Detroit Free Press, Mar. 07, 2010 - LOS ANGELES - With a 13-year head start on Michigan, California's efforts to transform marijuana from illicit to prescription drug offers a clear lesson: It ain't easy. The conflict has flared in recent weeks with a new Los Angeles ordinance aimed at hundreds of marijuana dispensaries, many that operate more like drug dens than pharmacies. Michigan prohibits dispensaries under its 2008 voter-passed law, but communities are struggling with limits on the medical pot business. The Los Angeles ordinance would cap dispensaries in the city at 70 with 186 grandfathered in. All must follow tough rules such as observing a 1,000-foot buffer from churches and schools.

DrugSense Weekly, Mar. 05, 2010 - ************ NAO DRUGS REPORT - NO FRAMEWORK TO EVALUATE VALUE FOR MONEY. AGAIN. A report by the NAO into government action to tackle problem drug use published today has concluded that: "Without an evaluative framework for the Strategy as a whole, the NAO is not able to conclude positively on value for money."

Seattle Times, Mar. 05, 2010 - Patients who qualify for medical marijuana will be able to get prescriptions for it from a wider range of health-care professionals, under a bill that appears headed to the governor's desk. Under Senate Bill 5798, it won't just be doctors who can get sick people access to pot. The bill expands the list of licensed medical practitioners who can also recommend medical marijuana to physicians' assistants, nurse practitioners and naturopathic physicians, said one of its sponsors, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle.

Denver Post, Mar. 05, 2010 - Marijuana activists and law enforcement officials sparred Thursday as the bell rang on the fight over medical-marijuana dispensary regulations at the state Capitol. The first committee hearing on House Bill 1284 -- which would require dispensaries to be licensed by both state and local governments and is the more controversial of the two medical-marijuana bills at the Capitol -- stretched into the evening. Lawmakers said late Thursday that they would not vote on the measure until another date. What was most clear in early rounds was that neither the law enforcement community nor large sections of the medical-marijuana community much care for the bill.

Summit Daily News, Mar. 03, 2010 - DENVER - Lawmakers who want to regulate the state's growing medical marijuana industry are now willing to let dispensaries advertise and operate for profit, but they want to make sure the state can keep tabs on the source of their products. The overhauled regulations, up for their first vote at the Capitol on Thursday, were worked out in negotiations with dispensaries and patient advocates after the bill was introduced a month ago by Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, and Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver. The latest compromise, however, hasn't satisfied everyone.

In a fantastic example of how much the times have changed, the front-page, above-the-fold story in this morning’s USA Today, the “nation’s newspaper,” is about the “growing national movement” to reform marijuana laws. Quoting numerous voices from within the marijuana policy reform movement, including MPP’s Kurt Gardinier, the piece highlights the growing public support for ending [...]

Published: Mar 09, 2010 10:10 AM CST

Since 1965 over 20 million Americans have been arrested for a marijuana related charge, and that number grows by two about every minute. You heard me right. Someone in this country is arrested on a marijuana charge every 36 seconds–clearly marijuana prohibition isn’t working. But we can’t relent. We need to keep letting our government [...]

Published: Mar 04, 2010 03:16 PM CST

When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last year that the federal Department of Justice would no longer prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers complying with state law, reform advocates cheered it as the greatest victory in over a decade. The shift in federal policy was indeed a breakthrough for the medical marijuana movement, but did [...]

Published: Mar 03, 2010 02:58 PM CST

In the latest sign of a growing embrace of medical marijuana by the business community in this country, a California-based insurer said this week that it will now offer medical marijuana-related coverage in all 50 states. A spokesman for Statewide Insurance Services said the new program will include operations related to medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, [...]

Published: Mar 03, 2010 01:57 PM CST

The total amount of marijuana seized by the DEA nearly doubled from 1,539 metric tons in 2008 to 2,980 metric tons in 2009, according to numbers disclosed by the DEA as part of their budget request for 2011. Meanwhile, the cultivation of marijuana in Mexico rose 35% in 2008 to nearly 30,000 acres, according to a [...]

Published: Mar 03, 2010 10:23 AM CST

A report released today by the Partnership for a Drug Free America shows that the number of American teenagers who use marijuana has increased for the first time in 10 years, with 25 percent of teens in grades 9 through 12 saying they’ve used marijuana in the past month, up from 19 percent. What these numbers [...]

Published: Mar 02, 2010 01:52 PM CST

Since 1992, MTV has aired the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, have their lives taped after drinking massive of amounts of alcohol while we find out over and over again that drinking alcohol often leads to reckless, violent, and oftentimes illegal behavior. Last night’s episode was no different. Extremely [...]

Published: Feb 26, 2010 04:44 PM CST