For the first time since Gallup began tracking it in 1999, there are now as many Americans who describe their views on social issues as "liberal" as there are who describe them as "conservative."

It's been a long and slow crawl, but Americans have steadily become more liberal on social issues without much interruption -- except for a brief dip when President Obama first took office in 2009. Today, it's tied at 31 percent. Back in 1999, it was about two-to-one conservative over liberal.

The state has a year until it begins issuing licenses for businesses selling recreational marijuana. Between now and then, the Alcoholic Beverages Control Board is home to a new body developing regulations: the Marijuana Control Board.

The rules taking shape are modeled on commercial alcohol sales, with regulators hoping to learn from past mistakes in Washington and Colorado.

On Thursday, ABC Board Director Cynthia Franklin spoke to members of the Anchorage Assembly in a packed conference room. The state codes concerned with growing, selling, and managing marijuana are expected to be done by November. And similar to Title 4 dealing with alcohol, the emerging ordinances are based on lots of local control.

Cornelis Jan Slomp, the Dutchman who became the biggest seller of illegal drugs on the so-called Deep Web marketplace Silk Road, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Slomp sold MDMA, ecstasy, cocaine, benzodiazepine, amphetamine, LSD, and marijuana in vast quantities on Silk Road, working from his home in Holland and using the account name SuperTrips.

What made Slomp such a big target wasn't the range of drugs he sold (lots of sellers offer a variety of items on the Deep Web, a section of the internet hidden from most web browsers), but the sheer amount he was able to sell.

A marijuana plant flourishes under grow lights. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has co-sponsored federal legislation that would reschedule marijuana, allowing patients to access medical cannabis. The bill would potentially allow federal employees to use the drug.

DENVER – U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is co-sponsoring legislation that would reschedule marijuana, underscoring access to medical cannabis where it’s legal, and possibly easing restrictions for federal employees.

Workers would still be subject to agency and employer rules, which might continue to prohibit them from being able to partake, even if the bill is signed into law.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. House, home, and maybe hotels? Amendment 64 gave the green light for the private and personal use of marijuana, but that doesn't always carry over into the rooms we rent.

According to Darshann Ruckman , General Manager of the Clarion Inn here in Grand Junction, the issue of marijuana consumption inside hotel rooms comes up on a day-to-day basis.

For her establishment, franchise regulations require Ruckman run a non-smoking facility - so whether you want to light up a cigarette, cigar, or joint, the answer is “no.”

However, if you want to consume your pot without smoking -- Ruckman says -- there's no problem with that at the Clarion Inn.

US law enforcement's infiltration and takedown of the Silk Road underground marketplace has turned up yet another court case, with a New Orleans man charged with selling counterfeit shopping coupons through the site, and its successors, on an epic scale.

Cultural snapshot: High in the mountains of Colorado, a film festival works to integrate cannabis into the mainstream

“Alright, it’s time to light it up,” said David Holbrooke, wrapped in a Mountainfilm parka while standing atop a scenic rooftop looking out on the towering box canyon walls protecting the high-altitude Colorado resort town Telluride.

A drugs gang who were pulled over by police and found with 1.3 tonnes of cannabis worth £6 million have been jailed today for a total of 25 years.

The men were seen leaving a farm in Mayland, Essex, in a flatbed lorry loaded with wooden pallets in between panes of glass and mirrors but concealed inside were packages of cannabis resin.

Police arrested driver Peter Tough, 53, and his passenger, Danny Williams, 41, at the scene in January while another load packaged in the same way was found at an industrial unit. 

The author and TV presenter says we have the chance to learn from America's lesson as an increasing number of States make the drug legal.

Texas State Rep. David Simpson (R), a staunch Tea Party member and conservative Christian, made headlines earlier this month when he put forth "the evangelical argument for total legalization of cannabis."

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Simpson quoted Timothy 4:4, which reads “everything God created is good." Under Simpson's reading of the text, all God's creations, marijuana included, are good.