NEW YORK (AP) — Many people arrested on low-level marijuana-possession charges in the nation's largest city will no longer be booked and held hours for arraignment, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.

Starting next month, people who get picked up on charges of having a small amount of marijuana will be released with appearance tickets if they have identification and no open warrants, Bloomberg said, spotlighting the issue in his State of the City address amid debate over the tens of thousands of such arrests in the city each year.

Virtually any kind of illegal drug can be bought on the Internet and delivered by post to users who no longer need to make direct contact with dealers, an EU study published on Thursday said. It gave no statistics on online drug sales, which are normally conducted on so-called "darknets", or anonymous computer networks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a petition to reclassify marijuana from its current federal status as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use.

The appeals court panel denied the bid from three medical marijuana groups, including Americans for Safe Access, and several individuals. In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration had rejected a petition by medical marijuana advocates to change the classification.

In America the tide is turning.  Legalized cannabis consumption for recreational purposes is now a reality in two states.  Okay, that is only two out of fifty, but it’s a pretty good start.  So far the federal Justice Department of the United States isn’t making some kind of obvious move to stop this from happening, although they aren’t throwing their support behind it either.  This example alone does a good job of showing the complete disconnect between the public and our elected officials.  This situation also highlights some of the advantages of the American republic system compared to the Parliamentary system used in nations like Britain and Canada.

When Washington and Colorado residents voted to legalize marijuana in November—by 11-point margins in each state—18- to 21-year-old adults cast ballots for measures that left criminal sanctions affecting their age group untouched.

Leaders of the successful legalization campaigns told U.S. News that marijuana activists themselves devised the age restriction, and spokesmen for two of the largest national marijuana reform organizations said they won't push for lowering the age limit.