CHAMPAIGN — Fact: 44 Americans die every day from prescription-drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"That doesn't happen with cannabis," Caprice Sweatt said Sunday. "Medical cannabis is a safe, legal option."

With the legal version of the drug set to debut locally in a matter of weeks, the founder and CEO of Medical Cannabis Outreach was in Champaign on Sunday to give a seminar on what's ahead.

Sweatt spoke from first-hand experience — as a longtime sufferer of Crohn's disease, her introduction to medical marijuana in Colorado was life changing, letting her trade 22 prescription medications for one $15 transdermal patch that gives her all the benefits she needs.

Sister Kate calls herself an “accidental nun.” At age 16, she tried marijuana for the first time inside a friend’s car during a cold Wisconsin winter. But that was when she was a “good mid-western Catholic girl,” and the drug did nothing for her.

Years later, after her first marriage had come and gone, after she moved to Atlanta to work for General Electric, Kate tried weed again (not to mention cocaine.) This time was different, she wrote on her blog: “I learned that weed goes better with wine, that weed is calming, that weed left me with no side effects. … I gave up the powder and partying, but kept the weed and the wine, in moderation, like medicine.”

Forget waiting for that shady dude perpetually claiming he'll "be there in five." Online services linking patients with cannabis-friendly doctors are the future. The rise of telemedicine has made cannabis accessible to everyone - even those who loathe the hassle of lining up at dispensaries or sealing grey-market deals.

One of the biggest players in the nascent online-delivery game? California's SpeedWeed.

Little precedent has been set on medical cannabis use in the workplace. Over the last two weeks we looked at two Canadian cases, Wilson vs. Transparent Glazing Systems and French vs. Selkin Logging. Both cases begin to inform employees and employers about boundaries on cannabis use at work. 

One of the main messages is that employers in Canada have a broad duty to accommodate medical cannabis as a treatment, assuming the employee has a valid prescription from a doctor. 

This past Friday, Denver NORML announced a new effort to enact a municipal voter initiative this year in Denver to legalize the social use of marijuana in certain venues within the city. The initiative will be known as “Responsible Use Denver,” and will seek to legalize private marijuana clubs for those 21 and up, as well as protect businesses that permit responsible adult marijuana use.

There are a number of important fixes needed to the initial legalization laws, but none impact more smokers than the current ban on marijuana smoking outside a private home.

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that marijuana is now legal in some states in the U.S. hinting at a future where cannabis is no longer illegal at all. The end of prohibition for marijuana in the U.S. would be hugely disruptive and create the potential for a great deal of money to be made off of marijuana legally.

State Rep. Mike Ball holds Leni Young on the day Carly's Law passed the legislature in 2014.

Amy Young and her family moved to Oregon because the medicine her daughter needs is illegal in Alabama.

State Rep. Mike Ball said he plans to introduce a bill next month to change that. And he's confident it's going to pass.

"The people I've talked to about it seem very receptive to it," said Ball, R-Madison. "It's nothing like it was a couple of years ago when I started on Carly's Law. This is a whole different dynamic."

Bernie Sanders, the longtime Vermont senator and current presidential hopeful, has been labeled many things in his career, including a socialist, and while he has attempted to push back against that label by advocating for what he describes as democratic socialism, the term still evokes images of '70s college sit-ins, bell-bottom pants, and bongs. Although no one can know for certain what Sanders would do if he were to win the presidency, his recent comments and actions suggest he could become the most pro-pot president in history.

Lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott signed Alaska’s first commercial marijuana regulations on Friday, but regulators and legislators now face a headache from the FBI.

In a memo dated Jan. 20, Senior Assistant Attorney General Steven Weaver wrote the executive director of the Alaska Marijuana Control Board to say that in order for the FBI to perform background checks on prospective marijuana entrepreneurs, the Alaska Legislature needs to pass a law requesting such checks.

According to the FBI’s interpretation of federal law, “specific authority (must) be expressed in a state statute to require fingerprinting and the use of Federal Bureau of Investigation records,” Weaver wrote.