It was another eventful week in the fight to legalize marijuana in the United States. Perhaps the biggest news to surface was a couple of federal bills that some activists believe to be another indication that the government’s war on marijuana is on its last leg. Other highlights include an initiative aimed at legalizing recreational marijuana in Michigan, as well as guidance coming from the California Lieutenant Governor’s office in an attempt to help steer the regulatory model of a potential cannabis industry in 2016.

A heavy drought continues to run wild in California. Water storage decreases, but the State authorities take no active measures to save ecology and areas under crop.

Instead of it, fishery farms and forestlands are also being eliminated. These areas are used for medical marijuana plantations.

A great deal of water is also being wasted for such purposes as growing marijuana.

As an editorial in the Fresno Bee noted, marijuana production has skyrocketed despite the drought, even to the point of causing irreversible environmental damage:

One would be hard-pressed to find a pair of more socially divergent cultures than those who have HIV/AIDS and those who use medicinal cannabis.

So it only makes sense that, in one of the United States’ most historically divergent cities, that the two would walk in lock-step toward the mainstream.

Last weekend, for the second year in a row, an organization called Team Cannabis had a very large presence at AIDS Walk San Francisco.

Interestingly enough, it hadn’t always been that way. The recent AIDS Walk, then, was a reunion of sorts for the medicinal cannabis and the AIDS communities.

The Merced Police Department served search warrants Friday and shut down Kiona’s Farm’acy in downtown Merced, alleging the business operated as a marijuana dispensary.

The police also ordered an investigation into business owner Lakisha Jenkins for possible tax evasion.

But Jenkins says her business is a nonprofit and agriculture cooperative that has been operating in California for more than a decade. Though the Farm’acy does sell cannabis to some members, who Jenkins said mostly are cancer patients, it also sells hundreds of herbs, teas and organic produce. Jenkins calls it a “holistic health center.”

She said the Merced Police Department and Merced County Sheriff’s Department eradicated a cannabis garden Sunday in a raid.

Early this Spring I joined others who spoke in a marijuana conference in San Diego, California, titled: — “Marijuana: The Next Big Thing in Native American Economic Development?” Our panel lectured on what was perceived by some Indian Tribes to be a Policy Shift by the Federal Government related to the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act and other drug enforcement laws on native lands.

Company Plans to Engage and Advise Licensed Grower of Hemp and Marijuana

Los Angeles, California (FSCwire) - Medbox, Inc. (OTCQB: MDBX), a provider of specialized services to the cannabis sector, including operators of dispensaries, cultivation centers, manufacturers and research facilities in those states where approved, today announced it has signed an agreement to purchase 320-acres of agricultural land in Pueblo, Colorado. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in August 2015, were not disclosed.

This month the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER,) an non-partisan think tank, published a working paper showing that states who allow patients to access medicinal marijuana through dispensaries have fewer rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

The impact was measured by researchers who studied admissions for opioid pain reliever addiction and opioid overdose death.  The research was done by the RAND Corporation and the University of California, Irvine.

“If marijuana is used as a substitute for powerful and addictive pain relievers in medical marijuana states,”

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., -- The creators of Sprig -- the delicious, refreshing, THC-infused citrus soda -- announced that distribution of the product has begun in Southern California and is now available in select medical marijuana dispensaries. Sprig is the first scientifically made, low dose THC beverage in California. Sprig advocates a safe, social, light-use message for new and experienced cannabis consumers.

Registration is now opened for the Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition (CWCBExpo) taking place September 16-18, 2015 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.  CWCBExpo in LA is sponsored by the International Cannabis Association (ICA) and will be the leading event on the West Coast providing the latest information, resources and tools for producers, processors, dispensary owners, healthcare professionals, investors, lawyers as well as cannabis entrepreneurs.