The Health Ministry is set to propose changes to legislation covering the use and production of medicinal cannabis.

Health Minister Andreas Xanthos suggested measures are on the way allowing doctors to prescribe drugs that contain cannabis purely for medical reasons.

The government is also set to put forward draft legislation that would allow these types of medicines to be packaged and produced in Greece. The ministry’s decisions are based on a scientific study on the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for treating certain illnesses.

Medical experts suggest the use of cannabis helps alleviate the symptoms of chronic pain, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. However, they also warn it can be addictive and regular use can cause psychotic disorders.

The Swiss public could have another chance to decide if cannabis consumption should be legalized after the group Legalize It launched a popular initiative to that effect last week.

Cannabis is illegal in Switzerland though the law was relaxed in 2013. Instead of facing criminal proceedings, adults caught with ten grams or less of pot can be subjected to a 100-franc spot fine, though that is enforced to varying degrees across the country. 

Medicinal marijuana has been prescribed on the NHS to an 11-year-old boy in what is believed to be the first case of its kind. 

Billy Caldwell had been travelling to the USA to get the medication for help to treat his epilepsy which at its worst saw him suffer up to 100 life-threatening fits a day. 

But when his supply of cannabis oil was about to run out and he was unable to make the return trip to Los Angeles, his mother Charlotte took him to see his local GP in desperation. 

Dr Brendan O’Hare, realising the “unique and unusual” situation, opted to prescribe him the CBD oil - a derivative of cannabis containing the component cannabidiol which under MHRA guidelines doctors are allowed to prescribe.

Fields of cannabis could soon be carpeting the Borders countryside if ambitious new plans get off the ground.

But not because an international drugs cartel is expanding into Scotland – it’s down to a young entrepreneur and his green design and manufacturing business.

Sam Whitten grew up in the village of Broughton in Peeblesshire and studied product design at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The 25-year-old has recently started his own firm making handcrafted luxury sunglasses and fashion accessories. He plans to move into jewellery, clothing and even sustainable architecture in the next couple of years.

And it’s all made out of cannabis, or hemp – industrial-grade, which won’t get you high.

In February 2017, Ciudadanos and the OECM presented a Non-Legislative Motion in Congress in order to regulate medical cannabis in Spain. Its objective is to address the needs and demands of Spanish patients, as well as to open a parliamentary debate about therapeutic cannabis – a treatment backed by scientific evidence. 

The line-up for The Capital B this week is akin to a PG episode of narcos, it's got drugs, gold and computer hackers...

Speaking on JOE's business show Dr James Linden of Greenlight Medicines, said Ireland has the perfect climate to grow cannabis and he believes we have the potential to become the next cannabis growing capital of the world. Greenlight Medicines has so far raised €500k in funding from Irish investors  to research the potential effects of cannabis on diseases such as cancer, epilepsy and on chronic pain. Listen to the full interview with James Linden in the soundcloud link below, it's an eye-opener.

A DRUG that turns users in ‘zombies’ is made in Chinese labs and smuggled to the UK in the post, it has been reported.

Spice, which has been banned in the UK and is 100 times stronger than cannabis, is causing havoc on the streets of the UK and is behind a raft of people suffering severe psychotic episodes, terrifying hallucinations, vomiting and seizures in public.

“The First Time I Got High” is the name of a short story that most of us have written in our heads, but of course the ending is different for just about everyone. In an ideal world, they all have happy endings. Maybe you meet a new crawdad friend, or discover the misunderstood nature of the scorpion, or run around town using dog beds as hats (all of which are true stories according to Leafly reviews).

Canada is on track to become the second country in the world to legalize the consumption and sale of recreational marijuana, after Uruguay made the big leap in 2014.

On Thursday, the Liberal government introduced its Cannabis Act, which allows people aged 18 and over to purchase and consume marijuana.

Much like alcohol, many of the nuts and bolts of legislation will be left to the provinces, who will be able to raise the minimum age if they so wish, and will be required to implement a retail system.

A grey-haired woman in her early 60s daintily lifts small trays topped with different varieties of marijuana to her nose, sniffing each of them carefully.

“Which one would you recommend for someone with medical issues?” she asks salesman Paul Monot, co-founder of the DrGreen shop in western Switzerland.

Posters of bright green cannabis plants advertise its wares, which, like those sold openly in a growing number of shops across Switzerland, are completely legal.

There is a catch however: They won’t make you high.

“There is no psychotropic effect of our weed,” says Monot, at his store in Lausanne.