When the Georgia Legislature voted last month to expand its medical marijuana program, it wasn't to legalize growing operations or streamline the application process. Instead, they added to a list of qualifying conditions; going forward, patients with AIDS, Alzheimer's or Tourette's syndrome will be eligible to buy cannabis oil with very low amounts of THC, the psychoactive compound in weed. 

The neon lights of the casinos beckon you across the border for a little weekend fun.

Located right on the state line, this town of about 5,000 balloons to about 20,000 on weekends. People, mostly from Utah, arrive to drink, gamble or take in a concert. Now, city leaders are looking at another potential income source: marijuana.

"I have reservations, but I think it would be a good asset to the city for number one, revenue, and, for those that need it, medical marijuana," West Wendover City Councilman Jerry Anderson told FOX 13.

A group of Missouri veterans will head to Colorado on Thursday for a conference dealing with medical marijuana and how it can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

The "1st Annual Institute of Cannabis Research Conference” will be held at Colorado State University and feature tours of legal dispensaries and grow operations.

Vietnam veteran George Biswell will be one of 22 Missouri veterans traveling to the conference. Biswell will be one of 22 Missouri veterans traveling to the conference.

"I think just about anybody who served in Vietnam deals with some form of post-traumatic stress," he told 41 Action News.

Biswell served in the United States Air Force and was sent overseas to help in the Vietnam War in 1969.

When the Yakama Nation announced in 2013 that it had no interest in selling pot, its chairman said the tribe had “a long and unpleasant history with marijuana, just as we have had with alcohol.”

But other tribes are raring to gain a foothold in the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry – and they say it would be a mistake for President Donald Trump’s administration to try to stop them.

There are certainly several disputes and controversies within the Oregon cannabis industry and community, but none greater than marijuana testing standards. Last October, stringent testing guidelines went into place, making Oregon regulated cannabis “safer than food.” The standards for Oregon cannabis were so high, that reports surfaced that a vast majority of California cannabis on the shelves at local dispensaries would fail Oregon’s pesticide testing standards.  However, those strict standards created shortages and price increases throughout the Oregon market, especially for edibles and extracts.

Friday could be a very bad day for marijuana growers. That’s because, tucked into the vast spending bill Congress needs to pass to avoid yet another government shutdown, is the extension of a provision designed to prevent the federal government from prosecuting marijuana growers in states that have legalized cannabis. If it’s removed, it would allow more than a dozen currently stalled federal prosecutions of weed growers up and down the West Coast to go through.

The NDAA outlines a position on pot policy, and it’s not good news for cannabis advocates.

The National District Attorney’s Association (NDAA), which created a policy group in January to advise the Trump administration on marijuana decisions, is taking a highly oppositional stance to legalization and urging the Justice Department to enforce federal prohibition laws in states that have legalized the drug.

According to the group’s white paper, which was released on April 20 (of all days):

Where medical marijuana is legal, adults are more likely to use the drug illegally and are at an increased risk of cannabis use disorder, according to a new study.

Researchers found that illegal use of marijuana and rates of cannabis use disorder rose to a greater extent in US states that adopted laws legalizing marijuana for medical purposes than in states that didn't adopt such laws.

The risks of medical marijuana laws are important to convey, said lead author Deborah Hasin, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York.

"Just as the case for alcohol, not everybody who uses it is harmed but there are some risks," Hasin told Reuters Health.

Although pharmaceutical companies have the most to lose from the legalization of marijuana, no company has taken it as far as Insys Therapeutics (INSY); the company responsible for developing and oversubscribing a fentanyl spray that resulted in hundreds of deaths and overdoses.

In 2016, the disgraced pharmaceutical company donated $500,000 to promote opposition to Arizona’s recreational marijuana ballot initiative.

11 Execs Arrested for Overprescribing and Kickback Schemes

While the number of people who view marijuana as posing "no risk" increases, highly potent forms of the drug are becoming more common, which may cause greater negative effects, according to a 2017 report by this university's public health school.

The percent of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that causes a high, has increased from 4 percent to 12 percent in the 19-year period between 1995 and 2014, according to the study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.