The Washington Department of Health just released emergency rules in preparation for the merging of medical marijuana into the state's existing recreational regulatory system.

German federal authorities have rejected a push for the legal sale of marijuana and hash in a Berlin district, filed by the district mayor. The drugs are easy to purchase even when outlawed, argue local officials.

A federal watchdog blocked the initiative to open cannabis shops in the Berlin quarter of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mayor Monika Herrmann (photo above) said Monday.

Illegal marijuana sales are commonplace in the Berlin quarter, which is famous for its clubbing scene and countercultural events.

The district mayor called the decision by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices "regrettable."

If David Cameron turned around tomorrow and said, 'you know what? We need money and austerity doesn't seem to be working. Why don't we legalise weed and see what happens?'. What would it be like? 

Well, Nick Chowdrey at Vice decided to find out exactly what would happen. How much would we make? How much would we save? Is it worth doing at all in the first place? (Spoiler: yes).

Scotland Yard is examining plans to monitor the electricity power supply network in an effort to identify the location of industrial cannabis farms.

Police hope that spikes in electricity usage could lead them to addresses being used by organised crime gangs to run skunk farms.

More than 650 cannabis farms - which use high powered growing lamps - are raided by police in England and Wales every month. Last month police in Kingston-upon-Thames found a cannabis “forest” larger than a football pitch that was hidden in suburban wasteland.

The Met had hoped to put forward a scheme to monitor the electricity network last year but the project failed to get Home Office funding.

With the prospect of jail time hanging over his head, AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo had some sober advice for his 23-year-old son and heir, Azenathi Zanelizwe.

"Do not smoke dagga, don't abuse alcohol - and politics are not for royals," the king advised.

In an interview in the presence of his son, he urged his scion to hold fast to the church and focus his energies on empowering himself through education "to develop our nation".

The controversial 50-year-old king's prospects of remaining a free man hang by a thread. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Supreme Court of Appeal last week.

Locally-grown medicinal cannabis will be legalised in Victoria, under a controversial State Government move to ease the suffering of people with serious medical conditions.

In an Australian first, the Andrews Government plans to embark on a state-based cannabis cultivation trial, based on the recommendations of a report by the Victorian Law Reform Commission.

But the move will need the support of the Federal Government, which is a signatory to an international convention on narcotic drugs.

David Cameron's drug policy hypocrisy has garnered reasonable attention in recent weeks, though just how progressive he was before becoming Conservative leader -- from favouring heroin prescribing to pushing for supervised injection sites -- has largely gone unnoticed. 

While Twitter was exploding with porcine puns and the Guardian was desperately trying to refocus public attention on Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom status in the wake of snippets from his revelatory biography of Cameron, claims that the Prime Minister had once visited a so-called crack den to find a relative struggling with problematic drug use failed to grab headlines.

A year ago Philadelphia decriminalized marijuana, though the main actors in that historical moment—the mayor and a City Councilman—have vastly differing views of the plant itself.

—

He walked in minutes ahead of the Mayor of Philadelphia and took a seat in one of the large chairs on the left side of the Mayor’s Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall.

Mr. Jim Kenney, an At-large City Councilman at the time, sat with his legs crossed, in his usual laid back demeanor, though he projected a quiet sense of pride and accomplishment, making it known, albeit subtle, that the impending signing of a major bill into law wasn’t lost on him.

A former policeman has been arrested for manufacturing cannabis oil.

Interest in the product is growing due to a belief by some that cannabis oil can be used as an alternative treatment or pain relief for cancer‚ and even other illnesses such as Alzheimer's‚ epilepsy and Lyme disease. The late IFP MP Mario Oriano-Ambrosini‚ who had campaigned for the legalisation of medical marijuana‚ had admitted to using cannabis oil to treat his late-stage lung cancer.

The former police officer was allegedly running a sophisticated hydroponic Tetrahydrocannabinol drug lab in Richards Bay‚ KwaZulu-Natal‚ to manufacture the cannabis oil.

“This drug is reportedly worth about one thousand rand a gram overseas‚” the South African Police Service (SAPS) said in a statement.

A councillor has called for a review into drug laws after a cannabis factory was found in the loft of a city home.

Marijuana plants were discovered by police officers called to deal with a house fire in Bradville last week.

Reacting to the news, Councillor Brian White said: “It’s not surprising.

“It could happen anywhere in the country - the fact it was in Milton Keynes is a pure coincidence.

“People will find ways of doing it if they want to.”

Mr White, who represents Bishopstone in Bradville where the drugs were found, believes the current laws are “confusing”.