Kansas was the first state to embrace alcohol prohibition, and one of the last to end it.

Now, could it become the 15^th to pass medical marijuana? Yesterday, Kansas state Representative Gail Finney (D-Wichita) introduced a medical marijuana bill.

Finney suffers from lupus, which makes her sympathetic to those with diseases such as cancer and HIV, and Finney thinks the chronically ill should be allowed to use the medicine that works best for them without having to fear being arrested or thrown in jail. Her bill would set up state-registered “compassionate care centers,” where those with recommendations from doctors could safely obtain marijuana for the treatment of pain or a debilitating illness. Finney’s bill also makes sure the money generated from medical marijuana stays in Kansas by requiring that the marijuana be grown in the Sunflower State.

However, not all Kansas lawmakers are as informed and compassionate as Rep. Finney. Rep. Scott Schwab (R-Olathe) says that marijuana “has no benefit for pain management,” and that, “all it does is make you crave another bag of chips.” Mr. Schwab should do his homework before he speaks. It’s not theory that marijuana is medicine; it’s fact, backed by 5,000 years of recorded history. Research has shown that marijuana relieves symptoms like nausea, appetite loss, muscle spasms, and certain types of pain. This evidence has been acknowledged by the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, and many other reputable health organizations.

Will the rest of the nation follow Kansas’ lead? We sure hope so.

Yesterday, lawmakers in Colorado unveiled a bill that could severely restrict the progress of medical marijuana in that state. Among other changes, the bill would place an 18-month moratorium on any new dispensaries, force existing establishments to reopen as nonprofit “medical marijuana centers,” and impose severe limitations on who can grow marijuana or work in a dispensary.

In response, medical marijuana advocates, led by the group Sensible Colorado, filed a statewide ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution and direct the state legislature to establish regulations for dispensaries and production centers.  It would, in fact, give Colorado citizens the right to operate and work in such establishments. MPP provided assistance in drafting the initiative.

The campaign will need to file more than 75,000 signatures by July in order to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.

“State-licensed medical marijuana patients need storefront dispensaries in the same way that other sick Coloradans need pharmacies,” said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado. “Medical marijuana patients will not go without medicine in Colorado. This initiative will establish sensible regulations for dispensaries and secure the rights of sick Coloradans to have safe access to their constitutionally-protected medicine.”

Keep checking MPP’s blog for further developments

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that President Obama chose to ignore marijuana reform questions. The questions posed to him were selected by YouTube, which decided not to present the highest ranked questions to the president. This post has been changed to correct that inaccuracy.

YouTube’s CitizenTube forum concluded today with questions about ending marijuana prohibition receiving the most votes, by far. Yet, the questions about marijuana prohibition were not presented to the president this afternoon.

Last year, when marijuana reform questions topped the “Open For Questions” forum operated by the White House, the president did answer them — albeit without serious consideration to the issue. It’s unfortunate that YouTube would shelter the president from something that’s obviously on a lot of people’s minds.

Ending marijuana prohibition is not a fringe issue. Not anymore. The polls are showing rapid increases in support for reform nationwide (46% of Americans think small amounts of marijuana should be legal, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll), and at least three states are considering legislation or ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in the coming years. This issue will be addressed in a serious way, and it’s regrettable that YouTube would shy away from it.

President Obama released his budget requests for fiscal 2011 today, requesting $3.5 million less for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign than he did in fiscal 2010.

The media campaign, which is run by the drug czar’s office, has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana advertisements that veer so far from the truth they’re laughable. Take, for example, this ad, which insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape. This is a particularly dishonest approach considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults. Yet no one at the drug czar’s office will say publicly that we should put responsible drinkers in jail.

The president spoke of tightening the belt in Washington, D.C. during the State of the Union address last week. He missed an opportunity today to cut $45 million (the current budget for the media campaign) that’s being wasted on ineffective advertising. The media campaign has never been anything but reefer madness, and the new administration should simply eliminate it. If you agree, you can e-mail the White House and let the president know how you feel.

On November 25, 45-year-old Kenneth R. Howe was riding in the passenger seat of a truck that was stopped by police at a sobriety checkpoint in North Andover, Massachusetts. Hours later, he was dead. The cause has been ruled a homicide, from injuries suffered while Howe “struggled with police.”

What exactly happened that night is a matter of dispute, and the subject of a federal lawsuit filed last week against state, city and county police, claiming that police officers beat Howe to death.

[Read more →]

On Wednesday, DEA agents raided Full Spectrum Laboratories, a lab in Denver, Colorado, that tests medical marijuana for dispensaries. Bob Winnicki, president of the lab, said the DEA issued a subpoena requesting that it turn over customer and patient records from the past six months. Winnicki said he wasn’t charged with a crime, but agents seized about $10,000 worth of marijuana, some of which was going to be made into capsules for people with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

Winnicki said his operation isn’t a dispensary, but rather a lab that tests marijuana for mold, fungus and pesticides, and tests the effectiveness of different strains of marijuana for treating various ailments for dispensaries and patients. He said he applied for a DEA license back in October to use standards needed to test the marijuana, but didn’t hear from them until Wednesday.

Though the circumstances involved are still unclear, there is no doubt that federal law enforcement agents have bigger fish to fry. While this company was trying to ensure that medical marijuana—the use of which has been sanctioned by the Obama administration—is safe for patients, Mexican drug cartels are operating in 230 cities across the country. If the DEA truly cares about public safety, this is the last place they should be spending their time—and a single dollar spent on any kind of prosecution of these individuals would be one of the most egregious misuses of government resources imaginable.

Big news!

California’s Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign announced today that they have submitted nearly 700,000 signatures to qualify their initiative for the November 2010 ballot. The initiative seeks to make personal possession (up to 1 oz.) and cultivation (up to 25 square feet) legal for adults 21 and up. The proposal also gives cities and counties the option to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana sales.

Supporters only needed to collect 433,971 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Submitting such large raw numbers makes the chances verygood that this bold measure will be placed before California voters in November.

President Obama has created a YouTube channel where anyone with an Internet connection and an idea can hold an “exclusive interview with the president.” The project is called CitizenTube, and it is very similar to the Open For Questions forum the Obama team unveiled one year ago. And just like last year, marijuana reform questions are by far the most popular.

Here is MPP’s entry:

You can visit the site to vote and help our question be one of the few chosen by Obama for a live YouTube event next week. Click here to help us demonstrate the importance and popularity of this issue.