Today, the City of Los Angeles will begin enforcing its ordinance regulating storefront medical marijuana dispensing collectives.  The ordinance will force most of the city’s collectives to shut down (over 400 establishments), while the remaining 138 or so (those who registered with the city prior to Nov. 13, 2007) will have to comply with new zoning laws that are stricter than those for adult entertainment businesses, retail alcohol vendors, and pharmacies. I will be the first to acknowledge that…

A ballot initiative in Detroit that would make it legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use has been certified by city election officials, according to local reports. A local group called Coalition for a Safer Detroit turned in more than 6,000 signatures to place the initiative on November’s ballot. According to the Detroit News, the City Council now has 30 days to pass the initiative into law or it will be up to voters to pass it in November. Should the initiative…

Even when medical marijuana patients are protected from arrest and provided safe access under their state’s law, they may still face forms of discrimination, as we are unfortunately reminded time and time again. Perhaps the most tragic and emotionally charged instance is when parents lose custody of their children because a court or judge rules that their marijuana use, even if it’s medicinal, constitutes child endangerment. Luckily, a ruling last week by the Colorado Court of Appeals may help prevent…

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said this week that he has no plans to try to make the state’s recently passed medical marijuana law more restrictive—as he had suggested he might do while on the campaign trail—but that he wants to delay implementation of the law by at least six months. “I think the public would agree it has to be done correctly,’’ he told local outlets. Christie’s actions are causing concern among some lawmakers and advocates, who say the process shouldn’t be unnecessarily prolonged.…

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak has recently taken to Minnesota’s airwaves in a misguided attempt to blame violence at the hands of criminal gangs on consumers of marijuana. “When you pay for marijuana, you are paying for the bullet that goes into the head of someone on the streets,” he told the Star Tribune, in one instance. Today, MPP called upon Mayor Rybak to get honest about what actually fuels violence in the marijuana trade: prohibition. Here’s the statement by MPP’s Steve Fox: “Like alcohol…

Two high-school teachers in Norfolk, Virginia have been placed on paid administrative leave because a parent objected to them handing out a one-page flier and showing a film, both about constitutional rights, to a 12th grade government class. The handout, “When Dealing With Police …”, tells students what to do if they get stopped by police officers, if they see someone stopped by police officers, or if they get arrested (example: “Ask, ‘AM I FREE TO GO?’ If not, you are being detained. If yes, walk…

According to a local news station, a New Mexico man who is registered with the state’s medical marijuana program was denied access to his medical marijuana, as well as any temporary replacement medication, while being held in the Dona Ana County Detention Center. The explanations offered by the detention center were confusing to say the least. "[M]arijuana at this time is not approved to go into that facility,” said a spokesperson. “One of the reasons is when you smoke, whether it's tobacco or marijuana,…

Every once in a while, there is room for humor at the expense of America’s war on marijuana and this is a story that I couldn’t help but share: In their unyielding pursuit to rid the world of all of its marijuana plants, police in Corpus Christi, Texas arrived at a city park last week to pull up hundreds of weeds. The only problem with their gardening project is that these weeds were not marijuana at all but a type of wild mint that grows in the area. Corpus Christi’s KRIS TV news reports that police… …spent…

Andrew Myers discusses the ballot initiative that would allow seriously ill patients in Arizona to use medical marijuana without fear of arrest. With him his cancer patient Heather Torgerson, who uses marijuana to ease the effects of chemotherapy. Part 1 of 3. 03/28/2010

We’ve written previously about the U.S. Veterans Administration’s disgraceful policy of not allowing its doctors to recommend medical marijuana to military veterans, even if they live in a state where medical marijuana is legal or suffer from a condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects one in five vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and studies have shown can be relieved through marijuana. Yesterday, former Nebraska senator and governor and Vietnam veteran Bob Kerrey joined…