The German cannabis control bill (German: Cannabisgesetz) is a bill passed by the German Bundestag in February 2024, and the Bundesrat in March, that legalised the adult (18-years-old and over) use of cannabis in Germany, as well as the personal possession and cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis by adults in Germany, beginning on 1 April 2024. Adults in Germany are allowed to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis in public and up to 50 grams of dried cannabis at home. Each individual adult in Germany may also have up to three of their own cannabis plants at home. As part of the bill, adult-only non-profit cannabis social clubs with a maximum of 500 members will become legal in Germany from 1 July 2024. (Full article...)

Kief (from Arabic كيف kīf, "Joy, pleasure"), sometimes transliterated as keef, also known as "Dust" and "Chief" a.k.a cannabis crystals among other names, refers to the pure and clean collection of loose cannabis trichomes, which are accumulated by being sifted from cannabis flowers or buds with a mesh screen or sieve. Like some other cannabis concentrates, it contains a much higher concentration of THC and other psychoactive cannabinoids than that of the cannabis flower from which it is derived. Since it contains a higher level of THC, many consumers choose to add collected kief to their cannabis for a more intense "high"; by the same token, this preparation may induce unwelcome levels of intoxication.

Traditionally, kief has been pressed into cakes of hashish for convenience in storage, although it can be vaporized or smoked in either form. After the kief is collected it is heated and pressurized, resulting in hashish.

In Morocco, kief also refers to a traditional mix of finely-chopped cannabis and indigenous tobacco, which is distinctly different from trichome powder. It is usually smoked in a long pipe called a sebsi. In other countries, such as the US and those of Western Europe, kief is used to make products via infusions. Some examples are baked cookies, brownies or other edibles. Due to its potency, however, some users consume only a small quantity of kief in order to limit its effects. (Full article...)

Cannabis is legal in Uruguay, and is one of the most widely used drugs in the nation.

President José Mujica signed legislation to legalize recreational cannabis in December 2013, making Uruguay the first country in the modern era to legalize cannabis. In August 2014, Uruguay legalized growing up to six plants at home, as well as the formation of Cannabis Social Clubs, a state-controlled marijuana dispensary regime, and the creation of a Cannabis regulatory institute (Instituto de Regulación y Control del Cannabis or IRCCA). In October 2014 the Government began registering growers' clubs, allowed in turn to grow a maximum of 99 cannabis plants annually; as of August 2015, there were 2,743 registered personal growers. After a long delay in implementing the retail component of the law, in 2017 sixteen pharmacies were authorized to sell cannabis commercially. (Full article...)

A cannabis cookbook is a cookbook for preparing cannabis edibles, often in the form of a baking guide. According to The New York Times, baking recipes are popular because "[THC] dosing is easier to control in batter-based dishes or chocolate". Such cookbooks existed prior to United States legalization; The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book published in 1954, for instance, or The Marijuana Chef Cookbook published in 2001 under the pseudonym S.T. Oner, but became more commonplace after California and other states legalized in the 2010s. Notable chefs like Laurie Wolf and Jasmine Shimoda have created or contributed to cannabis cookbooks. (Full article...)

KKCL is a commercial radio station licensed to Golden, Colorado, and serving the Denver/Boulder media market. The station airs a modern AC/adult album alternative format branded as The Cloud. The station had previously spent time as a sports radio station and a cannabis culture-themed classic rock station known as Smokin' 94.1.

On April 30, 2015 KKCL was granted a Federal Communications Commission construction permit to increase day power to 5,000 watts. Because 1550 kHz is a clear channel frequency reserved for Canada and Mexico, KKCL's night power is limited.

To improve its coverage, programming also airs on FM translators K245AD and K245CM, both at 96.9 MHz. (Full article...)

Rolling paper is a specialty paper used for making cigarettes (commercially manufactured filter cigarettes and individually made roll-your-own cigarettes). Rolling papers are packs of several cigarette-size sheets, often folded inside a cardboard wrapper. They are also known as 'blanks', which are used to encase tobacco or cannabis. It may be flavoured.

Rolling papers are also used for rolling cannabis cigarettes called joints. (Full article...)

