A former South Australian police officer will spend at least nine months behind bars after she was found guilty of concealing her boyfriend's $40 million drug syndicate and allowing him to grow cannabis in her apartment.

Senior constable Amanda Boughen, 41, created a fake tenant for her investment property so her boyfriend could use the property in the hills north of Adelaide to grow cannabis.

The NSW State Government has committed $9 million over the next four years ($3 million in 2015-16) in the state budget to trial the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis.

Children with severe epilepsy, terminally ill adults and patients undergoing chemotherapy who are suffering extreme nausea and vomiting will take part in the trials, which were first announced last December.

The experiment forms part of a range of funding allocations being rolled out to fund the next generation of medical research, Medical Research Minister Pru Goward said.

"Medical research unlocks new treatment for disease, offers hope, delivers cures, keeps people well and out of hospital," she said.

"At its best (it) profoundly improves lives."

Crime does not pay, unless you are good at it.

Looking at today’s jail population, it’s hard to believe that in the 1970s the maximum sentence for possessing tractor-trailer loads of marijuana was five years in prison.

Now, it’s possible to get life for selling $20 worth of weed.

It wasn’t always this way.

Want to know why states are legalizing recreational marijuana?

Let me give you a hint: It has something to do with the color green. Not the color of the plant, but the color of money.

Because recreational marijuana has now been legal in Colorado and Washington for 18 months and 11 months, respectively, we're finally starting to see just how lucrative the recreational-marijuana business is -- for the record, it's also now legal in Alaska, Washington D.C., and, starting in July, Oregon.

In March alone, consumers in Washington purchased $21.9 million worth of recreational cannabis through legal channels. That was more than twice the amount of the $8.3 million spent on medical marijuana that month.

Surveys show nearly three quarters of the population wants the nation's drug laws to change, and politicians across the political spectrum from the Prime Minister down are lining up to agree with them. So what's stopping thousands of sick and dying Australians from getting legal access to cannabis medication? Scott Hannaford meets those pushing hard for change.

There is certainly more to learn about medicinal cannabis, but we know more than enough to act now 

Medical Journal of Australia

The boxes were piled high in the reception area of Richard Di Natale's Parliament House office and a picture hook still hung empty on the wall from the recent move as he folded his laptop, stuffed it into his hand luggage and headed for the door.

Curus Medical director Andrew McCrea with his wife Jane, who suffers from a debilitating muscle condition. Curus hopes to establish a legal cannabis industry in the ACT.

Investors have begun sizing up Canberra as a likely base for a multimillion dollar medical cannabis industry they believe could be up and running within six months of getting the green light from the ACT government.

States and territories across Australia are currently reviewing their cannabis laws following a wave of public interest in the issue, spurred on in part by major private donations to research into the medical potential of the drug and a growing list of countries now operating large-scale medical cannabis programs.

POLITICS, not a lack of evidence, is slowing down medical cannabis reform in Queensland, according to Rhonda Miles.

Mrs Miles and the Medical Cannabis Advisory Group Queensland are hoping to gain support for a proposal which would provide an amnesty for patients as medical cannabis trials move forward.

This would mean patients like Mrs Miles' son Lachlan, who suffers from uncontrolled seizures, would have a chance at legally gaining access to the drug in the interim.

The group has submitted their formal Proposition 270A to the Queensland Premier and every MP in Queensland and plan on launching another petition to the Queensland Parliament.

The demand for medicinal cannabis is rising, with Hemp Embassy volunteers urging people to make their own.

By Darren Coyne

North Coast growers involved in the production of medicinal cannabis should be granted an amnesty from prosecution given the widespread use and growing acceptance of the plant’s medicinal qualities, according to the Nimbin Hemp Embassy.

Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone today welcomed an announcement that Southern Cross University in Lismore would be conducting research into medicinal cannabis, but said those at the coalface – growers, suppliers and users – continued to be persecuted.

There has been a flurry of pot deals on the ASX

The company attempting to backdoor list cannabis play MGC Pharmaceuticals this morning announced it had entered into a $60 million offtake deal with European cosmetics company Natura Laboratories.

Erin Resources shares bounced 0.3 cents to 2.2 cents on the news, which will see MGC supply the pharmaceutical for a minimum supply of 300kg of resin per year for a four-year minimum term.

It claimed it is the first first ASX-related cannabis or hemp company to sign a wholesale cannabis supply contract

The experience of drug prohibition in Queensland, where police charge more users than anywhere else in Australia, shows the state “can’t arrest its way out of the problem”, says a leading social worker.

The chief executive of the Ted Noffs Foundation, Matt Noffs, said he hoped to lobby local politicians about following interstate moves away from the “war on drugs” and reducing the burden on law enforcement.

Drug arrests in Queensland have long dwarfed those elsewhere, reaching 32,391 of a national total of 92,882 in 2013-14, with NSW next on 25,738 despite its larger population.