A mix of excitement and tension was felt yesterday as leaders from 193 U.N. member States, International Organisations, NGOs and drug experts squeezed into a packed hall this morning in the Vienna International Centre to mark the opening of the 59th U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Saturday 12th March – It feels like the first day of spring in York today. After a recent cold snap, the Sun is now shining in a cloudless eggshell sky, raising the temperature to a seasonably pleasant 15 degrees Celsius. Around the York Barbican, the old city walls are sprinkled with cheerful yellow daffodils, their colour mirrored by the bright lanyards worn by the delegates inside. It is day two of the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, and the atmosphere in the auditorium can also be said to reflect that of the flowers outside. This is a party for whom smiling in the face of adversity comes naturally, a fortunate characteristic in their present political predicament.

The Meehan family moved to Maine to have legal access to cannabis to treat Cyndimae's rare form of epilepsy, and she was able to attend school after the passage of legislation last year.

On her last day, Cyndimae Meehan did the things she loved.

She colored. She played. She took a nap in her father’s arms.

Cyndimae, whose fight for access to medical cannabis to treat a rare form of epilepsy brought her and her mother before legislators in Maine and Connecticut, died Sunday while sleeping on her father’s chest on the couch in their Augusta home. She was 13.

The first stab at getting a medical marijuana amendment on Ohio's ballot has failed, but organizers of the plan say they're not surprised.

Long before Canadians actually went to the polls last October, Justin Trudeau had been clear that his Liberal party would legalize marijuana. “I’m actually not in favour of decriminalizing cannabis. I’m in favour of legalizing it,” he said during a public appearance in British Columbia in the summer of 2013. “Tax it, regulate,” the leader of the then-third party said. “It’s one of the only ways to keep it out of the hands of our kids because the current war on drugs, the current model is not working.”

On Saturday March 12, 2016 a group of protesters conducted an anti-Trump rally at the Trump International Hotel and Tower located in Columbus Circle, New York City.

The colorful display led by a Brooklyn artist and parodist by the name Tom Hanksy  included a marching band and about a 100 marchers in white overalls holding up artistic depictions of the leading Republican Presidential candidate with the hashtag #DumpAcrossAmerica. 

While the protesters were not allowed inside, they occupied the external areas of the hotel and entrance under the watchful eyes of City police and Trump Hotel building guards.

Across the Americas, the model of prohibition has fuelled inequality, bloodshed, and the mass violation of human rights. We need to understand why it has failed. 

Abandoning good science has unintended consequences for Iowa's youth

Iowans may be deceived by the controversy surrounding claims of marijuana's miracle cures. This is not about possible medicines for children. The deception is that Iowa must rush to market without heed to the overwhelming advice of medical professionals warning that we should not bypass the Food and Drug Administration and good science in developing medicines.

Cannabidiol is not marijuana, and the difference is huge. CBD is one out of more than 100 compounds that can be derived from marijuana, including the dangerous psychoactive drug tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

The Massachusetts Hospital Association has voted unanimously against a proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, as debate over legalizing pot for people aged 21 and over continued to rage statewide. Massachusetts decriminalized cannabis in 2008 and made medical marijuana legal in 2012, and the state has begun seeing a push to legalize pot for recreational use in a November ballot measure, the Boston Globe reported. 

As politicians across the U.S. debate medical marijuana laws and legalization for recreational purposes, a group in Nebraska is taking a different approach: forming a political party supporting medical marijuana legalization.

The group, Legal Marijuana Now Nebraska, will need 6,500 signatures by Aug. 1 supporting its effort for legalized medical marijuana use and hemp production, KETV-7 reported. The group wants to reach 8,000 signatures, noting it is also working with groups in other states including Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota.