Colorado pot businesses sold a record amount of marijuana in January, resulting in an excise tax of $2.3 million designated for public schools, state officials said Wednesday.

Based on the Colorado Department of Revenue data, around $36.4 million of recreational marijuana was sold this January compared to about $14.69 million sold the same month last year.

"This is really what we expected and hope to see: a shift in the underground market to a regulated market," said legalization advocate Mason Tvert. "It's clearly generating significant revenue for the state."

The club growers challenge the reigning prohibition in Brazil for the right to grow their own gourmet marijuana at home

Marijuana appeared in the life of Marcelo at 17, in a crude pipe with three holes made from an apple . After a furtive relationship with grass and many fights with his family, he convinced his mother that it  was a good idea to plant it in the house . "I showed several documentaries and articles to my parents until they understood what is really cannabis and advantages of consuming my own production."

The Florida Cannabis Action Network is now developing a 2016 voter initiative to legalize marijuana, based on the likelihood that the Florida Legislature will be unwilling to create a comprehensive medical-only program in coming weeks.

That could mean that there is both a medical marijuana amendment and an adult-use amendment on the Florida ballot during the presidential election-year ballot.

Unlike two recently filed but restrictive medical marijuana legislative bills and unlike the revised medical marijuana amendment possibly headed for the November 2016 ballot, the proposed Florida-Can amendment would open use of the plant.

Cannabis has been legal for recreational use in the US states of Washington and Colorado for more than a year now. Voters have also backed legalisation in Alaska and Oregon, and are facing a new challenge - how to turn an illegal drug into a legitimate business. Alastair Leithead has been to Seattle - to see how legal cannabis is going, and over the border to Salem, Oregon - to see how they are planning to implement it.

In this episode of FUEL, Canadian Olympic Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati embraces his infamous past and embarks on a new venture.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Supporters of a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Ohio said their plan could generate $554 million in annual tax revenue once the industry has been established.

ResponsibleOhio released initial tax revenue projections for its legalization proposal, which limits commercial growing of marijuana to 10 pre-selected sites promised to campaign investors. Marijuana would be taxed 15 percent at production and manufacturing facilities and 5 percent at retail locations, with tax revenues going toward local governments, addiction services, and marijuana research.

Ian James, architect of a proposal to legalize pot in Ohio, said it stemmed from a simple notion: "Let's take this from the tie-dye to the suit-and-tie approach to marijuana."

James, CEO of the Strategy Network, a Columbus political consulting firm, turned to Cincinnati lawyer Chris Stock for help. Would Stock draft a proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would outline how pot would be regulated for personal and medical use? "I've never used marijuana in my life," Stock told James. "I'm not sure I want to be involved." But he relented.

A Trial to Decide the Future of the Spanish Cannabis Community

On 10 and 11 March the "Pannagh" association in Bilbao faces a hearing whose decision could be decisive for the whole process of legalising social cannabis clubsin Spain. Thus, the entire community of activists wishes to show its support to the group and its five indicted members, who face 22 years of prison and millions of euros in bail. 

Successive conservative governments have ratcheted up the pressure against cannabis production, which is intensifying criminal activity while reducing marijuana quality. The ultimate goal: to reduce production to a minimum and for Holland to cease from being a destination for cannabis tourism.

Twenty years Holland was a paragon of progressivism in Europe, a place that welcomed any advance involving cannabis with open arms, a paradise dotted with “coffee shops” and tourists who found there a haven for marijuana consumption.