Los Angeles County, which has seen a whirlwind expansion in medical marijuana dispensaries this year, has notched another marijuana milestone. The county has moved to No. 5 for the amount seized in the state's annual eradication campaign, with 340,187 pot plants uprooted -- more than a fourfold increase. ... State officials put the wholesale value of this year's eradicated marijuana at $17.8 billion. ... Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the ... Marijuana Policy Project, ridiculed the effort. "Let me guess, they set a record number of plant seizures and marijuana has now been eradicated from California?" he quipped. Mirken said the campaign has caused growers to move from private lands into wilderness areas. "This is an annual exercise in futility. Not only does it not do anything meaningful, it actually makes the problem worse," he said. (November 5, 2009)

When Gov. John Lynch vetoed legislation earlier this summer that would have made New Hampshire the 14th state in the nation to legalize marijuana for medical use, one of the reasons cited was that it would place the state in conflict with federal law. ... But when state lawmakers convene at the Statehouse on Wednesday to act on the governor’s veto of this and other bills, the political landscape will have changed quite a bit in the past three months – both in Washington and here in the Granite State. ... So we specifically reach out to [previously opposed lawmakers] today to urge them to reconsider their original votes Wednesday – not just in response to the evolving federal position ... but because it is the right and compassionate thing to do for their constituents stricken with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV or other debilitating diseases. ... (October 27, 2009)

More than three-quarters of the voters in Los Angeles County want to see medical marijuana dispensaries regulated, rather than prosecuted and forced to close, according to a poll released today by a national organization that supports marijuana legalization. The poll, completed Monday and Tuesday, also found that 74% support the state's medical marijuana law, while 54% want to see marijuana legalized, regulated and taxed. ... "I think the take-home message here is voters in L.A. County overwhelmingly support the state's medical marijuana law. They think dispensaries, properly regulated, can be a part of that, and [L.A. County District Attorney] Cooley's really out of step," said Bruce Mirken, the California-based spokesman for the [Marijuana Policy Project]. (October 22, 2009)

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department told federal prosecutors Monday they shouldn't pursue medical-marijuana users who comply with state laws, a step activists said may encourage more states to partially legalize the drug. A three-page memo from Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, affirming a policy disclosed earlier this year, said it was "unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources" to prosecute "individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen." ... Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said issuing formal guidelines "certainly lifts a cloud from the people in states that allow medical marijuana." Mr. Mirken, whose group opposes criminal penalties for pot use, added, "I think in terms of state legislatures and governors, as a policy matter, it gives them a great deal of reassurance" in considering medical-marijuana laws. (October 20, 2009)

Medical marijuana advocates were ecstatic Monday at word that the Obama administration is backing off prosecution efforts in California and 13 other states that allow use of the drug in treating pain and other ailments. But they remained concerned that the new policy announced Monday is still vague and that oversight of marijuana dispensaries remains a hodgepodge of local regulations. ... "It is a significant step," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in San Francisco. "It is overall the biggest and most positive change in federal policy in medical marijuana in at least 30 years." (October 20, 2009)

OLATHE – Since U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last February that the Justice Department will no longer spend federal money busting medical marijuana dispensaries established legally under state law, a new kind of gold rush is on to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the 13 states that have legalized it, including Colorado - and its Western Slope. ... at least four new dispensaries have opened in Grand Junction, three in Durango, one in Aspen, one in Glenwood Springs and a dispensary may open in Placerville, near Telluride. ... Even the tiny Town of Ophir, south of Telluride, will decide next week whether or not to investigate the possibility of becoming the State of Colorado’s first municipality to grow medical marijuana, reports The Denver Post. As proposed, profits from a town-owned dispensary would make up for dwindling tax revenues. (October 14, 2009)

Last Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley announced a sweeping new plan to boost the profits of Mexican drug cartels, a plan almost certain to increase the slaughter these vicious gangs are perpetrating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. ... He claimed, on dubious legal grounds, that all medical marijuana dispensaries in the county are illegal and announced plans to crack down on them. ... But even if Cooley were right on legal grounds, as policy his stand borders on the insane. ... A mass shutdown of medical marijuana dispensaries will simply hand [Mexican drug cartels] a massive new pool of customers and millions of dollars in extra profits. (October 13, 2009)

Large crowds have been gathering in Jackson during the last week. ... As for the medical marijuana clinic that opened last week on W. Franklin Street? No large crowds that we can see, and certainly no protesters. The quiet response says something about Michigan's experiment with medical marijuana. Last fall, voters allowed doctors to prescribe pot for serious medical conditions. Then, the general public went back to business as usual. (October 7, 2009)

