Experts gathered in Rome last last month for an Italian parliament hearing on a proposal to legalize cannabis. The proposal, dubbed Cannabis Legale, is the brainchild of a committee that includes more than 200 senators and deputies. 

So what are the chances of Italy legalizing any time soon?

Paths toward medical marijuana: Legislative action versus voter initiative

Of 25 states that have legalized medical marijuana in the United States, 14 of them have done so by legislative action and 11 have done so by voter-led ballot initiative.

In a new analysis of state medical cannabis program data, New Frontier, a leading cannabis industry data and analysis company, finds states that legalized through the legislative process have more restrictive medical cannabis programs than states that legalized through voter-led ballot initiatives.

The Central Drug Authority has taken a definitive position on the use of dagga, and has called for it to be decriminalised.

CDA Head researcher Professor Dan Stein says their opinion is based on evidence studied over time in different countries.

Stein explains that the CDA's stance falls between commercialisation and staunch criminalisation.

We're saying let's move away from a 'war on drugs' thinking, but let's not go completely towards commercialisation until we have a better idea using data.

— Professor Dan Stein, Head of CDA Research Committee

Meanwhile, pro-dagga activist Myrtle Clarke has welcomed the announcement, and what she calls a rational statement and "bold step".

Someday you or someone you love may need safe, legal access to medical marijuana. You, or they, may have cancer, epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, or Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s, breast cancer, a recent heart attack, or may be a veteran or emergency worker with post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2004, 64 percent of Montana voters passed a law creating a medical marijuana program, but access for patients seeking relief will soon disappear because of political nonsense in the 2011 Legislature. With these draconian, nonsensical laws, you and your loved ones aren’t going to get what you need for pain, symptom relief or a cure.

Schools in Colorado will be required to allow medical marijuana after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed “Jack’s Law” on Monday.

The law allows marijuana in schools for medical use with strict conditions.

Jack Splitt loves school so when his school confiscated the only medicine that treats his debilitating muscle spasms by stating “cannabis is a controlled substance,” Jack and his mom Stacey Linn took their fight to the state Capitol.

Last year, they helped pass a law that allows caregivers to administer cannabis at school to children who need it.

Rep. Jonathan Singer carried the legislation and thought the problem was solved. But schools found a loophole in the process.

Cannabis users seeking treatment often have an expertise about the drug which is leaving those trying to help them lagging behind, a conference has been told.

A group of national experts was told about the "inverted expertise" seen in users at a meeting at York University to exchange ideas on effective treatment.

The conference was told that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people seeking treatment, with research showing there has been a 64% increase between 2005 and 2015 in England.

And cannabis has now overtaken heroin as the drug most likely to prompt calls for help.

But the increase in requests for treatment contrasts with the steady decline in the population's use of the drug, delegates were told.

In 2011, a now 76-year old disabled veteran named Lee Carroll Brooker was arrested for growing three dozen marijuana plants in his home. Under Alabama state law, Brooker received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole, and the Supreme Court last month refused to hear an appeal arguing the sentence was cruel and unusual.

Brooker’s case attracted advocates clamoring for a change in sentencing laws, but perhaps the worst part about this case is it is by no means unusual.

A group seeking to legalize marijuana in Michigan submitted an “insufficient” number of valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot after collecting outside of a traditional 180-day window, state elections officials said Tuesday.

In a staff report, the Bureau of Elections recommended the Board of State Canvassers reject the MI Legalize petition at its Thursday meeting.

The activist-led group last week submitted an estimated 354,000 signatures, more than the 252,523 required to make the ballot, but the bureau said only 146,413 were collected within 180 days of the filing. State law, updated Tuesday to tighten that window, had treated older signatures as “stale and void.”

12-year-old in provincial care denied permission to try medical marijuana to treat severe epilepsy.

Parents of a girl with severe epilepsy want to try treating their daughter with medicinal cannabis, but because she's living in a provincial care home, Nova Scotia's Department of Community Services won't allow it.

Morgan Oulton was born with multiple brain abnormalities and suffers from various forms of epilepsy. The 12-year-old has also been diagnosed with a variety of behaviour disorders, cognitive impairment, as well as autism.

Since she was three-years-old, Morgan has been on a series of medications to control her conditions. The drugs have had various rates of success, but also side effects. 

Hemp History week is an annual, global celebration of hemp and a call to restore the plant that was, until 150 years ago, the worlds’ biggest industrial cash crop.