MPP spokesman Mike Meno discusses implementation of a medical marijuana program in Washington D.C. and the benefits it will have for seriously ill patients in the District. 12/14/2009

Tobacco kills at least 5 million people every year and the number could rise to 8 million by 2030, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization.  By contrast, there is not a single record of someone dying from using marijuana.  So, why is the extremely dangerous and lethal substance legal and the safer substance, sometimes used as medicine, illegal?

MPP spokesman Aaron Houston appears on ABC 7 Washington D.C. to discuss the Congressional approval of a budget that will allow medical marijuana in the District of Columbia. D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative to allow medical access to marijuana in 1998, but were prevented from implementing it until now by the Barr amendment. 12/14/2009

The federal government just released the latest ‘Monitoring the Future’ survey of teen drug use, and the results do not bode well for current policies. More high school seniors report smoking marijuana in the past 30 days than smoked cigarettes: 20.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent. And marijuana use is up (albeit in the same general range it’s been in for several years) while teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, and has dropped markedly since the early ‘90s. Regulation of tobacco, combined with…

The U.S. Senate today passed historic legislation to end the decade-long ban on implementing a medical marijuana law in Washington, D.C. This marks the first time in history Congress has changed a marijuana law for the better. Only Obama’s signature is needed for the change to become law. This is not only a huge victory for medical marijuana patients in the nation’s capital, it marks a historic shift on the medical marijuana issue nationwide. This is the first time Congress has given its assent to…

Check out this point/counterpoint on medical marijuana on the new medical Web site, Pain.com. They tell us that as of this morning it was the most popular item on the site.

The following clip aired last night on "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.

One of the more outrageous and gut-wrenching trials involving marijuana in recent memory is taking place right now in New Jersey. Somerville resident John Wilson, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and treats himself with marijuana he grows, is being charged with operating a drug manufacturing facility, even though there is no evidence to show that Wilson supplied marijuana to anyone but himself. Edward R. Hannaman, a board member of Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, describes this horrendous…

The U.S. House of Representatives just voted 221-202 on the omnibus spending bill, which will allow Washington, D.C. to implement its medical marijuana law. The Senate will now take up the legislation; we expect it to pass there without any alterations. President Obama will sign the bill into law once the Senate has acted. We expect all of this to happen very quickly; Congress and the president have until December 18 to finalize the legislation.

A new national poll shows that 53 percent of Americans favor ending marijuana prohibition, with support coming from all across the political spectrum: 61 percent among Democrats, 55 percent among Independents and 43 percent among Republicans.  This latest poll shows support to be 9 percent higher than a Gallup poll released in October, which showed that 44 percent of Americans favored making marijuana legal. The new poll conducted last week by Angus Reid Public Opinion also reveals that 68 percent…