It’s never easy to know for sure, but this week could be huge for medical marijuana reform if things go just right in state legislatures across the country. The senates in Illinois, Minnesota, and New Hampshire all could vote to pass medical marijuana bills as early as tomorrow. At the same time, the Rhode Island Senate could vote on a bill creating medical marijuana compassion centers, making safe access to qualified patients in the state far less burdensome.

So stay tuned – we’ll let you know as soon as we know.

In what turns out, sadly, to be the last episode of CNN’s “D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,” aired Mar. 28 and 29, D.L. devoted a large block of the show to proposals to make marijuana a legally regulated and taxed product for adult consumption. The first segment included an interview with yours truly, followed by Ronald Brooks of the Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition, who wants to keep arresting and jailing marijuana users.

After MPP passed the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Michigan and the marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts — both on November 4 — I thought the MPP staff might get a little downtime to regroup for the 2009-2010 election cycle. Not so.

In the last four months, the MPP staff and our allies have been working almost nonstop to respond to — and take advantage of — the many opportunities that have been presenting themselves across the country. I’ve never seen so much evidence of positive change in such a short amount of time … [Read more →]

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced the White House’s policy that federal resources shouldn’t be wasted raiding medical marijuana dispensaries that operate within state law yesterday in a Justice Department press conference.

You already know this, but considering that the DEA has conducted hundreds of these stupid raids over the past several years, this is a very big deal for medical marijuana patients and fans of compassion and sanity.

After a frustrating period of silence and a flurry of Drug Enforcement Administration medical marijuana raids in the Los Angeles area this week, a spokesman for President Obama has finally reaffirmed his intent to end such attacks on state medical marijuana laws. Here’s the money quote from the story in Thursday’s Washington Times:

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

While more ringing language might have been nice, the intent is clear enough: Hey DEA, the president says it’s time to stop attacking the sick. Got it?

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced penalties against the Rite Aid drugstore chain for a variety of violations of the Controlled Substances Act. These included having “knowingly filled prescriptions for controlled substances that were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose” and failing to account for shortages or surpluses “of the most highly abused drugs, including oxycodone and hydrocodone products.”

For these rather serious offenses involving highly addictive narcotics, Rite Aid Corporation will pay $5 million in fines. No one will go to jail or get a criminal record.

In comparison, California medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch, who scrupulously followed state and local laws to provide medicine to legitimate patients, is facing 100 years in federal prison. Unlike Rite Aid, Lynch is being treated like a dangerous drug dealer — when he is manifestly nothing of the sort. Reason magazine has been following the case closely, and produced a compelling video available on this page. Lynch’s request for a new trial was rejected earlier this month, and he now faces sentencing Feb. 23.

We’re actually going to miss John Walters when he finally leaves his post as drug czar. He and his minions keep making our points for us — and apparently don’t even know they’re doing it. Take, for example, this post from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s blog, reproduced here in full:

In Case You Missed It: Leno and O’Reilly on Medical Pot in San Francisco

Our recent post on the large and undocumented number of medical pot clubs in California gained a national audience last night, with Jay Leno referencing the phenomenon during his opening monologue:

“And in a stunning announcement, the Office of the National Drug Control Policy reports that San Francisco now has more medical marijuana dispensaries than it does Starbucks.  Well, yeah.  That’s because marijuana is a lot cheaper than Starbucks.”

Also, in case you missed it, Bill O’Reilly’s program discussed the problem as well.  Watch the video here. 

Oh dear. After a marijuana arrest every 36 seconds in 2007 — over 872,000 altogether – and record marijuana seizures in California this year, they think the idea that marijuana is cheaper than Starbucks coffee is a good talking point for prohibition?

Folks, it’s official: Opposition to safe, legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients has dwindled to the point where only the most obnoxious blowhards like Bill O’Reilly even bother stoking it.

Here he is spouting off on the latest lie from the White House drug czar’s office that medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks coffee shops in San Francisco. My colleague Aaron Smith has already exposed this nonsense as a complete fabrication, and it’s already been reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, but apparently even imaginary dispensaries are enough to scare the crap out of guys like O’Reilly.

Funny, but O’Reilly and his staff didn’t bother to talk to anyone who might have set the record straight. Wouldn’t want to let the truth get in the way of a good story, after all.