There’s a fantastic article in today’s Los Angeles Times about the successful regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries in West Hollywood, where city leaders, neighbors and even school officials have learned to embrace the shops and their patients as part of the greater community: In West Hollywood, city officials say, it's been more than two years since a resident has complained about a dispensary. Neighborhood watch leaders say their streets are safer because the dispensary guards are required…

In case anyone needs proof of the mass media’s tendency to repeat government pronouncements without bothering to check their accuracy, here’s a small but telling example: Inexplicably, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo last month explaining that it would generally refrain from prosecuting medical marijuana activities that are clearly legal under state law, it mistakenly indicated that there are 14 medical marijuana states. DOJ’s goof was to include Maryland, where medical marijuana…

In its official response to the AMA’s recent call for a review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug (barring any medical use) under federal law, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy stated that it would defer to "the FDA's judgment that the raw marijuana plant cannot meet the standards for identity, strength, quality, purity, packaging and labeling required of medicine." While we’re not used to factual accuracy from ONDCP, in this case they’re wrong not once, but twice. First,…

The resignations keep piling on in Britain, weeks after that nation’s chief drug adviser, Prof. David Nutt, was fired for publicly criticizing several UK government drug policies, including a recent decision to strengthen marijuana penalties. Today, three more members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs were reported to have resigned in protest after they were unhappy with explanations offered by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, the man who demanded Nutt’s resignation. The resignations of…

MPP Director of Government Relations Aaron Houston appears on Fox Freedom Watch to talk about the advances in marijuana policy and the failure of the drug war with Judge Andrew Napolitano. 11/09/2009

Big news: The American Medical Association adopted a new policy position today calling for the review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug. The revised policy "urges that marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods.” While it goes on to explain that the AMA is not stating support for state medical marijuana laws, the new…

There has long been reason to think that marijuana may be helpful to some patients with bipolar disorder, as certain cannabinoids have been shown in lab and animal studies to have effects that ought to be beneficial. Now, a new study from the University of Oslo finds that marijuana use is associated with better neurocognitive functioning in bipolar patients. In various tests of memory, learning, etc., bipolar patients who used marijuana did better than those who didn’t use it – the exact opposite…

That alcohol causes cancer isn’t really news, but how it does so hasn’t been fully understood. A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, adds an important new piece of information. Alcohol, it turns out, stimulates a type of cell transformation that turns cancer cells more aggressive and thus more likely to spread throughout the body. As we’ve noted before, research shows that cannabinoids (marijuana’s unique, active components) interfere with tumor growth…

Last night’s election produced two noteworthy victories for the marijuana policy reform movement. In Maine, an estimated 58 percent of voters approved Question 5, making Maine the third state in the nation (along with Rhode Island and New Mexico) to establish state-licensed non-profit dispensaries that will provide medical marijuana to qualified patients. This is also significant because it is the first time such a system was enacted by voters. (The other two were approved by state legislatures.) And…

A frequent claim made by opponents of marijuana policy reform is that hardly anybody is ever really arrested for low-level marijuana offenses. But like most prohibitionist arguments, that's a lie. In California, where marijuana possession was “decriminalized” in 1976 and medical marijuana legalized 20 years later, the state Department of Justice reports that law enforcement conducted a record 78,492 marijuana arrests in 2008. About 80% of these (61,366) were for mere possession – not sale or cultivation. The…