CHEYENNE - Members of a state panel said Wyoming is not prepared to regulate or handle the potential consequences of legalizing marijuana.

The Governor's Marijuana Impact Council met Friday as the group prepares to submit a report by early next year on how legalizing marijuana would affect the state.

Gov. Matt Mead, who opposes medical and recreational marijuana, formed the group this fall and directed its members to study the health, economic and social impacts of legalizing the drug.

His move comes as the Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is trying to collect enough signatures to allow voters to decide next year if medical marijuana should be allowed.

A vast majority of District of Columbia residents voted to legalize the possession of marijuana in 2014, but Congress is still blocking the city from enacting regulations on sales of the drug.

A provision in the more than 2,000-page omnibus bill passed by Congress Friday will again block the district from implementing any framework to legalize the sale of marijuana.

The law forbids D.C. from spending any money to “enact any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act.”

The Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office today certified 70,739 signatures submitted by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, clearing the way for the petition to move forward toward the 2016 state ballot.

“Today’s announcement confirms that the people of Massachusetts want to vote on an initiative to regulate marijuana and end the practice of punishing adults for using a substance less harmful than alcohol,” said Campaign Manager Will Luzier. “We are excited to have reached this milestone and look forward to the legislative debate over the benefits of ending prohibition and regulating and taxing marijuana.”

A search of a home on Oleander Street on Wednesday resulted in about 54 marijuana plants being seized. A day later, information from that search led to two other searches in Fremont County that turned up hundreds more plants.

Scales, packaging material and about 375 grams of bulk marijuana was also found at 372 Oleander St. by officers with the Casper Police Department and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Central Enforcement Team, according to a news release from the WDCI.

Neil Arcuri, 35, was arrested and charged with felony possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and cultivation of marijuana, according to the release.

Earlier today, Congress passed a $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill, and in the process it approved a provision promising to keep federal law enforcement’s hands off of state-legal medical marijuana operations.

How big of a deal is this? Media interpretations are mixed.

In the L.A. Times, reporter Evan Halper says the provision “effectively ends the federal government’s prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.” Halper quotes Bill Piper, a lobbyist with the Drug Policy Alliance, who boldly declares, “The war on medical marijuana is over.”

A proposal to make marijuana legal and tax it like liquor has cleared another hurdle on its way to the 2016 ballot.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said the proposed law had exceeded a minimum petition signature requirement of 64,750, along with five other proposals.

Other measures include proposals to do away with the Common Core education standards in Massachusetts, open more charter schools, and ban the sale of eggs that aren’t “cage-free.”

Galvin sent the initiative petitions to the Legislature. It has until May to act on them. If the proposals are not adopted, petitioners only need to gather an additional 10,792 signatures to place their question on the ballot.

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — A Transportation Security Administration worker at the Oakland International Airport has been indicted for allegedly conspiring to smuggle marijuana through the airport, federal prosecutors said.

The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday, also charges 28-year-old Kiana Scott Clark of San Mateo with conspiring to defraud the United States by obstructing, impeding, and interfering with the TSA’s aviation security functions, U.S. Attorney’s officials said.

According to the indictment, Clark allegedly used her position as a TSA officer to facilitate the smuggling of drugs into and through the Oakland airport for delivery throughout the U.S.

This is either the worst anti-drug campaign we’ve seen, or the very best.

“Stoner Sloth” is a series of videos purportedly meant to illustrate the horrors of marijuana to impressionable teens. The videos star people in large sloth costumes struggling through various life events due to how high they are. At the end of each ad -- after the featured sloth has had trouble in class or embarrassed itself at dinner -- the tagline “You’re Worse On Weed” is plastered across the screen.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr.’s opinion on why the U.S. Supreme Court should deny a complaint against Colorado’s marijuana laws brought by neighboring states is straightforward and sensible.

Verrilli points out that the nation’s highest court rarely intercedes in state disputes, reserving jurisdiction to cases with clear damages, such as when pollution from one state causes harm to people or property in another state, or when a state’s actions can be demonstrated to be causing economic harm in another.

What began as a one-off letter from the U.S. Postal Service to a small, Washington state newspaper has turned into a standoff between USPS headquarters and members of Congress. At stake is whether cannabis advertisements, which have skyrocketed in recent years, can travel through the nation’s mail.