By Julia Wright

You're almost finished a half-marathon. Pulse pounding in your ears. Knees aching. Running isn't for quitters.

But today is unusually easy: you're focused on the cool breeze on your arms, the golden late-September sun reflecting off the lake, and the ice-cold beer you're going to enjoy. Forget the chaos that's happening in your body.

Runner's high? Yes, totally. But the reason you feel so fantastic today is also due, at least in part, to the cannabis you consumed an hour before lacing up. 

Snoop Dogg has made no secret of his passion for cannabis - and now he's expected to court further controversy by launching a website dedicated to the drug.

The rapper revealed he's behind a new lifestyle platform called Merry Jane at a TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco.

Speaking on stage, Snoop said the site will provide users with "all they need to know" about marijuana and feature videos and interviews with other high-profile users.

The site, which Snoop has worked on with media entrepreneur Ted Chung, is said to have the support of outspoken weed users Seth Rogen and Miley Cyrus.

Merry Jane will also have its own series where each episode focuses on an aspect of pot.

The Red Headed Stranger just scored some green, in more ways than one.

A New York private equity firm is backing country singer and songwriter Willie Nelson’s endeavor to sell marijuana in Colorado and Washington.

Tuatara Capital is leading an investor group financing the Willie’s Reserve cannabis brand for sale in the two states’ recreational markets, “and also other states as regulations allow,” according to a news release.

“We’re really excited to partner with someone like Willie, who embodies this spirit of American entrepreneurship and conviction to a cause,” said Tuatara Chief Investment Officer Al Foreman.

PORTLAND, Ore. — About 15 years ago, when she was in her 20s, Erika Walton handed a bong to someone who turned out be a police officer, and was cited for marijuana possession. She paid the fine, she said, but the violation lingered on, haunting her record.

On a recent afternoon, Walton was at a free legal clinic here in Oregon’s largest city, filling out paperwork to have that infraction forever sealed. Once the process is complete, she will be able to legally say to an employer, landlord or anybody else who asks that she has never been convicted or cited for any drug crime at all.

“It’s taken away a lot of my life,” Walton said as she inked out her fingerprints, which Oregon requires applicants for sealing to file. 

If Canada's new government chooses to legalize marijuana beyond medical use then it should get into the business of controlling its supply and sale to prevent the rise of a "Big Cannabis," addiction specialists say.

Cannabis policy could be an issue ahead of October's federal election. The governing Conservative party favours the status quo, the competing Liberals have promised legalization and the New Democrats support decriminalization. The Green Party has said it would legalize and tax marijuana.

A new study of marijuana drug use in Colorado found increases in marijuana-related traffic deaths, hospital visits, school suspensions, lab explosions, and pet poisonings. The study was conducted by a federal government program.

The 166-page report released this month analyzed the effects of legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use in Colorado spanning the time period from 2006 to the present. Along with the state of Washington, Colorado is considered as something of laboratory in which the effects of legalizing marijuana use can be studied.

Seattle- Legalizing marijuana in the state of Washington has eliminated wasted police time and effort pursuing non-violent drug cases and led the community to instead look at it as a health issue, according to backers of drug reform laws in Seattle. The movement has allowed the opening of hundreds of retail shops selling pot. John Davis, owner of the Northwest Patient Resource Center, a medical marijuana shop, has been a long-time advocate for pot use to help people deal with a variety of ailments. 

It ain't nuthin' but a ".com" thang.

Rapper Snoop Dogg on Monday unveiled a new media company website devoted to — what else — marijuana. 

Born Calvin Broadus Jr., the music mogul and co-founder of MerryJane.com described his new online destination as "the encyclopedia to the cannabis world" during TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.

"We're providing the industry with something that's void right now," Snoop said. "We are the information hotline for cannabis. We are what's missing." 

As horror stories of the damaging effects of K2, or "synthetic marijuana," continue to proliferate around the city, some City Council members have voiced support for simply decriminalizing a substance known to have caused harm to virtually no users—regular, organic marijuana.

TUCSON – Supporters and opponents of marijuana legalization believe Arizona voters will decide the issue in November 2016.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Arizona announced it has gathered 75,000 signatures for a ballot initiative. It needs about 150,000. The campaign wants to gather 230,000 in anticipation of invalid signatures.

Seth Leibsohn is the chairman of Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, which opposes legalization.

“They have paid almost a million dollars to a professional firm to collect signatures.” He said. “You could collect signatures for anything at that price. So I've never doubted that they could get on the ballot.”