Cannabidiol (CBD) (/kæ.nə.bə.ˈdaɪ.əl/) is a phytocannabinoid discovered in 1940. It is one of 113 identified cannabinoids in cannabis plants, along with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and accounts for up to 40% of the plant's extract. , clinical research on CBD included studies related to the treatment of anxiety, addiction, psychosis, movement disorders, and pain, but there is insufficient high-quality evidence that cannabidiol is effective for these conditions. CBD is also sold as a herbal dietary supplement promoted with unproven claims of particular therapeutic effects.

Cannabidiol can be taken internally in multiple ways, including by inhaling cannabis smoke or vapor, oral, and as an aerosol spray into the cheek. It may be supplied as CBD oil containing only CBD as the active ingredient (excluding THC or terpenes), CBD-dominant hemp extract oil, capsules, dried cannabis, or prescription liquid solution. CBD does not have the same psychoactivity as THC, and can modulate the psychoactive effects of THC on the body if both are present. CBD heated to 250–300 °C may partially be converted into THC.

In the United States, the cannabidiol drug Epidiolex was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018 for the treatment of two epilepsy disorders. While the 2018 United States Farm Bill removed hemp and hemp extracts (including CBD) from the Controlled Substances Act, the marketing and sale of CBD formulations for medical use or as an ingredient in dietary supplements or manufactured foods remains illegal under FDA regulation, . (Full article...)

Cannabis consumption in pregnancy may or may not be associated with restrictions in growth of the fetus, miscarriage, and cognitive deficits. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that cannabis use be stopped before and during pregnancy. There has not been any official link between birth defects and marijuana use. Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance among pregnant women.

Cannabis has an ancient tradition of usage as a medicine in obstetrics and gynecology, and a comprehensive historical review find that cannabis extracts, may represent an efficacious and safe alternative for treatment of a wide range of conditions in women including dysmenorrhea, dysuria, hyperemesis gravidarum, and menopausal symptoms. (Full article...)

Tincture of cannabis, sometimes known as green dragon, is an alcoholic cannabis concentrate. The solubility of THC in ethanol is greater than 1 g/mL.

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) cannabis tinctures (tincturea) are a type of liquid cannabis extract obtained using ethanol, water, glycerol, propylene glycol and fatty oils as extraction solvents, depending on the type of tincture (and also on the solvent used) it can have a specific mass/volume ratio or a specific therapeutic agents content.

Cannabis tinctures are used in the production of specific extracts, like nabiximols. (Full article...)

The entourage effect is a marketing slogan that purports cannabis compounds other than tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) act synergistically with it to modulate the overall psychoactive effects of the plant. (Full article...)

Two main questions arise in the law surrounding driving after having ingested cannabis: (1) whether cannabis actually impairs driving ability, and (2) whether the common practice of testing for THC (the main psychoactive substance in cannabis) is a reliable means to measure impairment. On the first question, studies are mixed. Several recent, extensive studies–including one conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and one conducted by the American Automobile Association (AAA)–show that drivers with detectable THC in their blood are no more likely to cause car crashes than drivers with no amount of THC in their blood. Others show that cannabis can impair certain abilities important to safe driving (such as reaction time, divided attention, and cognitive functions)–but no studies have been able to show that this increases the actual risk of crashing, or that drivers with THC in their blood cause a disproportionate number of crashes. On the second question, the studies that have been conducted so far have consistently found that THC blood levels and degree of impairment are not closely related. No known relationship between blood levels of THC (the main psychoactive substance in cannabis) and increased relative crash risk, or THC blood levels and level of driving impairment, has been shown by single-crash or classic-control studies. Thus, even though it is possible that cannabis impairs driving ability to some extent, there are currently no reliable means to test or measure whether a driver was actually impaired.

