I'm sipping on a cocktail as I write this. It's made from vodka infused with cannabis — and it's totally legal. The government says so.

In 2014, the farm bill provided money for some states to cultivate hemp, a crop that federal drug laws had formerly outlawed because of its close association with marijuana. The farm bill distinguished hemp from marijuana by requiring a THC content of less than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis, making it legal to grow. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the mind-altering ingredient in a cannabis plant that produces a high.

Talk about fishing where the fish are.

Paul Hillier tweeted out Wednesday that a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop has opened up next to The Green Room Society marijuana dispensary in his neighbourhood, at Spadina Avenue and Nassau Street.

A Krispy Kreme just opened up in my building right next to a weed dispensary. #KnowYourMarket #Toronto pic.twitter.com/ZWmHq2EzWA

— Paul Hillier (@PaulHillierdesu) May 25, 2016

“Traveling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller,” said the great traveler Ibn Battuta.

This statement couldn’t be truer of traveling through Canada. We have an enormous country geographically and with that “embarrassment of acreage” comes a widely diverse population, spread across great distances but still sharing the common traits of what it is to be Canadian.

Now with upcoming legislation that will allow the country to sell recreational MJ nationwide, the opportunity for cannabis enthusiasts to see the great white north is upon us, and tour companies are planning to roll out “cannatourism” packages as soon as legally possible.

Barcelona’s first-ever female mayor has just accomplished another first: proposing to keep the city’s famous Cannabis Social Clubs in business by implementing workable official regulations.

Last summer, Ada Colau became mayor in the historic Catalan capital. This week, she granted amnesty to existing clubs, allowing more than a hundred that were slated for permanent closure to remain open and continue shared cannabis cultivation and distribution.

But it’s an open question as to whether Mayor Colau’s move will allow the city to keep the title of Europe’s New Amsterdam, as the rules seem to change with each new municipal government.

Saliva tests to find out who uses cannabis in high school in the Paris region – this is just one of the proposals by the local administration’s anti-drugs initiative that has created a storm of controversy, especially among the head teachers who have branded the plan “socially unacceptable and ineffective”. They give two fundamental reasons. Firstly, such coercive measures could damage the relationship of trust between students and teachers, undermining the harmony of student life and instilling a climate of suspicion. Secondly, there is a risk of ‘overshooting’, or ‘killing a fly with a cannon ball’.

Orange County cities need to get their acts together on medical marijuana and the potential legalization of recreational pot. So far, only Santa Ana has been trying to sensibly grapple with the situation. If other cities have any doubt about what needs to be done, they should look at all the billboards sprouting up about California marijuana like tall cannabis plants alongside county freeways.

In the battle over whether to legalize recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, opponents have repeated one main refrain: think of the children. The crux of their argument? That legalizing marijuana will lead more adolescents and teens to use the drug.

“Where marijuana is legal, young people are more likely to use it,” wrote Mayor Marty Walsh, Gov. Charlie Baker, and Attorney General Maura Healy in the second paragraph of their Boston Globe editorial against legalizing weed.

Earlier this month, Mark Kleiman – the doyen of public health academia – shared his Transatlantic Lessons, a stark warning of the potential perils of over commercialising cannabis.  Today, we have republished what is, essentially, a bold response to Kleiman’s concerns from Troy Dayton, Co-Founder of The Arcview Group with the following ‘profit-positive’ approach to the coming commercial cannabis wave.

Dear future nominees:

Eight months from today one of you will be inaugurated the 45th President of the United States. There is much to think about between now and then, but one issue with a penchant for falling between the cracks is marijuana policy. Marijuana policy is no longer just a punchline, reserved for the attention of activists. Marijuana policy will be a serious part of the next administration’s domestic policy, and it is critical that you create a strategy accordingly. 

ROUGHLY HALF OF the money raised to oppose a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California is coming from police and prison guard groups, terrified that they might lose the revenue streams to which they have become so deeply addicted.

Drug war money has become a notable source of funding for law enforcement interests. Huge government grants and asset-seizure windfalls benefit police departments, while the constant supply of prisoners keeps the prison business booming.