If prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau intends to make good on his promise to legalize marijuana in Canada, he might want to start by looking to Washington State, where recreational marijuana stores have been operating for over a year.

King County sheriff John Urquhart says the biggest lesson learned in Washington State is that once pot becomes legal, cities should not have the power to use zoning bylaws to completely ban weed shops. 

"There are several cities in the state and in King County that have outlawed marijuana stores, and that's a big problem as far as I'm concerned," Urquhart told CBC.

"One of the premises of legalized marijuana is to get the grey market and criminals out of it," he continued. 

Against the backdrop of the often-forgotten industrial area of West Oakland, the Gathering of Pied Pipers is taking place. As the party is hosted in a larger artists’ enclave, dabbing is limited to a shipping container within the massive space that also plays host to live glassblowing demonstrations. Inside the crowded container, I spot master hashishin Frenchy Cannoli amidst a gathering of e-nails and heady selections. At an event featuring choice products from the most innovative extract artists in the Bay Area, meeting the man who uses traditional techniques to elevate hash into artisanal realms is an absolute treat.

“Frenchy, I’ve been looking for you,” I say.

PORTAGE, Mich. (WOOD)– On Nov. 3, Portage voters will decide if they want to be the next city  to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

The charter amendment on the ballot reads:

Shall the Charter of the City of Portage, Michigan, be amended by adding a new Section 5.14 to Chapter 5, entitled “Marijuana,” to state that: “Nothing in the Code of Ordinances shall apply to the use, possession or transfer of less than 1 ounce of marijuana, on private property not used by the public, or transportation of 1 ounce or less of marijuana, by a person who has attained the age of 21 years?”

The seizure of 30,000 marijuana plants Friday on land belonging to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin constituted a raid on an unlawful marijuana grow operation and not the destruction of an industrial hemp crop as the tribe asserts, a federal prosecutor said.

Gregory J. Haanstad, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin said the plants weighed several thousand pounds.

Federal agents descended upon County Road M west of Suring in Menominee County on Friday morning with front-end loaders to place the plants into county highway department trucks, WBAY-TV in Green Bay reported.

Agents worked at several locations while Menominee County sheriff's deputies stood guard in tactical gear with assault rifles, according to a post on the station's website.

More Americans support legalizing marijuana than they approve of the sitting president, or support any of the 2016 presidential candidates. On Wednesday, Gallup released the results of its latest poll on pot sentiment, and it showed that majority of Americans — 58 percent — favored legalization for the third consecutive year. Younger folks were more enthusiastic about it than older folks. But older folks are way more supportive than retirees in previous polls. 

What will marijuana legalization look like under the Liberal government? Marijuana advocates are hinting into how the legalization process will play out in Canada when Justin Trudeau is sworn in as Prime Minister on November 4th.

From The Georgia Straight:

MILWAUKIE, Ore. (AP) - Marijuana stores would be prohibited from selling both recreational and medical marijuana and pot could not be used on site under regulations considered Thursday by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

The OLCC is expected to approve more than 70 pages of rules that will govern Oregon's retail marijuana system once it's fully operational next year. While marijuana stores began selling to adults 21 and older earlier this month, they're operating under temporary authority from the medical marijuana program. By 2017, companies producing or selling marijuana to the general population will have to abide by the OLCC's regulations for health, safety and security.

Nearly one in ten American adults, or more than 22 million people, smoke marijuana, according to a new study. The number of adults using marijuana has doubled over the last decade.

This rise in usage is a reflection of a cultural shift on the acceptability of marijuana use, according to researchers with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Other studies have shown that increasing numbers of adults think marijuana should be legalized.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans now believe that use of marijuana should be made legal, “tying the high point in Gallup’s 46-year trend,” according to a Gallup Poll released on Thursday.

The support for legalization is highest among so-called millennials, with 71 percent of those 18 to 34 saying that cannabis should be legal.  Sixty-four percent of those 35 to 49 years old agree, along with 58 percent in the 50-64 age group.

It stands to reason that legalizing marijuana, by making it easier, cheaper, and less risky to obtain, would encourage consumption. That is mostly a positive development, since it implies greater consumer satisfaction as more people enjoy a product that prohibition made harder to get. But it also stands to reason that as marijuana consumption rises, so will marijuana-related problems. The extent of those problems is a big part of the current debate about the wisdom of emulating Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska by treating marijuana suppliers as legitimate businesses instead of criminal organizations.