iN

President Donald Trump is taking a new look at reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in a move that could nudge the federal government closer to an approach already embraced in many states.

BOSTON (AP) — A sheriff in one of Massachusetts' largest counties was charged Friday with allegedly pressuring a Boston-based cannabis firm to sell him stock in the company.

Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes drew a few laughs at a recent council meeting when he quipped that allowing cannabis consumption at the annual Christmas Light Up celebration would give a whole new meaning to “light up.”

When people in Kelowna think of psychedelics they might think wavy colours, giggling around a campfire and a moment of self-discovery, or they might think about bad trips, police raids and nightmares.

Rapper GloRilla was arrested this week on felony drug charges after “a significant amount of marijuana” was found by police while they investigated a burglary at her home in Atlanta.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — There are thousands of illegal marijuana farms around the country.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill that would have banned consumable hemp products containing THC ingredients in the state, but said he's open to lawmakers passing a new effort to regulate what has become a booming business.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were cut off by prison guards in violation of his religious beliefs.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers are getting down to crunch time, with big questions still outstanding about how to balance the Democrat's spending request.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein says a panel he's tasked with recommending cannabis sale regulations — including potential legalization of adult use of marijuana — should aim to provide a structure in a state where products now from otherwise lawful hemp are unregulated and leave young people unprotected.

A North Thompson woman has lost a legal battle against more than a dozen insurance companies after she was refused coverage because she grew medical cannabis on her property.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai officials on Wednesday said they planned to tighten regulations on cannabis sales after cases of tourists attempting to smuggle the drug out of the country soared in recent months.

Cops seized illegal cigarettes and cannabis in three raids this week on the Tk'emlups reserve.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvanians 21 or older would be allowed to legally purchase and use marijuana under a bill that passed the state House on Wednesday, the first time a recreational cannabis proposal has been approved by either legislative chamber.

A man driving a minivan with far more weed than is allowed for personal use, was nabbed by RCMP on the Trans-Canada near Yale last month.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Cayman Islands are holding general elections on Wednesday, with voters choosing candidates from a record three parties vying for seats in Parliament.

Marijuana culture's high holiday, known as 4/20, fell this year on Easter Sunday, as well as the last day of Passover, meaning cannabis fans celebrated in some unusual ways, including an “Easter nug hunt” in Los Angeles, kosher-style THC gummies in New York and a “blaze and praise” drag brunch in Portland, Oregon.

A new study from UBC Okanagan and Thompson Rivers University has found that cannabis use can offer benefits to people undergoing treatment for substance use.

BEMMEL, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands expanded a government-run initiative on Monday allowing legal cannabis sales.

MORICHES, New York (AP) — Police and a middle school in suburban New York are looking into how a student got hold of marijuana gummies and gave them to about a dozen schoolmates, sending 11 of them to hospitals.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered at a revered temple in Nepal's capital on Wednesday to celebrate one of the country's biggest religious festivals.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A new report released Tuesday by an anti-transnational crime group has identified the core chemical components of kush, a synthetic drug that has swept through Sierra Leone and the region in the past few years.

PARIS (AP) — “Every day, people pay the price for the drugs you buy.”

A BC weed store which wouldn't let anyone under 19 enter the premises, including babies, has managed to avoid a $7,000 fine after it sold cannabis to a minor.

Seven years after Canada legalized cannabis there is still no reliable way for aspiring stoners to find out the effects of different methods for getting high, and University of British Columbia Okanagan scientists are trying to fix that.

A BC couple who ran an unlicensed cannabis store have lost a legal challenge almost five years after their store was raided.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say they suspect gang members of Laotian descent were involved in the 2020 shooting deaths of seven people at an illegal marijuana growing operation in a small, rural Southern California town.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As Colorado becomes the second state to legalize psychedelic therapy this week, a clash is playing out in Colorado Springs, where conservative leaders are restricting the treatment over objections from some of the city's 90,000 veterans, who've become flagbearers for psychedelic therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP) — In this corner of southern Texas, the plump cacti seem to pop out of arid dust and cracked earth, like magic dumplings.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three weeks after Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana the state moved a step closer to allowing it Tuesday when a judge ruled that the petitions that put the question on the ballot were valid.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Medical marijuana businesses in Mississippi don't have the right to advertise on billboards or other places because marijuana itself remains illegal under federal law, an appeals court says.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Drug reform advocates hailed Oregon as a progressive leader when it became the first in the nation to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the compound found in psychedelic mushrooms.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky will offer an online directory to help connect patients with medical providers as it prepares for the start of its medical cannabis program in 2025, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

A dispensary in Penticton made its patio into a pot smoking lounge, and its success could turn a new leaf for the cannabis industry in the Okanagan.

Kelowna still has bylaws for cannabis producers and retailers from before legalization, and the city plans to update those.

