Article by Mark Thiessen, CBC News Alaska is nearing its first legal sales of marijuana, nearly two years after voters approved the recreational use of pot by adults. Retails stores are being permitted by the state Marijuana Control Board, and just a few hurdles remain until commercial sales begin. The biggest obstacle is waiting for labs to test the raw product. Two labs have ...

Article by BBC UFC fighter Nate Diaz has accepted a warning from the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) for his use of prohibited substance Cannabidiol. The American fighter admitted using the legal high after his loss to Ireland’s Conor McGregor in August. Cannabidiol, a compound found in cannabis, is known anecdotally for its medicinal benefits for people with severe epilepsy. The ...

Article by Scott Merzbach, Daily Hampshire Gazette All that remains of the solitary marijuana plant an 81-year-old grandmother had been growing behind her South Amherst home is a stump and a ragged hole in the ground. Margaret Holcomb said she was growing the plant as medicine, a way to ease arthritis and glaucoma and help her sleep at night. Tucked ...

Article by TG Branfalt Jr, Ganjapreneur According to a new report from Convergex, dispensaries in Colorado and Washington posted double-digit growth from 2015 and Oregon retail sales in June and July reached $42 million, compared to the $102 million seen all last year. Colorado dispensary sales reached $458.7 million through July — just $100 million from the total cannabis sales ...

Article by TG Branfalt Jr, Ganjapreneur A Danish activist is facing up to 10 years in prison for supplying cannabis to other Danes suffering from serious medical conditions, according to a report from The Local. Currently, there is no medical cannabis program in the Scandinavian nation. Claus “Moffe” Nielsen has been outspoken about providing the drug to his clients — ...

Article by Tyler Koslow, Merry Jane To any stoner on the outside, the state of Colorado probably seems like a cannabis-driven utopia stocked limitless strain selection and endless mountain ranges as a backdrop. In reality, residents of the state are quite pleased with the aftermath of passing Amendment 64, which legalized the cultivation, sale, and use of recreational marijuana in ...

Article by Duke London, Marijuana.com On Sunday, it was announced that a German citizen will be allowed to grow his own cannabis for the first time in the country’s history. The 53-year old German suffers from multiple sclerosis and endures symptoms such as spastic paralysis, speech disorders, and depression. The Mannheim resident was already one of 900 Germans to be ...

Article by Rory Carrol, Reuters Hezekiah Allen is a third-generation marijuana farmer in this Northern California county, where the cool coastal fog pours off the Pacific Ocean, coaxing pot plants to heights of 20 feet. The executive director of the California Growers Association trade group, Allen has long sought an end to what he calls “prohibition” and has looked forward ...

Article by Kristin Romey, National Geographic Archaeologists are hailing the discovery of an “extraordinary cache” of cannabis found in an ancient burial in northwest China, saying that the unique find adds considerably to our understanding of how ancient Eurasian cultures used the plant for ritual and medicinal purposes. In a report in the journal Economic Botany, archaeologist Hongen Jiang and ...

Article by Alicia Wallace, The Cannabist Just weeks before Election Day, recreational marijuana initiatives appear to be trending favorably in the latest polls. “Marijuana legalization is leading in every state it’s on the ballot this November,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post marijuana policy reporter tweeted Tuesday. The latest approval percentages he referenced — Arizona at 50 percent, California at 60 percent, ...