After a long and steady fight to legalize the use of medical marijuana across the state, the Senate committee has made some major regulatory strides in their cannabis system, aiming to provide their citizens with better regulations through a new package of freshly passed bills.

On Thursday, members of the Michigan Senate voted with three-fourths majority to pass four bills that will help the state better regulate their medical marijuana system.

Leaders of MI Legalize say they represent a majority of Michiganders who, according to statewide polls, want to see marijuana “taxed and regulated like alcohol,” according to the MI Legalize website. The group’s website and its board members also say that their lawsuit contesting the 180-day window is aimed at helping any similar group that wants to get its petition measure on state ballots but can't afford to hire the scores of paid petition circulators required to obtain enough signatures within 180 days.

The results of the 2016 HIGH TIMES Michigan Medical Cannabis Cup!

BEST VAPE PEN

1st Place – Skywalker OG by Greenwolf LA

BEST TOPICAL

1st Place – Michigan Organic Rub Extra Relief Vanilla Mint by Herbal Solutions

2nd Place – Luscious Lemondrop Lotion by SweetStone Candy

3rd Place – Budsuds Purple Haze Topical Soap Bar by Budsuds

BEST NON-SOLVENT HASH

1st Place – Cookies and Cream Cubantech Dry Sift by Exotic Genetix w/ The Cuban Grower

2nd Place – Hindu Cheese 120 to 73 micron Freeze Dried Water Hash by Michigan Made Melts

3rd Place – Headband Rosin by EZ Squeeze

BEST CBD FLOWER

1st Place – Super Sonic CBD by Radicle Genetics

Take it as an indicator in the rapidly changing world of cannabis use, but a group of senior citizens are organizing their own social network to discuss marijuana. Clearly, it’s not just for teenagers anymore.

The group, the Seniors 420 Network, is a way for seniors who use marijuana recreationally and medically to find one another. Proposed goals include finding friends or roommates, identifying business opportunities, buying and selling items, learning tips or tricks, and, of course, organizing to challenge laws against cannabis. 

A campaign to put a marijuana-legalization question on Michigan ballots suffered a setback that could keep the measure off November ballots.

The petition campaign called MI Legalize failed to submit enough valid petition signatures, according to a ruling by the Michigan Court of Claims.

Although MI Legalize submitted 354,000 signatures -- well over the 252,000 required -- the court agreed with a State Board of Canvassers decision in June, deciding that “more than 200,000 were collected more than 180 days before the petition was submitted” to the Secretary of State -- a violation of state law.

The campaign to legalize marijuana in Michigan says there’s still time to get the question on the November ballot. That was a core issue in the most recent briefs filed last week in the MI Legalize campaign’s challenge to an elections board decision that petition drive fell short in the required number of signatures.

The Board of State Canvassers said too many signatures were more than 180 days old when the petitions were turned in. The rule exists to ensure that only the names of currently registered voters are counted. MI Legalize says the rule is anachronistic when it’s very easy to check the names against the state’s online database of registered voters. So the campaign is asking a state Court of Claims judge to order the state to count the older signatures.

DAVE JORDANO’S FASCINATION with Detroit’s marijuana dispensaries borders on obsession. He’s photographed more than half of them, and remains fascinated by their bright colors, neon signs, and cheeky names like “House of Dank.”

“I just love this entrepreneurial spirit of all these individuals having their own say in what these shops should look like, what their names are, what strains they sell, what they profess to heal and cure,”Jordano says. “Everyone’s got their own thing going, and it’s very independent.”

Michigan will begin a one-year pilot test program later this year that allows trained state police officers to take roadside saliva drug tests from drivers whom they suspect are driving while impaired from drugs.

Five counties, to be chosen by state police from areas where the most drug-related arrests and impaired driving accidents have occurred, will begin the program sometime after this summer, state police officials announced Wednesday.

The Michigan program is expected to be watched by other states amid rising concern among  lawmakers and law enforcement on how to effectively police those who  drive while using  drugs  ( policies for drunk driving are well-established).

Smoking marijuana may change the way people's brains respond to certain rewards, such as the prospect of winning some money, according to a new study.

In the study, participants played a game in which they could win a small amount of money. The researchers found that the brains of people who smoked marijuana did not respond to the idea of winning the money as strongly as did the brains of people who did not use the drug.

Acceptance of marijuana seems to have reached a tipping point in the United States. Four states and the District of Columbia have already legalized it, half the states have medical marijuana laws now (two-thirds if you count the CBD-only states), and as many as a half dozen states, including California, could vote on legalization in November.

Public opinion polls now consistently report majority support for legalization nationwide, and pot is increasingly moving from newspapers' crime pages to the finance and culture sections.