At the behest of Social Affairs and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, France has modified its Public Health Code to allow for the use of marijuana-based medicines, apparently including raw marijuana itself. Decree n° 2013-473 was published Friday, removing what had been a prohibition on all non-industrial use of the plant.

The code modification makes legal "the production, transport, export, possession, offering, acquisition or use of specialty pharmaceuticals that contains one of these (cannabis-derivative) substances." But individual marijuana-based medicines must still be approved by the National Medical Safety Agency.

It may seem counter intuitive to tell your employer "It's none of your business what I do when I'm not here" when they ask for a drug test. But that's what an employee with the Halifax Streets Department in Nova Scotia told his boss after his boss says he smelled weed in the city truck in which the employee was a passenger.

The employee, listed only as "Mr. Jeffery" in the ruling, says he is a recreational user of cannabis and that he would have tested positive, but he maintains that there was no evidence of impairment or on-the-job drug use and refused the drug test - and the courts have backed the employee's decision.

The Green Mountain State has become the 17th state in America to remove criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont signed a new law that replaces possible jail sentences with a small fine.  With minors, possession of marijuana would be treated like alcohol, with a court diversion program for the first offense.

With a plot out of a Hollywood movie or a gripping Lifetime TV show, a mesmerizing drama of sex, power, frame-ups, planted drugs, and lies unfolded in real life in Georgia when two Murray County sheriff's deputies recently pleaded guilty in federal court for their part in a scheme to send an innocent woman to prison. Now both deputies await sentencing on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury stemming from an FBI civil rights investigation into the odd goings-on Down South.

The woman in question, Angela Garmley, had filed a complaint with the Georgia Judicial Qualification Committee alleging that Chief Magistrate Judge Bryant Cochran solicited sex from her in return for legal favors. Shortly after Garmley filed her complaint, she was arrested on August 14, 2012 in sleepy Chatsworth, Georgia, and charged with possession of methamphetamines.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered the government to compensate owners of cannabis-selling cafes who say they lost money because of measures aimed at stamping out drug tourism.

But in a setback for owners of so-called coffee shops, the Hague District Court ruling also said that other moves to prevent foreigners from buying soft drugs in the Netherlands were legitimate.