PHOENIX — A Republican lawmaker has withdrawn a bill restricting access to medical marijuana after receiving hundreds of complaints.

The bill by Rep. Jay Lawrence of Scottsdale would have removed physicians practicing alternative medicine such as naturopathy and homeopathy from the list of doctors that can issue medical marijuana referrals. More than 87 percent of all referrals came from naturopaths and homeopaths in the budget year starting last July.

Lawrence apologized to Arizona residents Friday after receiving hundreds of emails and phone calls from concerned Arizona residents who use medical marijuana legally. He said he did not do enough research before introducing the measure.

Legalizing medical marijuana could save the lives of veterans in Kentucky, an Alexandria resident writes.(Photo: AP)

A worrisome component of veteran post-traumatic stress disorder with chronic pain is the constant, ever-hovering specter of addiction and suicide among the veteran population. The suicide rate is reported to be as much as 22 a day. That may seem too high an estimate, but a suicide a day is 30 a month, and one a day too much.

In the aftermath of last month’s federal court setback for Colorado’s Fourth Corner Credit Union, banking officials and cannabis business owners in other states are searching for creative ways to open legal bank accounts. Leafly recently highlighted the success that small Washington state banks and credit unions have experienced by working within Justice Department, FDIC and NCUA policies.

“We want Rand! We want Rand!”

Somewhere near the two-and-a-half hour mark of last week’s Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, protesters supporting Kentucky Senator Rand Paul suddenly interrupted the end of a Chris Christie’s answer in which the New Jersey governor said, “This president doesn’t enforce the marijuana laws in this country because he doesn’t agree with them.”

New evidence suggests that a chemical derived from marijuana may be an effective treatment for patients with drug-resistant forms of epilepsy

Charlotte Figi, an eight-year-old girl from Colorado with Dravet syndrome, a rare and debilitating form of epilepsy, came into the public eye in 2013 when news broke that medical marijuana was able to do what other drugs could not: dramatically reduce her seizures. Now, new scientific research provides evidence that cannabis may be an effective treatment for a third of epilepsy patients who, like Charlotte, have a treatment-resistant form of the disease.

The state's pot dispensaries took in $23.6 million as the social stigma faded and more patients seeking relief from chronic pain tried the drug.

Mainers spent $23.6 million on medical marijuana from dispensaries last year, a 46 percent increase driven by multiple factors, including patients seeking alternatives to prescription painkillers and more doctors certifying people to use the drug, according to dispensary operators.

Operators say the increase in sales illustrates the growing willingness of patients and doctors to consider alternatives to traditional medicine, and a reduction in the social stigma surrounding the use of medical marijuana.

Mad Cow Disease, more properly known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), is a horrific, degenerative brain disease that is fatal in 100% of cases. CJD is caused by prions, which are malformed protein molecules—and there is some evidence that cannabis could work to counteract their effects.

So how does CJD affect the brain?

To understand how CJD affects the brain, we first need to understand some of the basic science behind protein formation and folding. Basically, proteins are very long molecules that are so complex that they fold into three-dimensional structures, which can easily be seen with an electron microscope.

Treatments for curbing marijuana dependence have been mainly based on psychosocial approaches, until now — sort of. 

Published in Addiction Biology, a new study suggests that the combination of topiramate — an anticonvulsant drug, which can also prevent migraine headaches — and psychological counseling limits marijuana use among young smokers more than counseling alone.

Researchers at Brown University recruited 66 volunteers who admitted to smoking at least twice weekly. These individuals, aged 15-24, agreed to be open to receiving psychological and drug treatment to reduce marijuana use. A little more than half of the study’s participants met clinical criteria for marijuana dependence or abuse.

Two paranoid drug smugglers high on cannabis wrongly believed they were being chased by the police so called 911 on themselves

A pair of paranoid drug smugglers got so high when smuggling marijuana they called 911 to report themselves.

Leland Ayala-Doliente, 22, and Holland Sward, 23, were travelling from Las Vegas to Montana with 20lb of marijuana when they pulled over and called the police.