A Cleveland couple is fighting to regain custody of their newborn daughter following a magistrate's order to have her taken from her parents because the mother was found to have drunk marijuana-based tea to ease her labor pains.

Despite county family services officials recommending that the child remain at home with her parents, Magistrate Eleanore Hilow had baby Nova removed from Hollie Sanford and her husband and placed in the home of one of their relatives.

 RCMP have uncovered a large marijuana grow operation in Rocky View County, southern Alberta, Tuesday afternoon. Strathmore RCMP executed a search warrant at a rural property north of Langdon, where they found 1,140 marijuana plants with an estimated value of $1.4 million.RCMP said the grow op was located inside multiple rooms in a residence, as well as a large outbuilding on the property.Thong Vihn Nguyen, 63, and Phan Thi Dang, 62, were arrested and face multiple charges, including production and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.Strathmore RCMP received assistance from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit “Green Team,” the RCMP Police Dog Service and the Strathmore RCMP Crime Reduction Unit.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Armando Santacruz, a 54-year-old businessman, had been trying to convince congressmen for nearly a year to get Mexico to legalize and regulate drugs, starting with marijuana. It was an uphill battle in a country where drug crime has tore at the fabric of society. In private, congressmen were open to the conversation, Santacruz said, but publicly, they appeared vehemently opposed to discussing the issue.

Five days after the Saskatoon police raided the Saskatchewan Compassion Club and charged four of its employees with drug trafficking, the service has released a public statement clarifying its reasons for the raid and the arrests. 

Attributed to spokeswoman Alyson Edwards, the release stated that the Saskatchewan Compassion Club, a medical marijuana dispensary in downtown Saskatoon, "was operating without a licence from Health Canada under the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations."

"It is an offence under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to possess or sell (traffic) marijuana. The compassion club received a letter from Health Canada warning them to stop operation or face legal consequences," the release stated. 

North Dakota’s Secretary of State, Al Jaeger, accepted a petition Monday to put a medical marijuana legalization measure on next year’s ballot, according to a Valley New Live report.

If passed, the measure would allow qualified North Dakota residents to possess up to 3 ounces of medicinal marijuana for treatment of certain debilitating medical conditions.

Oddly - almost absurdly - Aodhan O’Riordain, the Irish justice minster, came to London yesterday to deliver an oration that amounts to a 'red letter day' for drugs reform in his country. His call for decriminalisation of the possession of small quantities of drugs stands in startling contrast to the illiberal ambivalence of mainstream political parties in the UK.

The Republic of Ireland and the UK operate within a similar political culture. Yet the Irish and the British debates on drugs reform have taken very different paths.

Ohio voters are heading to the polls Tuesday to vote on whether or not to legalize medical and recreational marijuana.

The passage of Issue 3 would make Ohio the home of a lot of firsts: the first Midwestern state to legalize the drug, the first successful privately-funded legalization campaign, and the first state in the country to legalize medical and recreational uses at once, according to the Washington Post.

For the last couple of years, Mexican legislator Fernando Belaunzarán has watched as millions of Americans in 24 states across the country have approved the legal use of marijuana – mostly as medicine but also for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

As a deputy in the Congress, Belaunzarán has tried to get Mexico to do the same, but the country has stuck to laws banning the drug, although millions of tons of it is harvested in the country every year.

Only in recent months has the topic of legalization been taken up in earnest, discussed in courtrooms, in the corridors of power and in the mainstream media.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A ballot initiative spearheaded by tech billionaire Sean Parker that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use in California was submitted to state officials on Monday.

Although the Adult Use of Marijuana Act is one of at least a dozen marijuana legalization measures vying for a place on the November 2016 ballot, it has received support from key interest and advocacy groups and stands poised to secure significant financial backing.

Here is a look at what it would do if ultimately approved by voters:

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BROADLY SPEAKING

You are being offered the wrong referendum. The matter to be decided should not be the design of a flag on which 6000 people have made submissions, but the status of a law which 400,000 people feel inclined to break each year.

The question of whether crime should be reduced, taxes collected and liberty increased on par with comparable risks, has been the subject of referendums in Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska. It is likely California, Arizona, Maine and Massachusetts will also in the near future legalise the recreational use of marijuana.

The current position in New Zealand is that marijuana should be prohibited as the risks are too high to allow the public to have regularised access to it. The evidence shows that the risks are real.