Anti-legalization group Project SAM released a new video this week comparing marijuana’s recent rise to that of tobacco’s past ascents. The group released the video, above, in conjunction with the National Rx Abuse Summit and the affiliated SAM Marijuana Education Summit.

“I hope people realize that marijuana legalization is all about creating Big Tobacco 2.0: A massive industry that has to keep profits flowing by denying health harms and increasing addiction,” SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) president and legalization opponent Kevin Sabet told The Cannabist.

The popular explanation for medical marijuana dispensaries that have popped up in states from Washington to New York is that marijuana is a wonder drug — treating not just nausea and lack of appetite, but also pain, anxiety, epileptic seizures, and the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.

The federal government refuses to allow people to use it, proponents say. 

The story, however, isn’t quite so simple.

AURORA, COLORADO -- Sweet Leaf, a marijuana store in this Denver suburb, doesn't look like much from, the outside. Windows are blocked. A sign on the door announces that only people 21 and older can come in.

Inside, visitors are greeted with crisp, white walls splashed with cheery magenta polka dots. Jay Z provides the soundtrack. The shop hums from the time it opens at 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. when employees turn away customers still waiting to get in. On a recent afternoon, each of the dozen or so chairs in the waiting room was taken.

Sweet Leaf is a chain of five marijuana shops in the Denver area. The company includes a large scale marijuana grow operation and a mix of recreational and medical marijuana outlets.

TALLAHASSEE — Citing frustration with delays in getting non-euphoric cannabis to patients, a Florida Senate panel Thursday pushed forward a revised attempt to create a regulatory framework for the pot industry, but did not include changes sought by black farmers who complain they would be shut out of the industry.

The bill, approved by the Senate Rules Committee and headed to the Senate floor, would quadruple the number of state-approved businesses that could participate from five to 20.

One of those potential players is Sarasota County-based AltMed LLC.

LANSING, MI -- An activist-led group seeking to put a marijuana legalization proposal on Michigan's 2016 ballot wants to tax retail sales at 10 percent and allow residents to grow up to 12 plants at home.

The Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Committee -- one of three unaffiliated groups considering a possible petition drive -- on Friday released draft language of its ballot proposal.

Alexis Bortell is a Texas girl whose daily epileptic seizures were quelled by medical marijuana, and now she is turning into one of the state’s biggest advocates for legalized cannabis.

One year ago, Bortell was living with a condition that prevented her from living a normal life, and treatments were not making the seizures get any better.

A specialist told the Bortell family that Alexis might benefit by leaving Texas and moving to a state where she could be treated with medical marijuana.

WAIMANALO, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) -A land dispute in Waimanalo could disrupt the University of Hawaii's plans for a new industrial hemp study.

After the blessing for the research project, a Waimanalo family contacted Hawaii News Now saying that land is theirs.

"They're planning on growing hemp on our land and we don't have any problems with it. We would just like some cooperation and some coordination with us, as the owners of course," says the family spokesman Austin Lorenzo.

On Friday, state leaders attended the seed planting ceremony.

Johannesburg - The intersection be tween religion and constitutionalism has always been an uncomfortable one. Whether in the judicial or the political arena, one walks a tightrope in dealing with religion, especially in a constitutional democracy.

Those in public office need to be especially careful what they say about religion as they represent a multireligious society.

No one knows this better than Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who has had to negotiate this tightrope when he had expressed his views on religion.

The chief justice is the highest judicial officer and a public declaration of his faith is bound to ruffle feathers because many could take it as an endorsement of one religion over another, and this would not bode well for a democracy.

A NIDA animal study suggests that extracts from whole-plant marijuana can shrink a serious type of brain tumor, and research on mice showed that these extracts can enhance the cancer-killing effects of chemotherapy.  

Although marijuana is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as medicine, the plant contains several chemicals called cannabinoids which have been studied for their potential healing properties. Such research has led to the FDA’s approval of two medicines containing some of these chemicals in pill form.

Many marijuana advocates are saying 2016 will be the year for marijuana legalization, thanks in part to a new poll which finds that a majority of voters in several swing stats support legalizing marijuana.

According to the Quinnipiac survey,  55 percent of voters in Florida, 52 percent in Ohio, and 51 percent in Pennsylvania, are in favor of allowing adults “to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

As for Medical Marijuana the numbers are even more staggering, with 84 percent of the voters in Florida and Ohio and 88 percent in Pennsylvania stating that they believe medical marijuana should be legal.