I’ve recently been corresponding with a medical marijuana patient and Navy veteran, Eugene Davidovich, who was recently arrested in a particularly slimy undercover sting operation. Eugene, a member of a San Diego medical marijuana collective, was contacted by an undercover cop posing as a registered, licensed medical marijuana patient who asked for his help obtaining his medicine.

You can probably guess the rest, but here’s a link to a good comprehensive story on his arrest.

Prosecutors argue that Eugene violated the law in providing medical marijuana to the undercover cop – even though the cop presented him with documentation verifying his status as a licensed medical marijuana patient. They even insinuate that Eugene’s motive was profit and not compassion.

It appears that what’s really happening is that prosecutors are taking advantage of vagaries in California’s medical marijuana law to persecute patients and caregivers who are doing their best to take care of themselves and stay within the law.

Here’s how Eugene put it:

Every attempt made to date by collectives and coops to follow the law in San Diego has resulted in prosecutions or collectives having to operate so deeply underground and under such intense daily fear and pressure, that the potential public benefit they could be bringing to the community and to patients is stifled by this environment of fear.

Eugene has a fight on his hands now. Please visit his Web site and help him out if you can.

Apparently, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy’s standard of proof for the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana is pretty high. Much higher, than that of, say, the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, which in 1999 concluded, “Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana.”

The board was required by a court order to evaluate the scientific evidence surrounding medical marijuana Monday to determine whether it ought to be reclassified under the state’s controlled substances list. [Read more →]

Last night, after years of work — and months of intense pressure by patients, advocates, and supportive legislators — the Illinois Senate passed a bill that would protect qualified Illinois medical marijuana patients from arrest for the first time ever, 30-28.

But there’s still more work to accomplish before seriously ill Illinois medical marijuana patients can safely acquire and use their medicine without fear of arrest. If you’re an Illinois resident, please help us build on the momentum from this victory and encourage your friends and family in Illinois to do so.

MPP’s Bruce Mirken will appear on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ tonight to add a little rationality to the latest pronouncement regarding rising THC levels in marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded Marijuana Potency Project.

Drug warriors love to exaggerate small increases in marijuana potency over time and make vague proclamations linking those increases to increases in marijuana’s potential danger, even though no credible research supports such a connection. Of course, if they were truly concerned about the potential danger of higher potency marijuana, then they should favor regulating the drug and requiring manufacturers to label the product’s potency, just as we do with alcohol.

The show is scheduled to air tonight at 10 p.m. EST, but the hysteria surrounding one of the drug warriors’ favorite imaginary fears is sure to last much longer.

In his first interview as White House drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske signaled a huge shift – at least rhetorically – in federal drug policy.

“Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

Yes, the fallacy of pursuing U.S. citizens who use illegal drugs as though they were enemy combatants was obvious the minute President Nixon made it official policy – against his own experts’ advice – 35 years ago. And no, Kerlikowske isn’t calling for an end to the policies that fuel that failed war. Marijuana prohibition, for example, isn’t going anywhere, according to the new drug czar.

Still, Kerlikowske’s rejection of drug war ideology is a dramatic – and possibly significant – departure from his drug crusading predecessors.

Of course, if you really want to end the war on drugs, then maybe it’s time to end marijuana prohibition. Let your representative know with a phone call or an e-mail.

Former drug czar John Walters may be out of government, but that doesn’t stop him from taking his anti-marijuana zealotry to the masses.

Yesterday, he appeared on CNN to debate Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron on the merits of ending marijuana prohibition. Dr. Miron had little trouble tearing apart Walters’ arguments, but one statement of Walters caught my attention.

At 6:53 in the clip below, Walters begins a tirade about medical marijuana in California, saying “it has been reported in the news” that there are more medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco than there are Starbucks coffee shops.

What Walters says is technically true — that lie has indeed been reported in the news. What he fails to mention is that the source was none other than John Walters. And those news reports were widely dismissive of Walters’ fib. Both Starbucks and the San Francisco Department of Health refuted it.

But by cleverly distancing himself from his own lie and attributing it to “the news,” Walters is free to repeat it as much as he wants without ever being held accountable.

It’s as if I were to assert in this post that John Walters was the inspiration for the movie “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” and some other blogger picked it up and posted it. That way, I could go on and on about Walters’ reported retarded sexual development and just conveniently fail to mention that I was the one who first reported it.

But of course, that’s ridiculous. John Walters’ offense isn’t sexual immaturity. It’s that he’s a liar.

In yet another sign of the growing acceptance for marijuana policy reform, MPP’s Rob Kampia appeared on MSNBC and CNBC yesterday to discuss California Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger’s recent statement supporting an open discussion about ending marijuana prohibition.

You can see his MSNBC appearance here and the CNBC one in which he debates former drug czar official and lifelong drug warrior Kevin Sabet here. (Just to prove it’s really live TV, you’ll notice Rob’s audio feed cuts out at one point, causing him to talk over Sabet for a bit. Aw, shucks.)

By the way, here’s a shot of Rob during his MSNBC appearance that we kind of got a chuckle out of. I mean, drug warriors love accusing marijuana policy reformers of supporting terrorism, but actually being a terrorist? Now that’s playing hardball.

We just got word that the Rhode Island Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill, 35-2, that would establish “compassion centers” to provide medical marijuana to qualified patients, making access for the seriously ill far safer and more reliable.

Just to recap, that means three huge victories for medical marijuana patients and advocates today. Earlier, the senates in New Hampshire and Minnesota both passed bills that would protect seriously ill patients from arrest for using medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation.

That brings all three states much closer to improving the lives of their seriously ill medical marijuana patients, but we aren’t there yet, so stay tuned.

Although a vote for a bill similar to those in Minnesota and New Hampshire by the Illinois Senate didn’t take place today, that’s not necessarily bad news. It gives the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Haine, more time to build support among his colleagues after amending the bill to address the concerns made by some law enforcement officials.

Meanwhile, many of those same law enforcement officials and the drug-war supporting organization Educating Voices have announced a press conference at the Statehouse tomorrow at 10 a.m. Central to argue against Haine’s bill.

I mention their press conference because I think it’s important to air all sides of this debate. I also think it helps the cause of seriously ill patients who rely on medical marijuana for people to hear the rationale behind those who would continue to make them criminals.

Oh, Illinois residents, please let your representatives know it’s time to end the cruel, senseless war against medical marijuana patients. We’re close to ending it in Illinois, but they need your help.