California has had legal medical marijuana for over 13 years, and more than 80% of Americans support patients' rights to use it. But none of that mattered to Christian Hughes’ employer, who fired him for testing positive for marijuana that he uses under his doctor’s recommendation to treat injuries related to an auto accident.

Hughes, 33, was the on-site manager for a senior apartment complex in Anderson, California until his recent termination by MCA Housing Partners.

The resident senior citizens are up in arms over the unfair firing of their beloved manager. Norene Faidley, 68, told the Redding Record Searchlight that “Christian is our brother, our son, our grandson, and we love him.”

“He cares about us and our concerns,” she added. “No problem is too large or small, whether repairing an earring or eyeglasses to handling the unexpected illness or death of a resident.”

Some residents have even organized a petition and have gathered about 60 signatures from the 80-unit apartment complex in order to try to have Hughes reinstated.

Unfortunately, California law does not explicitly protect patients from sanctions in the workplace even when they are using marijuana in accordance with state law. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation that would have changed that in 2008.

You can read Christian Hughes’ whole story and view a video about the reaction, here.

I posted the story a couple weeks ago about a medical marijuana lab in Denver being raided by the DEA, but it turns out the lab inadvertently led agents to their doors.

According to Betty Aldworth, the lab’s director of outreach, employees were caught off guard by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s visit because they did everything they could to be in compliance with DEA requirements, even formally applying for an analytical lab license.

"We didn't need to do that, but we thought it was the right thing to do,” Aldworth told the Denver Westword. But as it turns out, doing the right thing isn’t always the best solution, at least not with the DEA. Since the lab did in fact apply for a license through the DEA, the law requires the DEA to follow up on the suitability of applicants for permits, including investigating whether the applicant is in violation of any federal laws.

So, technically the lab was not raided. But should it really be a priority of the DEA to investigate an organization whose sole purpose is to test the potency of a legitimate medicine to help legitimate patients?

This is just ridiculous.

Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested 74-year old Canadian citizen, grandmother, and healthcare support worker Homenella Cole.

The charge? Possession of marijuana. Twenty-nine years ago. Cole was in her mid-forties at the time.

Is this really the most important thing border patrol agents could be doing with their time?

Ongoing efforts to reform marijuana laws in Rhode Island received a huge endorsement today from the state’s largest newspaper. In this editorial, the Providence Journal calls for the decriminalization of marijuana, writing that “[t]he pursuit of nonviolent marijuana users puts enormous strain on the justice system, feeds corruption and wastes taxpayer dollars that could have been used more effectively elsewhere.”

This call for sensible marijuana reform comes just days before public hearings will be held by the state’s Marijuana Prohibition Study Commission, which was set up by the state Senate last year to study the cost of marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island. Last week, a bill to change the penalty for possession of marijuana from up to six months in jail to a civil fine was introduced into the state House, where nearly half of the representatives signed on as co-sponsors.

Kansas was the first state to embrace alcohol prohibition, and one of the last to end it.

Now, could it become the 15^th to pass medical marijuana? Yesterday, Kansas state Representative Gail Finney (D-Wichita) introduced a medical marijuana bill.

Finney suffers from lupus, which makes her sympathetic to those with diseases such as cancer and HIV, and Finney thinks the chronically ill should be allowed to use the medicine that works best for them without having to fear being arrested or thrown in jail. Her bill would set up state-registered “compassionate care centers,” where those with recommendations from doctors could safely obtain marijuana for the treatment of pain or a debilitating illness. Finney’s bill also makes sure the money generated from medical marijuana stays in Kansas by requiring that the marijuana be grown in the Sunflower State.

However, not all Kansas lawmakers are as informed and compassionate as Rep. Finney. Rep. Scott Schwab (R-Olathe) says that marijuana “has no benefit for pain management,” and that, “all it does is make you crave another bag of chips.” Mr. Schwab should do his homework before he speaks. It’s not theory that marijuana is medicine; it’s fact, backed by 5,000 years of recorded history. Research has shown that marijuana relieves symptoms like nausea, appetite loss, muscle spasms, and certain types of pain. This evidence has been acknowledged by the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, and many other reputable health organizations.

Will the rest of the nation follow Kansas’ lead? We sure hope so.