ARCATA, Calif. -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers ... The shifting economics of the marijuana trade have broad implications for Mexico's war against the drug cartels, suggesting that market forces, as much as law enforcement, can extract a heavy price from criminal organizations. (October 7, 2009)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The most exhaustive collection of data ever on U.S. marijuana arrests, penalties and related information, released today, finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates, while penalty structures act as a price support mechanism that boosts the illegal market. (November 5, 2009)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — Today the Iowa Board of Pharmacy held the last of four hearings to examine the medical value of marijuana, receiving testimony from a range of medical experts, patients who have benefited from medical marijuana, and many others who asked that Iowa allow doctors to recommend the medical use of marijuana for seriously ill patients. More than 80 people in total testified at hearings in Des Moines, Mason City, Iowa City and Council Bluffs. Almost no one testified against medical marijuana. Among those who spoke out in favor of medical marijuana were state Sen. Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City), Dr. Stephan Arndt, director of the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, and Raphael Mechoulam, the Israeli scientist who in 1964 discovered THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive component. (November 4, 2009)

(November 3, 2009)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — Raphael Mechoulam, the Israeli scientist who in 1964 discovered THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana, will testify by telephone in support of medical use of marijuana at Wednesday’s Iowa Board of Pharmacy hearing. Mechoulam, considered the world’s leading expert on marijuana and cannabinoids, will join other medical experts and patients in the last of four hearings to examine the medical value of marijuana and whether its classification under state law should be changed. After this final hearing, the Board of Pharmacy will make a recommendation to the state legislature regarding the scheduling of marijuana and what further steps are necessary. (November 3, 2009)

AUGUSTA, MAINE — In a landmark vote, Maine voters today approved Question 5, making the state the third in the country to license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and the first ever to do so by a vote of the people. With 49 percent of the vote tallied, the measure was cruising to an easy win with 60.2 percent voting “yes” and 39.8 percent voting “no.” Under the measure, the state will license nonprofit organizations to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients and set rules for their operation. While 13 states permit medical use of marijuana, only Rhode Island and New Mexico have similar dispensary provisions, both of which were adopted by the states’ legislatures. Maine’s original medical marijuana law was passed in 1999. (November 3, 2009)

In a letter addressed to New Hampshire state officials today, musician, songwriter and cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge asked state lawmakers to vote to override Gov. Lynch’s veto of H.B. 648, in order to protect from criminal prosecution seriously ill patients who ease their symptoms through marijuana. A breast cancer survivor, Etheridge writes in her letter that marijuana helped alleviate the pain and nausea that she experienced as a result of chemotherapy: “All of my doctors said the same thing, from oncologists to surgeons, every one of them told me that marijuana was a very good and effective way to deal with the side effects of chemotherapy: “All of my doctors said the same thing, from oncologists to surgeons, every one of them told me that marijuana was a very good and effective way to deal with the side effects of chemotherapy. ..." (October 27, 2009)

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — On Wednesday, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee will hold a historic hearing on the implications of taxing and regulating marijuana similarly to alcoholic beverages. The informational hearing marks the first time California’s legislature has considered ending marijuana prohibition since California first banned marijuana in 1913. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), chair of the committee, is author of AB 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. A press conference will precede the hearing. (October 27, 2009)

CONCORD— One day prior to the final vote on HB 648, patients and advocates will hold a Tuesday morning press conference urging legislators to end the uncertainty and pass this bill into law when they vote Oct. 28. Additionally, half-page newspaper ads have been slated to run Tuesday in the Concord Monitor and the New Hampshire Union-Leader urging support for the override. HB 648 passed the House and Senate June 24, but was subsequently vetoed by Gov. John Lynch. If it becomes law, New Hampshire would become the 14th state to protect seriously ill patients from arrest for using medical marijuana if their doctor recommends it. (October 26, 2009)

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — The Obama administration’s directive to federal prosecutors not to prosecute medical marijuana activities that are in accord with state laws gives new impetus to the drive to pass a medical marijuana bill in Massachusetts, patients who have benefited from marijuana said today. Pending legislation, HB 2160 would make Massachusetts the 14th state with such a law. The bill is largely modeled on the successful medical marijuana law in Rhode Island, which has been in force since 2006. (October 22, 2009)

CONCORD – Patients and their advocates received new hope Tuesday in their effort to pass a medical marijuana bill in New Hampshire. The U.S. attorney for New Hampshire, John Kacavas, announced that his department will not prosecute seriously ill patients who use marijuana to relieve their suffering. The statement from Kacavas came one day after the Obama administration issued guidelines to federal prosecutors and the DEA directing them not to expend limited resources prosecuting medical marijuana patients in states where doctors may legally recommend the drug. Kacavas went a step further, telling reporters his office would not prosecute patients for possessing marijuana regardless of whether HB 648 passes or fails. (October 22, 2009)