Researchers in the US say that marijuana use has no negative effect on health, aside from a link with gum disease. Christopher Ingraham considers what this means for the legalisation of pot.

Long-term marijuana use is not associated with a raft of physical health problems, according to a new study, with one surprising exception: gum disease.

Researchers led by Madeline H Meier of Arizona State University tracked the marijuana habits of 1,037 New Zealanders from birth to middle age to see what effect those habits have on some common measures of physical health, including lung function, systemic inflammation, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body weight, blood sugar and dental health.

The recreational sale of pot edibles has been legal for nearly a week now. NewsChannel 21's Dani Fried visited a Bend marijuana shop to see how sales have been going, and get a guided tour of its cannabis edibles and extracts.

Officials at Oregrown said their sales have gone up significantly since edibles became legal last Thursday.

Meanwhile, Bloom Well Dispensary in Bend said their sales have gone up significantly, with a shift in their sales from the marijuana flower to edibles.

Aviv Hadar, co-owner, of Oregrown in Bend, partners with many local companies to sell the products that have now been legalized.

Is marijuana addictive? The answer to that question depends on whom you ask.

Critics of legalization argue that marijuana is highly addictive and that increased access to the substance will feed a cycle of drug dependency, especially among young people. Frequent users, on the other hand, contend that there's literally no such thing as marijuana addiction.

Marijuana, by most measures, is not in any way the scourge that alcohol is.

Our own National Post recently scandalized its famously conservative readers with a headline claiming that “about half of Canadians who drive while high insist pot doesn’t impair them.” The article — When is stoned too stoned? — further sensationalized the “crisis” by noting that “nothing would make [20 per cent of those surveyed] stop driving while stoned.”  With the Trudeau government poised to legalize marijuana, it was enough to send neocons into paroxysms of paranoia, our roads sure to be turned into killing fields by the demon killer weed.

A majority of American registered voters nationwide support the legalization of marijuana, according to the results of the latest Quinnipiac University poll out Monday.

Chef Cody Lindsay whips pancake batter while an intrigued crowd watches. He adds whole wheat flour and oats to give the mixture a healthy boost.

"It's just small improvements to your diet that will help you feel better," he tells the audience at a recent cooking demonstration in Toronto.

Then comes the final ingredient — one not typically found in pancakes — a few doses of cannabis oil.

"Now, we know that each pancake is going to have a least one millilitre of THC," Lindsay says.

The Belgian cannabis movement, a small but powerful force, is still recovering from the shock caused by the unexpected death of legalization advocate and long-time resident of the country, Joep Oomen, in March. Oomen was a pivotal figure in the broader European drug reform movement and founded Belgium’s first Cannabis Social Club (CSC). Members gathered at the 11th annual Cannabis Liberation Day in Antwerp last month and considered how Oomen’s legacy will inspire the European legalization movement going forward.

Young Slovaks find marijuana appealing, with approximately 40 percent of respondents aged 15-24 experimenting with the drug last year, according to a European school survey on alcohol and drugs carried out on a sample of 10,000 students.

Some young people do not use marijuana just occasionally, but smoke it on a daily basis, Imrich Šteliar of the National Monitoring Centre for Drugs (NMCD) said at a press conference in Bratislava on May 31. Cannabis is the only illegal drug that sees long-term growing popularity, mostly on the account of being cheap, easily accessible and the fact that people long for unusual experiences, he added, as reported by the TASR newswire.

Brownies, cookies, soft drinks - all infused with cannabis - are for sale legally in Oregon for anyone over 21 years old.

It's been a long wait for dispensaries, which sped up three weeks ago when Governor Brown declared edibles would go on sale starting June 2. There are 426 approved dispensaries in Oregon that can now sell the products.

At Oregon's Finest dispensary in Northeast Portland, employees raced the clock to get inventory unboxed and into their computer system in time for the first sale.

This monthly summary highlights the most interesting product launches in April, with a focus on the direction the alcoholic drinks industry is taking in terms of innovative developments.

There are potent, herbaceous notes wafting over North America’s collective drink and it’s not the scent of botanicals from the gin micro distillery down the road. The cannabis revolution is in full swing while the alcohol industry appears to be morosely sitting on the fence, drink in hand, occasionally throwing crumpled cans in the general direction of the on-going legalisation debate.