When it comes to liberalizing marijuana policy, Congress has once again shown that it is not always the liberals taking the lead. The GOP-dominated House on Wednesday delighted cannabis advocates by voting to prohibit law enforcement from going after banks for doing business with state-licensed marijuana growers and sellers.

In the 10 years since Montanans approved medical marijuana by a whopping 62%, registered patients have endured backlash, repeals, raids, federal prosecutions, and tragic deaths. But the Montana Project for Innovative Policy is working on a model for regulating medical cannabis in Montana and for the taxation and regulation of adult-use cannabis.

Scientists are working to develop an innovative new method for effectively producing the primary compounds of marijuana without being forced to endure the lengthy cultivation process — a manner by which they hope to genetically engineer cannabinoids using yeast.

Everything that humanity currently makes from oil could be made from hemp bio-oil. The best part of hemp is that it is a CO2 sponge, greedily absorbing much more CO2 in its short growth cycle than many larger plants. This means if any biofuel has a chance of being CO2 neutral or even negative it is a hemp-based one.

This month, two clinics specializing in prescription cannabis opened their doors for the first time in Toronto, Canada’s largest city. While medical marijuana has been available through Health Canada for over a decade, new rules introduced in April have turned the once-homegrown program into a large-scale commercial industry.

In San Jose, a group of lawyers, dispensary owners, and medical marijuana users named The Silicon Valley Cannabis Coalition organized the giveaway of 45,000 individual grams of pot – about 100 pounds total – in an effort to qualify a referendum for an upcoming ballot, and they need a lot of signatures.

A Canadian company recently released a sneak peek into what the owners are calling “the world’s first marijuana commercial.” Here’s the scene: A man walks into a liquor store in search of products that come from “a plant that grows out of the ground.” He is met with hostility from an employee, who suggests choosing the “liquid alternative” that’s legal.

In this issue of Cannabinoid Profiles, the properties of THCa are broken down and the therapeutic benefits are explored. Get to know this cannabinoid and discover what studies are currently being done to determine its wide variety of medicinal benefits.

Missourians with epilepsy that cannot be effectively treated by conventional means will now be able to use a cannabis extract under legislation signed into law Monday by Gov. Jay Nixon. The legislation was sponsored by St. Louis County Republican Eric Schmitt, a state senator whose 9-year-old son has the central nervous system disorder.

Scientists in the UK have now traced marijuana’s ability to prevent the growth and spread of cancer to specific pathways found in tumor cells, known as cannabinoid receptors. The study, published last month in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, showed that injecting THC into mice with implanted tumors caused the cells to kill themselves — a process known as autophagy.

NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the DA’s words “really does not change the working circumstances of police officers who are in the field.” He maintains that weed is not only a gateway drug, but also a gateway crime. In May, Bratton told the Daily News he will not support the decriminalizing of pot even though pot was decriminalized back in 1977.

A couple of Florida men busted in Oklahoma City recently for transporting a substantial amount of hash and various other legal cannabis products purchased in Colorado are now facing life in prison. Soon after a bogus traffic stop, a drug dog was unleashed and the fifty-pound discovery of marijuana oils, edibles and concentrates was made, with an estimated worth of $250,000.

Cannabis has been shown to be extremely effective in combating migraines and soothing away the pain. This healing recipe is crafted to bring relief to migraine sufferers by combining medicinal cannabis with these beneficial foods in a roasted salmon dish with mustard-herb butter over a bed of lentils.

The Supreme Judicial Court Wednesday said that because voters decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in 2008, police officers in Massachusetts can no longer rely on the odor of unburnt marijuana to justify searching a person’s car.

Stand-up comedian Adam Hartle and director Anthony Hashem have set out to promote the release of their new movie, Mile High: The Comeback of Cannabis, by passing out complimentary marijuana to adults who attend screenings of the film this week at the Mayan Theatre in Denver.

Uruguay President Jose Mujica told AFP Wednesday that sales of marijuana will be delayed until next year because of difficulties in implementing the controversial law legalizing the drug. Implementation of the law was supposed to start this year and the government will be in charge of the entire supply chain from growing to sales.

Instead of trying to figure out if cannabis really can cure some cancers, the National Institute of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse recently funded a study at the University of Washington looking into whether exposure to a pro-pot Twitter feed might encourage America’s impressionable youth to try smoking pot.

This January, under government pressure, many of the United Kingdom’s Internet service providers (ISPs) — together providing over 90 percent of the country’s home broadband connections — turned on “porn filters” for all of their customers, but as warned by opponents of Internet regulation, the filters are now blocking large amounts of clean content.

“Do you want to hit this?” a man asked President Barack Obama in a bar in Denver Tuesday night. The president laughed but didn’t indulge. It wasn’t the only time Obama was offered weed on his night out. That’s apparently what happens in Colorado, which recently legalized recreational marijuana.

New evidence suggests beta-caryophyllene, a terpene in cannabis, may be effective for treating anxiety and depression. Although some compounds like THC activate both cannabinoid pathways — CB1 and CB2 receptors — beta-caryophyllene specifically targets the CB2 receptor, which does not produce a high.