Rhode Island's Senate voted Tuesday to block a bill allowing nonprofit stores to sell marijuana to chronically ill patients after a last-minute revision banned patients from smoking while driving or being near children. Lawmakers voted 33-2 to send the bill back to a committee because the bill's sponsor, Sen. Rhoda Perry, considered the amendments offensive to chronically ill patients enrolled in Rhode Island's Medical Marijuana Program. ... "It wasn't necessary and it's insulting," Perry said. (May 14, 2008)

To those with family members who rely on medical marijuana to relieve chronic pain, the federal government's crusade against the use of the drug is an outrage. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 78 percent of Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. Yet only one of the three major presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama, is calling for needed change in federal policy by stopping federal raids in the 12 states that have passed laws legalizing medicinal use of marijuana. ... Sen. John McCain opposes medical marijuana use. But on the campaign trail last year, he said that medical marijuana was an issue for states to decide ... "I gotta say, I'm not sure what happened to the Straight Talk Express on this one," quipped Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken. (May 13, 2008)

As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana. ... Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, said he remains hopeful that the federal climate will improve, no matter who becomes president. "All it takes," he said, "is for the Justice Department to say, 'Leave these states alone.'" (May 12, 2008)

U.S. News and World Report quoted Bruce Mirken, director of communications at The Marijuana Policy Project, saying "We agree that kids shouldn't smoke marijuana, but we simply have to be honest to teens and parents. This report [is] deliberately confusing correlation with causation." ... "This very week the British government's official scientific advisors on illegal drugs issued a report saying they are 'unconvinced that there is a causal relationship between the use of cannabis and any affective disorder,' such as depression." (May 10, 2008)

A musician who was denied a liver transplant because he used marijuana with medical approval under Washington state law to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C died Thursday. ... Garon died a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law. "He said I'm going to die with such conviction," Garon told an AP reporter at the time. "I'm not angry, I'm not mad, I'm just confused." (May 1, 2008)

Fifty religious leaders throughout the state are urging the Minnesota House to pass a bill to allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. Denominations with official positions supporting medical marijuana include the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Union for Reform Judaism, Episcopal Church, and United Church of Christ. In addition to clergy from these denominations, medical marijuana supporters in Minnesota include clergy from Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Baptist congregations. (May 12, 2008)

MINNEAPOLIS — Proponents of a bill to protect seriously ill patients from arrest for using medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation released their latest TV ad today featuring former Fillmore County sheriff and state representative Neil Haugerud, who suffers from severe, intractable pain due to inflammation of the spine. (May 8, 2008)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A little-known federal government program that supplies medical marijuana to a handful of patients will mark its 30th anniversary on May 10. The federal medical marijuana program -- referred to as a Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program -- resulted from a lawsuit filed by glaucoma patient Robert Randall, who successfully showed that his use of marijuana was a medical necessity. (May 6, 2008)

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE — After being rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 4-0 vote last Thursday, HB 1623 was defeated this afternoon in a voice vote by the full Senate. The bill, which would have reduced the penalty for possessing less than a quarter ounce of marijuana, had been marked for death since it received a rare veto threat from Governor Lynch following passage by the House. (May 1, 2008)

SPRINGFIELD, IL. – After a meeting with law enforcement officials to address their specific objections to Illinois' medical marijuana bill, advocates will announce significant changes to the legislation in a Wednesday press conference at the statehouse. ... At the press conference, patients will also unveil their latest effort to convince legislators to support the medical marijuana bill under consideration in both chambers of the General Assembly: personal online video testimonies. (April 29, 2008)