WASHINGTON -- Daniel Porras’ doctor told him that of all of his patients, he was the only one who asked for fewer pain pills.

Porras damaged his ankle and Achilles tendon and suffered severe nerve damage in his left leg as a result of a motorcycle accident a decade ago. He originally took morphine because the pain was so bad. But it knocked him out to the point where he could barely function.

His objection to more pills was not that his discomfort was beginning to ease. Medical marijuana just worked better.

“If you can drop pain pills out of your life, you have a better life,” said the 61-year-old Army veteran from Sultan, Washington.

Medical marijuana “has given me a full life,” Porras said. “It’s a true medicine.”

There seem to be few dull moments in the life of first lady Akie Abe, who sometimes spends her time hosting a web-based talk show, harvestinghoney from a bee farm and even payingoccasional visits to the contentious Yasukuni Shrine.

Most recently, Ms. Abe raised eyebrows after telling a Japanese magazine that she has considered becoming a hemp farmer to help revive the traditional culture.

Tomorrow afternoon, the Board of Supervisors will take its first look at the commercial cannabis cultivation ordinance passed by the Planning Commission last week. When they do, the principal thing they’ll be looking at is questions of land use — what sizes of commercial grows will be allowed where, with which sorts of permits. 

Why will the Board of Supervisors be looking at these questions? Why has the county been crafting this ordinance?

OK, I’ll say it: What was she smoking?

Except that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s vision of a state-run monopoly on the fragrant weed, courtesy of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, is quite plausible, given the logic of imminent legalization. What becomes readily apparent, as the federal Liberals continue to find their footing, is that the idea of legalization of marijuana has never been deeply examined.

Legalization was a terrific attention-getter in 2013, and a powerful emblem of change. That worked for Justin Trudeau two years ago. It highlighted his youth and cool. It made Stephen Harper and his sternly anti-pot front bench look like fussy old bores — Sister Matilda, waggling a disapproving finger at the rambunctious kids at the back of the bus.

Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, is a hip-hop lifer. He's been releasing his own records for the past 15 years, and guesting on tracks from the likes of Outkast and Jay-Z. But his biggest success to date has been as a member of Run the Jewels. Mike's not wasting his time on the spotlight: he's opened a chain of barbershops, lectured on race relations at New York University and MIT, and passionately endorsed presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Imagine if a liquor store clerk had to cap each customer's purchases based on the total alcohol content. That could be 16 bottles of beer, six bottles of wine, or two bottles of scotch. It gets even trickier if a customer buys a bit of each, and the clerk has to make sure they don't exceed the legal limit.

Now imagine it was important for the clerk be knowledgeable about the different effects of each type of alcoholic drink. For example, tequila energizes the body, or gin stimulates the brain, while whiskey does a bit of both.

The nation's top drug official went on War on Drugs a failure. Michael Botticelli, who serves as the director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, also said he wants to reform and refocus U.S. drug policy.

Updated: In a 4-1 vote, the Palm Beach County Commissioners passed the ordinance that decriminalizes pot possession. The measure now gives police the option to issue a $100 citation to someone caught with 20 grams of pot or less, rather than arresting him.

Commissioner Hal Valeche had the lone dissenting vote.  

The proposed ordinance would give the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies the option of issuing a civil citation to violators or enforcing state law. The civil citation would make the possession of 20 grams or less of pot a civil offense rather than a criminal one. State law, however, states that pot possession is a crime.

A working group convened by the Legislature has recommended the state establish an official blood-level limit to determine when someone is driving under the influence of marijuana.

Group members were split, however, on what level of THC in the blood would show impairment, with some members saying the scientific community is divided on the issue and uncertainty could lead to false convictions.

The working group was convened by the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety in response to a bill submitted by the secretary of state that proposed making the operating of a vehicle while having a THC level of 5 nanograms or more per milliliter of blood a criminal offense.

PSNI detectives working on an international crackdown on a ‘skunk’ cannabis trafficking racket have arrested a suspect in England as part of the long-running probe.

Police have warned that sinsemilla, which is known as ‘skunk’ on the streets, is particularly dangerous because it can significantly increase users’ chances of suffering a psychotic episode.

Detectives from Reactive and Organised Crime Branch arrested a 20-year-old man in Birmingham on Tuesday evening. The suspect, who is the 18th person to be detained so far, with 12 people charged to date, is being brought to Northern Ireland for questioning