Legalize

Three British MPs predict that cannabis will be made fully legal in the UK within the next 5-10 years.

Legalization is not only about sitting stoned on the couch all day people. The generations that have suffered through war fighting for this country have everything from PTSD to pain in their bodies that legalization of cannabis can help relieve.

In a rapidly growing and diversifying landscape of weed-friendly businesses, marijuana social lounges are emerging onto the scene as popular spaces to smoke pot, vape oils, and consume some of the strongest edibles you can buy right now in public. Lounges have opened across California, featured prominently in San Francisco and Los Angeles, to provide smokers with unique and amiable environments in which a wide range of cannabis products can be enjoyed safely. The success of these social lounges is certainly making a mark on the weed industry; and as these spaces continue to trend in major cities, the social element of cannabis is beginning to make its way to the forefront as a new businesses model.

“On March 18th, 2014 our home in Bates County (Missouri) was raided. We spendt one week in jail. During that time my husband wasn’t given any medications for anything. He had very bad diabetes. He had a silent heart attack in jail and consequently died,” Halbin says. Dolores and her husband, Gene, were married for 40 years. She wears a pendant containing her husband’s ashes.

With Canada recently legalizing the widespread use of recreational cannabis, we are now, at least unofficially, seeing the beginning stages of the end of marijuana prohibition as we know it. The legalization in Canada remains a huge milestone in the fight for recreational green, as it's become the largest country to legalize pot, and the second country overall (behind Venezuela).

The edible can be a magical blend of your two favorite foods to indulge in: sugar and cannabis. The trick is having the right recipe to have a truly enjoyable desert. The world has grown to include so much more than just pot brownies for good cannabis dining. You now can find cookbooks on cannabis desserts, drinks, hamburgers, eggs, and much more.

In an age of advancing medical science and analysis, many professionals are willing to take a different look at substances once dogged by society due to the influence of political and commercial interests. After realizing the medical benefits and general harmlessness of cannabis through deeper study, some states have decided to allow its recreational use. Though only recreationally legal in Oregon, Alaska, Washington State, Washington D.C., Vermont, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine, and Colorado, we may likely see its introduction in a number of new states soon. For reasons both practical and social, many other states are looking into this possibility. As many political, commercial, and social forces have grown to see the potential assets and benefits offered by cannabis, the tide of legalization is beginning to come in. With the coming 2018 midterm elections, many ballot initiatives and power shifts, as well as votes by various state legislatures, are expected to bring about cannabis reform in a number of new states. With voters support rising and the potential profits becoming apparent, legalization is expected to expand past the United States of America in the near future. Though there is still a great deal of push-back from the federal government, numerous states are expected to legalize marijuana by 2019 or soon after.

As the cannabis community grows, with nearly 11 million posts on Instagram, it's hard to deny that we are not only surviving, but thriving.

Nixon's "War on Drugs" and America's D.A.R.E. program are largely considered failures in people over the age of 18. I'll admit that when I was in grade school, hearing about drugs like crystal meth and heroin scared the living hell out of me; and as an adult, I have a more in-depth understanding as to why staying away from these substances is absolutely in my best interest. Sitting in a dark room as my classmates read off their group presentations on different illicit drugs though, I remember listening to the facts rattled off about marijuana and thinking, "What's the big deal?" Maybe I was an observant and rebellious youth (I was not), or maybe the thought of a "gateway drug" creating a "greater risk" to try other substances didn't really connect with me, but either way I steered clear of narcotics while in most of my formative years. Now, as an adult, I have been exposed to marijuana on a handful of occasions, and still find myself wondering, "What's the big deal?" Guess what? Marijuana is not a gateway drug, and you and I both know cannabis isn't like other drugs, too. I'm not just talking about what kind of high it gets you (although I will touch on that); just take a look at this list to see why with a stipulation here and there, cannabis isn't like other drugs.