On a warm September evening, about 70 women gather at The Peg House, a famed roadside burger joint on Northern California’s Highway 101. They arrive in a stream of 4x4 trucks and carpools of Subarus; some have driven hours from remote hillside homesteads. At the state park across the road, there’s plenty of room to pitch tents under the redwoods.

Entrepreneur and drug policy reform activist leaked a United Nations paper calling for decriminalizing drug use. The paper argued that treating personal drug use as a crime “contributed to public health problems and induced negative consequences for safety, security, and human rights.”

KENT COUNTY, MI – Police raided three marijuana dispensaries in Plainfield Township alleging the businesses violated Michigan's medical marijuana law.

The dispensaries are at 4290 Plainfield Ave. NE, 4564 West River Drive NE and 5260 Northland Drive NE, Suite F, police said.

Kent Area Narcotics Enforcement Team and Metropolitan Enforcement began investigating earlier this month after both teams received multiple Silent Observer tips about illegal marijuana sales, police said.

Investigators conducted several undercover visits and found that all three dispensaries were selling marijuana in violation of the medical marijuana law, police said. Police used search warrants to raid the facilities on Wednesday, Nov. 18.

CONCORD, N.H. 

The lawyer for a New Hampshire woman with late-stage lung cancer says she could get medical marijuana in Maine if New Hampshire health officials issue her an identification card saying she's eligible.

Linda Horan of Alstead wants a judge to order the state to issue her a medical marijuana ID card before dispensaries open in New Hampshire next year. Lawyers for the state argue that would undermine New Hampshire's need to control distribution at its alternative treatment centers.

Horan said after a hearing last week that she may be dead before in-state dispensaries open.

Her lawyer filed affidavits Thursday from Maine dispensary operators saying Horan could get marijuana there with a New Hampshire ID card.

While those of us in the Illinois cannabis community are celebrating the rolling out of the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program, a woman in Kansas, Shona Banda, is suffering greatly because she just happens to live in a state where marijuana cannabis is illegal. In fact, she is being depicted as a criminal when she is merely trying to save her own life in order to parent her children. Is that too much to ask?

Since 1985 cigarette packages sold in the United States have carried four rotating warnings from the surgeon general, including this one: “Smoking by Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth, and Low Birth Weight.” Since 1989 the labels of alcoholic beverages have included this government-mandated warning: “According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects.” This week the American Medical Association (AMA) proposed a similar

The Rastafari Rootzfest, launched on October 27, 2015 at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, brought together reggae music and ganja in a groundbreaking event on the Caribbean island that has led the way in decriminalising marijuana.

The Detroit City Council will take up a second ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015.(Photo: Free Press file photo)Buy Photo

The Detroit City Council is expected take up a second ordinance to regulate the city's booming medical marijuana industry on Tuesday, although final approval of the measure may not come until January.

The council's planning and economic development committee on Thursday approved the latest version of ordinances designating where dispensaries can locate. Without those regulations, more than 150 unlicensed and unregulated dispensaries have opened up across the city, raising deep concerns among some residents.

Led by Justin Trudeau, Canada's Liberal Party swept to a strong victory in Monday's elections.

While results were still being tallied Monday night, it looks as if the party has won enough seats to form a majority government by itself. The Liberals won 184 seats in the lower house of parliament. They only need 170 seats to form a majority in the 338-seat lower chamber.

The Liberal platform included, among other things, marijuana legalization:

Both Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay and Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. are in favor of a measure that would reduce the penalty for simple possession of marijuana in the city, which speaks volumes about how logical it is.

The ordinance, proposed by city Councilman Daniel Lavelle, would not decriminalize possession or smoking of marijuana but it would alter the punishment to align with what actually happens already. Currently, when individuals are accused of possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana — slightly more than an ounce — the offense is almost always reduced to a summary offense, which carries a fine but no jail time.