On Friday, the Lt. Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, and other members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy came to talk with Emerald Triangle growers about marijuana regulation in preparation for possible legalization in 2016 and got an earful about why they should use the word cannabis instead.

A marijuana consumer group protested outside a LivWell location on South Broadway over the weekend, claiming the dispensary chain uses potentially harmful pesticides and doesn't care about consumer health. But LivWell says those accusations are simply untrue.

With summer just around the corner, many legislative sessions are nearing an end, but that doesn't mean the end for cannabis progress! This week brings surprising and heartwarming news from down on the bayou in Louisiana, while California’s discussing legalization, New York is gearing up to select growers for their medical program, and India just held their first ever medical cannabis conference.

U.S. Updates

CALIFORNIA

Remember last year when the United States Congress passed a bill that de-funded medical marijuana raids in states where medical marijuana is legal? And remember when the Obama Administration replaced the head of the D.E.A. because he thought she was out of touch? The Los Angeles Times stated the following when Congress de-funded medical marijuana raids late last year:

Under the provision, states where medical pot is legal would no longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so.

Pay taxes and/or die

California authorities are notoriously creative when it comes to wringing as much tax revenue as possible out of the state's businesses, yet are leaving real money on the table because of their failure to come up with a simple way for medical marijuana dispensaries to pay their tab.

Voters legalized this business 19 years ago with the passage of Proposition 215. But an uncertain federal legal status has complicated the matter since then. The state only collects a small percentage of the sales-and-use taxes these businesses owe, although a new program is attempting to address the imbalance.

A bill that would create environmental guidelines for marijuana cultivation in California made a key step forward Thursday.

Assembly Bill 243, authored by Healdsburg Democrat Jim Wood, advanced from the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is scheduled to be heard on the Assembly floor next week.

The Marijuana Watershed Protection Act requires that all of the state’s nine water quality control boards develop environmental regulations to address wastewater discharge from medical marijuana farms.

Members of the Live Life Alive nonprofit group wave to motorists at the Micronesia Mall intersection in Dededo in October 2014. The group held the wave to gather support to pass the medical marijuana measure on the November General Election ballot. Pacific Daily News file photo(Photo: PDN file photo)

This week, members of the Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Enforcement Team made their way to California to clear the smoke on cannabis testing.

DPHSS director James Gillan said the team is expected to return to Guam next week with a clearer understanding of marijuana strengths and dosages.

MILWAUKEE — Scores of travelers streamed through Los Angeles International Airport in March, just off a flight from China. But one passenger, a 33-year-old Chinese chemist, never reached baggage claim.

The passenger, Haijun Tian, was arrested at the airport by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, the prize at the end of an elaborate sting operation aimed at stemming the importation and sale of spice, the street name for a family of synthetic drugs that look like marijuana and are sprayed with a dangerous hallucinogenic chemical, then smoked.

NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. -

Eight people were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday after the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department served several search warrants that lead to the discovery of multiple large-scale outdoor marijuana grows that weren't in compliance with California medical marijuana laws.

There were 24 suspected identified by investigators but only 8 of them were taken into custody after a nearly 3-hour standoff in Newberry Springs. Deputies said the suspects barricaded themselves inside a home located at 41227 Silver Valley Road.

SWAT was called to assist and all eight of the suspects were arrested without incident.

A Bay Area company is catering to medical marijuana users statewide who have a sweet tooth.

It’s not the eggs that make these pastries special, though there are eggs along with sugar, chocolate and flour. These pastries are high in calories, high in carbs, but these are high in potency, too.

“We pretty much make our cookies like you would any other bakery, any other cookie, we just have a little bit of green in our butter,” said Danny Nunan, a baker at Korova Edibles.

The Bay Area’s Korova Edibles is making a name for itself in medicinal marijuana circles for the amount of pot it puts in its products, for having a trained pastry chef with culinary credentials, and a respected lab that works to make sure doses are accurate.