Country music legend Willie Nelson speaks to fans during an event celebrating the collaboration between Willie’s Reserve and Redwood Cultivation at Exile in downtown Las Vegas, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.

With burning joints raised high, about 200 marijuana industry employees and representatives celebrated the arrival of country music legend and marijuana advocate Willie Nelson on Tuesday in downtown Las Vegas, commemorating the debut of Nelson’s brand of cannabis products in the Las Vegas Valley.

Alaska brothers James and Giono Barrett have a dream: that some of the scores of cruise ship passengers who crowd the streets of the state capital each summer will one day use their shore excursions to kick back and light up a joint in a pot store's lounge.

The Barretts own Juneau's first marijuana retail store and want to tap into the $260 million or so that tourists dropped in the small coastal city last year.

Regulators could decide soon whether to make that happen. At a meeting Thursday in Juneau, they will consider allowing marijuana retail stores statewide to provide separate areas of their businesses for onsite consumption.

It's every stoner's nightmare: marijuana plants as far as the eye can see and not a spliff in sight.

"No, I have never tried it, and I don't have any intention of trying it either," says Antonio Medica, the colonel in charge of the Italian military's cannabis laboratory in Florence.

As he inspects pristine plant buds destined to be cut and dried into a version of the drug for medical use, the veteran officer is nonetheless sure he is producing some really good stuff.

"Absolutely yes, I can assure you of that," says Medica, who is wearing surgeon's scrubs over his uniform. "We have done the tests."

Getting up close and personal with a fully mature, living cannabis plant is somewhat of a transcendent experience. The bouquet of aromas captured in a single sniff off a living bud will completely redefine your expectations of the relationship between cannabis flowers and their many complex fragrances. However, facilitating a translation of these distinct flavors and aromas into a consumable product is easier said than done.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says the Liberal government is determined to bring forward legislation to legalize and regulate the recreational use of pot this spring, despite the fact it is working overtime to manage many unknowns associated with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Wilson-Raybould says Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is talking with U.S. counterparts about any potential impacts of the government’s plans.

There are concerns introducing marijuana legislation in Canada could create problems with the U.S.

Wilson-Raybould says the Liberal government is seriously considering a report presented by a special task force late last year.

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