PARIS — A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to pay for the legal defense of a Paris medical marijuana caregiver who had his operation raided and his crop burned by the Police Department.

Richard Jackson, 48, of King Hill Road, was indicted in October 2015 — more than a year after the raid seized roughly $500,000 worth of marijuana — on one count of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs and one count of marijuana cultivation.

Jackson has been a licensed medical marijuana caregiver with the state of Maine since 2010 and "has provided a great benefit to members of his community by producing and providing high-quality medications to qualified patients," according to a Nov. 1, 2015, letter from his attorney, Gregory Braun.

Canada’s brand new top health official is actively looking into the best way for the country to legalize marijuana.

Minister of Health Jane Philpott, who assumed office a little more than three weeks ago, told the CBC that government scientists are already briefing her on possible legal regulations for cannabis.

“The world is going to be looking to Canada to make sure we do the job well,” she said.

Even though the government doesn’t yet know all the details of how it wants to regulate marijuana, Philpott didn’t hesitate to harshly criticize the current prohibition model.

Now instead of popping two aspirins, residents of Ontario with a medical marijuana prescription will be free to light up their joint even at public places. The province is planning to allow the use of marijuana after a public backlash.

Associate Health Minister Dipika Damerla said they will be considering feedback from the media and the comments online and the government will reconsider the exemption. His exemption will allow medical marijuana users to vaporize in restaurants, at work or on playgrounds.

Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, told VICE News that the passing of the regulation will not bring a major change as there already exists no ban on smoking medical marijuana anywhere in the province.

Supporters of cannabis legalization and greater criminal justice reforms celebrated the overwhelming victory of Canada’s Liberal Party less than a month ago as the party’s platform noted the need to be smarter on crime, including ending the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasted no time mandating that federal officials embark on landmark changes to the Canadian criminal justice system that had fallen into many of the same deficiencies we experience here in the United States, namely that harsh sentences are disproportionately levied against minorities and the poor.

Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs residents soon will get to see how much the new marijuana industry is putting into the city's coffers each month.

The upcoming monthly releases of marijuana sales tax data also could be used to estimate how many of the sales are coming from locals and how many from tourists.

To date, city officials have not released monthly sales tax data on the marijuana industry for two reasons.

Initially, there were only two dispensaries up and running, so disclosure would have violated city and state confidentiality rules.

Premier Kathleen Wynne says she wants to sit in the no toking section at the movies.

Two days after her government pulled back a controversial plan to allow medical marijuana to be vaped or smoked in public places where tobacco smoking is banned, Wynne told reporters she understands the public backlash.

“I have a lot of sympathy for the concerns that were raised” about second-hand smoke, the premier told reporters Saturday at a Liberal convention where party activists lined up to have her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, autograph his new memoir.

“I would have a problem with it,” Wynne replied when asked if she’d like to be watching a movie and have a patron sitting beside her vaping medicinal marijuana.

“We need to think this through.”

It wasn’t that long ago that thousands of people were arrested for marijuana annually in Washington D.C.. 2,346 people were arrested for marijuana in Washington D.C. in 2011. Washington D.C. voters approved marijuana legalization during the 2014 Election. As a result, marijuana arrests in D.C. are down. Way down. As of November 6th (the most current data available), there have only been 7 arrests for marijuana in D.C.. Per the Washington City Paper:

Sgt. Dave Bianchi sets a bag of chocolates onto a table at Omaha police headquarters.

The narcotics detective isn’t handing out treats to his colleagues. He’s showing off the latest, tastiest ways to get high.

“It looks like a chocolate, a cookie or a chunk of candy,” Bianchi said. The marijuana-infused edibles, he said, allow people to “use marijuana, but be discreet about it.”

The edibles are becoming more common in the Omaha area, especially over the past year, Bianchi said. He suspects some Nebraskans decided to make their own pot products after visiting neighboring Colorado, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2012 and began allowing retail sales in January 2014.

A Chilean mother says a hospital is restricting her access to her newborn baby because she said she smoked marijuana.

Sindy Melany Ortiz said she smoked pot for medicinal reasons to alleviate pain in one of her arms.

She says she is not being allowed to breast-feed her daughter and can only see her for two hours a day.

Hospital officials in the southern city of Talcahuano said they were following protocol and the baby was at risk.

"They have violated my rights as a mother," said Ms Ortiz, "I use this drug only for the pain in my arms, it was recommended by a medical professional to me and I am absolutely not a drug consumer."

Mission RCMP executed two search warrants in the Deroche area on Nov. 25, in relation to the production and sale of marijuana.

The RCMP were acting on on complaints from the public, and an investigation into the illegal production and sale of marijuana was initiated earlier this year.

The investigation revealed that marijuana and marijuana derivatives were being illegally produced at the residential property and sold at a commercial premise on Lougheed Highway which was being operated as a marijuana dispensary.

Search warrants were obtained and executed at both the commercial and residential properties.