Yesterday, lawmakers in Colorado unveiled a bill that could severely restrict the progress of medical marijuana in that state. Among other changes, the bill would place an 18-month moratorium on any new dispensaries, force existing establishments to reopen as nonprofit “medical marijuana centers,” and impose severe limitations on who can grow marijuana or work in a dispensary.

In response, medical marijuana advocates, led by the group Sensible Colorado, filed a statewide ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution and direct the state legislature to establish regulations for dispensaries and production centers.  It would, in fact, give Colorado citizens the right to operate and work in such establishments. MPP provided assistance in drafting the initiative.

The campaign will need to file more than 75,000 signatures by July in order to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.

“State-licensed medical marijuana patients need storefront dispensaries in the same way that other sick Coloradans need pharmacies,” said Brian Vicente, executive director of Sensible Colorado. “Medical marijuana patients will not go without medicine in Colorado. This initiative will establish sensible regulations for dispensaries and secure the rights of sick Coloradans to have safe access to their constitutionally-protected medicine.”

Keep checking MPP’s blog for further developments

MPP director of California policy Aaron Smith discusses the effort to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, and the failure of marijuana prohibition, on NBC. 02/01/2010

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that President Obama chose to ignore marijuana reform questions. The questions posed to him were selected by YouTube, which decided not to present the highest ranked questions to the president. This post has been changed to correct that inaccuracy.

YouTube's CitizenTube forum concluded today with questions about ending marijuana prohibition receiving the most votes, by far. Yet, the questions about marijuana prohibition were not presented to the president this afternoon.

Last year, when marijuana reform questions topped the “Open For Questions” forum operated by the White House, the president did answer them -- albeit without serious consideration to the issue. It's unfortunate that YouTube would shelter the president from something that's obviously on a lot of people's minds.

Ending marijuana prohibition is not a fringe issue. Not anymore. The polls are showing rapid increases in support for reform nationwide (46% of Americans think small amounts of marijuana should be legal, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll), and at least three states are considering legislation or ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in the coming years. This issue will be addressed in a serious way, and it's regrettable that YouTube would shy away from it.

President Obama released his budget requests for fiscal 2011 today, requesting $3.5 million less for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign than he did in fiscal 2010.

The media campaign, which is run by the drug czar’s office, has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana advertisements that veer so far from the truth they’re laughable. Take, for example, this ad, which insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape. This is a particularly dishonest approach considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults. Yet no one at the drug czar’s office will say publicly that we should put responsible drinkers in jail.

The president spoke of tightening the belt in Washington, D.C. during the State of the Union address last week. He missed an opportunity today to cut $45 million (the current budget for the media campaign) that’s being wasted on ineffective advertising. The media campaign has never been anything but reefer madness, and the new administration should simply eliminate it. If you agree, you can e-mail the White House and let the president know how you feel.

On November 25, 45-year-old Kenneth R. Howe was riding in the passenger seat of a truck that was stopped by police at a sobriety checkpoint in North Andover, Massachusetts. Hours later, he was dead. The cause has been ruled a homicide, from injuries suffered while Howe “struggled with police.”

What exactly happened that night is a matter of dispute, and the subject of a federal lawsuit filed last week against state, city and county police, claiming that police officers beat Howe to death.

Family members and a fellow passenger say Howe, a father and husband, had lit a marijuana cigarette a few moments earlier and was trying to put it out as police pulled over the truck. When police saw the marijuana cigarette, the fellow passenger says, officers pulled Howe out of the vehicle.

Police claim Howe dove out of the truck’s window and assaulted a female officer.

One way or another, a struggle ensued, Howe was arrested, placed into the back of a police cruiser, and taken to the state police barracks. While waiting in a booking room, Howe slumped over, became unresponsive, and was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

After an autopsy, the state’s chief medical examiner concluded that Howe’s death resulted from “blunt impact of head and torso with compression of chest” suffered when he “struggled with police.”

If the claims made in the federal lawsuit are to be believed, why would police lay their hands on someone for putting out a marijuana cigarette—something that Massachusetts voters have decided should carry a penalty of no more than a $100 fine! Howe was a passenger in the vehicle, so there wasn’t even a question about him driving under the influence. And if the police are to be believed, and Howe was truly trying to flee the scene, then he most likely did so only out of fear of punishment from having the marijuana.

Either way, there is no reason—none whatsoever—why Mr. Howe should be dead, and his family deprived of a husband and father.

How many more tragedies like this need to occur before politicians realize that our marijuana laws do far more harm than good?