Contrary to what you may have heard, the federal ban has not been lifted.

"Federal Ban Lifted on Medical Marijuana," says the headline over an Inquisitr article that I came across last week. At first I dismissed it as one overenthusiastic reaction to a spending rider that Congress enacted this month, but it turns out this misconception is fairly common. In my latest column, I explain how it was born and why it's wrong:

Banks in Oregon are rejecting money from legal marijuana businesses over fears that they will face federal money-laundering charges and lose their FDIC insurance if they serve those business. Are the banks’ fears justified? We look at the many challenges facing cannabis business owners on the Lip News with Jose Marcelino Ortiz and Jo Ankier.

While the federal government appears to be loosening up on medicinal marijuana, not all states are following suit. Oklahoma is one of the most conservative states in America, and no group has even been able to gather enough signatures to get medical marijuana on the ballot. The most recent attempt to get medical marijuana up for a vote in the Sooner State was made by Green the Vote.

“And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed–to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis 1:29)

(Photo: Laurie Avocado/ Wiki Commons)

All you kosher people out there have no fear – the first certified kosher marijuana will soon be here!

Fairbanks first marijuana business has been open for just over a month. “The Higher Calling” – or THC – is one of several so-called “clubs” in the state that have arisen since voter’s passage of a marijuana legalization initiative in 2014.

Clubs like Fairbanks’ “The Higher Calling” do not sell marijuana. The Higher Calling’s co-owner Megan Mooers describes her downtown area business as a private club for cannabis enthusiasts.

“Membership allows you use of the building to bring your own cannabis products to use or smoke,” Mooers said.

Mooers says the club, which offers coffee, snacks and a game room, signed up 130 paying members in its first month of operation.

As the company prepares to sell the medical marijuana, it follows two sets of regulations for the sale of its products next month, a state law passed only 18-months ago and an even older edict of Torah.

California’s new medical marijuana laws were supposed to provide more structure and clarity for the state’s loosely regulated, billion-dollar industry, but in the past few weeks, dozens of municipalities have ignored that intention by moving quickly to ban delivery and other activities codified by the legislation.

Advocates and legislators hope the bans are only a minor setback in the effort to show federal regulators and voters that California — the first state to legalize medical marijuana two decades ago — can provide order to a medical weed sector that has been haphazardly regulated.

For legalization advocates, 2015 has been a historic year.

Marijuana was pushed further into the mainstream than ever before, and new policies passed at the state level seem to confirm that the public and lawmakers are ready to have a rational conversation about the future of pot in America.

A New York dispensary will offer kosher certified marijuana starting in January. Vireo Health of New York, one of the five companies permitted to grow the cannabis, has received their certification from the Orthodox Union (OU).

Ari Hoffnug, the CEO of Vireo Health tells Medical Daily that he thinks this is a step in right direction to combat the stigma associated with medical cannabis. “It is our hope that having the OU certification will help to send a message to all faiths and  backgrounds. That if you need to use medical marijuana you shouldn’t feel guilty or shamed,” said Hoffnug.

With marijuana now legal in some form throughout 23 states, the number of Americans who fatally overdosed on the drug last year was significant: