Critics are calling "reefer madness" on a new study from Australia claiming smoking pot will give your kids cancer. 

Cannabis has been shown in cell, animal and limited human trials to prevent, halt or kill cancer, researchers note. Australia is getting world-famous for their reefer-madness research, this time for equating pot to the notorious birth defect-causing chemical thalidomide. 

On Tuesday, Associate Professor Stuart Reece and Professor Gary Hulse at The University of Western Australia released a paper called “Chromothripsis and epigenomics complete causality criteria for cannabis- and addiction-connected carcinogenicity, congenital toxicity and heritable genotoxicity”, published July 2016 in the journal "Mutation Research". 

Critics are calling “reefer madness” on a new study from Australia claiming smoking pot will give your kids cancer.

Cannabis has been shown in cell, animal and limited human trials to prevent, halt or kill cancer, researchers note. Australia is getting world-famous for their reefer-madness research, this time for equating pot to the notorious birth defect-causing chemical thalidomide.

On Tuesday, Associate Professor Stuart Reece and Professor Gary Hulse at The University of Western Australia released a paper called “Chromothripsis and epigenomics complete causality criteria for cannabis- and addiction-connected carcinogenicity, congenital toxicity and heritable genotoxicity”, published July 2016 in the journal “Mutation Research”.

One upside to new Senate voting rules is that they have driven a micro-party alliance giving rise to Australia’s first apparently irresistible political platform: sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

Well, sex and drugs anyway. The Australian Sex party and the Marijuana (Hemp) party – in a liaison aimed at corralling the progressive end of the minor party vote – are running their “joint ticket” in all states and territories except New South Wales and Victoria, where they will preference each other.

Still, Fiona Patten, whose role as an MP in the Victorian state upper house gives the Sex party real skin in the political game, notes the party’s previous teamwork with Gotye’s Basics Rock’n’roll party. “We’ve got strong arts policies and we certainly support rock’n’roll,” she says.

Legal marijuana is already a global industry and the U.S. is behind the curve.

When you think of the legal marijuana industry, you think of Colorado and California. But marijuana is not uniquely American, nor is the legalization movement.

Jai Whitelaw was 10 when he first took medical cannabis, given to him by his mother in a bid to treat the debilitating epilepsy that saw him endure up to 500 seizures a day.

"I literally sat on (the) couch for two days, thinking 'Do I end his life and mine? Or do I risk helping him'," she told AFP.Faced with the stark choice of breaking the law in the hope of soothing his chronic pain, or denying him possible relief, Michelle Whitelaw reached breaking point.

She picked the latter, risking criminal charges. Now, almost two years on, things are set to change as Australia brings in new laws allowing the drug to be used for medical purposes.

Murdoch University has partnered with a Perth company which plans to use cannabis as a medicinal product, a day after scientists from the University of Western Australia said cannabis use could damage a person’s DNA.

Northern rivers farmers are being urged to tap into a billion-dollar global hemp food market by getting on board a campaign to make it legal for them to grow and sell hemp seed for food products.

The Greens this week launched its Hemp is Healthy campaign, following the packed-out Hemp, Health and Innovation Symposium in Sydney last Saturday.

The symposium was addressed by experts on medical cannabis and hemp food and featured hemp growers and activists from Nimbin, who took more than 100 low-THC cannabis plants and an inflatable medicinal cannabis tincture bottle there.

FARMERS in the state’s South East have joined the push to allow medicinal cannabis use in SA, saying they are “ready, willing and able” to grow crops. 

The Greens are introducing a motion to Parliament calling on the State Government to get medical cannabis in SA “from the farm to the pharmacy to the patient”.

Long-time campaigner Greens MLC Tammy Franks said leaders in other states, including Victoria and New South Wales, were “forging ahead” and South Australia needed to be more involved in the national debate about making medical cannabis legally available.

“Victoria’s begun growing — (Premier) Daniel Andrews’s crop is about a foot high now, South Australia’s is non-existent,” Ms Franks said.

Since 1996, two dozen states have approved medical marijuana laws in the U.S. The most recent was Pennsylvania, which passed medical marijuana legislation just last month. We've also witnessed four states legalize the sale of recreational marijuana.

For medical marijuana patients, approval of the drug at the state level means possible new pathways to treatment. Though each state typically differs on what diseases and disorders qualify, glaucoma, epilepsy, and most terminal cancers are ailments that commonly fit the bill. For the states themselves, legalization is primarily motivated by the additional revenue-generating potential. Since marijuana is taxed, medical marijuana provides a way for states to funnel extra money to schools or law enforcement.

• Victoria's premier posted pictures of the state's medicinal cannabis crop
• Daniel Andrews said the crop will be used to treat sick children next year
• He said the crop was planted in April after being tested and sampled
• Victoria is the first state in Australia to legalise marijuana for medical use

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has shared photographs of the state's first medicinal cannabis crop in a controversial move to help treat sick children next year.

Daniel Andrews said the crop was planted in April after being tested and sampled and would be ready for harvest in just two months.