By Anthony Johnson

Political victories are easy to see, but there are often underlying cultural events that shape our progress.  Spannabis, one of the world’s leading cannabis festivals, is an example in Spain. Most of the cannabis community is likely unaware that tens of thousands of revelers attend the event every year, making the event one of the largest cannabis festivals in the world. Spannabis helps bring the European cannabis community together and help promote tolerant, progressive attitude across the continent.

More than 250 lawmakers from across the political scale have shown support to a proposed decriminalization of producing, distributing, selling and consuming marijuana in Italy. If this will be pushed through, Italy will become the biggest European country to legalize marijuana. The new proposal also allows people to cultivate marijuana inside their house.

News emerged that a drug trial case which was done in France led into several serious incidents last Friday. As per Independent's report, six men were rushed to the hospital after having negative effects from the drug that they were given during the drug trial which took place in north-western France.

The majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, according to the latest poll.

The percentage of Americans who support marijuana legalization rose four points to 52 percent from when YouGov last asked the same question back in March 2015.

More than half of adults under the age of 65 support legalization but there is still strong opposition from those aged 65 and over. Democrats were overwhelmingly in favor of a more relaxed position on cannabis, with 66 percent supporting an end to prohibition.

ITALY HAS EASED up slightly on cannabis growers, decriminalising those who violate agreed terms on cultivating the plants for therapeutic purposes.

“This does not decriminalise those growing weed on their terrace,” warned Justice Minister Andrea Orlando. Under the new bill, people who abuse their permission to cultivate cannabis will be slapped with a fine rather than a prison sentence.

Those caught growing their own personal crop without a license still face up to a year in jail and a €4 million fine.

The aim is to help ease Italy’s notoriously congested justice system and “make sanctions more effective”, Orlando said.

Medical marijuana growers in Italy can breathe a bit easier. On Friday, Italy eased the punishment for those who violate the terms for being a medical grower, reported the Local. Should Italian pot enthusiasts be tempted to grow pot for personal use, however, they've been warned. 

Islamic extremists raising cash for terror campaign by running cannabis farms

SICK ISIS fanatics have seized control of £4bn drug ring and are using it to further fund their twisted terror campaign.

The caliphate, which has taken charge of a Mafia marijuana growing operation in the rural mountains of Albania, is running cannabis farms in the area and shipping the drug to Britain.

The Islamic extremists moved into the lucrative narcotics trade following a 2014 raid which saw security services fight their way into an Albanian Mafia HQ in the village of Lazarat.

On Friday several French agencies opened an investigation into a clinical drug trial that has hospitalized six men in the last week, leaving one permanently brain dead and three in critical condition, likely with permanent brain damage.

Although a number of media reports have suggested that an experimental cannabis-based painkiller is what caused a “serious accident” during a clinical drug trial this week in France, leaving one person brain-dead and hospitalizing at least five others, the nation’s health ministry has confirmed that the tragedy was not the result of a medication containing cannabinoids.

One person is brain-dead and five more have been hospitalized after a phase I clinical trial in France went horribly wrong. At least three of the patients may suffer irreversible brain damage if they survive, a doctor treating them said today.

The patients were previously healthy volunteers who participated in a study, conducted by Biotrial, a private company in the city of Rennes, to test the tolerability of a candidate drug. French officials haven't announced which drug, and it's not yet clear why many others who participated in the study since it began in July apparently haven’t experienced similarly severe side-effects.