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.