A new Gallup poll released today shows 44% support for making marijuana legal in the U.S., a record high for this particular poll. The poll also shows 53% support in the west. While we’ve seen higher numbers in the past, and the level of support varies from poll to poll, this recent number shows a trend that’s undeniable: Americans are quickly realizing that taxing and regulating marijuana is preferable to prohibition. The chart below shows the change in attitudes among various groups. Notice that…

Huge news! The Obama administration issued guidelines today clearly stating that the federal government will not arrest medical marijuana patients or providers who comply with state law. This development is the most significant, positive policy change for medical marijuana patients since 1978. According to Justice Department officials, the orders sent today to federal prosecutors, the DEA, and the FBI clearly state that medical marijuana patients and providers who are in compliance with state law…

Those of us feeling perturbed by the recent parade of California officials trying to undermine that state’s medical marijuana laws might find comfort in the recent trends of another medical marijuana state: Colorado. After 53% of voters in the Centennial State approved a medical marijuana amendment in November 2000, Colorado has quietly emerged as a potential model for how states can responsibly and competently oversee the establishment of a medical marijuana industry. There are currently more than…

Despite the success experienced by dozens of California cities and counties regulating -- and in one case, even taxing -- medical marijuana sales, some municipalities have seen fit to shutter all open access to patients. In San Diego, where local voters approved the state's medical marijuana initiative 13 years ago, the county district attorney  continues to assert that it's illegal to dispense medical marijuana to patients whose physicians have approved its use. Despite repeated losses in court…

One thing that drives me crazy is the tendency of the media and others to refer to THC as “the active ingredient” in marijuana. While THC is indeed responsible for marijuana’s “high,” it is one of about 80 unique compounds, called cannabinoids, that are not seen in any other plant. Many of these have interesting, potentially significant, medical applications, and are not psychoactive. Anyone who wants to learn about these other cannabinoids should check out this recent review published in the journal…

The Los Angeles Times reports today that L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley thinks California's medical marijuana collectives are breaking state law. Cooley vowed to prosecute all the medical marijuana facilities in his county, estimated to have nearly 1,000 medical marijuana collectives. Cooley can say that these collectives are illegal all he wants, but that doesn't make it true. Last year, the state's attorney general issued a legal opinion that clearly stated that "a properly organized and…

It seems yet another California official refuses to recognize that state’s medical marijuana law, and instead wants to deny patients the treatment that’s recommended by their doctors and protected under state law.  Barely a week after the police chief of Redding, California sent a warning to local dispensing collectives about their defiance of federal law, a superior court judge in Fresno County today issued a two-week restraining order that temporarily shuts down all nine medical marijuana collectives…

As a result of the media attention that the social networking site Twitter has been receiving, many members of Congress have become active tweeters, some updating and reading their pages personally. This means that we have a new forum to interact with our representatives in Washington, D.C., one that's quick, easy, and increasingly effective. If you use Twitter, please send a tweet asking your member of Congress to end marijuana prohibition today. In keeping with Twitter's real-time nature, we’re…

As reported on the front page of today’s Washington Post, domestic marijuana production is cutting into the bottom line of Mexican drug cartels while decades of police enforcement have failed to curb their growth. The article states, "Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in…

The International Association for Cannabis as Medicine just concluded its 5th Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine in Cologne, Germany. The conference included significant new evidence that marijuana is a safe, effective medicine for certain conditions, some of which can be found in the conference abstracts, now available online. Canadian researcher Mark Ware presented results of a yearlong safety study known as the COMPASS study, which compared 215 patients who used marijuana to manage chronic…