30 December 2008 by Andy Coghlan

WHAT should we do to minimise the harm cannabis can cause to the health and welfare of users and to society at large? The answer, according to a report by a group of prominent academics and government advisers, is to change the law to allow the state to prepare and distribute the drug for recreational use.

This controversial proposal comes from a commission assembled by the Beckley Foundation, a British charity dedicated to exploring ...

Monday Dec 29th, 2008 11:00 PM

State provisions allowing for the possession and use of medical marijuana do not conflict with federal anti-drug laws, according to a series of California court rulings. In two separate cases, the California Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to the state's 12-year-old marijuana law finding that counties are obligated to issue identification cards to qualified patients and that police cannot seize marijuana from state-sanctioned medical pot us...

By David H. Kerr
Tuesday December 30, 2008, 5:38 AM

Should pot be legal, Yes or No? My answer - maybe. We have to think beyond the one dimensional drama of whether to make pot legal or to keep it illegal.

The fact is that there are many other legal drugs with far more potency than pot and these are often subject to dangerous abuse. This should concern us. The fact that these drugs can be obtained legally doesn't make them any less deleterious. In fact, prescriptio...

Contempt of court charges filed
Sandra T. Molina, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/29/2008 05:33:27 PM PST

LOS ANGELES - Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access filed legal briefs Monday accusing the city of Montebello of contempt of court for refusing to return medical marijuana wrongfully seized more than four years ago.

On Oct. 15, 2004, local police seized marijuana plants, growing equipment, and personal correspondence from the Montebello hom...

By siteczar - Posted on December 7th, 2008

[SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION]

For over 35 years America's war at home, the Drug War, has been raging. Owing in large part to drug war excesses, the United States now locks up more of its citizens than any nation on earth -- more than 2.3 million, with half a million of them behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses alone. That is more than Western Europe, with ...

By DEREK HARPER Statehouse Bureau, 609-292-4935

TRENTON - Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Tuesday that he supports and would sign a bill allowing medicinal marijuana use, but added that economic issues are his top priority.

"I don't think that we ought to be having fights on issues that don't go to the heart of the needs of a broad majority of folks," Corzine told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "I think that this is one that if it can be moved expeditiously ...

By MARGARET BAKER - mbbaker@sunherald.com , Posted on Sun, Dec. 14, 2008

Add marijuana to the list of things getting more expensive these days in Jackson County.

This year alone, narcotics agents have seized more than 13,288 ounces of marijuana and made more than 151 arrests, many at marijuana grow houses cropping up in the county. That's more than four times the 2,697 ounces seized in 2007.

As a result of th...

Radley Balko | December 6, 2008, 1:28pm

Like Mark Draughn, I've been somewhat skeptical of Barry Cooper, the former drug cop turned pitchman for how-to-beat-the-cops videos. He comes off as more of a huckster than a principled whistle-blower, which I think does the good ideas he stands for (police reform) more harm than good.

But damn. I have to hand it to him. This might be one of the ballsiest moves I've ever seen.

    KopBusters rented a ho...

Legalizing it seems like a good idea in these cash-strapped times. But there are many reasons to just say no.
By Patt Morrison 12/4/2008

The transition office's mailbox must be full of pleas: "Dear President-elect Obama: I really want a My Little Pony Pinkie Pie -- Love, Susie," and "Dear President-elect Obama: I really want a Mustang hybrid model that will sell half a million units in the first year -- Love, Alan Mulally."

In Philadelph...

Return of Legal Cannabis Not Pre-empted by Federal Law

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a landmark decision yesterday in which California state courts found that its medical cannabis law is not preempted by federal law. The Supreme Court's decision in Garden Grove v. Superior Court means that federal law does not prevent state and local governments from implementing medical cannabis laws adopted by voters or state legislatures. In short: federal law does not override st...

Stash seems to have been intended for buried shaman to use in the afterlife
Nov 27, 2008 01:23 PM - Dean Beeby

OTTAWA ? Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The ...

November 26th, 2008 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director



"Wow!" That was my first thought after watching the trailer for an upcoming National Geographic Explorer entitled Marijuana Nation. I'm keen to reply to the oft ask q...

By Dana Johnson
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Opinions

There is one campaign promise that President-elect Barrack Obama made that will easily be overlooked if America does not hold him to his word.

Obama promised to cease the federal arrest and prosecution of law-abiding medical cannabis patients and dispensaries by appointing leaders at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney General's office who will respect...

By Brandon Keim - November 19, 2008 | 1:39:24

Everybody knows a forgetful stoner, but research suggests that low doses of marijuana could be good for memory, and even help prevent Alzheimer's disease.

When given a compound similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, rat brains displayed reduced levels of inflammation associated with Alzheimer's disease. The drug also stimulated the production of proteins associated with memory formation and brain cel...

Recent marijuana decriminalization initiatives threaten nothing less than the wholesale destruction of the U.S.
Emerson Brooking - 11/18/2008

Two weeks ago, Massachusetts residents voted strongly in favor of Question 2, also known as the Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative, a measure that eliminates criminal penalties for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. Similarly, Michigan voters passed Proposal 1, an initiative eliminating state penalties for registered u...

by FORD TURNER, Of The Patriot-News
Wednesday November 12, 2008, 11:01 AM

School anti-drug programs deserve some of the credit for a downward trend in drug use among Pennsylvania middle and high school students, observers say.

Managers of two midstate drug and alcohol agencies said the findings of the 2007 Pennsylvania Youth Survey show the programs have merit. The survey, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, involved more than 16,000 stud...