As hemp makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors. They’re presenting their research, which a Canadian start-up company is working on scaling up, at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

Although hemp (cannabis sativa) and marijuana (cannabis sativa var. indica) come from a similar species of plant, they are very different and confusion has been caused by deliberate misinformation with far reaching effects on socioeconomics as well as on environmental matters.

Health experts have defended the electronic cigarette during a Friday anti-smoking conference in Abu Dhabi, dismissing concerns that she could promote adolescent addiction to nicotine. Most of these experts, however, agreed that it should regulate the use of e-cigarettes because its effects are still too little known.

A real support tool for weaning?

Konstantinos Farsalinos, researcher at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, AFP quoted a study which nearly 19,500 respondents, mainly the United States and Europe, 81% reported having stopped smoking thanks to the electronic cigarette. "On average, they quit in the first month of using the e-cigarette," he said. "We do not see that with any other method to help stop smoking."

MURCIA, Spain – Spanish and French police forces dismantled an international hashish-smuggling organization that exported product from Morocco and distributed it in Europe, arresting 12 suspects, according the Spanish security forces on Friday.

Authorities detailed that two of the detainees are Spanish citizens, four are Moroccan nationals, and the remaining six are French citizens of North African descent, while pointing out that the raid operation was overseen by the European agency EUROJUST.

France is no Amsterdam when it comes to marijuana laws, in fact it has some of the toughest possession statutes in Europe, but a first of its kind bill proposed this week could change that. The lawmaker behind the legislation tells The Local why marijuana should be legalized in France.

People smoking a joint in France face a maximum penalty of a year behind bars and a €3,750 fine for the first offence, yet 13.4 million French people admit to sparking up at least once in their life. Even France’s top cop, Interior Minister Manuel Vallls, said in a recent interview, he’d tried it “maybe once.”