A strong and freely operating civil society is crucial for successful and stable democracies and must be given the space to carry out their vital functions, the United Nations emphasized today, as it marked the International Day of Democracy.

“Civil society is the oxygen of democracy,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, observed annually on 15 September. 

“We see this clearly in the world’s most vibrant and stable democracies, where Government and civil society work together for common goals,” he continued. 

Cannabis activist Dana Beal is working to make medical marijuana more accessible to New York City patients.

A group of patients disappointed with New York State's much criticized and heavily regulated medical marijuana program has drafted a bill that aims to make medicinal weed more accessible in New York City. 

In response to the state's Compassionate Care Act, the group's proposed legislation establishes a “medical marihuana users’ bill of rights” and asks the City Council to support the creation of a “users cooperative.” (The bill uses the state's preferred spelling of "marijuana," which replaces the J with an H.)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's Issue 3 received its first endorsement from a national marijuana advocacy group, but the group says the proposed constitutional amendment is not the best way to legalize marijuana.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, has a simple mission: legalize marijuana use among adults and establish a regulated legal marijuana market. To that point, NORML supports Issue 3, which would legalize recreational and medical marijuana for adults over age 21 and establish a legal marijuana industry.

Spanish customs officers have seized some 10 tons of cannabis from a yacht off the country's southern coast

The medical use of hemp has been described in Ayurvedic texts and even associated with Lord Shiva.

In 1961, United Nations’ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs banned all drugs, clubbing cannabis products like ganja and charas with hard drugs giving India 25 years to phase them out. It’s been 30 years since marijuana was criminalised in India. We, at The Quint, want it decriminalised.

Even today, drinking bhaang, especially during Holi, carries no stigma. Isn’t it time we celebrated and revived that culture?

SASKATOON – The owner of a Saskatoon community medical marijuana dispensary says he will not close his doors after receiving a recent letter from Health Canada warning him to cease operations or face a police investigation. Mark Hauk, founder of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, says he opened the business in reaction to federal regulations he calls unreasonable. The only reason he says he would close his doors would be if those regulations were changed.

In its letter to Hauk and 12 other similar dispensaries across the country, Health Canada wrote that his operation must stop within 30 days or else the agency would turn his case over to RCMP. Hauk could face up a $5-million fine and spend as many as two years in prison.

Florida voters could decide if recreational pot is legalized like alcohol, if Regulate Florida gets its initiative on the 2016 ballot.

Michael Minardi is on a mission to make recreational marijuana legal in Florida next year. 

Asked how he would do that, considering that a ballot measure to legalize just medical marijuana didn’t pass in 2014, he says, “We’re going to use science, and we’re going to use stats.” 

One woman's fight to honour her son's legacy has made her an icon of hope for thousands of suffering Australians

She had convinced 235,000 people to support her including doctors, business leaders and a state premier, but the two people Lucy Haslam most needed to convince still weren’t returning her calls, so she booked a plane ticket and headed for Canberra.

California lawmakers on Friday finally approved legislation to regulate the state’s medical cannabis industry, 19 years after the Golden State became the first in the nation to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

In the days leading up to Friday’s midnight deadline for the 2015 legislative session, word spread that top lawmakers from both chambers and the governor’s office had reached a deal on a package of bills, but the actual language of the proposals was kept under wraps until the very last minute.