Harry Smith touring CW Botanicals laboratory in Colorado Springs, Colorado with Bear Reel, the lead botanist.

Because of stories like Charlotte's, people with profoundly ill children, mostly with these extreme cases of epilepsy, have flocked to Colorado for treatments. In many ways, Colorado has become something of a "new Lourdes" for people looking for a "miracle." The Stanley brothers helped to form Realm of Caring, an organization that assists people who move to Colorado and provides support services and resources for those using Cannabinoid products.

Implications profound for neurological diseases from autism to Alzheimer's to multiple sclerosis

In a stunning discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. That such vessels could have escaped detection when the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the body is surprising on its own, but the true significance of the discovery lies in the effects it could have on the study and treatment of neurological diseases ranging from autism to Alzheimer's disease to multiple sclerosis.

This is where I get my energy to go out and help other Veterans.

In observance of PTSD Awareness Month this June, VA’s National Center for PTSD introduces a Veteran who is living with PTSD and is turning his life around with treatment.

“I built my own home — I built it for me,” Whitcomb said. “This is my place to come and rejuvenate. It’s the most peaceful place I know on Earth. This is where I get my energy to go out and help other Veterans.”

ROANOKE CO., Va. -

An estimated 200 pounds of marijuana worth more than $1 million was seized during a drug bust at a Roanoke County shopping center, according to Virginia State Police.

The marijuana was seized Friday from a section of Lamplighter Mall, which is on Williamson Road in North Roanoke County. The marijuana was in a large wooden crate that was shipped from Arizona.

Three people have been arrested. Ronald Crenshaw and Leonard English, both of Roanoke, have been arrested. Charges of trafficking and possession with the intent to distribute are pending. The third person has not been identified because he gave authorities a false name.

The House rejected a proposal Thursday to allow doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals to discuss the use of medical marijuana with patients.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer's (D-Ore.) amendment to the first fiscal 2016 appropriations bill of the year, which funds the VA and military construction projects, failed narrowly by a vote of 210-213. 

A total of 35 Republicans voted in favor of the amendment, while eight Democrats voted against it. Boos ensued from the Democratic side of the House chamber when Republicans closed the vote despite the razor-thin margin. 

Federal trademark officials in Alexandria, Va., recently received an unusual package: a hand-delivered parcel containing vials of a clear liquid that smelled of oranges.

The sender wasn’t a crank. It was a corporate trademark lawyer representing Flotek Industries Inc., a Texas producer of hydraulic-fracturing fluids used to extract oil and gas from rocks deep in the earth.

High cigarette taxes fuel a surging black market in smuggled cigarettes, notes Americans for Tax Reform's Patrick Gleason in the Wall Street Journal. New York smokers are the greatest beneficiaries of that black market, burdened as they are with the most ridiculous cigarette taxes in the country. There's a huge flow of smuggled smokes from relatively low-tax states like Virginia. And some smokers are turning to an alternative to which marijuana fanciers facing legal pressures of their own have resorted for decades: growing their own.

RICHMOND, Va. — When people think of hemp, marijuana often comes to mind — because the two plants are varieties of cannabis.

But hemp has a variety of uses, from making textiles and building materials to feeding livestock. The settlers at Jamestown grew hemp. So did George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In the 1940s, Henry Ford reportedly built a car body of hemp fiber and ran it on hemp oil.

In the 1950s, however, the United States banned hemp because of its association with marijuana. That prohibition has remained in effect — until now.

Virginia soon will legalize the growing of industrial hemp under legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

You can go for a ride with the Pineapple Express - or any other strain of cannabis - while visiting friends in D.C., but you might get fired from work back home in Virginia as a result.

Legalized marijuana is closer than ever, now that adults can smoke, grow and share it in the nation's capital. But some local companies are sticking with tests that screen employees for the drug because it's still illegal in Virginia.

A local employment law expert said businesses must be more cautious about dismissing workers for positive drug tests now that marijuana is legal in some parts of the country - but users with a prescription likely have more protection than those who smoke just because, well, they like getting high.

Virginia Tech is gearing up for research that could help establish an industrial hemp growing industry in the commonwealth under a new state law.

On Monday Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed into a law a bill sponsored by Del. Joseph Yost, R-Pearisburg, and for years championed by Montgomery County politician, farmer and businessman Jim Politis that will allow limited hemp cultivation through a permitting system — so long as it is affiliated with a university research program.

Tech released information on its next steps in a news release on Wednesday.