Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is pushing the nation's Prime Minister to get cannabis medicines into the hands of the many patients throughout the country who need them. Mr. Shorten recently met with medical cannabis patient Ben Oakley, who appears to have left a very positive impression on the ALP's...

As Australian heads for 12 months since medical cannabis legislation was passed, progress is still occurring - but much too slowly for some. Health Minister Greg Hunt announced two new appointments to the Australian Advisory Council On The Medicinal Use of Cannabis last week. Professor James Angus AO will be Chair...

Eighty percent of Iowa residents recently surveyed indicated their support for legalising cannabis for medicinal purposes, a large jump from a 2013 poll that showed 58% support it. The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll reports 88 percent of young adults and 67 percent of senior citizens support medical marijuana. With...

There's been a lot going on with industrial hemp in the USA since the start of February - here's a summary of some of the stories we haven't yet covered in detail. In Arizona, a bill to enable Arizona farmers to grow industrial hemp was approved by a Senate committee...

It took a legal filing and a sustained campaign, but it seems the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has finally removed inaccurate information about cannabis from its website. Well, some of it apparently. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a legal request (PDF) with the Department of Justice late last year...

A recent discovery of medical marijuana containing bacterial and fungal pathogens could be a serious wake-up call for the legal cannabis industry. Or is it just a scare campaign? Researchers at UC Davis examined 20 marijuana samples obtained from dispensaries in Northern California. Apparently they found alarming levels of infectious...

Ireland's Health Products Regulatory Authority’s report on medicinal cannabis has been published and the nation's Health Minister has announced a compassionate access programme will proceed. In what the Minister Simon Harris described as a "milestone" in medicinal marijuana policy development for Ireland, the Cannabis for Medical Use – A Scientific...

The U.S. legal cannabis industry will no doubt be watching the progress of the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act very closely. The Act, introduced last week, seeks to protect parties from some provisions of the Controlled Substances Act in circumstances where they are acting in compliance with state marijuana laws. The...

A trial of marijuana use for managing the symptoms of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans is now fully under way in the USA. In April last year we reported the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) had been awarded a USD $2.156 million grant to execute the...

New Zealand's Associate Health Minister has announced all decision-making for the prescribing of cannabis-based products in the country will be delegated to the Ministry of Health. Up until now, the buck has stopped with Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne. He states he has approved every application that landed on his...