Given the thousands of Health Canada applications filed by companies wanting to legitimize their medical marijuana grow operations in Canada and on the OTC: how did the current six publicly traded Canadian government approved cannabis grow-ops get into the OTC market quicker than others? Does a back door process exist, or a minimum monetary requirement for an initial licensed producer application?

State Rep. Mike Ball holds Leni Young on the day Carly's Law passed the legislature in 2014.

Amy Young and her family moved to Oregon because the medicine her daughter needs is illegal in Alabama.

State Rep. Mike Ball said he plans to introduce a bill next month to change that. And he's confident it's going to pass.

"The people I've talked to about it seem very receptive to it," said Ball, R-Madison. "It's nothing like it was a couple of years ago when I started on Carly's Law. This is a whole different dynamic."

Bernie Sanders, the longtime Vermont senator and current presidential hopeful, has been labeled many things in his career, including a socialist, and while he has attempted to push back against that label by advocating for what he describes as democratic socialism, the term still evokes images of '70s college sit-ins, bell-bottom pants, and bongs. Although no one can know for certain what Sanders would do if he were to win the presidency, his recent comments and actions suggest he could become the most pro-pot president in history.

Lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott signed Alaska’s first commercial marijuana regulations on Friday, but regulators and legislators now face a headache from the FBI.

In a memo dated Jan. 20, Senior Assistant Attorney General Steven Weaver wrote the executive director of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board to say that in order for the FBI to perform background checks on prospective marijuana entrepreneurs, the Alaska Legislature needs to pass a law requesting such checks.

According to the FBI’s interpretation of federal law, “specific authority (must) be expressed in a state statute to require fingerprinting and the use of Federal Bureau of Investigation records,” Weaver wrote.

Eight state senators traveled to Denver this month to study the highs and lows of marijuana in Colorado, one of four states where voters have legalized the drug’s recreational use. With Massachusetts voters likely to vote on a legalization ballot question in November, the senators quizzed top officials about how legal pot impacts everything from public health to drugged driving to taxes. They aimed to gain an understanding of how to regulate the new industry, should Massachusetts give it the green light.

Medicinal cannabis users are looking for rides to a protest site on the New South Wales north coast, claiming they are too fearful to drive themselves.

Supporters of the medical use of the drug believe they are vulnerable now police are doing frequent road-side saliva tests.

Lismore resident Ron Jones has been using medicinal cannabis for six years to help with chronic pain and emphysema.

He wants to meet with the Member for Lismore, Thomas George, to talk about legislative change for those using the drug for health issues.

"I rely totally on a car to get around and I just need to go and talk to Thomas George and find out more information on what I can do to survive," Mr Jones said.

Commercial medical marijuana dispensaries are prohibited throughout Ventura County.

Now, to meet a March 1 deadline under a new state law, six of the county's 10 cities — Camarillo, Fillmore, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Thousand Oaks and Santa Paula — are rushing to go a step further by formally banning small-scale, personal cultivation of medical marijuana. The Ojai City Council will take up the issue in February, but currently forbids personal cultivation.

Officials argue that they want to retain control over marijuana in their communities, while opponents contend that heavy-handed ordinances reduce patients' access to medicinal pot.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - When the California Legislature passed the state's first comprehensive medical marijuana regulations in September, pot advocates hoped the move heralded a new era of trust in their often-tumultuous relationship with wary local officials and police.

So far, it hasn't turned out that way.

Facing what appears to be a rapidly closing window for action, dozens of cities and counties from across California are racing to enact new bans on marijuana-growing. Some apply only to commercial cultivation, both indoor and outdoor, but many would also prohibit personal pot gardens that have been legal — or at least overlooked — for 19 years.

A district court issued a permanent injunction Friday prohibiting Iowa State University administrators from using trademark policy to stop a campus group from printing university-themed T-shirts that depict a marijuana leaf.

In a 45-page ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa permanently barred ISU from enforcing the university's trademark licensing policies in a discriminatory manner against the campus chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The court specifically blocked ISU "from further prohibiting plaintiffs from producing licensed apparel on the basis that their designs include the image of a similar cannabis leaf."

The Internet can be a treacherous place.

So treacherous, that in order to meet the mounting cybersecurity challenges posed by hackers, Congress has tasked the FBI with hiring some 2,000 new recruits to fight computer-related crimes.

But the hiring process has hit an unforeseen snag: the FBI’s drug testing policies are making it nearly impossible for them to hire hackers with enough skills to best the cyber-criminals the feds are trying to take down.

“I am absolutely dead set against using marijuana,” FBI director James Comey told those in attendance at a senate hearing on the bureau’s oversight, “I don’t want young people to use marijuana. It’s against the law. We have a three-year ban on marijuana.”