There are many legal activities we can partake in that aren’t exactly healthy decisions, but our government has no say in how frequently we do them or if we’re doing them to excess.

For instance, as Americans, we can buy and consume as much alcohol as we want, we can smoke as many cigarettes as we want, and we can eat as much fast food as we want. As an American citizen, you have the right to literally drink,   smoke, and eat yourself to death, but when it comes to consuming marijuana, that’s off the table, even though it is impossible to die from smoking pot to excess.

Now that Washington state has legalized recreational marijuana, and the market is emerging, policy experts are discussing how best to move forward.

It’s one of the first of its kind: a Washington marijuana policy conference Tuesday at the University of Washington Law School.

Sam Mendez, executive director of the Cannabis Law and Policy Project (CLPP), which is organizing the event, says despite Washington legalizing recreational marijuana in 2014, there are plenty of legal questions left to answer.

“Such as what to do about pesticides now, what about access to youth,” Mendez said. “And a number of other issues that, now that we have at least a state legal system, how do we approach that from a policy perspective to make sure that system works?”

City council has approved rules to prevent medical marijuana counselling businesses from clustering in communities or opening near schools, in an effort to prevent illegal dispensaries from littering neighbourhoods.

While the rules may be aggressive in a city with just two medical marijuana counselling outfits (that can’t legally dispense the drug), some councillors said it’s important to get ahead of what could be a major problem down the road.

“I’m not one to typically be supportive of overregulation but, in this particular instance, I think it’s a prudent step,” Coun. Andre Chabot said during Tuesday’s debate on the changes.

A state senator who wants New Jersey to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for recreational use returned this week feeling good after a fact-finding visit to Colorado.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, didn’t try the product. But he’s more convinced than before that New Jersey should legalize pot after experiencing how legalization has positively impacted Colorado’s economy, tax revenues and crime rates.

“Change is always difficult. Do I see it as an uphill fight? Yeah, it’s an uphill fight,” Scutari said. “But it’s changing. It’s not as uphill as when I stood here two years ago and told you that I wanted to legalize marijuana. We’re in a lot better position now. And I’ll tell you what: I feel a lot more comfortable doing it now that I’ve seen a really good industry.”

As many as 10 states could join Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Washington, D.C., Oregon and legalize recreational marijuana this year. On Tuesday, a New Jersey lawmaker will hold a press conference Tuesday to discuss how a similar law might work here. Still, it's a safe bet legalization remains a long way off in the Garden State.

Here's a look at what likely needs to happen for New Jersey to legalize recreational pot.

1. Elect a new governor.

Marijuana addiction is something that people right swipe when they relate it to drug addiction. It is being puffed until people reach a saturation point or maybe beyond that. As government hushed up facts it comes out that Australians are living under a misapprehension that cannabis is not addictive.

National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre researched that Australians are secretly struggling with cannabis addiction. And they are becoming dependent.

The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on a bill, HB 1422, that seeks to massively increase fines for marijuana possession.

Although HB 1422 downgrades 30 grams of marijuana or less from a misdemeanor to a summary, those convicted will live with the burden of a criminal record.

Legislators, marijuana reform advocates and potential medical marijuana patients will speak in Harrisburg about the problems with HB 1422 tomorrow. The press conference takes place in the East Wing Rotunda at 2:00PM on 6/14.

Chris Goldstein is on the Board of Directors at PhillyNORML and has extensively researched marijuana arrest statistics in Pa.

Marijuana Central has seen incredible growth in the past six months and now receives over 300,000 unique visitors per month. Company founder Korban Stone says, “We have not done any marketing yet, but we continue to see the number of visitors rise.” He plans to begin advertising and marketing the site and last month the website began to monetize by accepting listings from marijuana related companies. “We’ll be investing our revenues into driving more traffic to the site. I don’t see this growth trend ending any time soon as this is just the beginning of this industry and we’re positioned to grow with it.”

Colorado State University-Pueblo is closer to being able to conduct research on marijuana.

On Monday, Pueblo County officials agreed to provide up to $270,000 in funding to research the impact of marijuana on the community and the efficacy of treating various issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, with medical marijuana.

Also, a new law calls for $900,000 from Colorado’s Marijuana Tax Cash Fund to be given to CSU-Pueblo for cannabis research. Governor John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 191 on Monday, June 6.

"This is a momentous day," the statement quoted Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace as saying. “I am incredibly excited to have real quantifiable data about how cannabis is affecting our community."

"Everything about his reaction was very small and unhelpful," The New York Times' Frank Bruni argued.

The panelists on MSNBC’s Morning Joe were no happier than their colleagues at TODAY about Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory response to the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub over the weekend. 

Trump insisted to TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie that he was merely calling attention to the congratulations he had received after the terror attack for his perspicuity in having predicted it when he tweeted the following: