Recently, I had my attitude checked in a marijuana dispensary. You read that right: a weed shop. If you know me personally, and are judging me right now, save it 'til the end; you may be checking your attitude too. If you don't know me, then read on, but this may be checkmate.

Smart Colorado, dedicated to protecting youth from marijuana, is launching a billboard campaign in Denver asking the question: “Is today’s Pot a hard drug?” The organization is helping parents and policymakers address that critical question by providing resources at its website, smartcolorado.org, and prompting a social media conversation with the hashtag #KnowPot.

This year has been an exciting one for proponents of both recreational and medicinal marijuana legalization efforts. Two states began to allow medicinal use, while two more states and Washington, D.C. have started to permit recreational use. Let’s take a look at the latest in these territories and how laws, regulations and rules have been developed around these measures.

Recreational Use

Oregon

The ridiculous failure of a drug war trudges on here in America. Now researchers at Washington State University are working hard to… CURE CANCER!

Nope.

Save Babies from SIDS!

Nope.

Feed homeless people! Solve the energy crisis! Help old ladies cross the street!

Nope, nope, and extra nope.

They are developing a handheld portable device to screen people’s breath for THC, the chemical that a News10 Rochester reporter so astutely reported, “makes you high” in the video clip below.

I originally wrote this piece by stating that "Don E. Wirtshafter has now taken to blatantly lying about Issue 3." Mr. Wirtshafter, a man of considerable means, then threatened to sue me for libel for publishing that. I have to apologize; it was wrong of me to characterize Mr. Wirtshafter's statements as "lies". In order to prove someone is lying, you have to show that there is a factual truth, they know that factual truth, and they are consciously promoting statements contrary to the factual truth.

Is it better to have drug use made legal, and therefore taxed and regulated, or might this encourage more drugs to be consumed – with the social and other costs associated with that? 

The UN wants its members to decriminalise drugs, and Sir Richard Branson thinks that is just great. Well, it is not quite like that; as so often, the story is more nuanced than the headline. The paper Sir Richard leaked, which urges “decriminalising drug use and possession for personal consumption”, was drawn up for a conference in Kuala Lumpur on harm reduction by Dr Monica Beg, an official at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. It has since been withdrawn and, as you can gather from the outcry, it is certainly a “third-rail issue” – you touch it at your peril.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L. ) is one of the oldest, and most versatile, plants known to humankind. According to The Columbia History of the World (1971), hemp fiber weaving had already begun in 8000 B.C., and we know that for seafaring—rigging, sails, cords, sealants, and anchor cables—hemp was critically important.

Industrial hemp and marijuana are two different varieties of the same species, with hemp containing less than 0.3 percent psychoactive THC compounds and with marijuana typically containing 3 to 15 percent.

So how did hemp, one of the most beneficial plants known to man, become the scourge of U.S. regulators?

According to a new study by Gallup, 58% of American adults believe marijuana should be made legal. That number, tied at the highest rate it’s ever been, is getting entrepreneurs in the cannabis sector excited.

Tomer Grassiany, founder of The Art of Edibles  and a line of cannabis chocolates called To Whom It May in California says broader acceptance could pave the way to opportunities for his business.  Grassiany imagines, “incorporating cannabis to catering events, fancy dinners and weddings” he said, “much like we see in the alcohol industry.”

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) -

A dangerous form of marijuana is growing in popularity. 

"Wax" or "dabs" is a highly concentrated form of marijuana, and experts warn making it could be as dangerous as making methamphetamine. 

Cooked with butane, the marijuana forms a wax-like substance and can be smoked. The drug has a much more concentrated amount of THC - the element of marijuana that produces a high - as much as 40 percent more than a regular marijuana joint. 

"If you bought really quality marijuana you're probably getting 15 percent THC," said Carol Reeves with Greenville Family Partnership, a local drug prevention organization. "With wax you can get as much as a 60 percent concentration."

The University has changed its accommodation policy to remove its zero tolerance stance on illegal drugs. This was in part a response to a campaign by the Newcastle chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, (SSDP) an international network of students calling for a welfare-based approach to drugs policy.