Customs has confirmed the long-standing legality of entering New Zealand with prescribed medicinal cannabis products.

On Wednesday, New Zealand Customs communications advisor Prasheeta Ram Taki confirmed the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 has an exemption for people entering the country with up to one month's supply of a controlled drug provided it has been legally prescribed for their own use.

"Customs has not changed its position, however, it is working with the Ministry of Health and Police to ensure that any exemptions are applied in appropriate circumstances," she said.

She said customs officers will seize cannabis at the border when they are not satisfied that the cannabis has been lawfully supplied for the purpose of treating a medical condition.

Shona Banda is a longtime cannabis activist in Kansas that suffers from Crohn’s disease. Cannabis has been proven to be very effective at treating Crohn’s disease, and as such, Ms. Banda consumed cannabis oil as part of her treatment regimen, and did so responsibly. Unfortunately cannabis is illegal in Kansas, even for medical purposes. Kansas’ harsh marijuana laws have torn Shona’s life apart.

As multiple campaigns to collect signatures necessary to get a measure to legalize the use of recreational marijuana on the 2016 ballot pushes on, the demand for medical marijuana keeps growing.

In 2008, Michigan voters approved making the use of marijuana for medical purposes legal in the state.

Since then many local communities across Michigan have enacted measures that have both lessened the criminalization of the drug, while others have gone in the opposite direction to slow or block the availability of it.

But through all that, the number of patients who have registered to receive marijuana — as well as the number of caregivers licensed to provide — has grown.

Does your state make the list?

Which are the marijuana-friendliest states in the nation? Where would a pot person want to buy a home and settle down?

The online national real estate search site Estately has taken a crack at answering those burning questions. The site's blog's Ultimate Lists cranks out all sorts of creative comparative data—cities with the most romantic homes for sale, states with the most pizza—and now it's done the same with weed. 

Mardi Gras will never be the same again.

Under current law in New Orleans, if you've never been busted with pot before, police can use their discretion on whether or not to take you to jail or issue a summons.

But, if you're a repeat offender it's handcuffs and lock up for you.

Beginning  June 21, all of this will change as the penalty for being caught with bud in the Big Easy has greatly diminished.

THE QUESTION

I work at a big-box retail store as an overnight stocker and am on medical marijuana to relieve severe stomach pain. I am afraid of being terminated for using the marijuana, so I have not informed my employer and do not use it while at work. However, often I have to leave my shift early due to pain, citing sickness. I do not know my legal rights. How would you suggest that my employer should react to my situation, if I reveal the marijuana usage?

THE FIRST ANSWER

Katherine Poirier Partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal

The Liberal Democrats have announced a proposal for cannabis law reform in the UK. It is not without precedent, coming at a time of global change in how governments respond to cannabis use, and is not a niche issue. Government figures show over 6% of the UK population used cannabis in 2014-2015 alone.

The fact marijuana law reform was absent from the 2016 federal budget does not diminish Liberals’ stance on legalization, a top drug policy expert says.

Eugene Oscapella, a University of Ottawa criminal justice professor and lawyer who specializes in social policy development, says, in fact, that the omission of funding to regulate marijuana is actually a good thing given the government should be focused on a health-based approach, rather than viewing it as a major source of tax revenue.

“First you have to design the regulatory framework,” says Oscapella. “The provinces are going to have to get involved in this, and there are costs and benefits to each side.”

If Massachusetts voters approve an expected ballot measure this fall legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the state could become home to a $1.1 billion cannabis industry by 2020, according to a report.

The research, released last week by the marijuana data and investment firms ArcView Market Research and New Frontier , predicts the advent of legal marijuana would make Massachusetts a thriving hub of “canna-tourism” in the Northeast, depending on whether neighboring states also legalize marijuana.

Faced with an FDA-manufactured opioid painkiller overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control has revised its guidelines to avoid something possibly making the epidemic worse — the routine screening of opioid users for marijuana use.

Today, the CDC instructed doctors to stop routine testing of pain patients for marijuana use. The costly tests have dubious health benefits, high potential legal ramifications for the patient, and could actually increase overdose deaths.