GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - The Oregon Legislature is considering imposing up to a 20 percent sales tax on retail sales of marijuana once it becomes available to consumers.

Proposed amendments to a bill (HB 2041) allowing localities to prohibit marijuana facilities within 1,000 feet of schools would impose a 17 percent state tax on retail sales of marijuana products, from buds to candies.

They say it’s not the destination but the journey there that makes it an adventure. And man was this one a trip.

The journey kicked off three years ago with a filmmaker and his mission — shoot a travel series in Hawaii on the best places to get high. He took along a photographer buddy and they both decided on alter egos, calling themselves Dave High and Roland Jointz. Following numerous strange experiences with the locals, they managed to uncover a secret government plot to control the marijuana trade and keep a local advocate in jail for four years without a trial.

These are interesting and challenging times for Jordan Lewis, CEO of Silverpeak Apothecary, which sells both recreational and medical marijuana in Aspen.

Lewis will appear before Pitkin County commissioners today (June 9) in a work session focused on the marijuana smells that some neighbors say are wafting from High Valley Farms, the midvalley pot farm that Lewis owns and operates. The facility, which supplies the Silverpeak stores in Aspen, is located at 24359 Highway 82 in Basalt.

Today’s meeting comes after Silverpeak’s announcement Friday of its alliance with health care heavyweight North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. The two entities have linked arms to be a licensed marijuana provider in New York state.

The ResponsibleOhio marijuana legalization initiative has caused quite a bit of controversy in marijuana politics. At first, the ResponsibleOhio initiative provided for just 10 marijuana cultivation sites. After some outcry by many people in the marijuana reform movement, ResponsibleOhio added a provision for home cultivation. But the rules surrounding home cultivation are unclear. I heard someone from the ResponsibleOhio campaign state that the home cultivation provision was copied from Oregon. But that’s clearly not the case because Oregon will not require a license to cultivate up to four plants. How hard will it be to get a home cultivation license? How much will it cost? What will the rules be?

AMHERST – As proponents of marijuana legalization move toward asking voters to approve the law change in 2016, the University of Massachusetts wants to begin preparing for the implications of that change.

On Saturday, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass is hosting the "Marijuana Policy Forum: Protecting the Public Health with Good Policy."

The forum is intended for legislators and policymakers and is not open to the public. But there will likely be others, said Risa Silverman from the Office for Public Health Practice and Outreach.

Andrew Freedman, Colorado's director of marijuana coordination, will be the keynote speaker.

Support for the legalization of recreational marijuana use by adults has reached an all-time high in California, a state whose pot-friendly reputation precedes it but that has failed to get residents to approve full legalization in the past. A record 54 percent of potential California voters said they favored legalizing weed this year, a 3 percent increase in support from 2014, according to a June poll from the Public Policy Institute of California.

New Psychoactive Substances have repeatedly been labelled the latest “major challenge” facing those who work in drugs policy. Now, there is new legislation dealing with these so-called “legal highs”; the plethora of substances that mimic the effects of illegal drugs like MDMA and cannabis. The government’s proposed Psychoactive Substances Bill has been making its way through parliament, and is now under debate in the House of Lords.

And the bill has “joint left-right support”

Medical marijuana has been legally prescribe to Israeli’s since the early 1990s. That longevity coupled with over 20,000 patients and the world’s premier cannabis research makes Israel (for real) the world’s undisputed marijuana powerhouse.

More than a year after Indiana lawmakers legalized a so-called cash crop, the coffers are still empty.

Legislation signed into law in 2014 approved the commercial growth and research of the versatile industrial hemp plant, which is a non-intoxicating form of cannabis.

But lack of federal approval has stalled the state from moving forward.

Jamie Petty, the founder of the Indiana Hemp Industries Association, says the plant could be a boon for Indiana agriculture and manufacturing.

“We have empty factories in Anderson and Kokomo that could be converted,” she says. “It becomes the hemp processing plant.”

With IRS recognition, gifts are tax deductible for Bill Levin’s new Indianapolis church, which will begin operation the day Indiana’s new Religious Freedom law takes effect

though he grew up at the Reform-affiliated Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, Bill Levin recently founded a church. And not just any church — the First Church of Cannabis, for which Levin will serve as the Minister of Love.