Marijuana

Top headlines of the week from Friday, March 14- Thursday, March 20, 2014.

A growing number of marijuana smokers are choosing to use vaporizers, which are similar to e-cigarettes, according to USA Today. The popularity of the devices is changing the way marijuana is packaged and sold in states where it is legal.

Americans’ cocaine use fell by about half from 2006 to 2010, while their use of marijuana jumped by more than 30 percent, a new report concludes.

Washington state issued its first license to produce and process recreational marijuana this week. The grower who received the license says he expects to have marijuana plants ready to harvest within two months, Reuters reports.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 28- Thursday, March 6, 2014.

Some TV stations in New Jersey aired the first medical marijuana ad this week.

Both supporters and critics of marijuana legalization see 2014 as a key year, which could either slow or hasten their efforts, The New York Times reports.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is cracking down in California on a potent marijuana product called “wax,” according to ABC News. Wax is legal—and popular—in Colorado.

A survey of high school seniors suggests marijuana legalization will lead to increased use of the drug among teens. The survey found 10 percent of seniors who said they don’t currently use marijuana said they would try it if the drug were legal.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 14- Thursday, February 20, 2014.

Colorado’s liberal marijuana laws and its market for a strain of marijuana called “Charlotte’s Web” has made it a destination for families whose children suffer with severe epilepsy.

The Obama administration has provided banks with federal guidelines for conducting banking transactions with legal marijuana sellers, enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it.

Homeowners associations in states where medical marijuana is legal are wrestling with the issue of whether to prohibit use of the drug, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, February 7- Thursday, February 13, 2014.

Marijuana delivery services are springing up in Washington state, where recreational marijuana for adults is now legal, but state-run stores won’t start selling the drug for non-medical purposes until later this year.

A Florida congressman this week called the Obama Administration’s policy on marijuana “schizophrenic,” according to CBS News.

Fatal car crashes that involved marijuana tripled in the past decade, a new study concludes. One in nine drivers involved in a fatal crash tests positive for marijuana, according to the Columbia University researchers.

Parents, schools and some doctors are voicing concern about children’s access to marijuana-laced snacks, which are becoming increasingly popular in states where recreational or medical marijuana is legal.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate committee Wednesday that all drugs, including alcohol, are “potentially harmful.” He was responding to a question about whether he agreed with President Obama’s recent comment that smoking marijuana was less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”

A group that opposes marijuana legalization has placed billboards around the New York-New Jersey area in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports. Earlier this week, a group advocating for legalization placed billboards on the highway leading to MetLife Stadium, where the game will be played.

Top headlines of the week from Friday, January 24- Thursday, January 30, 2014.

Five billboards with pro-marijuana messages have appeared along New Jersey highways leading to MetLife Stadium, the venue hosting Sunday’s Super Bowl. One of the billboards reads: “MARIJUANA: Safer than alcohol…and football.”

New studies suggest alcohol use is more likely than marijuana use to lead to violence between college students in a relationship.

While momentum to legalize marijuana at the state level is growing, a number of towns and counties are moving to ban legal sales of the drug, The New York Times reports.

The Animal Poison Control Center reports an increase in the number of calls about marijuana poisonings in pets, according to NBC News.