The woman behind a push for medicinal cannabis says it is important to make sure Australia takes the lead on research and does not let international companies capture the market for profit.

The New South Wales Government on Sunday announced it was the first state authorised to conduct cultivation research, after the Federal Government in October announced it would legalise the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

State Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said the research would lay the foundations for future non-government cultivation.

How did someone who has called marijuana a "scourge", who has obstructed access to medical marijuana to sick and dying Canadians in pain, who has dismissed marijuana users as “stupid”, and who works for a law firm that wants to see its clients get a monopoly on legal weed, ever get to chair a task force on marijuana legalization in Canada in 2016?

Easy.

Health Canada policy is that after five years, the human mind is cleared of all previous prejudices, including all previous thoughts and statements. The task force chair, former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, has denied having any “intellectual interests” that would affect her status on this task force.

A Colorado farming town on Saturday ended restrictions put on the local water supply this week after it warned residents to avoid drinking the town’s water because THC, the psychoactive agent in marijuana, was found in a feeder well.

The local sheriff said a criminal investigation has been launched to look into possible tampering of the well in Hugo, a town of about 800 people some 90 miles (145 kms) southeast of Denver.

"The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has just reached out to us and advised that samples taken from Well #1 and throughout town are NEGATIVE for THC," the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page on Saturday.

The water restrictions were lifted on Saturday morning, Lincoln County Public Health said in a Facebook post.

Personalities and group dynamics can push decisions.

Laws now proposed could, in the next year, allow cannabis to become a fully sanctioned industry in Calaveras County that contributes an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year in local taxes. Another proposal could ban the industry.

Although every county voter will get a say, a much smaller number of individuals and groups are shaping the public debate. Here’s a look at them.

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors

The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors is a five-person board and it is the authority that can make local laws concerning registration and enforcement of commercial, caregiver and personal cultivation of cannabis.

Now that the state of California has approved a ballot initiative (called Proposition 64) that would legalize marijuana for recreational use, the state’s already-booming marijuana growing industry is split nearly evenly on whether or not to support it.

At first glance, legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use would appear to be a large benefit to the state’s pot growers, many of whom raise the plant on small farms along the north coast in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties. These growers have long supported decriminalization of marijuana, but fear the full legalization will encourage large corporations to enter the cannabis-farming business, driving out small operations.

In at this time’s world, it has change into a lot simpler to be a hashish activist. As individuals change into increasingly excepting of the miracle drugs, it’s simpler and simpler to face out in public and protest criminalization or anti-cannabis legal guidelines, with out concern of repercussion. It hasn’t all the time been this manner, although, a couple of hashish activists blazed the way in which and supported hashish legalization earlier than many people even considered it an possibility.

Italian lawmakers will begin discussion on Monday of a proposal to ease up on the recreational use and growing of cannabis -- a highly inflammatory topic, with the government on the fence.

Were the draft to pass into law, people would be allowed to grow up to five cannabis plants for personal use and keep up to 15 grams of marijuana at home and five grams on their person.

It would still be illegal for people to buy or sell weed or smoke marijuana in public, but the Italian state could start issuing licenses allowing the drug to be grown and sold in a similar way to tobacco.

Several European countries, as well as a number of US states, have legalised marijuana in recent years, both for medical and recreational use.

Whatever you want to call it – pot, weed, ganja, grass – more and more investors are growing curious about marijuana’s future and related investment opportunities. Indeed, the industry has progressed to the point where the medical use of marijuana is gaining greater acceptance.

Within the last six years ago, the number of Americans who support legalizing medical marijuana has risen from 70 to 90 percent according to polls by Quinnipiac and Gallup. Those who support overall legalization has risen from 46 percent to 54 percent.

Let’s explore some of the recent news and changes to the marijuana industry that could impact the industry’s growth and accessibility for investors.

Penticton City Council has agreed to start a discussion about regulating medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

The issue came up during Tuesday's council meeting when the operator of a dispensary, whose business licence was suspended, had his licence revoked.

While council agreed to take away the licence, there was broad agreement the issue wasn't going away.

"I am strongly supportive of asking our staff to come forward with methods of regulation that we can put in place so this issue will have parameters," Coun. Judy Sentes said.

"The problem isn't going anywhere, the problem is right here," Coun. Tarik Sayeed said. "We need to find a way to regulate it and help the businesses help the medical patients."