In the beginning, of course, all the pot grew outside. 

When the colonists arrived in North America, they brought their love of cannabis with them. Cannabis is believed to have first been cultivated many thousands of years ago in the area north of the Himalayas. It has been prized by civilizations around the globe and used for medicine, textiles, nutrition, and religious ceremonies. After two millennia of human use, cannabis was an accepted part of many societies’ pharmacopeia.

By the 1800s, plantations had sprung up throughout the American colonies, dedicated to the growing of hemp for industrial purposes. Preparations of the plant could be found at many drug stores, and were an accepted product for medical use, even in children. 

From weed-infused spa parties to the Marijuana Mansion, ultra lux pot parties are on the rise as the nation slowly shifts towards cannabis reform and acceptance.

On August 27, a select group of cannabis consumers bring a whole new meaning to the concept of the Farmer's Market, with world-class artisanal and small batch marijuana sun-grown in Northern California on display at the Emerald Exchange at The Sanctuary in Malibu, CA.

Geoffrey Guy stood out when he began attending conferences of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, DC, in the mid to late 1990s. The stout British gentleman, dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit, was hard to miss among the other attendees dressed in tie-dye shirts and psychedelic parkas, recalled Allen St. Pierre, then NORML’s deputy national director.

But while he might not have fit in, Guy, a doctor in his early 40s who’d already made millions by founding a UK-based pharmaceutical company, was eager to learn all he could at the events about medical marijuana.

Marijuana is packed with medicinal uses we can’t legally exploit here in the United States, but why? Are we still stuck in the Reefer Madness of the 30s? Or is the idea of a pain-curing plant you can grow in your backyard too great a threat to the powerful pharmaceutical industry?

The whole weed-still-being-illegal-in-2016-thing: it's all a bit silly, isn't it? While other parts of the world take a sensible approach to cannabis – decriminalising and even legalising it – the UK's government continues to plod along, refusing to engage in any kind of sensible debate on the topic.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s refusal to decontrol marijuana has raised the hackles of doctors, patient advocacy groups, cannabis entrepreneurs, and potheads almost everywhere. Under the agency’s recent directive, marijuana remains an illegal, controlled substance like heroin and LSD that has no medical value. But unlike most federal regulations, the DEA move will have little to no effect on state-level marijuana politics. 

Over 30 people were hospitalized in New York City last month after smoking some fake marijuana that had them acting more like “zombies.” In fact, an eyewitness described the incident as “a scene out of ‘The Walking Dead.’”

They had overdosed on what is called synthetic marijuana, which is known to cause users to act erratically, experience respiratory problems and even collapse on the street.

Thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, as it is more commonly known) has gained media and public popularity all over the world. ALS is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative condition that occurs as a result of selective loss of motor neurons in the brain stem, motor cortex and spinal cord. ALS strikes all of a sudden, commonly between the ages of 40 and 70. Approximately, 5,600 people are being diagnosed per year. The exact cause of ALS is still unknown, but it is believed to be due to neurotoxicity, inflammation and oxidative stress in the motor neurons. These events impair the brain’s ability to initiate or control muscle movements.

With nearly a dozen state initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana on the November ballot, the market for legalized marijuana is certain to expand. But, because marijuana continues to be classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), private banks are effectively prohibited from fully participating in this market -- the compliance burden is too high and individual employees face the threat of prosecution.

Government Will Soon Allow More Legal Sources for Obtaining Cannabis-for-Study

The DEA eliminates 48-year old monopoly on research-grade marijuana (MAPS)

Head of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Rick Doblin has been working on getting marijuana approved as a medicine for years, and recently announced the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is starting to open up to the idea of licensing more than one producer of cannabis product for research.