HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers are moving closer toward allowing qualified patients under 18 years old to use medical marijuana to treat their debilitating illnesses.

The Public Health Committee overwhelmingly approved the proposed legislation on Monday. It now awaits further action in the House of Representatives.

The vote comes days after a funeral in Montville for 13-year-old Cyndiemae Meehan, whose family moved her from Connecticut to Maine to receive medical marijuana to treat her rare form of epilepsy.

Montville Rep. Kevin Ryan, a Democrat, suggested the bill be named in honor of the girl. Meehan had previously testified with her mother in favor of Connecticut’s legislation.

A medical marijuana company with ties to New York is calling on Google after they say the search engine giant denied them the opportunity to market their products. Time Warner Cable News reporter Michael Howard has the details on why Google says they did so, and how a local lawyer says it has yet to be dealt with on a national level.

The CEO of Vireo Health of New York Ari Hoffnung says he is frustrated with Google after the company denied Vireo the opportunity to market its products on the worlds largest search engine. 

The small South American nation is the world's first country to legalize marijuana. But just because the drug is legal to buy doesn't mean you can buy it legally.

PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay — In December 2013, Uruguay offered itself as the world’s leading laboratory for marijuana policy. That month, the Latin American nation of some 3.5 million people became the first country to legalize and regulate the cultivation, sale, and consumption of the drug, turning itself into an outlier in a region where failed prohibition policies had been the norm. Marijuana legalization advocates from around the world eagerly waited to see how the case study would play out.

Americans have been hearing about Donald Trump's proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border since the businessman's presidential campaign began last summer. On Sunday, HBO's "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver tried to tear down that wall — or, at least the idea of building it in the first place.

Oliver devoted nearly twenty minutes of Sunday's episode to breaking down Trump's border wall proposal. The comedian concluded that the wall, which has become one of the key points of the Republican presidential front-runner's campaign platform, is probably not a very good idea. 

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a lawsuit filed by two of Colorado's neighboring states over its legalization of marijuana.

Nebraska and Oklahoma said Colorado's decriminalization has "increased the flow of marijuana over their borders," forcing them to expend greater "law enforcement, judicial system, and penal system resources," thereby harming the welfare of their residents.

Canada is home to some of the best cannabis growers on the planet. I have consumed my fair share of Canadian cannabis over the years, and I definitely have always been a fan. I have also always been a fan of medical marijuana programs that allow home cultivation. If a patient (or someone they know) has the resources, knowledge, and ability to grow their own medicine, they should be allowed to do so. Growing ones own cannabis not only helps a patient save money, but it gives the patient the ability to grow the exact kind of medicine that helps them the most.

Unlicensed marijuana growers who are discovered with more cannabis than allowed under personal grow laws may find themselves subject to both criminal and tax penalties, should a bill circulating the Alaska Legislature be signed into law.

House Bill 337, sponsored by Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, seeks to give the state Department of Revenue's Tax Division more enforcement power.

“It’s going to help the legitimate marijuana industry get off the ground,” LeDoux said of the bill Saturday. “That’s my purpose.”

The bill has three different mechanisms for enhancing tax enforcement of marijuana grows.

One of my best friends lives in Montana, and has for several years now. He was born and raised in Oregon, but after getting out of the military and reconnecting with his grandparents, he decided to move to Missoula. He was a frequent cannabis consumer and had been for quite sometime prior to moving to Montana. His mom grew hands down some of the best cannabis I’ve ever consumed, and that was way before cannabis was as mainstream as it is now. So when he moved to Montana and I asked him for his opinion on the cannabis scene there, I knew I’d get an educated opinion.

For a year, state Senator Jason M. Lewis maintained strict neutrality as he studied marijuana legalization — interviewing 50-plus experts, scouring the research, and observing firsthand a state where it is legal. But now he is speaking out against the expected November referendum in Massachusetts.

His position carries special weight. Lewis chairs the special legislative committee on marijuana.

His concerns, voiced just after his committee submitted its report on the topic, arise from his role as both a father and a public official, he said.

“I am opposed to the likely ballot question because this is the wrong time for Massachusetts to go down this road, and a commercial, profit-driven market is the wrong approach to take,” the Winchester Democrat said.

Even before getting to the issue of marijuana policy, let me say the current presidential campaign is unprecedented in many ways, few of which are positive.

The Trump Factor

The current campaign on the Republican side, which has been dominated by Donald Trump, has been the most incredible spectacle of the several presidential campaigns of my lifetime. I am an old guy, so I’ve seen quite a few. The hate-filled, racist campaigns of George Wallace (1964, 68 and 72), based on a platform of racial segregation and appealing to the anger of white southerners, are the most similar to the current Trump campaign. Most of us had believed those hateful and divisive times were far behind us. Then came The Donald.