Dusseldorf. More and more German cities are requiring to legalize the sale of cannabis. But a new study from the US comes to the conclusion that the dangers of cannabis have not been adequately researched.

Possession of cannabis is illegal. Nevertheless, the drug currently enjoys a wave of understanding, if not sympathy. Also in Germany we give way to the opposition to the ban slowly. Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and Dusseldorf want to allow creative ideas for sale under a test phase. Cannabis shops or pharmacies to pick up as a German version of the coffee shops to trade from the criminal twilight zone. Four US states have already taken this step. In Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon Kiffer can officially buy cannabis for "recreational purposes".

The ban, over an entry about hashish that a court ruled contained illegal information, is lifted just hours after it was enforced.

Russia has cancelled a ban on the Russian-language version of Wikipedia after it caused controversy among internet users in the country.

The Russian communications watchdog told internet providers late on Monday to block access to the site in Russian after a court ruled an entry on hashish contained banned information.

Users across the country then reported they were not able to access the site.

Wikimedia RU, the group that supports the local version of Wikipedia, had earlier decided not to remove the article on charas, a cannabis resin, after a warning from the communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.

The Experience of Colorado teaches that we should legalize the herb. Reports of a year and a half from the opening of coffee shops. Health spending is unchanged, crimes decreased and tax revenues increased. An example to follow, it also says it is anti-mafia.

This is a windfall for the state, at least potentially. If Italy liberalizes soft drugs, the public purse could earn up to 8.5 billion euro a year, a huge figure. Almost equivalent, so to speak, what would be needed today for the government of Matteo Renzi to avoid the VAT increase planned starting next year.

Dubbed the Minister for Hugs and Drugs, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin’s radical ideas regarding heroin and cocaine will not get a warm embrace from everyone.

The fact the Coalition did not appoint a minister with special responsibility for drugs policy for four years tells you all you need to know about how seriously they take the issue.

But Mr Ó Ríordáin, who also covers equality issues — the huggy part of his job — has certainly attempted to move fast to make up the lost time since being appointed to the role in May.

Far from trotting out the tired old cliches about a so-called war on drugs, Mr Ó Ríordáin has called for a new approach whereby Ireland would follow Portugal’s largely successful move to decriminalise all drugs from crack to weed.

Russia banned Wikipedia on Monday, following through on threats to block the world's biggest encyclopedia due to a page about cannabis that Russia censors deemed illegal.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian censors responsible for surveilling and policing the Internet, pulled the trigger on the ban after demanding Wikipedia remove the page for charas, a form of hashish cannabis. The authorities complained that the Wikipedia page gave explicit instructions on how to make the product.

July 22^nd 2015 marked the anniversary of the great Cologne cannabis judgement, but not a single cannabis plant has yet been grown. That’s a reason to look into matters.

The normalisation and legalisation of cannabis has certainly seen a lot of changes worldwide over the past 12 months, but what is happening in Germany? In Germany, grow shop offensives, driving bans as an alternative penalty for cannabis users and zero tolerance directives are hitting the headlines. It is anything but easy, even for cannabis patients in Germany. Medicinal hemp from pharmacies is expensive, and supply problems are a constant source of complaint.

As marijuana use becomes more acceptable, researchers are scrambling to answer key questions about the drug.

In 2013, Beau Kilmer took on a pretty audacious head count. Citizens in the state of Washington had just voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, and the state's liquor control board, which would regulate the nascent industry, was anxious to understand how many people were using the drug — and importantly, how much they were consuming.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the endocannaboid system has a fundamental role to play in various aspects of the aging process, both mental and somatic. Furthermore, regular use of cannabis itself may assist in slowing down this process, although the precise mechanism of action has not been ascertained.

Research into normal brain ageing and cannabis

The ageing process is determined by the balance between detrimental and defensive biological processes, such as oxidative stress and antioxidation; the bulk of research suggests that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is more closely associated with the latter camp than the former.

A cancer advice website in the US, The National Cancer Institute, has featured a page offering information surrounding how cannabis and cannabinoids could potentially treat cancer.

The page has been compiled by an information body called Physician Data Query (PDQ), which is the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) comprehensive cancer information database.

IT IS the first time I’ve been sent cannabis through the post but I’m unfazed – I’m probably not doing anything illegal.

My delivery is a MediPen. It’s an e-cigarette made using a strain of marijuana high in cannabidiol (CBD), the compound thought to give cannabis its purported medical benefits, and low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the one that gets you high.

It’s not the first low THC e-cigarette in the UK – a similar device called KanaVape has been on sale since last year – but MediPen is the first designed to give a high dose of CBD. It contains hemp oil imbued with 20 per cent CBD compared with KanaVape’s 5 per cent.