Filling out government surveys? Bo-ring. But, unlike the tedious-but-important slog that is, say, the long-form census, the survey we're talking about actually deals with a compelling topic: namely, what the heck marijuana legalization is going to look like in Canada - whether minimizing harms of use, to the restrictions surrounding medical marijuana, to how, exactly, the distribution system should work.

As with most government forms, the layout is a little bit complicated - but actually doing it is totally, 100 percent worth your time, seeing as it's among the public's first opportunities to help shape Canada's new policies on legal cannabis.

When it comes to selling cannabis to foreigners, the pendulum of public acceptance in the Netherlands keeps on swinging. Back in 2012, after years of political debate over tourists pouring into Holland to buy and consume cannabis, the Dutch government introduced a so-called weed pass that would effectively ban tourists and allow only locals into the country’s famous cannabis coffeeshops. Now, just four years later, most cities have abandoned the system — only the city of Maastricht and a handful of smaller towns in the country’s southern region still enforce the ban.

For the past two decades, there were two things you could count on in Washington, D.C.: Congress would never vote to legalize cannabis, and Allen St. Pierre would always return your call. 

St. Pierre, America’s most upbeat, quick-witted, and loquacious cannabis advocate, has served as the executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, for 24 years. He will not serve a 25th. Earlier this week he informed the group’s board of directors that he would resign his post effective July 15. St. Pierre and his wife, Sara, had their first child earlier this year, and the family life the couple desires “is not possible while working for NORML,” he told Leafly Thursday afternoon. 

Two Canadian marijuana dispensary chains have moved into Ottawa, opening three stores and planning more. Stittsville is also about to get a marijuana dispensary, which will bring to six the number of store-front businesses illegally selling marijuana in Ottawa.

The newest shop, Green Tree Medical Dispensary, opened on Montreal Road on Sunday with a selection of dried buds, cookies, candy and marijuana-infused drinks on display in a glass case.

The Ottawa stores all cater to medical marijuana patients. Medical marijuana is legal in Canada, but only for patients with a doctor’s prescription who purchase it from growers licensed by Health Canada, who send the medicine by registered mail.

Japan prides itself on having a low tolerance for guns and drugs, but a tiny political party has become the first to adopt an election plank of scrapping a research ban on medical use of marijuana.

Proponents say such use could ease cancer-related pain, prevent dementia, and cut soaring medical costs. But the government says its effectiveness has not been proved, and worries about the social harm weaker controls could bring.

Japan outlaws owning and growing marijuana, besides the ban on clinical research, despite a trend in advanced countries, such as Canada and the United States, to free up medical use. 

The Growing Divide is an online documentary project that uses photography and a series of 25 interviews with residents, marijuana growers, police officers and government officials to tell the story of the marijuana boom in the rural community of Hayfork, California.

With photographs by Talia Herman and Brian Gossman, and with support from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Humboldt Area Foundation, the result is a multi-faceted look at the marijuana industry in the microcosm of a small, rural community. Read on for excerpts from this project, and view it in its entirety online at: www.thegrowingdivide.com.

With four months to go before the election, an initiative campaign to legalize marijuana for adults in California has a $5.5 million war chest.

Promoters of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, got a $2 million boost in donations this week from two key financial backers.

Sean Parker, who co-founded Napster and was Facebook’s first president, gave an additional $1.25 million, bringing his total contributions to $2.25 million.

The New Approach PAC, which is a legacy of Progressive insurance mogul and legalization activist Peter Lewis, gave an additional $750,000. The PAC has now contributed $1.5 million.

Former NFL star Ricky Williams is featured in an upcoming SI Films production in which he discusses his experience with marijuana use and his support for legalization.

The exclusive film and accompanying exclusive longform special, written by SI’s Greg Bishop, will debut on SI.com on Wednesday, July 13.

The film, “Ricky Williams Takes the High Road,” is the first in-depth look at Williams’s life today, five years after his NFL career ended. He reflects on his clashes with the NFL drug testing program, his support of marijuana as a medicinal tool in the NFL and the anguish he felt as his image was tarnished because of his public support of the drug.

The official name of Amendment 64, the ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, was the “Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol”.

Amendment 64 was passed in 2012 with 55 percent of the vote (66 percent in Boulder County), and legal marijuana became a reality in Colorado on January 1, 2014. But the regulatory regime that has been applied to marijuana is far more severe than anything alcohol has been subjected to.

If there’s any doubt on this point, try this thought experiment: Think what obtaining booze would be like if instead of marijuana being regulated like alcohol, alcohol were regulated like marijuana.

Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, is urging increased monitoring and regulating of legislation relating to the decriminalisation of marijuana as well as greater public education on the subject.

Dr. Tufton, responding to queries during a post-Sectoral Debate press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister on July 5, said this is particularly important to curb increasing levels of marijuana (or ganja) abuse among youth.

The Dangerous Drugs Act was amended in 2015 to allow changes which decriminalise the possession of up to two ounces of the substance, and also covers the use of ganja by Rastafarians as well as the importation and cultivation of ganja for research.