The number of women using medical marijuana to treat their pain is up drastically over the past five years, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The report says 25 percent of women in 2012 used medical marijuana compared to more than 37 percent as of May of this year.

Wendy Cardona, a stay at home mom of two is looking to treat her chronic pain.

"With the pain that I have, it's hard for me to play with them. I have to pause on them which they don't understand," Cardona said.

She's tried other medications, both over the counter and prescription, but so far nothing has helped. That's why she decided to try medical marijuana.

The tarmac at the Auto City Speedway in Clio might not have ever witnessed such a slow-moving pace as it did on Saturday.

And that smell burning on the racetracks?

Certainly wasn’t gasoline.

It was smoke that filled the air as visitors to the fourth Midwest Cannabis Cup sparked up and sampled different strains of medical marijuana at the dozens of vendor tents, organized by High Times magazine.

The Cannabis Business Alliance (CBA)  has released a statement in response to a recent insurance study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) linking the legalization of recreational marijuana with an increase in car crashes reported to insurers.

The first medical marijuana production deal struck in Louisiana is expected to bring the state’s flagship university at least $3.4 million over five years.

In its bid offer, the contractor agreed to pay that amount or 10 percent of gross receipts, whichever is higher, to the LSU Ag Center for permission to grow medical marijuana.

The LSU Board of Supervisors gave its blessing to the arrangement Thursday, authorizing System President F. King Alexander to work out details of a final contract with GB Sciences Inc.

The AgCenter selected the Las Vegas-based company to manage the growing operations from seven potential vendors who applied.

Pennsylvania handed out licenses to 12 companies to grow marijuana for medicinal uses last week, and is expected to license producers and dispensaries soon. However, it could be tough for those businesses to get bank accounts.

Although Pennsylvania has legalized medical marijuana, it's still illegal at the federal level. That means all of the proceeds from growing, producing or selling it are illegal as far as the federal government is concerned.

That leaves banks that accept proceeds for such activity at risk of federal prosecution.

The Nevada Tax Commission is expected to take one more step toward the start of recreational marijuana sales in Nevada.

While Gov. Brian Sandoval has already signed onto the emergency regulations for the labeling and packaging of marijuana, the Tax Commission is expected to formally adopt the regulations Monday at its meeting.

On July 1, any adult 21 and older will be able to walk into one of 37 approved dispensaries in Southern Nevada and buy up to an ounce of marijuana.

“We’re just kind of playing the game as the rules change, to be honest with you,” said Lissa Lawatsch of Las Vegas Releaf.

So far, it’s been a rollercoaster of regulations.

Backers of a marijuana legalization ballot initiative in Michigan say they have the financial and grassroots support necessary to put the question before voters in 2018.

An unsuccessful attempt in 2016 gathered roughly 350,000 signatures but did so outside of the required 180-day timeframe. MILegalize, the group behind the 2016 effort, is now working with the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project as part of a new group, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. They’re hoping to raise millions of dollars to pay signature-gatherers this time around and for what could be an expensive campaign leading up to the 2018 General Election, should the signatures get collected.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has approved what may become the Island’s first facility for growing, testing and packaging medical marijuana.

Geoff Rose, owner of Patient Centric of Martha’s Vineyard, plans to share space in a 7,200-square-foot building on Dr. Fisher Road in West Tisbury. The building itself, planned by Big Sky Tents owner Jim Eddy, was approved by the commission in 2010 but has yet to be built.

During a public review this spring, residents raised concerns about increased traffic on Dr. Fisher Road, and the site’s proximity to the West Tisbury School 2,400 feet to the south. But the final plans on Thursday passed with little debate.

A young boy by the name of Landon Riddle was diagnosed with Leukemia back in 2012 at just two years old. He was given just a ten percent chance of even making it through the night, but he did.

Landon underwent chemotherapy as most people do and while he lived, he suffered. He was not able to eat for weeks at a time and lost fifty percent of his weight, He was always in pain and his family knew something needed to be done, they just were not quite sure what that was yet.

A handful of drugmakers are taking their first steps toward developing marijuana-based painkillers, alternatives to opioids that have led to widespread abuse and caused the U.S. health regulator to ask for a withdrawal of a popular drug this month.

The cannabis plant has been used for decades to manage pain and there are increasingly sophisticated marijuana products available across 29 U.S. states, as well as in the District of Columbia, where medical marijuana is legal.

There are no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved painkillers derived from marijuana, but companies such as Axim Biotechnologies Inc, Nemus Bioscience Inc and Intec Pharma Ltd have drugs in various stages of development.