In the places where marijuana is legal, more and more children are being accidentally exposed to their parents’ drugs, a study finds.

The good news is that it is still rare for children to be exposed to marijuana when they are younger than 6 — but the trend is not exactly heading in the right direction.

Marijuana is legal now in more places than ever, and as a result, the number of reports that children have accidentally ingested or inhaled the drug is increasing.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics, analyzed figures from the National Poison Data System, which is the clearinghouse for data from all of the poison control centres in the United States. The data in the study covered 2000 to 2013.

The Board of State Canvassers approved petition wording Thursday for two measures to legalize marijuana that could appear on the November 2016 state ballot.

LANSING – Two measures to legalize marijuana could appear on the November 2016 state ballot after the Board of State Canvassers approved petition wording Thursday.

At least one and possibly two more measures to legalize marijuana for recreational use could still be on their way to the ballot.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a provision Thursday that would protect medical marijuana operations from federal crackdown in states where the substance is legal.

The committee passed the measure, by a vote of 22-8, as an amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill for fiscal year 2016. The amendment blocks the Department of Justice, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, from using appropriated funds to interfere with medical marijuana programs in the states that have legalized the drug for medical purposes.

This week New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reiterated his intention to crack down on marijuana in states that have legalized it if he is elected president. In an interview on Face the Nation last Sunday, Christie answered “yes” when asked whether he would “return the federal prosecutions in these states,” “yes” when asked if he would “go after” marijuana, and “correct” when asked if legalization would be “turned off.”

Opioid painkillers are supposed to provide pain relief, but there is now a plethora of injuries and deaths because they have been heavily marketed and inappropriately prescribed.

There is an alarming reality in the world of modern medicine: patients are dying in unprecedented numbers from therapies prescribed to treat pain. More striking still is that this is happening throughout the world.

Starting May 29 the new traffic controls drug saliva test in 19 sample cities. The controls run on Saturday and Sunday until the end of summer and then, if the results of the experiment are judged positive, it will be extended to the rest of Italy. The sample cities are Rome, Naples, Bologna, Novara, Bergamo, Brescia, Padua, Verona, Trieste, Savona, Forlì and Cesena, Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Perugia, Pescara, Teramo, Bari, Messina, Cagliari.

CONTROLS SOME MORE CREDIBLE.

Their proposed ban is an affront to our right to do whatever we want with our bodies

I lower the balloon from my lips and close my eyes. Sounds begin to slow down and seem further away. I feel like I'm moving at high speed, but through what, I'm not sure. My sense of time begins to slip away. I reach the deepest point of my journey. As quickly as I arrived, I return, blinking in the sunlight.

The whole experience has lasted less than a minute, and I'm left feeling energised and slightly disorientated. Within another few minutes, I feel totally back to normal.

After my blog on Wednesday on tensions between drugs advisors and the Home Office, more details have emerged of how the expert panel on legal highs was split down the middle on whether to go for a total ban.

While ministers claim their Psychoactive Substances Bill reflects the findings of the experts, I am told that the hand-picked committee was divided on whether low-harm substances like amyl nitrate (poppers) and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) should be included.

The final report was drafted by Home Office officials but some members of the panel, which included three people who also sit on the ACMD, insisted on writing in what became known as the "safety-valve" clause.

Now that it's okay to use a rolling pin instead simply rolling marijuana, there's the matter of getting the correct potency for licensed users.

You can go with the pros, of course.

Nutritional High, Canada's first recreational marijuana company, will be creating a variety of marijuana-infused products such as chocolate bars, candies, cakes, teas, drops and tinctures. (The company's also moving towards creams, massage oils, lotions, bath soaks, lip balms along with vaporizer pens akin to e-cigarettes.)

Otherwise there is some mighty fine reading on the subject of cooking your own at home.

A former head of the AFP has called for drug use to be decriminalised.

Mick Palmer, who was the Australian Federal Police commissioner for seven years, said with the number of arrests and seizures increasing each year, it had become clear prohibition wasn't working. 

He told Neil Mitchell while policing had improved, it's had little effect on reducing the supply of drugs.

Mr Palmer said society couldn't police its way out of the problem.

"I think we need to be prepared to look at decriminalisation," he said on 3AW Mornings.

"The ways in which we would regulate the market and take the market place away from organised crime and criminal market place.