Minutes after a group of New Jersey lawmakers entered the stark industrial Medicine Man marijuana cultivation center, an employee in blue scrubs rushed between them, pushing a plastic cart filled with pots containing a dozen leafy, two-foot-tall cannabis plants.

There was a scramble by the legislators and their aides to clear a path, and then chuckles and "wow"s.

"Oh, my God, It's like a celebrity just came through," Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R., Monmouth) quipped - referring to the pot, not the worker.

In the latest instalment of "peculiar ways to win the drug war", police officers in Camden have handed letters to shops around Camden Lock ordering them to stop selling drug-related paraphernalia, or be faced with raids. That's right: selling that gas-mask bong your sixth form boyfriend lusted after could now actually land you in court.

Hemp beer is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. More and more supermarkets and wine shops in Germany and the Czech Republic, in particular, stock hemp beer which is no big surprise as these are two well-known beer loving countries. However, is that the only reason that the popularity of hemp beer is on the rise there?

After all, cannabis and alcohol share a turbulent relationship. Research shows that alcohol increases the concentration of THC in the bloodstream and as such, many people feel that booze and cannabis is an unpredictable combination that often goes south.

More than three in five Canadians say companies should be allowed to administer random drug tests to employees when marijuana is legalized, a new poll finds.

The poll from Insights West found 62 per cent of respondents would support drug-testing policies. That number rises to 70 per cent among those aged 55 and over, and 71 per cent among those who voted Conservative in the last election. 

A larger majority — 84 per cent — back giving police the right to arrest someone suspected of driving on drugs, in order to administer a urine test.

Massachusetts likely voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana for people 21 and older, with 55 percent saying "yes" to Question 4, according to a new poll from WBUR/MassINC Polling Group.

Forty percent said they would vote "no" if the election on the November statewide ballot measure was held today. Five percent said they didn't know how they'd vote or they were undecided.

Question 4 seeks to set up a regulatory structure for the taxation of commercial marijuana, under a proposed Cannabis Control Commission, a framework that proponents say will drive down the black market. Opponents have been urging voters to reject the measure, saying marijuana is a potent gateway drug to harder substances.

Marijuana sales could hit $20 billion by 2020, with help from the ever-growing vaporizer market.

Vaping is an alternative to smoking that involves inhaling vapor from an electronic device. Some research suggests vaping is less harmful than lighting up because it doesn't require igniting a material and inhaling carcinogens and toxins along with it.

But as the industry heats up, so does the competition. These days, there's a range of devices to fit every consumer's needs — whether they prioritize ease of use, portability, or style.

Nearly a million Canadians who don’t smoke marijuana now are very likely to start after it’s legalized, survey data implies.

Whatever else happens when Canada legalizes recreational marijuana after the spring of 2017, pot will be easier to buy.

Canada has become tolerant of marijuana by historical standards, but there are still some barriers to the curious — you have to be willing to grow your own big, smelly obvious plants, be open to dealing with shady people who are committing a crime (and know where to find them in the first place), or talk your way into a dispensary.

For Matt Kurth, the essentials of life have come through his love of the outdoors and organic gardening. And cannabis.

When he tried to blend two of these passions and grow marijuana one year, he found that he had his work cut out for him.

“I wanted to be a grower and then I tried it and it’s a ton of work,” he said. “People who don’t grow don’t realize how difficult it is.”

So after Humboldt County created a commercial medical marijuana market this year, Kurth, 33, decided to combine cannabis with his experience in the outdoor recreational industry to create what could be the county’s first cannabis tourism company — Humboldt Cannabis Tours. 

Opponents of legalizing marijuana in Massachusetts are launching their first television advertisement Tuesday, a powerful 30-second spot that imagines an almost dystopian neighborhood overrun by pot shops and stoners.

In the ad, a mother drives her daughter through a familiar suburban scene of strip malls, passing one marijuana store after another, signs alighted with green cannabis leaves.

“Question 4 would allow thousands of pot shops and marijuana operators throughout Massachusetts — in neighborhoods like yours,” a female narrator says, referring to the Nov. 8 ballot measure.

NAN MACKENZIE meets a respectable grandma who smokes a joint every night before bed and calls for the legalisation of medical marijuana and the decriminalising of cannabis use.