Liberal-leaning Vermont could become the first U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana use through legislation, rather than by voter initiative, in a move that advocates for the drug say could speed its acceptance across the nation.

State representatives this month are set to take up a bill passed by the state Senate in February that would allow adults over 21 to purchase and smoke the drug beginning in 2018.

The move follows a year of hearings in the Senate that lawmakers say allowed them to closely consider appropriate limits to place on the drug's use. The current proposal would prohibit users from growing plants at home and ban the sale of edible products containing marijuana extracts.

Colorado Springs isn't alone in banning cannabis clubs. Washington state did so last summer, and Portland, Ore., followed suit this month.

Englewood, Colo., was set to ban them but decided to extend its moratorium to June 15 while it explores how to regulate them instead.

But while the Colorado Springs City Council on Tuesday ordered cannabis clubs to phase out their businesses over the next eight years, Denver residents will vote Nov. 8 on an initiative to license and regulate the clubs.

Tommy Sheridan has launched a petition calling for cannabis to be legalised in the UK.

The former Solidarity MSP, launced the petition earlier, in a bid to legalise what he calls the  "non-criminal action" of using cannabis, and directing the money raised from taxing the drug into drug treatment programmes.

Only 98 people have signed his petition on change.org since the petition was launched yesterday.

The petition is called "Legalise, regulate, licence and tax cannabis. Drop the stupid 'war' on drugs. Wise up." and is directed at the UK Parliament.

On the site, calling for people to sign his petition, Tommy said: "The consumption of cannabis is a recreational choice not a criminal act.

In 1968, at the height of the hippie movement, everybody was convinced cannabis would be legalized next week. It would take another 40 years. Why?

It would appear that when a subject is sufficiently peripheral to policymakers, slow incumbent industries can get whatever repressive and counterproductive policy they want, even in the face of overwhelming public opinion to the opposite for about 40 years.

In 1968, at the height of the hippie movement when everybody and their brother were doing joints, everybody and their brother were equally convinced cannabis would be legal in just a few years. How could it not be?

Twenty years later, in 1990, the war on certain species of plants was harsher than ever before.

When Logan Bowers opened his marijuana retail store Seattle Hashtag in April 2015, he entered an arena far different from his tech-industry background.

Bowers, co-owner of Hashtag and president of the Cannabis Organization of Retail Establishments (CORE), had the same task as other marijuana license holders in the state: bring an industry relegated to street corners and sidewalks into a legal and regulated retail environment.

"We get a lot of local traffic," Bowers said. "A lot of folks kind of walking by who are like, 'What's this about?' And they come in and checked it out and realize we're just a normal business."

In April 2016, the international community will convene for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS). This event, held two years early due to the urgency of the drug situation and intensity of drug-related violence, presents an opportunity to question the fundamentals of international drug policy. Despite overwhelming evidence that a century-long quest to control human behaviour and drug markets through international treaties and national legislation has failed, there is little expectation of change. The vested interests in retaining the status quo are significant, with sclerosis legitimised through the recurrent exhortation to improve international co-operation.

GAYLORD — Maureen Suggitt travels nearly 120 miles from Sault Ste. Marie to obtain her medical marijuana and Sunday she traveled that same distance to protest a recent sting that has blocked her from purchasing her medicine.

Suggitt joined a group of more than 100 in Gaylord Sunday for a march that began around 3 p.m. to protest raids of every medical marijuana dispensary in Otsego County by numerous law enforcement agencies Thursday.

With the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in place, Suggitt said she was confused as to why the raids were warranted.

It’s one of the main questions voters ask when they consider a cannabis measure: Will legalization — whether medical or adult use — encourage more kids to get high? 

With some form of legalization expected on at least a half-dozen state ballots this November, data showing increased or decreased use by minors will likely be a powerful weapon in the battle for votes.  

Monroe and others think that marijuana is an effective and safe solution for pain relief.

While there's slowly been a growing and serious discussion about marijuana and its legality in this country, we've hardly seen any such talk in the NFL. The substance has been somewhat of a taboo subject in league circles, with league officials hardly even entertaining discussion about changing their stances on marijuana in football.

The president of a pro-marijuana group said there is confusion for many medical marijuana users and providers, after the Montana Supreme Court issued its ruling two weeks ago.

Last week, the Montana Cannabis Information Association asked the court to reconsider its ruling that left nearly all of a law passed by the legislature in 2011 intact and to delay implementation of that law until April of 2017.