SEATTLE -- Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes is vowing to crack down on illegal, black market marijuana businesses that he says are undercutting licensed retailers.

The Washington state Liquor and Cannabis Board estimates the black market makes up around 28% of the entire market. Legal retailers feel that estimate is low.

"I'm not free to say all of the enforcement steps that are being engineered now. But Seattle is going to crack down," said Holmes.

Currently, 577 producer/processors and 228 retailers have been licensed by the state. That's produced around $65 million in taxes. Legal retailers say in order for legalization to be successful, the illegal sales must be addressed.

As Bernie Sanders continues to cut Hillary Clinton’s lead en route to the Democratic presidential primaries, Martin O’Malley joins his fellow candidates for tonight’s Democratic debate. While the candidates will have plenty to say about very serious issues like health care, immigration, and unemployment, a politician’s stance on the use of medical marijuana and the legalization of recreational pot has become a more common issue of interest. Now that many states are legalizing medicinal (and sometimes recreational) marijuana, and members of Congress are introducing legislation to end the federal prohibition on medical cannabis, it’s a question all candidates must have an answer for.

ITALY HAS EASED up slightly on cannabis growers, decriminalising those who violate agreed terms on cultivating the plants for therapeutic purposes.

“This does not decriminalise those growing weed on their terrace,” warned Justice Minister Andrea Orlando. Under the new bill, people who abuse their permission to cultivate cannabis will be slapped with a fine rather than a prison sentence.

Those caught growing their own personal crop without a license still face up to a year in jail and a €4 million fine.

The aim is to help ease Italy’s notoriously congested justice system and “make sanctions more effective”, Orlando said.

WASHINGTON’S landmark effort to legalize and tax marijuana, now three years old, is finally gaining steady footing. Without federal interference, 197 retail marijuana stores are operating statewide, and state regulators are running checks for underage sales. Finally, the unregulated medical-marijuana market is being folded into the licensed, regulated system.

But the goal of crushing the illicit market — the one that readily sells to kids — is still a pipe dream. In fact, the black market is open and thriving in Seattle, in the form of marijuana-delivery services.

If a 29-year-old man, alleged to part of a gang bringing large amounts of cannabis into the country, was released on bail police believed they may never see him again, Craigavon Magistrates court heard last Friday.

A detective said this during a bail application on behalf of Cao Jiahuan, Clonavon Avenue, Portadown.

The defendant faces charges of illegal entry to the United Kingdom and aiding and abetting the illegal importation of cannabis on October 12 last year.

Jiahuan appeared in court by way of videolink from Maghaberry prison.

Opposing bail the detective said the case involved the interception of £300,000 worth of herbal cannabis which was on its way from Spain to Portadown.

The first Democratic debate of 2016 kicked off in Charleston, South Carolina.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley duked it out Sunday night in a debate hosted by NBC News.

There was no shortage of heated exchanges in what is becoming an increasingly contentious campaign, particularly between Sanders and Clinton. Sanders, for example, was asked to address his comments on Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions during his presidency, to which he repeated he is running against Secretary Clinton.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — ResponsibleOhio won’t be back with another marijuana legalization amendment this year, but marijuana advocates said Friday they will push forward with ballot measures for November as well as work with state lawmakers studying medical marijuana legalization.

Legalize Ohio 2016, also known as Ohioans to End Prohibition, plans to continue to try to collect the 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters necessary by July 6 to qualify its issue for the November ballot. Its proposed constitutional amendment would legalize recreational and medical marijuana, as well as allow farmers to grow hemp.

Out-of-state anti-drug crusaders are taking Colorado marijuana to court. Is it their last chance to stop pot before other states vote on retail cannabis?

Three of the four marijuana-centered lawsuits filed against Colorado officials and businesses were organized and at least partially funded by out-of-state anti-drug organizations and socially conservative law firms, a Denver Post analysis shows.

Only one lawsuit, filed by the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma, appears to be entirely homegrown.

A Michigan appeals panel upheld a lower court’s conviction of 47-year-old medical marijuana caregiver Alenna Marie Rocafort. In September of 2012, police raided a house next to Rocafort’s Kentwood home that she was using for her medical marijuana caregiver operation and seized 5.6 pounds of marijuana. The amount of marijuana seized, the courts found, exceeded the amount of usable marijuana she was legally allowed to possess for her medical marijuana patients. Rocafort argued that the marijuana was not usable because it was in the drying process, but the courts disagreed, even though she intended to use the dried plants to make hash oil.

Since there is practically no enforcement of narcotics laws at the federal or state level, the burden for public health and safety now falls almost entirely on local law enforcement and private citizens.

Roger Morgan

More than 83 percent of cities and counties in California now ban cultivation and/or dispensaries, in response to the abuses of California’s “medical marijuana” program. Community leaders are also concerned about the dangers today’s highly potent marijuana pose, especially to our youth.

Following are a few factors to consider: