AT A soirée on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, one woman greets her fellow guests with a delicate bowl of vanilla sea-salt caramels, each one laced with marijuana. “It’s quite subtle,” she insists. “I just keep a few in my bag for when I’m feeling stressed out.” Over light chat about family and work, the group quickly cleaned up the bowl.

Cannabis should not be used to prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) because of unacceptable side effects and low effectiveness, according to a study published online in Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Maren Kleine-Brueggeney, M.D., from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues randomized 40 patients at high risk for PONV to either 0.125 mg/kg intravenous tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or placebo at the end of surgery before emergence from anesthesia.

During an interview with Morning Report, he said people whose doctors felt it would be beneficial for them could already go through a process to access Sativex, the only legal cannabis-based medicine approved in New Zealand.

He said that so far only one person had done this.

"The procedure is very clear: if a person's doctors believe they would benefit from those products, then they can apply for a dispensation, like they would any other [products]."

Mr Dunne said that it was untrue that there were a variety of products available, and said the few others were available internationally were only approved in individual countries or were still undergoing trial.

The French drinks group, which recently changed its name from Belvedere, describes Shotka as a “premium” cannabis-flavoured vodka targeted towards “rebellious night-clubbing fans”.

First launched in Spain this summer in partnership with nightlife company Matinée Group, Shotka is said to have the “unique” taste of cannabis, without its narcotic effects.

Spanish actress Rossy de Palma promoted Shotka through a video teaser played at Matinée Group’s Circuit Festival, while 600 Shotka parties were held around the country.

The brand now plans to roll out acorss the US, Canada, Poland, Denmark, Bulgaria, France, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia and Ukrains, as well as global travel retail.

An addiction psychiatrist has said smoking marijuana does not necessarily cause addiction to other drugs later in life, contradicting the common theory it is a 'gateway drug'.

Dr Kevin Hill, a director at McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University was answering questions about marijuana on Reddit, when he shared his opinion.

A FEW YEARS out of graduate school in botany, Paul Gray found himself tinkering with the lights for growing Green Crack. Yeah, that Green Crack: the strain of weed so strong that none other than Snoop Dogg—according to ganja lore—bestowed it such a name. Gray wasn’t just messing around, though. He found that growing Green Crack under light-emitting diode lamps could make the already potent strain even stronger.

The legalisation of marijuana in South Africa as of late has been a controversial topic. Around the world many countries are slowly becoming more accustomed to the idea of marijuana as a non-harmful substance and it is high time policy in South Africa embraces it and ease the laws against the possession and consumption of marijuana. “Cannabis is to date a genetically pure plant, occurring globally, which offers massive medicinal, industrial, agricultural, ecological, and socio-economic benefits to the man on the street.” (George, 2015) In 2010 the UN World Drug Report states that between 119 million people to 224 million people above the age of 18 used marijuana. (UN, 2010)

OPINION: The call grows louder to relax the laws around "medicinal cannabis". Union leader Helen Kelly, who has terminal cancer, has given it new voice with her own forceful appeal to the Government.

"If a doctor says I would benefit from this, then who is Peter Dunne to decide whether I will or not?" Kelly asks.

Good question. As the law stands, Dunne, the associate health minister, must give his blessing before any cannabis-related treatment can be used on a patient in New Zealand, even the sole such drug already approved here.

He should not have this power; it should belong to doctors and medical authorities, who can decide whether a drug is safe and effective, just as they do with almost every other drug.

Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, became the first major-party candidate to endorse marijuana legalization. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by contrast, stuck with a wait-and-see position, saying, “I think that we have the opportunity through the states that are pursuing recreational marijuana to find out a lot more than we know today.” But both candidates seemed confused about marijuana’s role in the war on drugs and its contribution to this country’s world-beating incarceration rate.