Academic Sciences of Puerto Rico (ASPR) stressed the importance of broadening the knowledge about and functions of medicinal cannabis to treat chronic health symptoms and diseases while it promoted the beginning of registration to purchase and use the plant on the island. Distribution of licenses and regulation by the Health Department for legal access to medicinal cannabis will take place starting Nov. 15.

Alaskans two years ago approved recreational use of marijuana. That doesn't mean they want it sold in their towns.

Voters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a municipality just larger than the state of West Virginia, and one renowned for a potent strain of black market pot, on Tuesday will consider a ban on commercial enterprises that sell, grow or test cannabis. Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and other Alaska municipalities will put the matter to a vote next year.

Former Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss pushed for a vote to ban commercial cannabis enterprises. Recreational marijuana may have been approved statewide, he said, but not in his borough.

As Canada moves forward with its plan to legalize marijuana, government officials have at least one international conundrum to sort out: what to do about the global treaties Canada has signed that prohibit making pot legal?

A senior government official said there are essentially two options available.

On the one hand, Canada could take a "principled stand" in favour of the international legalization of pot.

The other, quieter approach, would be to withdraw from the treaties and attempt to re-enter with a special exemption for legalized marijuana.

It's the second option, causing the "least international turbulence," that the federal government favours, said the source.

With Gov. Christie's surprising reversal on expanding the medical marijuana program comes a new batch of very different bills that would allow recreational cannabis in New Jersey.

Christie is not likely to change his strong opposition to legalization, even though he signed a bill last month allowing patients with post-traumatic stress syndrome to obtain cannabis. It was the first time a mental-health condition was added to the list of qualifying ailments.

But lawmakers say three legalization bills introduced this year would get discussions started, in anticipation of Christie's term ending in 2018.

When it comes to crafting Canada's plans to legalize marijuana, there's one group that seems to have a lot to say: young men who use pot.

That's who responded to the government's online consultation in droves, according to the vice-chair of Canada's marijuana task force, Dr. Mark Ware.

He broke down the numbers as part of his talk at the Vancouver Lift Cannabis Expo earlier this month, noting that particularly when it comes to age, the response was "interesting because this is not typically a group that is heavily engaged politically."

Don't look now, but the November elections are just over five weeks away. In addition to choosing the 45th president of the United States, voters in nine states will decide the fate of marijuana, which has become a front-and-center issue this year.

The expansion of the marijuana industry is impressive in two respects. First, its growth rate is practically unmatched. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, legal marijuana sales could grow at a 30% annual clip between now and 2020, all on account of organic sales growth and legalization by more individual states.

Despite a united front of opposition from leading Beacon Hill politicians and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts are striking back at critics with a new advertisement featuring a former Boston police lieutenant who is now a criminology professor.

On Monday, the advocacy group, “Yes on 4,” is scheduled to debut a television advertisement that will run on networks and cable stations in the Boston market. The $650,000 ad is the first television buy for either side of Question 4, one of the more contentious statewide referendums that voters will decide the fate of on Nov. 8.

So far it looks like 2016 will be a great year for America's marijuana enthusiasts.

From a fiscal perspective, legalizing pot seems like a win-win scenario for cities. In theory, marijuana sales tax revenue can fill gaps in the budget, while police and prosecutors spend less time and money going after residents for marijuana possession.

But Toronto city council might want to hold off on planning a spending spree — because legal marijuana costs money, too.

In Denver, the capital of a state where recreational pot sales have been legal for almost three years, much of the tax revenue from marijuana gets spent regulating the very industry that generated it.