2016 could bring major changes to the way Michigan treats marijuana.

There are three campaigns hoping to put legalization of recreational marijuana on the November ballot. Two of those groups – who appear to be raising significant money and have been collecting signatures for months – would tax and regulate marijuana for personal use for people 21 and older.

A state elections board recently gave the go-ahead for a third group to start circulating petitions. That campaign, Abrogate Prohibition Michigan 2016, would fully decriminalize marijuana use for any purpose for people 18 and older.

In addition to those efforts, supporters of bills to overhaul Michigan’s medical marijuana system are pushing for votes in the state Legislature.

Number one: Canada elects a marijuana-legalizing prime minister.

The global anti-drug regime has been in place for more than a half century now, but the prohibitionist consensus has been crumbling for at least 20 years, and the decomposition continued apace this year.

The international treaties that make up the legal backbone of international drug prohibition still stand, but they are under increasing attack at the United Nations, which will take them up again next year. They are increasingly being breached (especially by marijuana legalization at the national and sub-national level) and nibbled away at around the edges by moves like drug decriminalization and some harm reduction measures such as supervised injection facilities.

In recent weeks the media has been reporting on several calls for the decriminalization of the use and possession of marijuana. Discussions involving this topic have even engaged the Minister of Legal Affairs. Notwithstanding, unless there is a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the proposal, with the public being fully informed of all the major implications, the decriminalization of cannabis and hemp should not be given serious consideration.

Decriminalization is the removal of criminal penalties for drug law violations (usually possession for personal use). Less than five per cent of the countries in the world have gone this route. Why so few?

Doctors call it an important drug, lawmakers see it raising tax revenue and voters are likely to make it legal.

FALL RIVER — Marijuana will be king in 2016.

It is all coming together for pot in the coming year. Doctors call it an important drug, lawmakers see it raising tax revenue and voters are likely to make it legal.

Marijuana growers are also promising a few hundred well-paid jobs locally if they get their way. There are currently four separate proposals to build grow houses in the area.

Fall River and Freetown have both put out the welcome mat to companies that want to build and operate facilities to grow pharmaceutical-grade marijuana.

PUEBLO COUNTY -

If you live in an apartment or duplex, the limit is 12. For a single family dwelling, it's 18. And if your property is zoned for agriculture or industry you can grow a maximum of 36 marijuana plants in Pueblo County. Those are the new limits put in place by County Commissioners last year for anyone who chooses grows marijuana without going through the regulatory process of becoming a licensed commercial grower.

Is legalized marijuana a gateway drug to other forms of substance abuse? Or would safer access encourage people to ease back on other vices? This has been one of the major questions bedeviling the legalization debate. Now that four American states have legalized recreational use of cannabis, we ought to be getting some answers. Sadly, a review of the studies done so far suggests the picture isn't getting much clearer.

While the federal government appears to be loosening up on medicinal marijuana, not all states are following suit. Oklahoma is one of the most conservative states in America, and no group has even been able to gather enough signatures to get medical marijuana on the ballot. The most recent attempt to get medical marijuana up for a vote in the Sooner State was made by Green the Vote.

“And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed–to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis 1:29)

(Photo: Laurie Avocado/ Wiki Commons)

All you kosher people out there have no fear – the first certified kosher marijuana will soon be here!

California’s new medical marijuana laws were supposed to provide more structure and clarity for the state’s loosely regulated, billion-dollar industry, but in the past few weeks, dozens of municipalities have ignored that intention by moving quickly to ban delivery and other activities codified by the legislation.

Advocates and legislators hope the bans are only a minor setback in the effort to show federal regulators and voters that California — the first state to legalize medical marijuana two decades ago — can provide order to a medical weed sector that has been haphazardly regulated.

For legalization advocates, 2015 has been a historic year.

Marijuana was pushed further into the mainstream than ever before, and new policies passed at the state level seem to confirm that the public and lawmakers are ready to have a rational conversation about the future of pot in America.