Organised gangs in China are undermining UK government attempts to control the multi-million pound trade in so-called legal highs, a BBC investigation has revealed.

The BBC team found chemical labs in China routinely send legal highs to the UK using courier services.

One laboratory said it sends drugs in packages described as "birthday gifts".

Legal highs are chemicals designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.

I am the author of Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir, published on April 20 this year. In this book, I chose to organize the major events of my life around a marijuana spine. I thought it was high time that someone came out as a longtime recreational user for whom cannabis has proved not ruinous - but life-enhancing. I felt called to offer the events of my life as a testimony to that.

Medical marijuana dispensaries remained busy throughout the weekend after opening their doors for recreational sales Thursday. 

Many of the dispensaries opened at the stroke of midnight Thursday and were greeted with long lines. Those lines continued the following three days, and thousands of customers found their way to a dispensary. Bend has the most dispensaries in Central Oregon, with 16 locations. 

“It was amazing,” Ben Hebert, owner of Dr. Jolly’s on SE Third Street, said Sunday. “We were totally busy all the time. I think we had a lot of happy people coming out of here.” 

Aviv Hadar, co-founder of Oregrown Industries, which has a dispensary on NW Wall Street, said sales reached $55,000 on the first day alone. 

Oregonians who possess medical marijuana cards have finally been told to take a number.

The aftermath of recreational marijuana becoming a reality: some Portland medical marijuana dispensaries have seen sales overwhelmingly increase overnight. And yes, there are lines. 

GoLocalPDX spoke with Christina Zusman, an owner of Canna Daddy’s dispensary on SE Division, which just started selling recreational marijuana. “Our average now is between 700 and 1000 customers a day when we used to see a couple hundred each day. Sales are good.”  

In a letter we obtained from the mayor's office in Amsterdam, mayor Van der Laan announced 15 more coffeeshops will be closed in Amsterdam, in addition to the 41 coffeeshops that have already been closed earlier this year. 

In the letter, referred is to a new report by Intraval’s 12th report on the state of the coffeeshops, which discusses the results of the twelfth measurement of the monitor of the number of tolerated point of sales of soft drugs (coffeeshops) in The Netherlands and the municipal coffeeshop policy.

The debate over marijuana use in Canada has emerged in the federal election, pitting Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau squarely against Conservative Leader Stephen Harper over legalization.

Earlier this week, Trudeau stirred controversy when he vowed to legalize cannabis if elected. A day after clashing with Trudeau over the matter at the French-language debate, Harper challenged his opponent's stance again, and said marijuana is "infinitely worse" than tobacco.

The Conservatives are staunchly opposed to legalizing marijuana in Canada. Harper has said that it would do nothing to keep the drug away from children.

A lack of guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency frustrated Colorado's efforts to decide how to handle pesticides and pot.

State regulators have known since 2012 that marijuana was grown with potentially dangerous pesticides, but pressure from the industry and lack of guidance from federal authorities delayed their efforts to enact regulations, and they ultimately landed on a less restrictive approach than originally envisioned.

Three years of e-mails and records obtained by The Denver Post and dozens of interviews show state regulators struggled with the issue while the cannabis industry protested that proposed limits on pesticides would leave their valuable crops vulnerable to devastating disease.

The leader of one of the nation’s largest metropolitan chambers of commerce is urging local businesses to come out against a ballot issue that would legalize both medical and recreational marijuana.

But legal experts and proponents of Issue 3 say employers need not fear if marijuana is legalized in Ohio.

On Nov. 3, Ohio residents will be asked to vote on both Issue 3 and Issue 2, the Ohio Initiated Monopolies Amendment put on by lawmakers in response to ResponsibleOhio’s campaign to legalize marijuana here. Issue 3, or the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, would create 10 facilities with exclusive rights to commercially grow the drug.

California and Florida could both pass legalized marijuana measures next year.

Marijuana advocates have been gaining momentum in states that have yet to legalize marijuana, but supporters and those interested in the legalization efforts are undeniably watching most closely to see what happens in California and Florida.

Those two states have different histories when it comes to their stance on marijuana, but both are likely to have marijuana bills on their ballots in 2016, and if those bills pass, then roughly 59 million Americans could enjoy greater access to marijuana by the end of next year.