SEATTLE (AP) — While Denver has recalled 19 pot products in as many weeks over pesticide issues, no such recalls have affected Washington state in the 18 months that pot sales have been legal.

The Seattle Times reports that no products were recalled after Washington officials fined two marijuana growers and suspended the licenses of two others for using unapproved pesticides.

Experts say it’s difficult to determine whether consumers should be worried about that.

Although there’s abundant research on pesticides on food, there’s little information about the effects of heating and inhaling such chemicals. The federal prohibition on marijuana has prevented relevant research.

The House Commerce Subcommittee will review H.S.B. 607, Tuesday at 8:00 a.m.

Thanks to legislation, passed in 2014, cannabis oil is technically legal to use in Iowa for help with chronic epilepsy. But, lawmakers neglected to go further.

It’s illegal to sell cannabis oil in the state or bring it in from other states.

“You can't do anything," said Iowa House Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R-Wilton). "Really, the bill we passed a couple years ago isn't being effective."

Kaufmann worked with House Commerce Committee Chair Peter Cownie to create H.S.B. 607, which Cownie announced last week.

New Mexico won't follow the lead of Colorado and other Western states that have legalized marijuana as a recreational drug, at least not this year.

State senators on Sunday night voted 24-17 against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed people 25 and older to buy and smoke marijuana. The measure also would have legalized industrial hemp, a cousin of the marijuana plant, that has myriad commercial uses.

All 18 Republicans and six Democrats voted against the proposal to legalize marijuana and hemp after a debate lasting about 40 minutes. Both advocates and opponents of the marijuana measure used crime as their leading argument.

Acquittal On Wednesday 10th February 2016, the Amsterdam court acquitted Dutch medicinal cannabis grower Rudolf Hillebrand of the charge of illegally growing cannabis.  The court agreed with the defence that Hillebrand cultivated cannabis as an essential supplement to his HIV medication and definitely not for financial gain. A historic verdict!

Although Massachusetts voters will decide the outcome of the referendum questions on next fall's ballot, at least two of the ballot question campaigns will be shaped in large part by forces outside the state.

A review of campaign finance reports found that organizations outside Massachusetts are the major backers of questions to legalize recreational marijuana and ban the sale of meat and eggs from confined animals.

The outside money means that those committees will be able to fund strong campaigns, with advertising and grassroots organizing. But it also opens the organizers up to criticism for not representing the interests of Massachusetts.

Officials learn the hard way that high taxes and red tape just encourage black markets to continue

ven as they embarked on a deliberate experiment in legalizing marijuana for recreational use, the states taking the plunge unintentionally (we can only hope) initiated a second experiment. In dropping overt bans on the stuff while appeasing critics with reams of regulation, could they so bind the marijuana trade in red tape and taxes that they retained all the flaws of prohibition and gained few of the advantages of legalized status?

The answer was very quickly a big "yup." But officials may just be learning from the experience and fixing their early mistakes. A little.

It is like a hash-induced hallucination: row upon row of lush, budding plants, tended by white-coated technicians who are bothered by the authorities only when it is time to pay their taxes. Cannabis once grew in secret, traded by murderous cartels and smoked by consumers who risked jail. Now, countries all over the world have licensed the drug for medical purposes, and a few are going still further.

Four American states have so far legalized its recreational use; little Uruguay will soon be joined by big, G7-member Canada in the legal-weed club. Parliaments from Mexico to South Africa are debating reforms of their own.

This week minister for health Sussan Ley tabled amendments to our drugs act to allow growing cannabis for medicinal or scientific purposes.

The amendments will create two licence classes (medicine and research), limit access only to “fit and proper” Australians with no ties to crime, and allow the importation of plants and seed.

This is an important milestone intended to (re)introduce lawful medicinal cannabis in Australia, after it was prohibited some 50 years ago.

A growing number of countries are deciding to ditch prohibition. What comes next?

A Jacksonville Beach marijuana arrest wouldn’t usually generate much attention or scrutiny. But almost six years after Christopher James Markus was jailed, the Florida Supreme Court will be deciding whether police arrested him illegally.

Markus, now 33, was arrested in April 2010 after police saw him and several other men drinking alcohol in public. When the three men were approached, the smell of marijuana was detected and Markus was observed flicking a marijuana cigarette under a vehicle, according to a police report.

Police attempted to detain Markus, but he ran or backed away from them into the garage he was living in on the 100 block of Second Street South. Police entered the garage and arrested Markus, who also had a knife on him, the report said.