(Reuters) - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday approved language of a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana for people with debilitating medical conditions, paving the way for a vote next year.

Supporters must gather enough petition signatures to ensure the measure will be placed on the 2016 ballot.

United With Care, a medical marijuana advocacy group, said on its website it needs to secure 683,149 signatures by Dec. 31 to bring the amendment to a popular vote. Some 400,000 Florida residents have already signed the petition, the group said.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia allow marijuana use for those suffering from a range of ailments, from HIV to glaucoma and cancer to epilepsy.

Carrie Fisher and Ellen DeGeneres took the streets to sell exclusive tickets to the Star Wars premiere for charity.

Leia has assumed a little part in Fisher’s Postcards From the Edge and Pie in the sky Drinking, yet she’s essential to the book the on-screen character is now dealing with, The Princess Diarist (out April 26), which is separated from old diaries Fisher kept while recording Star Wars. “She’s a wonderful actress”.

After her co-star Oscar Isaac, who plays X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron in the sci-fi film, asked her about her inspiration for reprising her role of Leia, she replied, “I asked the early, young Carrie Fisher what it would be like 48 years later … oh wait it’s 40″.

Around 400 tubes of lip balm were being discarded on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Thursday after officials found they contained trace amounts of THC.

Confirming an initial report from the Air Force Times, JBER spokesperson 1st Lt. Michael Harrington said Thursday, “It’s a real thing; kind of embarrassing, I guess.”

The lip balm contained hemp seed oil, the use of which is banned in U.S. Army and Air Force regulations.

In an email to JBER employees Wednesday, the base's public affairs team asked that the lip balm be thrown away.

In an interview with the Canadian Press, prime minister Justin Trudeau stated that his government’s goal with legalization of cannabis isn’t tax revenues, but to protect Canadians.

“The big reason that we chose to commit to controlling and regulating marijuana is to keep young people safe,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau cited a 2013 study from UNICEF that listed Canadian youth as having the highest rate of cannabis use compared to any other country in the developed world.

POT TV - How can marijuana dispensaries fight back against the police raids? An interview with John Conroy by Pot TV Editor Jeremiah Vandermeer.

While the tide of public opinion has been slowly turning in favor of legalizing weed over the past five to 10 years, that hasn’t always been the case. 

In fact, beginning in the 1930s, hemp was strongly stigmatized in the U.S., largely because of its association with the growing Mexican immigrant population. As federal and state laws against the drug became enacted, several films were also released that helped bolster the anti-marijuana movement.

What happens to the War on Drugs once cannabis is legalized?

One of the original arguments for decriminalizing marijuana in the 1970s was that it would enable the criminal justice system to concentrate resources on the manufacture, sale and use of more dangerous drugs. In other words, take the resources devoted to marijuana laws and re-allocate them to the fight against heroin, cocaine and other drugs (which, in modern times, would include methamphetamine).

Would legalization of cannabis allow for an intensified fight against other illegal drug markets? 

This seems logical and, among some folks, is a persuasive argument in favor of legalized cannabis.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma and Nebraska seeking to block Colorado's voter-approved law legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults.

In their challenge to Colorado's law, filed in December 2014, Nebraska and Oklahoma said marijuana is being smuggled across their borders and that drugs threaten the health and safety of children.

Nebraska and Oklahoma noted that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and said Colorado has created "a dangerous gap" in the federal drug control system.

This week, a bill decriminalizing the possession and use of small amounts of marijuana takes effect in Delaware – and with it comes questions. Here is what you need to know:

When does marijuana decriminalization begin? The law takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday – exactly six months after Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill 39 into law.

What does the legislation mean? Anyone 21 and older can possess up to one ounce of leaf marijuana and use the drug privately without facing criminal sanctions. The penalty for possession will be a $100 civil penalty – with no threat of jail time, arrest or a criminal record.

“Perceived risk is usually a deterrent to use and it is clear that this deterrent has weakened considerably,” said lead investigator on the survey Lloyd Johnston. “In sum, there is a lot of good news in this year’s results, but the problems of teen substance use and abuse are still far from going away.”

The survey used responses from 40,000 students drawn from both public and private high schools and was carried out by National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan.

Twenty-three states have introduced laws permitting medical marijuana while four states have legalized the drug’s recreational use, along with the District of Colombia. The first year that adults could legally buy weed in Colorado and Washington was 2014.