With Prime Minister Trudeau elected, many had thought that marijuana would be decriminalized on a faster basis. The though comes from the fact that Trudeau thinks marijuana should be legal and the fact that he even smoked it at one time. His recent remarks concerning marijuana laws in Canada being still implementable implies that decriminalization is not yet an option even when marijuana legalization can take years.

DETROIT, MI -- Detroit has been one of the most lax cities in Michigan regarding the enforcement of medical marijuana dispensaries, which are still illegal under state and federal laws.

With names like The Green Mile, House of Dank, Action Medz and Detroit Grass Station. at latest count there were an estimated 211 dispensaries operating throughout the city, nearly 1.5 per square mile.

The businesses make no effort to hide their intent, and police have left them to operate freely for the most part, despite a state Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that made medical marijuana dispensaries illegal.

A bill expanding medical marijuana now heads to the governor, after state lawmakers spent hours debating the merits of the proposal.

The state Senate voted 28-11 to approve a bill (HB 307) that expands the Right to Try Act to include medical marijuana. Among other things, the bill allows eligible patients — defined as someone with one year left to live — can purchase medical marijuana from dispensing organizations.

RICHMOND, Va. (WSET) -- The Manufacturing of Industrial Hemp for commercial purposes was approved according to Virginia's Legislation Information System.

Governor Terry McAuliffe signed the bill after it passed the General Assembly 138 - 0.

This bill will allow farmers to legally manufacture industrial hemp products. The law will go into effect July 1, 2016 according to the Virginia Industrial Hemp Coalition (VIHC).

The State Senate is expected to make a final vote Monday on medical marijuana. If the bill goes through, it will make full-strength medical marijuana legal for terminally ill people.

Nearly two years after passing a law to allow limited types of medical pot like non-euphoric cannabis, the House approved a more far-reaching plan on Thursday.

This new plan would revamp the 2014 law and be more involved.

"There are alternatives to doing what we've done that work. They have been proven to work in 20-something states across the U.S. We here in Florida, at the behest of the House, decided to do something different," said Senator Jeff Clemens from Palm Beach County expanding on the bill.

Like other Americans who came of age in the 1980s or '90s, I associate Drug Abuse Resistance Education, a.k.a. DARE, with the mindless "Just Say No" propaganda of that era. I was therefore startled to hear that DARE had endorsed marijuana legalization. But that turned out to be a mistake. Likewise recent reports that DARE no longer considers marijuana a "gateway drug" and has excised the perils of pot from its curriculum.

Two affiliated Oregon-certified, OMMP-compliant marijuana dispensaries, along with a cannabis grower, have reportedly teamed up to donate 10 percent of their sales of a particular cannabis product to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says, on Monday during a campaign rally in Michigan, that he has tried marijuana twice in his life when he was very young. He adds that the drug made him cough a lot. Sanders also said Heroin addiction must be tackled but dismisses comparisons between the “killer drug” and marijuana.

Hawaii’s full House of Representatives has given unanimous approval to legislation that woud explicitly legalize the cultivation, production and distribution of hemp in the state. The measure – House Bill 2555 – now heads to the Senate, where it’s expected to pass.

Under the proposed law, introduced by Representative Kaniela Ing (D-Kihei) with 34 cosponsors, those wanting to cultivate hemp will be legally authorized to do so, as long as they receive a license from the state’s Department of Argiculture.

“Farmers called for the legalization of industrial hemp, and I am ecstatic to help answer that call”, says Rep. Ing, who calls the measure “the most robust industrial hemp bill being considered this year,” saying it follows models in Kentucky and Colorado.

New York — It's widely acknowledged that the "war on drugs" has failed. A militarised approach based on prohibition and incarceration has stoked staggering levels of violence and misery, cost billions of dollars, and failed to reduce either supply or demand.

In April, the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) will adopt a consensus position on drug control, but few are expecting a shake-up to the current, conservative, global framework.

That's why some reformers are turning to the Sustainable Development Goals as a blueprint for the future.

Critics of the "war on drugs" campaign have long evoked the term "harm reduction" to lobby for a more humane approach that treats addiction as a health problem rather than a crime.