Within a year, investors will begin making millions off medical marijuana in Illinois.

Dispensaries and growing centers are under construction now. The Illinois Department of Public Health reports 14,000 patient requests and has issued 1,000 approval letters.

Legal marijuana for medical or recreational uses is sweeping the nation. In this environment, it seems cruel to continue pursuing serious misdemeanor and felony charges against casual users.

An Iowa Senate bill would make first-time possession of five grams, about $100 worth at Colorado dispensary rates, a simple misdemeanor, a ticketable offense punishable by a fine of up to $625 and no more than 30 days in jail.

Researchers from Yale University believe they have deciphered the neurological mechanism that causes the “munchies,” that inexplicable urge to eat that has led generations of marijuana users to consume untold numbers of nachos, Twinkies and Doritos.

The phenomenon appears to be driven by neurons in the brain that typically involve suppressing the appetite, according to a paper published last month in the journal Nature. When responding to marijuana, however, neurons that normally turn off hunger pangs instead made users ravenous — at least when those users were transgenic lab mice.

Missouri is high on my list of states that could legalize marijuana by the end of 2016. Missouri has the strongest campaign team I have ever seen (Show-Me Cannabis), and I always say that if they can legalize in Missouri, they will prove that any state can do the same. Unlike Western and Northeastern states, where views towards cannabis are generally more liberal, Missouri is in the heart of America where reefer madness is much more prevalent.

An undated photo of Larry and Rhonda Harvey(Photo: Courtesy of Larry Harvey)

SPOKANE, Wash. — Federal prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury that a cancer-stricken man and his family were illegally growing and distributing marijuana in the forest outside their northeastern Washington home despite claims by the "Kettle Falls Five" that they were instead raising legal medical cannabis for their personal use.

A user prepares to roll a marijuana cigarette on the first day of legal possession of marijuana for recreational purposes in the District of Colombia on Thursday. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Alex Brandon/AP

Nearly two-thirds of Millennials who identify as Republican support legalizing marijuana, while almost half of older GOP Gen-Xers do, according to a recently released Pew survey that could be an indicator of where the debate is heading.

Colorado has released its first annual report on the status of the marijuana market a year after legalization in the state. It shows a growing industry that has sold nearly 75 tons of cannabis flower and almost 50 million units of pot edibles.

A year after the first licensed marijuana retail stores opened in Colorado, the Marijuana Enforcement Division says the state has sold nearly $700 million of medical and recreational marijuana in 2014. More than half of that, or $386 million, was spent on medical marijuana while $313 million accounted for recreational use.

Syracuse, N.Y. - The first U.S. public company allowed to raise money on the stock market to produce and sell medical marijuana wants to grow pot in Central New York.

Terra Tech Corp., of Irvine, Calif., plans to apply for a state license to cultivate and dispense medical marijuana in New York, said Derek Peterson, the company's CEO.

"We're looking at Central New York for cultivation," Peterson said. "If you want a retail footprint around the state, you want cultivation and production centrally located adjacent to major arteries to provide access to all the retail locations."

The company has not picked a Central New York location yet, he said. Peterson said dispensaries would be scattered around the state in places such as Ithaca, Albany, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

On the heels of recreational marijuana use becoming legal in Washington, D.C., a poll reveals that a majority of Republican millennials favor legalizing marijuana.

The poll, conducted by Pew Research Center, found that 63 percent of Republican millennials -- defined as those born between 1981 and 1996 -- feel that the use of marijuana should be legal. Support among Democratic millennials was even higher, at 77 percent.

While a majority of Democrats in all age groups born after 1945 support marijuana legalization, the only Republican age group to favor legal marijuana was millennials.

The first official gathering and pro-cannabis legalization celebration has been organized by collectives and citizens in Greece. The festival called Athens Cannabis Protestival will take place on Saturday, May 9, at Syntagma Square in Athens.

[JURIST] Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe [official website] on Thursday signed a legislative measure [HB 1445] aimed at permitting use of medical marijuana oils for individuals suffering from severe forms of epilepsy.