Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is Congress's most vocal opponent of legal marijuana, having single-handedly spearheaded a provision blocking legal pot shops in the District of Columbia in 2014. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), on the other hand, was recently named Congress's "top legal pot advocate" by Rolling Stone.

The two lawmakers couldn't be farther apart on marijuana policy, but they're teaming up this week to introduce a significant overhaul of federal marijuana policy that would make it much easier for scientists to conduct research into the medical uses of marijuana.

As Harris described it in an interview, the bipartisan Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2016 would "cut through the red tape" that currently makes it exceedingly difficult for researchers to obtain and use marijuana in clinical trials. As federal law currently stands, only one facility in Mississippi is allowed to produce marijuana used for research.

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DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (KABC) -- The first and largest marijuana cultivation farm in Southern California will be located in Desert Hot Springs.

GFarmaLabs is spearheading this initial movement.

"It's going to be filled with greenhouses. It's going to be an agricultural center out in the middle of the desert," Berto Torres of GFarmaLabs said.

Legal marijuana cultivation can prove to be beneficial for the city of Desert Hot Springs. Land values are skyrocketing, and new businesses are sprouting up overnight.

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Detroit Corporate Counsel Melvin "Butch" Hollowell said he expects to complete in December the process of shutting down the city's medical marijuana dispensaries that do not comply with the zoning ordinance.

"I do believe we'll get through the entire process by the end of the year," he said.

Of the city's 211 dispensaries that were counted earlier this year, the city filed 17 nuisance abatement cases and won them all. "Now we are filing against 66 facilities that are in Drug Free Zones that did not file an application to operate," Hollowell said, adding that those dispensaries have two strikes against them. The law department is filing, on average, four to six cases a week.

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PHOENIX — A group of parents launched a Father’s Day-themed billboard in support of the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Arizona.

Parents for Responsible Regulation (PRR) held a news conference Thursday in downtown Phoenix, to put up a billboard that reads, “Please, card my son. Regulate the sale of marijuana and help me keep it out of his hands.”

The advertisement, which will be up through Father’s Day, directs people to go to RegulationWorks.org, in hopes that people will become more informed and take action to keep marijuana out of the hands of minors.

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