The offices of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission must be busy these days: Not only are employees hammering out the rules under which recreational marijuana will be sold, they’re also keeping track of those local governments that are working to ban the pot sales.

That list gets longer by the week. Currently, it includes mid-valley communities such as Sweet Home and Brownsville. It also includes seven of Oregon’s 36 counties. More governments will join the list, possibly including Albany, where the City Council last week made some noise about maybe pursuing a permanent ban on recreational sales.

THE MINISTRY of Health is to be sued over ganja laws, the country’s first incorporated Cannabis Law Reform Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) has said.

According to a release from Colin Stephenson, the director and co-founder of C420, “under current law in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the possession, import, export, sale, manufacture, production, cultivation or distribution of cannabis is legal as long as one has been issued a licence”.

Stephenson said C420 is ”in possession of a legal opinion from the Ministry of Health confirming the same”.

“In light of this, C420 has made several applications for medicinal cannabis licences on behalf of individuals who feel cannabis will be effective as a treatment for their illnesses,” Stephenson said.

Sincere intentions lead to meaningful industry connections. The cannabis industry serves so many different types of people, it was almost a given that this community would eventually begin to polarize. We are seeing this divide now as more pro-cannabis campaigns ramp up nationwide.

There are some activists who believe that “no regulation is the best regulation,” and likewise there are entrepreneurs who would sacrifice all humanistic elements of this legacy industry in order to turn a profit. Neither are helping the movement, and luckily, both are rare.

A medical marijuana grow operation could be coming to Kamloops.

At its Tuesday meeting, council will be asked to approve a public hearing on whether to rezone a warehouse at 8170 Dallas Dr. for growing medicinal pot.

The warehouse, located on the north side of Dallas Dr. in the Gateway Industrial Park, would need to be rezoned from industrial park to general industrial, in line with marijuana-growing rules the city set up in 2013.

In a report to council, planner Stephen Bentley said the operation would fit with the city’s official community plan and recommends the city move ahead with the public hearing.

Following a September 25th debate on legalizing cannabis in Cincinnati, the majority of those who took part in a straw poll voted for legalization but against Issue 3 - a controversial motion that would grant an exclusive license to 10 legal growers in the state.

Afterward, the 124 attendees cast their votes: 86 voted for legalization, but not Issue 3; 36 supported Issue 3, and 2 voted against both. Admittedly, the same size is pretty small - but it's far from certain that Issue 3 will pass November 3rd in the statewide vote, even if the majority of people favour legalization.

Cannabis was made illegal in the United Kingdom on 28September, 1928 as an addition to the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920. However doctors were able to prescribe cannabis for medical uses in the UK until 1971. What medical uses? Well, in part, treating drug addiction.

On 28 September 1971, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 came into force creating the Class A, B and C classification system and making even more drugs controlled substances.

The Drug Enforcement Administration spent $960,000 to destroy marijuana plants in that state in 2014 as part of its "Cannabis Eradication Program," according to a recent report by NBC affiliate KGW in Portland, Ore.

Carly Fiorina made waves at the last Republican presidential debate when she delved into the marijuana policy debate by bringing up the relative danger between cannabis and beer as well as the tragic death of her step-daughter due to drug abuse. Fiorina, who many pundits feel won the 2nd GOP debate, was taken to task by cannabis law reformers including Marijuana Politics’ Russ Belville, who blogged:

It is terribly sad when a parent loses a child for any reason, much less the preventable tragedy of drug overdose, Ms. Fiorina.

The New Zealand Government's new drug policy is out of step with international best practice and is not fit to be presented to the UN in 2016, the Cannabis Party says.

New Zealand's drug policy is a throw-back to racist 20th century hysteria that is completely at odds with the scientific evidence regarding drugs.

The policy deliberately ensures that the drugs which are legally accessible do the most harm to New Zealanders, while medicinally beneficial plants are banned.

The policy makes no distinction between low-risk substances like cannabis, high-risk hard drugs and alcohol.

It forces compulsory drug treatment on innocent cannabis and drug users, many of whom are likely to have no problems with addiction.

'Bongy' promotes a head shop in Esquimalt, before the mascot was banned. In Vancouver, illegal pot stores have employed scantily clad women to attract customers.

— image credit: Vancouver Metro

With medical marijuana dispensaries continuing to open in defiance of federal law, more B.C. communities have joined the call for local authority to regulate what are often little more than retail pot stores.

Lower Mainland communities found majority support at last week's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention to bypass legal wrangling over medical marijuana access, as a court challenge continues against the Conservative government's strict controls on growing and selling it legally.