It started at the best of times in what was then one of the worst states for cannabis legalization. The exuberance of the chase to get Florida’s Amendment 2 on the ballot in 2014 and the confirmation of the polls of more than 70 percent support. Then the epoch of disbelief, as Amendment #2 failed to get the much needed 60 percent of the vote, left medical cannabis activists Kathleen Isoldi and Candice A. Marschke incredulous. 

Livio went on a trip and left his friends in charge of the most precious thing in his life. It wasn't a child, or a pet or even one of those home appliances so idolized in Cuba. The "apple of his eye" was a marijuana bush, grown, watered and ready to be made into the first cigarettes. Oblivious to the care such a plant requires, the astonished "babysitters" chose to put it behind the glass of a window, away from the eyes of neighbors and potential informers. It survived, but on returning from abroad its owner swore he would never again leave his precious crop in the hands of neophytes.

In a new tell-all autobiography to be released in English in May, the ex-bodyguard of Fidel Castro reveals that the former Cuban dictator lived a "double life" that had him running cocaine and marijuana drug trafficking operations "like a real Godfather."