Sen. Terrence “Positive” Nelson and his staff have started drafting a bill to legalize, license and regulate medicinal cannabis in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but it may be a while before the “Medical Cannabis Patient Care Act” bill is heard in the legislature, the senator told a news conference Tuesday.

“I can't dictate when it will be heard in Legislature,” Nelson said.

It could be as late as August, he said, because of budget hearings coming up, he said. The draft of the bill will be submitted to the Legislature's legal council by the end of May. Legal council will have 45 days to review it, then it goes to a legislative committee process.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Minister of Justice Senator Mark Golding has called on citizens to respect the police, particularly in relation to the recent amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act, which have introduced several important changes in respect to ganja.

"As a Government, we are not encouraging anybody to smoke ganja, especially the youth at school. In fact, we are coming up with a public education programme to say to the youth, yes the law has changed and some of the harsh penalties have been removed, but this is not something for kids as kids should not be smoking and they should not be drinking alcohol," the minister emphasised.

Senator Golding said the public education programme is necessary as the situation must be dealt with responsibly.

MONTREAL — The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre launched the groundbreaking Quebec Cannabis Registry on Monday.

The province-wide program is a world first and it will track patients who use medical marijuana for research purposes. But one prominent pot activist calls it a form of extortion since it is now the only way Quebec patients can have access to legal marijuana.RELATED

“When you say registry right away the first thing that comes to mind is sex registry or offender, so you have this stigma,” said Marc-Boris St-Maurice, director of the Montreal Compassion Club.

Bad news for drug prohibitionists – a new study has thrown doubt on the idea that smoking cannabis can cause psychosis in teens.

Drug war advocates have repeatedly cited previous research which showed that teenagers who smoked were at a higher risk of psychotic episodes – using it as evidence that dope is making children crazy.

The new study by University of Oxford, University of Leeds and used  4,830 16-year-old twins to rule out genetic factors – and found that both cannabis use and psychotic episodes were triggered by environmental factors, including being poor, or bullying.

In other words, cannabis doesn’t cause the episodes – children who are under stress for other reasons tend to smoke dope, and are also at higher risk of psychotic episodes.

Applications for one of five medical-marijuana licenses in New York will roll into the state Department of Health through a May 29 deadline, but winners and losers already are emerging. And at least one aspiring marijuana grower has decided to take his business elsewhere.

With a May 29th deadline for applications from prospective marijuana growers and sellers who want to do business in New York State fast approaching, we turned to the nation's leading cannabis business figure to help make sense of what's happening.

Brendan Kennedy, CEO of Seattle-based private equity firm Privateer Holdings, talked about why New York became the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana, how New York's law differs from other states, and how the unions fit into all of this. Here's an edited transcript of our conversation.

LAKE MARY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) - You are now more likely to encounter a drugged driver on the roads than a drunk driver, according to a recently released study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
 
That statistic, combined with efforts to legalize medical and recreational marijuana, has law enforcement across the country looking for new and better ways to crack down on drugged driving.
 
Their newest tool could come in the form of a marijuana breathalyzer.

Kincardine’s medical marihuana facility has laid off its 15 workers, and management will continue to operate at zero salary while they await a Health Canada inspection of the completed facility.

Advanced Medical Marihuana Canada (AMMCan), a subsidiary of Supreme Pharmaceutical, has spent over $500,000 in upkeep costs since Dec. 12, 2014, when it informed the federal government that renovations were completed and it was ready for inspection of the pharmaceutical marihuana facility at the Bruce Energy Centre, off Bruce Road 20 near Lake Huron.

While patient organizations continue to report difficulties in getting drugs based on cannabis and the problems that the implementing regulations are giving in the federal application, the President of Tuscany Enrico Rossi calls for expanded use of cannabis for other diseases, in addition to those required by law.

If you like puns, then you’ll love the American pot industry. Whether it’s bongs, brownies, or the buds themselves, pot-treprenuers (see what I did there) never saw a product they didn’t think could be improved by adding “Green,” “Canna,” or “Mary Jane” to the name.