A groundbreaking 20-year study investigated the links between tobacco, cannabis and lung function, and found that while tobacco caused adverse effects, cannabis did not. As a result of this study and others like it, healthcare is beginning to pay attention, and health insurers are even starting to cover medical cannabis costs!

In 2012, a groundbreaking scientific study (Association Between Marijuana Exposure and Pulmonary Function Over 20 Years, Pletcher MJ et al.) was published on the effects of cannabis smoke on lung function compared to that of tobacco smoke.

The decision by Washington voters to legalize marijuana as medicine took root in the fall of 1998 — the season when Initiative 692 became law. 

That makes the state’s experiment with legal medical marijuana almost 18 years old, a tumultuous age for humans and, as it turns out, an industry being forced to go legit as the state folds medical pot into the regulated system for recreational marijuana Friday. 

The pot dispensaries and the green crosses that marked many of those stores are going away as the state works to regulate the dispensaries’ share of the market — a market variously described by its detractors as “gray” and having the traits of “the wild West.” 

Advocates for legalizing marijuana in Arizona say they will file more than 260,000 petition signatures Thursday with the secretary of state. That total is at least 100,000 more than is needed to qualify for a statewide vote in November.

The Arizona marijuana initiative -- officially known as the "Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act" -- would treat pot much the same way as alcohol. 

Under the initiative:

- The sale of marijuana and related products like edibles would start March 1, 2018, to people 21 and older.

- Individuals could possess and use one ounce or less of marijuana and possess up to six marijuana plants.

- Marijuana buyers and business would pay new taxes and fees to state, county and local governments.

Full-fledged cannabis legalization: is it only a matter of time? Before we get to the odds on the topic de jure, a little context.

Cannabis was a part of America’s consciousness long before Harry Chapin’s song “Taxi” was on the airwaves in the early 1970s, and even before grass enthusiasts endured days of rain at Woodstock a few years earlier.

Nearly two years have passed under the watchful eye of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) and Washingtonians are enjoying their cannabis more than ever before.

Here are a few figures from our loving overlords at the WSLCB (As of April 4^th):

Barack Obama has roughly six months left in office. Will he end the country’s war on marijuana before the clock runs out? 

Probably not.

But rapper Prince Ea isn’t ready to stop trying. In his latest video, he’s created a 10-minute magnum opus on why America’s war on this Schedule I drug is not only crazy, but also racist and hypocritical.

Just four years ago, the rapper was anti-weed. He says, at the end of the video, that a little honest research changed his mind.

A majority of Danes support legalizing cannabis at the same time the government is preparing new hardline initatives. 

Amidst a new debate on cannabis, spurred by a massive police action at Christiania, a majority of Danes are in favour of legalization. 

The California Secretary of State’s office said Tuesday that Californians will decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in a vote to be held in November. The campaign raised enough funds to battle the initiative’s opponents.

The initiative, which needed 402,000 signatures, reportedly received a whopping 600,000. The proposed Adult Use of Marijuana Act is supported by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and former Facebook President Sean Parker among others.

​The legalize Marijuana campaign in Arizona has taken a patriotic turn.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol says legalizing the drug would mean Arizonans would be able to 'Buy American and Support Schools, Not Cartels.'

A billboard with the slogan will appear in the city of Tempe and a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent who investigated Mexican drug cartels has backed the scheme.

With 22.2 million Americans reporting they've gotten high within the past month, it's no secret that the U.S. is having an increasingly open love affair with cannabis. But which states are the most open-minded when it comes to cannabis?