A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate for some drug users, but shifts the blame for those addicts’ escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American life: alcohol.

While local city and county officials continue to debate the particulars of Oregon’s new liberal marijuana laws, methamphetamine, heroin and prescription pain pills continue to ravage our communities.

The Douglas County commissioners and the Roseburg city councilors recently spent considerable time discussing whether to go along with the state’s new marijuana laws — which may soon allow medical and recreational marijuana to be sold from the same locations — or to ban most everything having to do with marijuana within their respective jurisdictions.

It sounds more and more as if our local elected officials will allow Douglas County voters to once again weigh in on an issue that has already been decided by a majority of Oregon voters.

The sale and distribution of drugs in parts of Dublin has dramatically increased on last year.

Gardai in Crumlin, Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard all recorded huge increases in drug crimes this year.

In total, the South Central district recorded 160 cases of the sale and distribution of drugs in the 12 months up to mid-July this year.

That's up by 54 cases on the same period last year.

Kilmainham and Kevin Street Garda Stations reported the problem increased by a shocking 76pc in their area alone, compared with 2014.

They had 104 detections of the sale and supply of drugs in their districts, compared to just 59 between July 2013 and July 2014.

Many people have believed that marijuana or cannabis is a really bad drug and that it is going to harm tons of people around them, but the reality is that marijuana is only a plant and that it does not cause much harm at all.  According to some recent studies, marijuana may be even safer than we previously thought and our concerns, should really be for other things like cocaine, tobacco and alcohol. 

Scientific Reports, which is a very popular journal, recently published this study and they did a great job at quantifying the numbers of deaths caused by recreational drugs.  According to their result, the deadliest drug is alcohol and it is followed by heroin and cocaine. 

USE of illicit drugs in the country is increasing at an alarming rate, with cannabis and heroin being the most commonly used, hence the need for the government to embark on immediate strategies to tackle the problem.

A study conducted in 12 regions has shown an increase in illicit drug use, especially along major transport corridors. The trend poses a serious danger to future generations who are being lured into the vice.

The study was conducted by 14 experts from the Drug Control Commission (DCC), the University of California, San Francisco and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Tanzania, who presented the findings yesterday in Dar es Salaam.

After suffering a serious injury in a house fire more than four years ago, Robin Douglas was confined to a wheelchair and thought he would never walk again.

Depression and hopelessness took over. When he tried to kill himself, he knew he'd hit rock bottom.

That's when he turned to marijuana for salvation. A few months later, he no longer needed the wheelchair.

"My mind, body and spirit was healed." Douglas, 57, told VICE News Thursday from White Rock, British Columbia. "And every time I met with like-minded people who helped me use cannabis, we would smoke or eat it and be able to see things clearly."

The CEO of Native Roots says the employee who made the underage sale and the Aspen store's manager have been fired in the wake of the citation

Two recreational marijuana shops in Aspen were cited this week by state regulators for selling pot to an underage customer in a set of rare cases for the industry in Colorado.

The Marijuana Enforcement Division confirmed that it issued two citations after conducting seven underage compliance checks in Aspen.

Since January 2014, the division has conducted about 130 underage compliance checks statewide, resulting in a total of nine violations, MED spokesman Tommy Moore said.

Thanks to a young economics student, it looks like parliament is going to be debating the legalisation of cannabis in the UK before the end of the year. An online petition started by James Owen, a 25-year-old on his final year at Aberystwyth University, urging MPs to make the "production, sale and use of cannabis legal" picked up way over the 100,000 signatures (183,868 at the time of writing) it needed for MPs to consider debating the issue.

Recommendations for the classiest of cannabis connoisseurs

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, but only Colorado and Washington have licensed dispensaries that can legally sell recreational cannabis. Since legalization and sale came to those communities, the budding pot industry in these two states has tried to shape a future of vineyard-esque tours of marijuana farms, and fatty-friendly salons reminiscent of Amsterdam’s cafes. (The phrase “Napa Valley of weed” gets tossed around a fair bit.)

As more municipalities relax restrictions on access to cannabis, questions about the plant’s potential for respiratory effects become more common. Given current limitations in developing an inhalant alternative for delivering cannabis medication, smoked marijuana remains the most readily accessible form of cannabis among medicinal users (1). An important question that remains is how to improve safety for the respiratory system in individuals who choose to use cannabis medicinally.