prohibition” and has looked forward to a day when he and the thousands of pot farmers here would no longer be outlaws.

But he said he can’t bring himself to vote for Proposition 64, a referendum on California’s November ballot that would legalize cultivation, sale and recreational use of marijuana.

Marijuana reform may not be on the ballot in Tennessee on Election Day, but the state is making strides in changing their cannabis laws nonetheless. On Tuesday, Memphis set a new ordinance in place to decriminalize pot in certain instances, becoming the second city in the state to lower possession penalties, according to reports. The new law will allow officers the option to issue fines or community service to people in possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The popular tide is turning towards the legalization of marijuana in United States. According to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of American adults in favor of legalization has jumped 31 points to 53% in the last 15 years . And starting in 1989, voters or legislatures in 25 of the 50 states have helped enact laws legalizing weed in one way or another. Hell, even traditionalist, “values” politicians such as Ted Cruzare warming up to it.

California’s Wild West of medical marijuana is about to be tamed, on the eve of a historic vote that could greatly expand recreational use of cannabis.

Just as labeling allows consumers to trust the difference in potency between a strawberry-rosé spritzer and 190-proof grain alcohol, new state regulations will demand testing, labeling, certification and licensing medical marijuana — every step along the way, from seed to sale.

The new rules, starting in 2018, could also boost pot prices, as businesses face more paperwork, permits, licenses and other new requirements, driving up their costs — and likely pushing some mom-and-pop growers and dispensaries out of business.