The ResponsibleOhio marijuana legalization initiative has created a lot of controversy due to a provision that gives the exclusive rights to grow marijuana for profit to just ten entities. Some people refer to this as a ‘monopoly’ on marijuana cultivation, while others have said that it’s not actually a monopoly because it involves ten entities, so it should be called a ‘ten-opoly.’ The ResponsibleOhio campaign tried very hard to ensure that the word ‘monopoly’ was not on the ballot when voters vote yes or no on whether to approve marijuana legalization in Ohio. Unfortunately for the ResponsibleOhio campaign, the effort did not work. Per Cleveland.Com:

Senator Rand Paul talks about how marijuana legalization should be protected by states like Colorado and Washington. Paul has always defended letting the states legalize marijuana and that incarcerating people for consuming weed has been a disaster and needs to change. Paul stood out on the Republican stage as the only candidate to defend marijuana and states' rights.

The US has again "decertified" Bolivia over what it calls a failure to comply with international narcotics agreements, despite recent data showing the country has achieved an unparalleled decrease in coca cultivation compared to other Andean nations in South America.

The decision, while widely expected, was roundly criticized by drug policy experts, who called the move hypocritical given that the US may be in contravention of UN drug conventions due to legalized marijuana markets in several states.

 Because marijuana is illegal under federal law, and use of the term organic is federally regulated, a licensed cannabis business cannot be certified as organic no matter their practices

Colorado’s attorney general is investigating several marijuana businesses over concerns the word “organic” in their names or advertising might be misleading to consumers.

The office is reviewing complaints from consumers that the “merchants have been misrepresenting their product when they say ‘organic’ or ‘organically grown,'” said Roger Hudson, spokesman for Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. “We’re looking for information inside those complaints to make a determination on what those next steps are. Is it consumer fraud? Is it criminal?”

Top-tier Republican candidates participating in the second GOP debate Wednesday night huffed and puffed over marijuana legalization as more states move to allow voters to legally light up. One Republican candidate even admitted to getting high in his youth.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the drug war has gone too far, noting that there were racial implications associated with it. He advocated for more rehabilitation and less incarceration, and said it was hypocritical for candidates who had smoked pot in the past to oppose medical marijuana. 

DENVER — Tim Cullen smiled when he reckoned a one-day marijuana-tax holiday in Colorado had probably saved him tens of thousands of dollars.

Cullen, the owner of Colorado Harvest Co., a chain of marijuana dispensaries, was among the many growers and shoppers who benefited Wednesday from a quirk that required the state to suspend a 10 percent sales tax and a 15 percent wholesale excise tax for a day.

While shoppers saved roughly $20 an ounce, or about 33 cents per joint, pot growers saved $300 a pound.

“I probably saved $45,000 before lunch,” Cullen said.

Looking over a small tangle of pot shoppers in his suburban Denver shop, Cullen said the crowds weren’t huge, but the tax break would be a big win anyway.

During a city-wide vote on Tuesday September 15, 70% of Toledoans said YES to removing all criminal penalties for possession of under 200 grams of marijuana and reducing penalties for larger possession offenses.

Albania says its campaign against the drugs trade is going well with most of the marijuana plants in the country being destroyed.

Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri said 99.2%, or 690,000 cannabis plants in 44 hectares (109 acres) seen on aerial maps, have been destroyed so far this year.

Mr Tahiri said drug growers had moved to high mountainous areas to plant cannabis, using small planes to take it abroad. 

"The fight against drugs knows no end," he said. "It has a high cost and it is extremely difficult, but it continues."

The southern European country is a major producer of the plant and the authorities started their fight against the drugs trade last year.

The federally funded Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area is nothing if not predictable.

The organization has spent recent years on a jihad against marijuana, regularly rolling out reports suggesting that legalization is rapidly destroying the fabric of society in Colorado by way of statistics that critics have long seen as scientifically suspect and manipulated to achieve a political agenda.

The 15 leading Republican candidates for president have arrived in California just as the state closes in on a fully legal regime for medical marijuana.

Californians have been buying marijuana with medical exception cards since it was legalized by a 1996 ballot measure, but only this month has the state's Democratic legislature passed comprehensive bills to regulate the industry. The state's Department of Food and Agriculture would oversee cultivation; the Department of Public Health would monitor quality. Come Election Day 2016, it's highly likely that Californians will vote on whether to legalize the drug, full stop.