DIRECTOR OF THE Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit Cheryl Willoughby is concerned about the number of young people being incarcerated for marijuana offences and she says it is clogging up the justice system. 

Willoughby said with statistics indicating it costs $85.03 a day to house one prisoner at Dodds Prisons, drug offenders are adding to burden on the public purse.  The information was imparted to students from schools across Barbados this morning, during a youth forum marking the beginning of National Youth Week 2015, at the Radisson Aquatica Resort. From 2009 to 2014 more than 1100 people were admitted to Dodds on drug offences. 

Ricardo Varona is accused of trafficking the drug in Southwest Miami-Dade

He claims he grew the plants to help ease his wife’s cancer-related suffering

A pot businessman testified the defendant’s operation was ‘amateur’

With its established medical and recreational pot industry, Colorado loomed large Thursday over the trial of a Miami man who insists he operated a marijuana growhouse only to help ease the suffering of his cancer-stricken wife.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Michigan Court of Appeals decision upholding the conviction of a Kentwood man for violating the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act does little to clarify a law many see as confusing.

In fact, a local attorney who specializes in medical marijuana defense says it shows that the act is so convoluted and frequently misapplied that the only solution may be legalization at the hands of the voters.

John Christopher Placencia, 42, was arrested in Kentwood in the summer of 2012 on charges of selling marijuana and operating a drug house.

A couple aged 50 years was arrested in Murang’a for being in possession of five stones of bhang.

The two were arrested on Tuesday evening at their home at Githunguri village in Iyego location, Kangema Constituency.

The arrest comes after one week of intensive surveillance on the couple following information provided by the public to the newly established Quick Response Team of police known as QRT.

According to Murang’a County Commissioner Kula Hache, the couple, Peter Muturi and his wife Jane Wambui, has been selling the narcotics for a very long time.

The two are said to have been arrested a couple of times, charged in court and fined but have never abandoned the illegal business.

Portland, Ore. — Cannabis may be legal in Oregon, but police are still waging a war on weed.

A KGW investigation found the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is sending more than $750,000 to police in Oregon this year to snuff out pot operations.

“I think the DEA’s marijuana eradication program is a huge waste of federal taxpayer dollars,” Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, told KGW.

“We have states like Oregon, Washington and Colorado that have legalized marijuana and then you’ve got the federal government trying to eradicate it,” said Lieu. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Jeb Bush was in the media a lot following the most recent Republican debate. During the debate Jeb Bush tried to make the case for opposing marijuana reform, and admitted that he had consumed marijuana forty years ago. The admission even came with a public apology to his mom. For some reason Jeb Bush thinks that people should go to jail for something that he did himself when he was younger, but never experienced any repercussions of marijuana prohibition because he grew up in a very privileged situation. Had Jeb Bush received the ‘marijuana scarlet letter’ himself, maybe he would think otherwise.

The 2016 Election is not that far away, especially for campaigns. Signature deadlines vary across the country, but they will be up sooner than later. Campaigns are working very hard to get marijuana legalization on the ballot in many states, some having better chances than others of making it on the ballot. I was hopeful that over a dozen states would make the ballot in 2016, and maybe there will be some significant changes that help some states catch up. But for now, below are the states that I feel will make the ballot, and in the case of Nevada, already have made the ballot:

California

ROWNSVILLE, Texas—Two illegal aliens have been sent to prison in connection with their role in growing 11,500 marijuana plants in Texas. The father and son duo are expected to be deported after completing their sentence.

On Tuesday, 22-year-old Miguel Echevarria-Guisar appeared before U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen who sentenced him to three years in prison on the charge of manufacturing marijuana. Just last month, 51-year-old Miguel Echevarria-Zuniga, Guisar’s father was sentenced to three and a half years for a similar marijuana charge and for being a previously deported alien who was caught in the United States.

The argument surrounding marijuana is not simply confusing for Americans choosing new laws or for prospective presidential prospects establishing a notified stance, it is puzzling for those staying in states with already-legalized marijuana. From aiming to find out exactly what’s a legal investment to what might be a possible criminal activity, cannabis legalisation can look like a minefield.

Washington as Case Study