A heavy drought continues to run wild in California. Water storage decreases, but the State authorities take no active measures to save ecology and areas under crop.

Instead of it, fishery farms and forestlands are also being eliminated. These areas are used for medical marijuana plantations.

A great deal of water is also being wasted for such purposes as growing marijuana.

As an editorial in the Fresno Bee noted, marijuana production has skyrocketed despite the drought, even to the point of causing irreversible environmental damage:

Many states are facing numerous deadlines for legislation, but the marijuana movement keeps progressing through it all. A major cannabis banking bill is making waves, Alaska’s recreational lawmakers just released regulations, and Chile is on the verge of decriminalization. To top it off, Crimean authorities just discovered an island covered for miles with cannabis, as far as the eye can see. We’ve got the latest in cannabis legalization updates – are you in the know?

U.S. Cannabis Updates

NATIONAL

Police have discovered a cannabis farm hidden on an artificial island in northeastern Crimea, it's reported.

About 500 plants were being cultivated in neat rows, concealed from prying eyes behind the island's tall rushes, Russia's Lenta.ru news website reports. The farm covered 2,000 sq m (21,500 sq ft) of land, and a man found guarding it was detained, according to local police spokeswoman Yelena Alekseyeva. Video footage from the site shows some of the plants were almost as tall as the police officers who found them.

According to a recent poll by the Levada Center, 88 percent of Russians over the age of 18 have never taken drugs outside medical prescription. Only 17 percent know someone who has used non-prescribed drugs, with an overwhelming 80 percent answering in the negative.

It is thus unsurprising that among this demographic, which has limited first-hand experience of drug use, 69 percent would favor drug testing in schools, 72 percent would approve of criminal charges against drug users and 75 percent are against legalization of "light" drugs such as cannabis.

It is fair to point out that Russia's experience with drug use is a fairly recent problem. Apocryphally, there was no sex in the Soviet Union. But there was also very little in the way of drugs or rock 'n' roll, too.

A sexagenarian farmer caught in possession of a stash of marijuana said the drugs were for his pigs, narcotics officers said in a statement Monday.

Officers from the Federal Drug Control Service in the Rostov region found 1.2 kilograms (42 ounces) of marijuana in the trunk of the 66-year-old pig farmer's car, along with a few hemp seeds, the statement said.

The man said that he had prepared the marijuana from wild-growing hemp for his sickly swine, and insisted its usage was strictly for medicinal purposes. It was not immediately clear what health problems the pigs had.

Though the farmer told police he does not use the marijuana, investigators have ordered him to undergo toxicological tests.

As most of you already know, marijuana is a recreational drug made from parts of the cannabis plant - usually the hemp plant known as Cannabis sativa - which contains the mind-altering chemical THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.)  Some of the most common nicknames include pot, weed, and many others.  Many people have a positive view of marijuana, considering it in some ways safer than nicotine or alcohol, as using it does not lead to liver or lung disease - and it is clearly safer and less addictive than hard drugs like heroin and cocaine.

Archaeologists in southern Russia recently found nearly seven pounds of truly spectacular, well preserved and solid gold artifacts from the Scythains, a nomadic people often written about by Greek historian Herodotus. In addition to the importance of the artistic depictions on the artifacts — which included jewelry, cups and a couple bucket-shaped vessels — the scientists made another important discovery when they had criminologists test the black residue inside the bucket-shaped containers.

The results showed traces of marijuana and opium, proving that these containers are indeed ancient bongs of sorts.

From National Geographic’s excellent report:

(Photo : Getty Images/Hulton Archive) The golden artifacts were unearthed in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,400-year-old set of gold artifacts within ancient grave mounds in the Caucasus Mountains of Southern Russia. The set included solid gold bongs that tested positive for marijuana and opium.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered what are thought to be 2,400-year-old bongs made of PURE gold that were used to get tribal royalty stoned.

The two bongs were used for smoking cannabis and opium, tests have confirmed, and were found with a number of other solid gold items weighing a combined total of 7Ibs hidden under clay in Russia where power lines were being put up.

They also found three gold cups, a heavy gold finger ring, two neck rings, and a gold bracelet.

A thick black residue found inside the two vase-shaped vessels was tested by criminologists who confirmed traces of the two drugs were found.

A NIDA animal study suggests that extracts from whole-plant marijuana can shrink a serious type of brain tumor, and research on mice showed that these extracts can enhance the cancer-killing effects of chemotherapy.  

Although marijuana is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as medicine, the plant contains several chemicals called cannabinoids which have been studied for their potential healing properties. Such research has led to the FDA’s approval of two medicines containing some of these chemicals in pill form.