Anti-legalization group Project SAM released a new video this week comparing marijuana’s recent rise to that of tobacco’s past ascents. The group released the video, above, in conjunction with the National Rx Abuse Summit and the affiliated SAM Marijuana Education Summit.

“I hope people realize that marijuana legalization is all about creating Big Tobacco 2.0: A massive industry that has to keep profits flowing by denying health harms and increasing addiction,” SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) president and legalization opponent Kevin Sabet told The Cannabist.

Perth, April 9, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - PhytoTech Medical Limited (ASX:PYL) is pleased to report that MMJ has received from Health Canada a "confirmation of readiness letter" that precedes the scheduling of a pre-licensing inspection. 

Highlights

- MMJ Bioscience Inc. ("MMJ") receives pre-inspection readiness request from Health Canada for its Duncan facility that traditionally precedes the scheduling of a pre-licence.

- There are currently only 22 companies holding facilities licensed to produce medical cannabis ("MC") in Canada under the MMPR, with MMJ-PYL on track to become one of the next.

SYNTHETIC cannabis made half of young Australians who tried it feel scared and paranoid, with some so badly affected they thought they were dying.

An online survey of more than 1700 people found one in five had chest pain after trying the illegal drugs, which can still be purchased in some stores flouting the law.

More than a third felt nausea and almost half felt scared and paranoid.

Other serious side-effects included seizures, loss of consciousness and repeated vomiting that was so severe they thought they would “vomit their heart out”.

One survey participant told the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre they were so scared that they thought they were drowning, leading to hours of panic.

Punitive punishment for marijuana offenses on school grounds leads to a higher chance of future marijuana use, according to the American Journal of Public Health. (Getty Images)

With marijuana legal for recreational use, one pressing question is how to enforce school anti-marijuana policies. The fear of kids possibly losing themselves in a marijuana fog is a legitimate fear for parents. That much is obvious. But how do we deal with that fear?

Is it better to rule by Thor’s hammer or to encourage an open dialogue?

Internationally, drug policy is at a crossroads: the debate is shifting from a paradigm based on criminalising drug users, to a more public-health-oriented approach. But is this only a change in rhetoric, or a sign of real political reform? We asked activists who have been attending the CND for several years. 

One in 10 synthetic cannabis users have described "feeling like they were either going to die or that they had died already" in a new survey into the use of the drug.

Respondents said they experienced everything from intense panic attacks, vomiting, seizures and paranoia right through to heart attacks and addiction.

The University of New South Wales' National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre study involved the largest ever survey about synthetic cannabis use, asking 1700 young Australians about their experiences, 1100 of which had tried synthetic drugs.

A STAGNANT Australian mining company, known as a zombie, is morphing into a marijuana and industrial hemp company and intends to be the first listed company of its type.

The Canberra based Capital Mining has barely traded with its shares valued at less than a cent, hence the zombie category, but it is now aiming at snapping up future global licences in countries where legislation surrounding marijuana changes.

Capital listed on the ASX March 2007 and was engaged in the exploration for deposits of gold, base metals, platinum, nickel, uranium and other rare metals in south eastern Australia.

It follows the listing of Phytotech in January, a medical marijuana company which is also aiming at the US market.

Self-described "conservative warlord" and Coalition Senator Barry O'Sullivan has thrown his support behind a push to legalise medical cannabis, and expressed confidence Federal Parliament would support the reform.

Mr O'Sullivan, a former drug squad detective, said his "mind had opened up considerably" over the course of a Senate inquiry on proposals drafted by Greens Senator Richard Di Natale.

Senator Di Natale's bill would create an independent body of experts, the Office of Medicinal Cannabis, which would license commercial growers and determine how cannabis could be prescribed and dispensed.

Mr O'Sullivan said he had been moved by testimony from people who had sourced cannabis illegally in a bid to ease the suffering of loved ones.

A man from the NSW Central Coast near Sydney, Australia, who is illegally growing marijuana which he supplies to people with anything from cancer to epilepsy, said he will “keep going it” despite the risk he runs of prison time.

Alex Impey may be seen in the eyes of the law as a criminal for growing the controlled plant, but he is seen as a hero by hundreds of sick people, many of them children, who benefit greatly from the marijuana he supplies to them.

Alex said he gets 20 new requests per week for marijuana, he told reporters.

The reverse takeover provides the U.S. and Canadian companies with an entry to the Australian equity market.