OLD HARBOUR — Jerry and his brother Steve, both in their thirties, thin and gnarled, are farmers without land. They live in Old Harbour, a dusty village in Saint Catherine Parish, an hour west of the capital Kingston, and rent small plots from area landlords and grow fruits and vegetables that they sell on the markets. They also cultivate ganja, the local name for cannabis.

Ganja growing is a widespread activity in Jamaica for the simple reason that the majority of people here consume the product. And yet, until April, it was strictly prohibited.

Pot. Cannabis. Mary Jane. The plant with psychotropic properties has a long pop culture presence — and an even longer record of use.

1. Pot. Weed. Mary Jane. Sticky-icky. Nicknames aside, much of the world calls the psychotropic plant by its scientific name, cannabis, and — until the early 20th century — so did Americans.

2. About a hundred years ago, however, the term marijuana became common in the United States, the result of anti-cannabis, anti-immigrant advocates trying to link recreational use of the plant to migrant workers from Mexico.

It was only a matter of time before a lawsuit came about after Seattle’s Liquor and Cannabis Board sent out 14 day notices to long-standing medical marijuana shops around the city. New laws will put a cap on the number of dispensaries in the city, leaving them with two choices – relocate or apply for a license and pray they are one of the lucky ones.

While many of the businesses that were able to likely got the heck-outta-dodge as quick as they could, others are not so fortunate. Those who were left with no choice but to apply for a license were promised that while there was no guarantee for a license that dispensaries which were established the longest ago and had the a good track record for paying taxes and fees would be taken into consideration first.

By now, most pro-cannabis activists are familiar with how marijuana went from being a legal plant used by our founding fathers and settlers moving west, to an illegal drug on the Schedule 1 list.

Not much different than today, early Americans used cannabis as medicine, and hemp for its numerous industrial applications such as clothing, wagon covers, rope and paper. George Washington was a hemp farmer after all; cannabis is deeply rooted in our country's history.

Does a marijuana-legalization initiative expected to be on the ballot in November allow cities and towns to ban adults from growing their own marijuana?

Under the initiative, adults 21 and older could grow up to six plants, with a 12-plant-per-household maximum.

Ryan Hurley, a lawyer for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona, which is pushing the initiative, says cities cannot ban home growing.   

But lawyer Tom Dean, who supports the more permissive proposal offered by Arizonans for Mindful Regulation, claims the opposite:

The guidelines for considering applications from people wanting to use cannabis for medical purposes will be reviewed, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has announced.

Mr Dunne said the need for "fine-tuning" was inevitable, given that medical cannabis was a new policy area for the Ministry of Health and wider medical profession.

"The guidelines were set up at my request following the Alex Renton case in 2015, so far the only case where ministerial approval was granted, following an application from Mr Renton's treating clinicians to administer the restricted product Elixinol."

The Montana Supreme Court on Thursday upheld almost all of the GOP-controlled Legislature's 2011 gutting of the state's medical marijuana law.

The high court, in a 6-1 decision, ruled that the restrictions placed on medical marijuana by the Montana Legislature in 2011 are a "rational response" to the rapid growth in medical marijuana patients from 2008 to 2010, reports Mike Dennison at MTN News. Never mind that the stuff actually works, unlike most harsh, toxic Big Pharma products; that just couldn't be why the program was so popular, now could it?

Moving from Schedule I to Schedule II doesn't go far enough towards legalization.

More than a year has passed since District voters legalized marijuana. On Feb. 26, 2015, it became legal for adults to possess up to two ounces of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants in their home. As a result, marijuana possession arrests decreased a whopping 98 percent from 2014 to 2015, dropping from 1,840 to just 32. In addition to the massive drop in marijuana possession arrests, it is worth noting that cumulative arrests for all marijuana offenses, including sales, also dropped 85 percent in that time.

According to Ben Cort, board member of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) drug policy is a multi-faceted nuanced conversation. Cort told Huffington Post the organization doesn't want to "oversimplify a complicated discussion" about legalization.