Nonetheless, policymakers in the United States have generally dealt with cannabis-and-driving criminalization by importing the alcohol DUI regime into the cannabis context. This has led to complications down the road when cannabis-driving cases land in criminal court because cannabis detection science differs vastly from alcohol detection science. For example, blood alcohol content (BAC) has similar rates of absorption, distribution, and elimination across all humans, and there is also a fairly good correlation between BAC and level of impairment (in other words, impairment increases when BAC increases, and impairment decreases when BAC decreases). This has allowed law enforcement to use tools like breathalyzers and blood tests in criminal court because alcohol concentration is a relatively reliable indicator of how recently and how much alcohol was consumed. In contrast, THC levels can vary widely depending on the means of ingestion, THC is metabolized at an exponentially declining rate (as opposed to the steady metabolization rate for alcohol), and there is very poor correlation of THC blood levels with impairment. As stated in a report to Congress produced by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "[I]n contrast to the situation with alcohol, someone can show little or no impairment at a THC level at which someone else may show a greater degree of impairment." The report also noted that, in some studies, THC was detectable as late as 30 days after ingestion–even though the acute psychoactive effects of cannabis last only for a few hours. (Full article...)

Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) is a non-profit organization based in Denver, Colorado. The SAFER campaign was initially launched in Colorado on the campuses of the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) and Colorado State University (CSU) in response to the alcohol overdose deaths of CSU sophomore Samantha Spady, 19, and 18-year-old CU freshman Lynn "Gordie" Bailey. SAFER, led by Mason Tvert, argued that students should not be punished more severely for using marijuana – which is incapable of causing death by overdose—than for using the potentially fatal (and for many college students legal) drug alcohol.

The pilot project took off quickly. Within months, organizers had coordinated and passed student referendums at both campuses. These referendums called on the universities to make the penalties for the use and possession of marijuana no greater than the penalties for the use and possession of alcohol.
Under Colorado state law prior to 2013, having an ounce of marijuana or less is punishable by a $100 fine but no jail time.

In the summer of 2005, SAFER leaders decided to run a citywide marijuana legalization initiative in Denver, Colorado, called the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative. The proposed initiative (I-100) would have made the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana legal for individuals 21 and older under city ordinances. After a campaign in which the relative harms of marijuana and alcohol were repeatedly highlighted, the initiative passed November 1, 2005, by a 53.5% to 46.5% margin. The initiative also made possession of marijuana by those under 18 punishable by fine only. (Full article...)

An endocannabinoid enhancer (eCBE) is a type of cannabinoidergic drug that enhances the activity of the endocannabinoid system by increasing extracellular concentrations of endocannabinoids. Examples of different types of eCBEs include fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors, monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) inhibitors, and endocannabinoid transporter (eCBT) inhibitors (or "endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitors" ("eCBRIs")). An example of an actual eCBE is AM404, the active metabolite of the analgesic paracetamol (acetaminophen; Tylenol) and a dual FAAH inhibitor and eCBRI. (Full article...)

Cannabis consumption refers to the variety of ways cannabis is consumed, among which inhalation (smoking and vaporizing) and ingestion are most common. All consumption methods involve heating the plant's THCA to decarboxylate it into THC, either at the time of consumption or during preparation. Salves and absorption through the skin (transdermal) are increasingly common in medical uses, both of CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids. Each method leads to subtly different psychoactive effects due to the THC and other chemicals being activated, and then consumed through different administration routes. It is generally considered that smoking, which includes combustion toxins, comes on quickly but lasts for a short period of time, while eating delays the onset of effect but the duration of effect is typically longer. In a 2007 ScienceDaily report of research conducted at the University of California–San Francisco, researchers reported that vaporizer users experience the same biological effect, but without the toxins associated with smoking. Δ9-THC is the primary component when inhaled, but when eaten the liver converts this to the more psychoactive 11-hydroxy-THC form. (Full article...)

Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions, resulting in limited clinical research to define the safety and efficacy of using cannabis to treat diseases.

Preliminary evidence has indicated that cannabis might reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasms. Regarding non-inhaled cannabis or cannabinoids, a 2021 review found that it provided little relief against chronic pain and sleep disturbance, and caused several transient adverse effects, such as cognitive impairment, nausea, and drowsiness.


Short-term use increases the risk of minor and major adverse effects. Common side effects include dizziness, feeling tired, vomiting, and hallucinations. Long-term effects of cannabis are not clear. Concerns include memory and cognition problems, risk of addiction, schizophrenia in young people, and the risk of children taking it by accident. (Full article...)

