U.S. President Barack Obama gets a tour of the Bob Marley Museum from a staff member Natasha Clark (L) in Kingston, Jamaica April 8, 2015. While in Jamaica Obama will meet with leaders of CARICOM, the Caribbean Community nations, before continuing on to Panama for the Summit of the Americas. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- President Obama, who arrived here Wednesday evening for a meeting with Caribbean leaders, made an unscheduled nighttime visit to the Bob Marley Museum.

"I still have all the albums," Obama, in rolled up shirtsleeves, told museum guide Natasha Clark, as he toured the home in central Kingston where the Jamaican reggae great lived from 1975 until his death in 1981.

Lawmaker pushes for legal marijuana in Michigan

Lawmaker pushes for legal marijuana in Michigan(Photo: Phil Dawson)

Lansing, Mich. (WZZM) - State Representative Jeff Irwin, (D) Ann Arbor, says punishing people for possessing and using marijuana is not working.

He says it's not preventing people who want it from buying the drug.

"Prohibition is ineffective," he says. "It's been a failure."

So Representative Irwin says he is introducing legislation to legalize marijuana.

Not decriminalize marijuana. Legalize recreational marijuana for adults.

"It would be much safer for our communities and much smarter as a policy to legalize and regulate marijuana and create an appropriate legal place for people to buy and sell," he says.

If Minnesota approves limited industrial hemp growth, a state senator with a long-time law enforcement background fears recreational marijuana use will be close behind.

"To me, it is baby steps toward recreational marijuana and I think we will find that out by the end of the session," Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, said Wednesday after a committee approved a bill to allow hemp to be grown by researchers.

Ingebrigtsen predicted attempts will be made to amend the hemp bill to include recreational marijuana use. Minnesota law allows a limited use of medical marijuana, but recreational use remains illegal.

Sen. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley, brought the hemp bill to the Senate Environment, Economic Development and Agriculture Finance Division.

SALEM-A proposal by the Senate's top Republican to begin recreational sales in Oregon on July 1 has attracted a lot of interest, but there appears to be daunting issues that would prevent it from becoming reality.

"The concept is good," said Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, co-chair of the Legislature's marijuana committee, "but practically speaking there are obvious issues."

Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, earlier this week proposed that recreational sales start in medical marijuana dispensaries when possession becomes legal on July 1.

The medical marijuana company New England Treatment Access has received state approval to grow medical marijuana in Franklin and sell it in Northampton.

The Department of Public Health gave NETA its certificate of registration, which allows it to proceed with growing marijuana, on April 3. There will be one final inspection of the dispensary before NETA can begin to sell marijuana.

"We're now in the process of cultivating, and we'll hopefully be serving qualified patients this fall," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for New England Treatment Access.

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday recommended that the federal government produce almost 900 pounds of marijuana for research in 2015, more than triple the amount it had estimated it would need.

When Chicago’s Hilton Hotel hosts a MarijuanaBusiness Conference and Expo keynoted by a best-selling economist, cannabis-entrepreneurs seem to be gaining acceptance. Indeed, marijuana-focused trade shows are growing alongside the marijuana legalization trend.

INDIANAPOLIS – Brian Bennett thought oil extracted from marijuana plants to treat children with severe epilepsy, like his son, might just be legalized this year.

A proposal sailed through the Indiana House, carried by some conservative Republicans, without a single vote in opposition.

But Bennett’s hopes were dashed Tuesday, when a Senate committee stopped the measure in light of opposition from prosecutors who likened it to legalizing medical marijuana.

“This is ‘reefer madness,’ ” said a frustrated Bennett. “We shouldn’t be making decisions based on scare tactics.”

Online searches for Denver hotel rooms around the marijuana celebration date of April 20 are soaring, according to data from booking website Hotels.com.

Search totals also spiked last April, during the first year of legal retail weed in Colorado.

Hotels.com said the numbers suggest that the oft-asked question — does legal marijuana generate an increase in tourism? — has been answered affirmatively.

Marijuana enthusiasts hold so-called 4/20 rallies each spring that attract thousands of publicly-smoking participants, even though Colorado’s statute prohibits public consumption.

With Capitol Hill and the Justice Department locked in a feud over the future of medical marijuana, two leading congressional marijuana reform advocates are warning Justice that it’s violating a new federal law.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Sam Farr (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the Justice Department’s interpretation of their medical marijuana amendment in last year’s spending bill is “emphatically wrong.”