A costly campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida failed Tuesday and California voters took a step toward tough crime laws as voters in dozens of states weighed more than 140 measures appearing on the ballot alongside races for president and top state offices.

NEW YORK (AP) — Young musicians looking for longevity would be wise to follow the sensible word of Willie Nelson: Do what feels right, and if you're lucky enough to have a statue built in your honor in your city, remember that it is just something you've “got to go down and clean off the pigeon (expletive) every now and then."

Kentucky's start-up medical cannabis program should be positioned to ramp up quickly, but having products available for some patients at the outset will be a challenge, Gov. Andy Beshear says.

A recent bust of unlicensed pot stores on the Okanagan Indian Band's Green Mile appears to have been spearheaded by the Band itself, which invited the province's pot police for a meeting earlier this summer.

SURREY, B.C. - As Halloween approaches, police on Vancouver Island are urging the public to use caution after officers seized more than 120,000 cannabis-laced edibles, including chocolate and candies with packaging that mimics recognizable treats.

Having a sale is a normal thing that stores do if they've got inventory to shift and bills to pay, but a BC weed store has fallen foul with the government for slashing prices.

STOUGHTON, Wis. (AP) — Pizza inadvertently laced with THC has apparently sickened dozens of people in Wisconsin.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday appointed a mediator in the long-running dispute over who gets licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in Alabama.

A Quebec-based religion is taking the minister of mental health and addictions to court, claiming Health Canada is dragging its feet on a decision whether to allow its members to use magic mushrooms in their ceremonies.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas voters won’t get to weigh in on a ballot initiative to expand medical marijuana after the state Supreme Court ruled the measure didn't fully explain what it would do, tossing out the initiative just two weeks before the election.

Some gardeners in Kamloops and the Okanagan are getting ready to harvest their cannabis plants, and knowing exactly when to do so can yield the biggest, most potent buds.

Cannabis producers and retailers from the Penticton-Summerland riding met recently with four candidates running in the BC election to explain how the government’s actions are hindering the industry.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Cayman Islands plans to hold a referendum on whether to turn possession of small amounts of marijuana into a minor offense.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An effort to expand Arkansas' medical marijuana program fell short of the required signatures and won't qualify for the November ballot, Secretary of State John Thurston said Monday.

One of three drivers caught driving while impaired last weekend in the North Okanagan was high on cannabis RCMP said.

CAMBRIDGE, Ill. (AP) — An odour of burnt marijuana doesn't justify a search of a car without a warrant in Illinois, the state Supreme Court said Thursday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska certified two ballot measures Friday to legalize medical marijuana even though the state’s Republican attorney general said their supporters may have submitted at least several thousand invalid signatures, which could keep them from becoming law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has signaled support for a potentially historic federal policy shift to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting his position in line with that of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s first-in-the-nation experiment with drug decriminalization is coming to an end Sunday, when possessing small amounts of hard drugs will once again become a crime.

SAO PAULO (AP) — The 4-year-old boy struggled to balance while walking through the living room. His mother’s eyes attentively followed his every move. Then a seizure knocked him to the ground, the dull thud of his small body echoing through the home.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group seeking to legalize marijuana for medical use in Nebraska has gathered enough signatures to get the issue before voters in November, the state’s top election official said Friday.

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Handing out food and drinks from an ice cream truck is off limits for marijuana businesses in Ohio, according to state regulators.

The body that keeps an eye on cannabis stores in BC caught a budtender in Princeton selling THC gummies to a 16-year-old in a sting operation.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota lawmakers on Friday struggled to pin down the full financial impact of legalizing recreational marijuana, a factor voters will see when they decide a ballot measure on the issue this November.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota has qualified for the November election, the state's top election official said Monday. That sets up another vote on the issue in the conservative state after voters and lawmakers rejected previous efforts in recent years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris successfully defended the death penalty in court, despite her past crusade against it.

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Operators of illegal marijuana grow enterprises hidden inside rural homes in Maine don’t have to worry much about prying neighbours. But their staggering electric bills may give rise to a new snitch.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is banning the sale of drinks, candy and other foods made with hemp-derived intoxicating substances, Republican Gov. Mike Parson announced in an an executive order issued Thursday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Customers lined up at dispensaries across Ohio on Tuesday for the first day of recreational marijuana sales in the state.

One of Canada's oldest cannabis stores has been stung with a $3.2-million fine for selling weed without a provincial licence.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Biden administration's push to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug won an endorsement Wednesday from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who said “the jury is no longer out” on its medical uses as an alternative to opioids that ravaged the Bluegrass State with overdose deaths.

BANGKOK (AP) — Two years after marijuana was decriminalized in Thailand, nearly a hundred of its advocates marched to the prime minister’s office Monday to protest a possible ban on general use.

