Cannabis should be sold legally in licensed shops to raise £1bn a year in tax for the Treasury, according to a North East police chief and academic.

And people should be allowed to grow cannabis in their own homes, as long as it is for personal use.

The recommendations were published by a panel of experts including Mike Barton, Chief Constable of Durham Police, and Professor Fiona Measham, Professor of Criminology at Durham University, after they were commissioned by the Liberal Democrats to look at drugs laws.

Their findings will now be put to the Liberal Democrat spring conference in York, and could become party policy.

The most comprehensive framework for how a regulated cannabis market could work in the UK has been published today by an independent panel of experts set up by the Liberal Democrats.

This groundbreaking report sets out how the legal production and supply of cannabis could work in the UK. It was established in the autumn by Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Norman Lamb MP. The expert panel was chaired by Steve Rolles, Senior Policy Analyst from Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

Click here to download a full copy of the report

The report proposes

Marijuana advocates amped up their game as the first cannabis church is starting to move forwards. The First Church of Cannabis was already had its legal recognition.

According to Plaid Zebra, The Church of Cannabis is now a recognized religion. What made the Church of Cannabis a bit peculiar is the fact that they tend to smoke weed as their holy sacrament. The church's minister and "Grand Pooba" Bill Levin sought help from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to have The First Church of Cannabis to become a legitimate establishment.

As the West throttles down on its 45-year-old war on drugs, acknowledging that the trillion-dollar price tag has only fuelled civil conflict in Latin America, crowded the prisons at home, and harmed more addicts than it has healed, another bloc of nations is gearing up to implement the self-same failed policies. So guess who’s with China, Indonesia, Russia and the Middle East on this? Yup, South Africa, under the inspired guidance of the Hawks. KEVIN BLOOM reports.

I. The Hawks and the Kremlin Drug Czars

A law change in Australia means New Zealanders can now legally be prescribed a month's medicinal cannabis there and bring it back to this country, a legal commentator says.

A Golden Bay woman has escaped a lengthy jail term for importing cannabis products after a judge discharged her without conviction, because it was prescribed overseas.

Rebecca Reider - who has complex chronic pain syndrome - was facing charges for possession and importing of cannabis oil and other products after she was discovered posting chocolate bars with edible cannabis to herself.

Her lawyer, Sue Grey argued because Ms Reider was lawfully prescribed drugs while visiting overseas and the quantity was no more than one month's supply to treat a medical condition, it should have been legal.

March 8 is International Women's Day, celebrated in today's Google Doodle with a video asking women all over the world to finish the sentence, "One day I will..."

The answers run the gamut from personal dreams like "play in the Major Leagues" to more global aspirations like Malala Yousafzai's wish to "see every girl in school." And like International Women's Day itself, the video is both a celebration of women's lives and achievements, and a call to action to make their lives better.

What is International Women's Day?

These days, it's a corporate-sponsored global campaign to raise awareness of women's issues worldwide.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont lawmakers returning for the last quarter of their two-year legislative term face decisions on whether to legalize marijuana and online fantasy sports, as well as a push to give local residents more say in siting renewable energy projects.

Friday is the annual “crossover” deadline, when bills other than taxing and spending measures are expected to have cleared the committee process and be ready for debate on the floor of the House or Senate. That’s usually a sign that the end of the legislative session is less than eight weeks away.

Voters in Massachusetts are set to decide on the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes this fall, prompting the state’s governor, attorney general, and the mayor of Boston to come out against the idea in a recent op-ed for The Boston Globe.

While it’s unlikely these officials actually wrote the op-ed – the real author is probably a staff member for one of them – they did allow their names to be assigned to it, giving the ideas expressed therein the weight of their combined offices.

CARBONDALE — Illinois voters overwhelmingly support the use of marijuana for medical purposes, according to a new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

Of 1,000 registered voters sampled, 82 percent said they favor legalized medical marijuana, while 16 percent oppose it. Three percent were undecided.

Asked if they approve of legalization for recreational use, voters were more polarized, with 45 percent in favor and 51 percent against.

“We see clear support for medicinal marijuana, but its recreational use is a mixed bag,” David Yepsen, the institute’s director, said. “Medical use, recreational use and decriminalization are all related but are still distinct public policy issues in the minds of many voters.”

Justices had been scheduled to discuss the case brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma at a private meeting on Friday

The U.S. Supreme Court did not make a decision Monday on whether to hear a lawsuit brought against Colorado over marijuana legalization.

The nation's highest court had been scheduled on Friday  to privately discuss the lawsuit, brought by the neighboring states of Nebraska and Oklahoma. But a list of Supreme Court orders released on Monday made no mention of the case.