A vaporizer or vaporiser, colloquially known as a vape, is a device used to vaporize substances for inhalation. Plant substances can be used, commonly cannabis, tobacco, or other herbs or blends of essential oil. However, they are most commonly filled with a combination propylene glycol, glycerin, and drugs such as nicotine (e.g. extract from tobacco) or tetrahydrocannabinol as a liquid solution.

Vaporizers contain various forms of extraction chambers including straight bore, venturi, or sequential venturi, and are made of materials such as metal or glass. The extracted vapor may be collected in an inflatable bag, or inhaled directly through a hose or pipe. When used properly, cooler temperatures due to lack of combustion result in significantly more efficient extraction of the ingredients. Hence, the irritating and harmful effects of smoking are heavily reduced, as is its secondhand smoke. (Full article...)

Several countries have either carried out or legislated capital punishment for cannabis trafficking. (Full article...)

The Dagga Couple or DC is a pro-cannabis lobbyist organisation from South Africa founded by Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke after the two were arrested for the possession and dealing in the substance in 2010. Rather than plead guilty, the couple decided instead to sue seven sectors of government that maintained and enforced the policy of cannabis prohibition in the country resulting in what has been described locally as the Trial of the Plant in 2017.

Stobbs was fatally shot during an armed robbery at his home in Sunrella, Gauteng on 3 July 2020. Clarke, who was with him at the time of the incident, escaped unharmed. (Full article...)

The International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service (ICEERS) is a non-profit organization (NPO), headquartered in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). ICEERS is dedicated to transforming society's relationship with psychoactive plants by engaging with some of the fundamental issues resulting from the globalization of ayahuasca, iboga, and other ethnobotanicals. Founded in 2009, ICEERS is registered as a non-profit organization, and has charitable status in the Netherlands and Spain, and through partner organizations in the US and UK. ICEERS also has consultative status with the United Nations' ECOSOC. (Full article...)

Cannabis Party, or Partido Cannabico refers in Spain to different initiatives of political party and political campaigning centered around cannabis, hemp and drug policy proposals.

According to researchers, Spain is the European country with the most rich and vivid social movements in favour of cannabis policy reform. This also translated into a variety of political parties and proposals along the years. (Full article...)

Cannabis ruderalis is a variety, subspecies, or species of Cannabis native to Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. It contains a relatively low quantity of psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Some scholars accept C. ruderalis as its own species due to its unique traits and phenotypes which distinguish it from C. indica and C. sativa; others debate whether ruderalis is a subdivision under C. sativa. (Full article...)

NORML France (/ˈnɔːrməl/, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), previously known as Chanvre & Libertés - NORML France (Hemp & Freedom - NORML France) is a French non-profit organization based in Toulouse but active in all territories of France, whose aim is to move public opinion sufficiently to achieve the depenalization of illicit drugs consumption, the legalization of non-medical marijuana and the increased access to medical cannabis in France, so that the responsible use of cannabis by adults is no longer subject to penalty.

The organization operated a re-foundation in 2013, after the fusion of several regional groups of cannabis policy reform advocacy or activism (among which the older was created 1995).

Initially involved on international drug policy reform issues, NORML France split in 2016 part of its activity to focus on national cannabis-related actions, letting the newly created FAAAT think & do tank handle international advocacy and coordinate collective action at the international level. (Full article...)

Marijuana Anonymous (MA) founded in 1989 is an organization and twelve-step program for people with common desire to maintain abstinence from marijuana. (Full article...)

Hemp paper is paper varieties consisting exclusively or to a large extent from pulp obtained from fibers of industrial hemp. The products are mainly specialty papers such as cigarette paper, banknotes and technical filter papers. Compared to wood pulp, hemp pulp offers a four to five times longer fibre, a significantly lower lignin fraction as well as a higher tear resistance and tensile strength. Because the paper industry's processes have been optimized for wood as the feedstock, production costs currently are much higher than for paper from wood. (Full article...)

High Times is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade. The magazine had its own book publishing division, High Times Books, and its own record label, High Times Records.

From 1974 to 2016, High Times was published by Trans-High Corporation (THC). Hightimes Holding Corp. acquired THC and the magazine in 2017. (Full article...)