A Kelowna woman who wanted to smoke medical marijuana in her unit has lost a legal battle against her housing cooperative.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday voted to decriminalize possession of marijuana for personal use, making the nation one of Latin America’s last to do so, in a move that could reduce its massive prison population.

A BC weed store has lost an appeal leaving it on the hook to pay a $1-million fine issued by the province's pot police.

A six-year analysis of more than 10,000 Canadian drivers involved in motor vehicle collisions suggests cannabis has edged out alcohol as the most common impairing substance detected through after-crash blood testing.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina got a step closer to legalizing medical marijuana on Thursday when the state Senate gave it its initial approval.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina senators are pushing to legalize medical marijuana again, but it’s unclear if the state House will approve it.

BALTIMORE (AP) — For years, a few crumbs of cannabis played an outsized role in shaping Shiloh Jordan’s life.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore ordered more than 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions on Monday, saying the “most sweeping state-level pardon in any state” will help reverse harms from the past caused by the war on drugs.

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Cannabis regulators in Massachusetts on Thursday issued an administrative order that will allow pot to be transported to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands for the first time.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida says he'll be voting in November against a ballot amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in his state, a deeply personal decision based on his brother's long history of addiction.

Two burglars broke into a cannabis shop in West Kelowna nearly two weeks ago and used a garbage bin to haul away their ill-gotten gains.

PAPEETE, French Polynesia - A representative for Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté says the Canadian entrepreneur has been fined about $24,000 for cannabis possession in French Polynesia.

South Dakota voters will decide again whether to legalize recreational marijuana, an issue with a frustrating history for backers of the ballot initiative in the conservative state.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man who lost his job after he said a random drug test showed he had used medical marijuana off duty for chronic pain has appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court saying he should not have been denied a portion of his state unemployment benefits.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — In Sierra Leone, a cheap, synthetic drug is ravaging youth. Trash-strewn alleys are lined with boys and young men slumped in addiction. Healthcare services are severely limited. One frustrated community has set up what it calls a treatment center, run by volunteers. But harsh measures can be used.

In an isolated part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters known as the 12th-floor “bubble,” chief Anne Milgram made an unusual request of top deputies summoned in March for what she called the “Marijuana Meeting”: Nobody could take notes.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Someone's plans to harvest dozens of apparent marijuana plants grown on the Wisconsin state Capitol grounds have gone up in smoke.

NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — Dozens of pro-cannabis advocates gathered Thursday at the health ministry on the outskirts of the Thai capital, Bangkok, to oppose the government’s plan to relist the plant as a narcotic, two years after it was decriminalized.

BANGKOK (AP) — The prime minister of Thailand, the first country in Asia to legalize cannabis two years ago, said Wednesday that he wants to outlaw the drug again amid concerns that the lack of regulation had made it available to children and increased crimes.

Advocates of legalizing recreational marijuana in South Dakota, a mission with a rocky history, submitted thousands of signatures to election officials on Tuesday in the hopes of once again getting the issue on the conservative state's November ballot.

As the U.S. government moves toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, there may be little immediate impact in the dozen states that have not already legalized cannabis for widespread medical or recreational use by adults.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis, but wouldn't legalize it for recreational use.

PHOENIX (AP) — President Joe Biden may eventually ban TikTok, but he's moving to give something back to the young people who dominate the popular social media app — a looser federal grip on marijuana.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jordan Vassallo is lukewarm about casting her first presidential ballot for President Joe Biden in November. But when the 18-year-old senior at Jupiter High School in Florida thinks about the things she cares about, she says her vote for the Democratic incumbent is an “obvious choice.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will remain among the handful of states that haven't legalized the medical use of marijuana or expanded their Medicaid programs for at least another year.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota ballot initiative group can gather signatures to put a proposal legalizing recreational marijuana to a statewide vote in the fall, the state’s top election official said Thursday, in the latest legalization effort in the conservative state.

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba government is planning to end its ban on homegrown recreational cannabis — a move that would leave Quebec as the only province with such a restriction.

VANCOUVER - The head of a B.C. cannabis growers group says the City of Vancouver's choice to discourage instead of sanction a marijuana celebration over the weekend was a costly "missed opportunity."

SEATTLE (AP) — Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.

A Penticton cannabis retailer will be opening its consumption patio this weekend and the owner says it'll be the perfect spot for customers to safely enjoy a toke.

BERLIN (AP) — You can get drunk at Bavaria's world-famous Oktoberfest, but don't get high.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A convicted California con artist has pleaded guilty in another scam, admitting that he swindled investors out of more than $18 million by concocting phoney cannabis businesses shortly after being released from prison in a prior criminal case, federal prosecutors said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The now-aging hippies who took over a derelict naval base in Copenhagen more than 50 years ago and turned it into a freewheeling community known as Christiania want to boot out criminals who control the community's lucrative market for hashish by ripping up the cobblestoned street where it openly changes hands.