However, sales of recreational cannabis in pharmacies is no consensus in the trade sector, such as the Association of Chemistry and Pharmacy of Uruguay (AQFU), which has communicated to its various partners "it is not the place to sell  this drug" in contrast to the provisions of the current law.

Today official sources reported that the Uruguayan government finalized the details to begin the sale of marijuana for recreational use in some 50 pharmacies across the country starting July, following the adoption in 2013 of a law that regulates the production and sale of the grass.

Justice minister suggests fines will replace criminal proceedings, while local report says ministers will vote Sunday on draft bill

Tempe rejected a medical marijuana facility's request to open in a building on McClintock Drive just south of Rio Salado Parkway.(Photo: Chris Coppola)

A dispute over whether a medical-marijuana facility can locate across from Arizona State University property in Tempe is headed toward a showdown in Maricopa County Superior Court.

The dispensary, Healing Healthcare Inc.,  claims city officials wrongly invoked an ordinance that prevents dispensaries from locating within 500 feet of residential zoning districts when it sought to open in a building across from ASU's Karsten Golf Course, on McClintock Drive just south of Rio Salado Parkway.

In early May, the national advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project sent out a panicked email titled “Alone, beaten down and incredulous in Boston.” MPP had been working to land a marijuana legalization measure on Massachusetts’ ballot this November, but a recent fundraising event in Boston had drawn just a single attendee. “What’s worrisome isn’t this one bad event, but that it mirrors the contributions and involvement across Massachusetts since the initiative launch,” MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia wrote in the message. “Simply put, the campaign is broke,” he noted.

Since the 1970s, a weed decriminalization shift has swept the nation, and New York was one of the first states to jump on board with the passing of the Marijuana Reform Act in 1977. Still, New York’s marijuana-related arrest rate became the highest in the country—more than double the national average in 2013 with over 535 arrests per 100,000 people.

‘Legalise it,’ the EFF leader said, before laying into ‘ANC complainers’ who want to join his party.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema on Monday said he fully supported calls for the legalisation of dagga. Malema said he felt alcohol was more dangerous than marijuana.

“I’ve seen a lot of people smoke dagga and not have a problem, but I’ve never seen anyone drink alcohol and read books. I’ve seen people drink alcohol, get into their cars and cause accidents, but I’ve never heard of an accident caused by a dagga smoker.

“There is no solid reason why it cannot be legalised, if there is anything that needs to be made illegal is alcohol, it is the most dangerous thing.”

Convicted pot felons that want to own a legal marijuana business in Oakland will now be prioritized under new, radical permit rules designed to make amends for the United States’ war on drugs.

The city’s new Equity Permit Program calls for 50 per cent of all licenses for medical marijuana facilities to go to Oaklanders imprisoned for a pot offence in the last 10 years, or to residents of six neighbourhoods that police have excessively targeted for drug arrests.

“Communities of colour have been negatively and disproportionately impacted by disparate enforcement of cannabis laws,” reads the ordinance introducing the rules.

Oakland city council voted unanimously to approve the program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — last month.

LANSING, Mich. —

A group trying to legalize marijuana in Michigan says it has submitted about 354,000 valid signatures to the state just before the deadline.

Whether the state considers that many signatures submitted Wednesday as valid remains unclear: A bill presented to Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday would stop such groups from counting signatures older than 180 days.

Current law allows them to count older signatures toward the roughly 253,000 they need to put the measure before voters. However, neither Snyder's office nor the Secretary of State's office would say whether the bill before Snyder would apply to the marijuana advocacy group.

The former treasurer of Empire who was fired after she publicly confronted City Council members about a secret agreement with the town’s only marijuana dispensary owner to defer thousands of dollars in fees has filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court.

The whistle-blower lawsuit filed Tuesday by Dawn Ward’s attorney Ahson Wali accuses Mayor Wendy Koch and other Empire City Council members of violating Ward’s First Amendment rights by firing her for making protected comments at a council meeting.

“By voting to terminate Plaintiff, the Mayor and the Board violated plaintiff’s First Amendment rights through an official act or policy of the town,” the lawsuit says.

Koch did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) —

Post-traumatic stress disorder could soon be on the list of qualifying conditions to receive medical marijuana in Illinois.

The bill is part of the measure the Illinois House passed to extend the medical cannabis program until 2020. The bill would also add terminal illness to the list of qualifying conditions, and make patient's cards valid for three years instead of one.

HCI Alternatives says one thing overlooked in the bill is changing the language of how doctors can prescribe the drug.