The cultural narrative of many countries is one that speaks of the cannabis plant as being a legitimate threat to mental and physical health and therefore rendering it a threat to the populace — deserving to be forbidden and restricted behind government classification.

This typically archaic mentality is slowly peeling away, layer by layer, around the world. Governing bodies are starting to accept the science that recognizes the medicinal value of the plant, displaying its effectiveness against an array of disorders from the minor to the major.

MP calls for Commons investigation after Telegraph finds hundreds of soldiers being sacked every year for taking ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis

Yep, the cannabis smoothie is here.

Advocate Katie Marsh has been drinking the weed based refreshment for the last 11 months in order to help treat her rheumatoid arthritis.

‘To drink it straight is kind of bitter, but it’s not at all objectionable in a smoothie,’ she told Fox News.

Marsh, from Maine, United States, came up with the idea (with the help of a friend) after medication failed to ease her pain.

After consulting a doctor she got started with her concoction of weed, yogurt and fruit, which is legal because she is prescribed medical marijuana.

Cannabis has been known for millennia as a means to stimulate appetite and encourage consumption of food, and has long been used as a treatment for anorexia and related eating disorders. Now, modern research is finding that the link between the endocannabinoid system and diseases like anorexia is far deeper than ever suspected.

Cannabis should be legal and tobacco should be made illegal, according to a new survey for young people.

Student Money Saver (SMS) polled 1,000 people under the age of 30 to get their views on alcohol and drug use and found high numbers of people were saying substances currently against the law should be made legal.

Over half said they know someone with an alcohol addiction problem and a further 250 people said alcohol should be make illegal.

The main point drawn from the results was that over half of young people thought that cannabis should be legal.

Note the wide disparity of drug prices across the countries surveyed.

With the recent turn of economic events in Greece and China, it has become ever more apparent that we live in increasingly globalized world in which economies are inextricably linked.

This begged the question; are national drug economies linked in a similar manner?

In this informative video, BuzzFeed shows you how much coffee, cannabis, cigarettes, cocaine, whiskey, and heroin can you buy for $20 U.S. dollars around the world.

Rarely does an enormous, totally virgin industry emerge with guaranteed demand, where startups are better placed to capitalise than big corporates. Beyond the ethical debate around legislation of cannabis, it’s this tantalising commercial prospect that’s getting a growing number of people excitedly sizing up opportunities and making business plans in anticipation of a change in law.

Each year, over 1,000 tonnes of cannabis is produced across the UK in secret basements, bedrooms, repurposed sheds and warehouse farms. Another 200 tonnes is imported from places like Morocco and the Netherlands. In short, UK cannabis production is booming.

Anyone raising capital (finders or company officers), absent an exemption (see Regulation D and employee, officer or director), for any company (private or public) through investors (including friends and/or family) is engaging in the sale of securities and must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Securities Act. Selling securities unregistered is considered illegal. 

Dr Peter McCormick of the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich is in the news again for his ongoing research on cannabis extracts and cancer.  The latest work is aimed at making a case for developing a synthetic alternative to cannabis which would have the same cancer treating properties but without any of the "unwanted side effects" of THC.