What could be a resolution to the long-running debate over medical marijuana in Los Angeles and across California took a step forward today when backers of a proposal to legalize the drug won the state’s OK to gather petition signatures needed to put the idea before voters.

If enacted, the state would see a huge financial windfall through law enforcement cost savings and the new taxation of the drug and drug businesses.

More than $100 million in law enforcement costs could be saved if the measure becomes law, according to state officials. In addition, millions would be raised by taxing the drug industry.

Meanwhile legalized marijuana usage in Colorado has produced unexpected consequences.

“I think the world is looking at Colorado and I think this is this great period with great social and economic change around controlled substances”.

Marijuana candy. Trick or treat? a billboard on a major Denver thoroughfare warned.

What Vermont has lost in arrests since decriminalizing marijuana in 2013 it's more than made up for by issuing tickets for pot possession.

Last year, law enforcement around the state filed paperwork with the court for 1,366 adult civil marijuana complaints, more than double the amount of arrests on file with the Vermont Crime Information Center in 2012 when a similar offense was still criminal, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Almost 15 per cent of tobacco products used in B.C. are contraband, costing the provincial treasury an estimated $100 million a year in lost tax revenue. It’s a glimpse of what awaits governments in a legalized-marijuana world.

Legalized — or at least decriminalized — marijuana is inevitable. Its widespread use demands that governments regulate, tax and monitor the use of the drug, just as they do tobacco and alcohol. To do otherwise makes no sense.

An Ocean County jury this week convicted an Atlantic County man for growing marijuana in the Pine Barrens.

Jon Peditto, 54, maintained throughout his trial in Toms River that he grew the 17 marijuana plants found by police in Tuckerton in 2012, according to a NJ.com report. 

Authorities also found more than three pounds of marijuana in his home, APP.com reported. 

He was charged with maintaining a drug production facility, possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

The Democratic 2016 contender has urged an end to US opposition to the substance – and were he to win the White House, he could take executive action

When Vermont senator Bernie Sanders called for an end to federal marijuana prohibition this week before an audience of college students, he went further than any major national presidential candidate before him.

“It’s the first time a presidential candidate has made such a forthright statement on legalization,” said Michael Collins, deputy director at Drug Policy Action. “[It’s a] a fairly big nail in the coffin of prohibition.”

Colorado: the mountains, the Wild Wild West and when it comes to growing marijuana, Colorado is at least to a degree the Wild West because there, if you pass a licensing test you can have a grow facility.

That is unlike the Ohio model where there would only be 10 grow farms. But it does far more than that; it would allow recreational use of the addictive version of the drug, as well.

And as in any Wild West, there needs to be a new sheriff in town, “I’m Andrew Freedman and I’m the director of the Governor’s Office of Marijuana Coordination”.

COLUMBUS -- Gov. John Kasich said he has voted against state Issue 3 and voiced concern about the impact the marijuana legalization amendment could have on efforts to combat drug abuse.

"I just think it sends the wrong message," he said. "When you run around telling kids not to do drugs, young kids, and then they read that we might legalize marijuana, I just think it's a mixed message. It's not good."

Backers of Issue 3, however, said the proposal to legalize and regulate marijuana in Ohio would actually help the state in its efforts to counter opioid addiction.

Bernie Sanders recently announced a change to his marijuana policy, and it seemed to catch some in the crowd by surprise. Sanders wants to legalize weed across the entire country, stop locking people up and ruining lives over a plant that has killed zero people ever. John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show Podcast), Cara Santa Maria (Talk Nerdy), and Elliot Hill (The Lip TV), hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

"On Wednesday, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders declared his support for lifting federal constraints on pot. “In my view, the time is long overdue for us to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana,” Sanders said.