A new study found that people who are more likely to develop schizophrenia are more likely to try cannabis. It also found  new evidence that cannabis use can cause schizophrenia.

The number of pregnant women who use cannabis is  up more than 60% since 2002. While knowledge of how cannabis affects fetuses is limited, Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called it “cause for concern.”

The Duluth News Tribune looks examines the case for, and against,  treating PTSD with MED.

More experts say cannabis  should be prescribed before opiates, VICE reports.

Ohio doctors say they’re  reluctant to recommend MED.

An article from “The American Tribune” on an overdose from injecting cannabis  turned out to be fake news.

Connecticut has approved its first MED study,  to compare pain relief with an opiate in patients with fractured ribs. A Connecticut hospice will use cannabis to  reduce its dependence on opioids.

President Obama  granted clemency to 231 individuals. His total of more than 1,300 sentence commutations totals more than his 11 predecessors combined. Here’s the story of one of them,  Paul Free, who was serving a life sentence and is now eligible for parole in 2020.

Obama also granted  78 “pre-Christmas” pardons.

Vox examines how Obama has  reshaped the war on drugs, and how that legacy is will be jeopardized under President Trump. For one thing, Obama tended not to use the term “War on Drugs.”

A court ruled that Arizona MED users  can’t be convicted of DUI without evidence of impairment.

A Colorado man who drove impaired and  killed a motorcyclist was sentenced to 10 months in jail and two years probation.

A day after they opened, six unlicensed Cannabis Culture dispensaries were  raided and closed in Montreal. The 10 arrests included owner and “prince of pot” Marc Emery.

Spotted in D.C.: “ This is your brain on Jeff Sessions.”

In Milton, Mass., a dispensary seeks to open in the historic “ Swift Hat Shop” building.

It doesn’t really change anything for now.

Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

The DEA confirmed that marijuana extracts containing CBD are illegal. The agency explained that the notice, published in the Federal Register, does not change its enforcement priorities.

Cannabis attorney Bob Hoban responded, “The sky is not falling; however, this is a very concerning move by the DEA…What it purports to do is give the DEA control of all cannabinoids as a controlled substance.”

More than 30% of cannabis businesses are very concerned about Trump’s presidency, according to a Marijuana Business Daily Poll. In particular, they’re worried about the U.S. attorney general nomination of prohibitionist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R).

In Slate, I wrote that the industry is cowardly, hypocritical and stupid for not fighting the Sessions nomination. Legalization activist and journalist Tom Angell tweeted that I’m “ WAY off base” and then got into an interesting Twitter exchange with Bill Piper of Drug Policy Alliance, which is opposing the nomination.

The U.S. Senate extended the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the federal government from interrupting state MED programs, until April 28. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R- Calif.) said he’s confident that it will be extended again. He also wants it to be expanded to include state REC programs.

Rohrabacher and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are forming a “ cannabis caucus” in Congress. Congress also announced that it will perform a comprehensive review of the war on drugs in search of alternative policies in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, called for changes in U.S. drug policy, as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mexico’s Senate passed a MED bill, amid a new wave of drug violence.

Maine’s REC recount has been suspended until the new year. With 30% of the votes counted, yes remains ahead. After Montana’s MED vote, state laws need to be rewritten.

Possibly the largest legal pot company in the world.

Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Canada’s Canopy Growth Corp. will acquire Mettrum Health Corp. for C$430M, creating a dominant Canadian player.

Vice examines 280E, the tax code provision used to tax marijuana businesses more than other businesses.

Warehouse rents are skyrocketing in legal states. But the New York Stock Exchange IPO of cannabis real estate trust Innovative Industrial Properties went nowhere, following the Sessions nomination.

The BBC calls Albania, a small, poor country in southeast Europe, the continent’s “ outdoor cannabis capital.”

The industry could create an opportunity for clean energy technologies like “ renewable microgrids.”

LAWeekly asks if small cannabis businesses can survive legalization.

Accounting Today says, “ The Cannabis Industry Needs Accountants.”

Pot was a hot topic at the 2016 Wine Industry Expo. For more see here.

Financial firm Cowen said legalization is bad for beer sales. MarketWatch disagrees.

Dispensaries offered discounts for “ Green Friday.” (The shopping day after Thanksgiving.)

The BBC profiles John Stewart, an executive who was CEO of Purdue Pharma, which sells the opioid Oxycontin and now leads a MED company in Canada.

There’s an incubator that aims to turn formerly-incarcerated drug dealers into legal entrepreneurs.

Century Bank in Massachusetts openly works with pot businesses.

A new site called The Cannifornian will cover legalization in the state.  Parent company Digital First Media also owns The Denver Post and its site The Cannabist.

RAND Corporation scholar Beau Kilmer editorializes in favor of the state legalization experiments.

Denver’s social use measure may face legal challenges. Juneau, Ak.’s first dispensary opened and sold out in three hours.

Maryland’s pot regulator has hired a diversity consultant, after it failed to award any of its initial 30 licenses to African-Americans. It has also given preliminary approval for 102 MED dispensary licenses. The names will be made public this week.

Florida’s MED community has few friends in Tallahassee. The new law will also undermine the state’s largely disregarded bong ban.

The Cannabist meets Rilie Ray Morgan, the 66-year old man who championed MED in North Dakota.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) is launching a new effort to use pot taxes to build apartments for the chronically homeless.

Massachusetts may delay implementing aspects of its REC law. Maine will recount its REC vote. MED legalization is on the table in Ireland and South Africa.

British politician Nick Clegg called for legalization. Vice sketches out what a legal U.K. market for recreational drugs could look like.

It’s not the first time this has happened.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Charlotte police said the appearance that Keith Lamont Scott was holding a marijuana “blunt” led them to escalate the encounter, before an officer fatally shot Scott.

More stringently, in other words.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Researchers at UCSF argue that the cannabis industry should be regulated more like tobacco than alcohol, for public health reasons. Sales should be “subject to a robust demand reduction program modeled on successful evidence-based tobacco control programs,” they write.

It currently sells a powerful opiate.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. 

The Intercept reports that Insys Therapeutics, the company that donated $500,000 to oppose REC in Arizona, is about to release a synthetic THC spray to relieve side effects associated with chemotherapy that would compete directly with MED. It’s been more widely noted that Insys’ only current product is an opioid spray. Insys noted in a 2007 SEC filing that legalization is a threat to its business.

Forbes surveys a list of cannabis-involved pharmaceutical companies that are takeover targets. Insys is among them.