Picture the scene: it's been a long day, you're feeling a little wired and have some time to kill. You drop into Dutchie's, a popular chain café, and place your order: "I'll have a skinny Morroccan and a gluten-free hash brownie, please." And you sit down among the business suits and chill...

If that scenario sounds a bit trippy, then think again. It seems that high times lie ahead, and there are signs that industry is ever more hungrily eyeing up the cannabis market in the wake of decriminalisation in the United States. Rap artist-turned-entrepreneur Snoop Dogg announced this week that he is launching a marijuana-based media company, Merry Jane, providing news, information and entertainment about and for the rapidly expanding cannabis industry in the US.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) adopted emergency rules and issued new draft rules on Wednesday to begin the process of aligning the medical marijuana market with the existing recreational market.

The board’s actions are the result of 2015 legislation, the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, which established a priority system for licensing existing medical marijuana outlets.

The emergency rules, which are effective immediately, allow the WSLCB to begin the process of licensing new retail outlets that may sell both medical and recreational marijuana. Existing recreational stores may also apply for an endorsement to sell both.

Mary Jane Rathbun was beloved among patients with AIDS at San Francisco General Hospital in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As a volunteer, she took them for X-rays, filed their prescriptions — and supplied them with marijuana-laced brownies to alleviate their debilitating pain and wasting symptoms.

Proponents' claims about the medical benefits of marijuana are outpacing the evidence.

How cannabis spread around the world 

There can be little doubt that, today, cannabis is a major talking point throughout many societies around the world, and legal or not, it is used by individuals in the majority of countries across the globe.

The medical and recreational use of marijuana is nothing new – its history goes back tens of thousands of years. But how did cannabis go from standard plant to a much-used recreational drug? How did it spread around the world and establish itself as the controversial substance it is today? And when did it become banned in much of the world?

Denver city inspectors for marijuana licensing asked the Board of Ethics for its blessing to work as paid consultants to the cannabis industry elsewhere.

In a resounding “No” this week, the board balked. Its advisory opinion cites concerns about potential conflicts of interest and bad appearances, saying such work would violate the city’s Code of Ethics.

When the board discussed the inspectors’ request for an ethics opinion last week — before issuing its formal guidance Tuesday — chairman Brian Spano spoke more plainly.

“I just think it’s too close a call to be a paid consultant in the industry you’re regulating for the city,” Spano said. That would be true, he added, even if potential clients aimed to open businesses outside Denver or even Colorado.

“Weeds?” “Cookies?” “Mushies?” “Acid?“

That’s how the city center of Nimbin sounds like. Don’t be afraid if on your way to the main street many strangers approach you offering good psychedelic doses…

Also don’t be surprised if you see lot’s of people wearing hippy clothes, women with dreadlocks and hairy armpits and people playing with hoola hoops. That’s all part of the Nimbin’s particular slower paced atmosphere.

Tucked away in the hills west of Byron Bay, Nimbin was once a sleepy little dairying village in a lush setting of farmland and forest. Today, Nimbin is known the world over as Australia’s most famous hippie destination and alternative lifestyle capital.

His last bout, against Anderson Silva at UFC 183 in January, was a pay-per-view success. A lot of guys have to worry about what their wives and kids think, I don’t.

The Nevada Athletic Commission came down hard on Diaz after he received his third strike, and many people including Rousey and Mayweather agreed that the punishment was too harsh considering that marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug. To me it’s something that’s unjust, and I feel like as an Olympic athlete who’s now a UFC fighter it gives the…I feel like I have his side because I’ve been there before.

Pot changes your mental state and athletic performance—but not necessarily for the worst. Here, a look at the effects of marijuana on running stamina, endurance, and race training