Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced on Thursday that his office helped with the closing down of over 500 marijuana shops since the approval of Proposition D. “Many were close to schools, child care centers and other sensitive sites. Others were disrupting the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” he said.

With Capitol Hill and the Justice Department locked in a feud over the future of medical marijuana, two leading congressional marijuana reform advocates are warning Justice that it’s violating a new federal law.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Sam Farr (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the Justice Department’s interpretation of their medical marijuana amendment in last year’s spending bill is “emphatically wrong.”

The California State Water Board is now issuing historic best-practices guidelines for cannabis cultivation

The State of California is taking historic steps to protect watersheds amid the devastating ongoing drought, combined with an uptick in cannabis cultivation along remote, sensitive watersheds.

BLOOMFIELD, N.M. — Charles C. Lynch seemed to be doing everything right when he opened a medical marijuana dispensary in the tidy coastal town of Morro Bay, Calif.

The mayor, the city attorney and leaders of the local Chamber of Commerce all came for the ribbon-cutting in 2006. The conditions for his business license, including a ban on customers younger than 18 and compliance with California’s medical marijuana laws, were posted on the wall.

Marijuana topicals are having their day, particularly in Colorado where cannabis-themed spas are offering therapeutic massage and alternative treatments that use salves, balms and oils infused with cannabis. Generally, these topicals begin with a carrier oil like coconut oil or olive oil that is cooked down similar to butter when baking edibles.

In some cases the cannabis infusion is the main therapeutic ingredient. Most of the time, however, the topicals are blended with other essential oils that also have anti-inflammatory properties like lavender, frankincense or lemon grass.

Pasadena police raided a prominent medical marijuana lab in Southern California, The Werc Shop, Monday evening.

According to reports, Pasadena Police raided The Werc Shop in Pasadena at 10 p.m., Monday night, detaining 28 people and ultimately arresting 2 — Jeffrey Raber, 39, of Whittier and Mark Piesner, 43, of Calabasas on suspicion in manufacturing a controlled substance.

The Werc Shop is a leading cannabis analysis laboratory in Southern California, and performs potency and pathogen testing on southland medical cannabis for dispensaries, collectives and patients.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. offshoot that targets young, urban gardeners has acquired a Santa Rosa, California-based hydroponics company popular with marijuana growers.

Hawthorne Gardening Co., a Scotts subsidiary formed in October, purchased General Hydroponics Inc. and Bio-Organic Solutions Inc.

Terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition should position the company in the growing marijuana market.

COMPTON, Calif. (KABC) --

The City of Compton passed an ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries eight years ago, but illegal shops are still a problem. Now, the Compton Unified School District has filed a lawsuit against the city over the dispensaries.

District officials said that at least a dozen dispensaries are currently operating in the city, and some of them are very close to schools.

"We're standing in the front of an illegal marijuana dispensary, which is less than 500 feet away from Davis Middle School. That is clearly unacceptable," said Micah Ali, president of the board of trustees of Compton Unified School District.

California’s multi-billion medical cannabis industry will remain in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors, despite direction from Congress to cease interfering with state medical pot systems.

In December, the US Congress passed and the president signed a historic amendment that de-funded the Department of Justice’s war on medical pot. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states, yet the Obama Administration had spent an estimated $300 million enforcing the marijuana provisions of federal Controlled Substances Act.

After three months reviewing the amendment, the DOJ told the Los Angeles Times this week that “it did not believe the amendment applies to cases against individuals or organizations.”

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom released a policy primer that outlines how recreational marijuana could be regulated after it is legalized. Newsom, a blunt advocate for legal pot, opened an exploratory committee last month for a 2018 gubernatorial run.

Here are five highlights from the report by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy, a group co-chaired by Newsom and sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union.