RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A federal indictment accuses a Johnston County attorney and others of growing marijuana for profit at houses in Orange County and concealing the profits.

The indictment said Joseph Lee Levinson, who runs a law office in Benson, received cash and drugs and used his law office to help the operation.

According to the indictment, Aubrey Manasseh Pruitt, Dustin Garrett Fisher and Jotham Walker Pruitt operated a marijuana “grow” business in Orange County from December 2005 to around December 2010. The indictment lists six different locations that were used to grow marijuana indoors.

The indictment said Fisher grew the marijuana in houses obtained by Levinson and Jotham Pruitt.

BELLEVILLE - 

Federal authorities filed notices to seize 16 residential properties in Broward County after their owner was indicted for trafficking marijuana.

Frederick Robert Goldberg, aka Scott C. Bryant, aka Fredrick Brill, was charged on Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Both counts are felonies.

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New Mexico will move one step closer to legalizing marijuana in the new year. A state representative has pre-filed a bill that would legalize marijuana and hemp in the state, Albuquerque’s KOB TV reported Tuesday, and he plans to introduce the bill during the Legislature’s next session in January.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill McCamley, would allow people age 21 and older to purchase and use pot legally. It would also legalize the production and sale of industrial hemp in New Mexico. Under the proposed legislation, the state would be permitted to regulate marijuana growers and distributors.

At this rate, I think it will have taken Florida longer than any other state to implement one, single, medical marijuana law. Since being signed into law in 2014 we’ve continuously hit one hold up after another – and just when it feels like we’re finally picking up momentum and getting somewhere, things come to a screeching halt.

After the five allotted nurseries were selected at the end of November it seemed that we may finally see patients getting relief early in 2016. Hopes for that might have been too high, however, because a total of 11 different companies have challenged the Department of Health’s ruling on the matter.

Customs officials Tuesday discovered three tons of Captagon pills and hash at the Beirut port destined for Egypt, Lebanon's finance minister said.

JOHANNESBURG - The so-called Dagga Couple are months away from heading to the North Gauteng High Court, to fight for the "re-legalisation" of cannabis.

Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke were arrested in 2010 for possession with intent to sell dagga which they said was for personal use.

They've responded by suing five government departments for what they claim are draconian laws governing the use of the intoxicating herb.

Watch the video report by eNCA’s Nickolaus Bauer in the gallery above.

DENVER (AP) — The booming marijuana industry went to a federal judge Monday seeking an answer to the problem that has vexed business owners trying to emerge from the black market: Now that pot is legal and taxed in some states, why can't they put the proceeds in a bank?

A Colorado credit union designed to serve the pot industry — Fourth Corner Credit Union — was challenging a decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City to keep the pot bank from accessing the nation's financial system. The feds' rejection earlier this year means that the pot bank can't take deposits or issue credit — leaving many marijuana businesses operating on a cash-only basis.

Open-container laws have always targeted the poor and marginalized. States and cities need to permit marijuana use in public.