The Dutch have evolved a mostly workable but somewhat contradictory system for handling marijuana: While technically illegal, possession and sale of small amounts through regulated "coffee shops" have been tolerated since the mid-'70s. This has effectively separated the retail market for marijuana from more dangerous drugs like cocaine and heroin, but because marijuana cultivation remains banned, coffee shops have no legitimate source for their product.

A group of 30 Dutch mayors has now proposed the logical solution: a system of government-licensed marijuana cultivation. While the present conservative government of the Netherlands has moved to reduce the number of coffee shops, the mayors argue that such a move is likely to be counterproductive.

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We're actually going to miss John Walters when he finally leaves his post as drug czar. He and his minions keep making our points for us -- and apparently don't even know they're doing it. Take, for example, this post from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's blog, reproduced here in full:

In Case You Missed It: Leno and O'Reilly on Medical Pot in San Francisco

Our recent post on the large and undocumented number of medical pot clubs in California gained a national audience last night, with Jay Leno referencing the phenomenon during his opening monologue:

“And in a stunning announcement, the Office of the National Drug Control Policy reports that San Francisco now has more medical marijuana dispensaries than it does Starbucks.  Well, yeah.  That’s because marijuana is a lot cheaper than Starbucks.”

Also, in case you missed it, Bill O'Reilly's program discussed the problem as well.  Watch the video here. 

Oh dear. After a marijuana arrest every 36 seconds in 2007 -- over 872,000 altogether -- and record marijuana seizures in California this year, they think the idea that marijuana is cheaper than Starbucks coffee is a good talking point for prohibition?

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Folks, it's official: Opposition to safe, legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients has dwindled to the point where only the most obnoxious blowhards like Bill O'Reilly even bother stoking it.

Here he is spouting off on the latest lie from the White House drug czar's office that medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks coffee shops in San Francisco. My colleague Aaron Smith has already exposed this nonsense as a complete fabrication, and it's already been reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, but apparently even imaginary dispensaries are enough to scare the crap out of guys like O'Reilly.

Funny, but O'Reilly and his staff didn't bother to talk to anyone who might have set the record straight. Wouldn't want to let the truth get in the way of a good story, after all.

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This little brouhaha is generating a lot of attention. Now Wired News weighs in with an amusing item.

But it's important to remember that this is serious stuff. While ONDCP continues to denounce medical marijuana as a "fraud," here's what the city of San Francisco's health director, Dr. Mitchell Katz, had to say about federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in a letter to the U.S. Senate a few years ago:

""Patients who use medical cannabis are persons with immune disorders, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and spinal cord injuries, to name a few. Patients who turn to medical cannabis are generally unable to find relief for their chronic pain and nausea through other treatment methods.

"[DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco] have resulted in nearly 4,000 persons with chronic illness left without access to critical treatment upon which they depend. Certainly in this post-September 11 environment, it seems that a DEA priority punishing organizations for distributing medical cannabis to chronically ill individuals is misplaced."

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Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle’s “City Insider” blog picked up my last post about ONDCP’s spurious claims that San Francisco houses more medical marijuana facilities than Starbucks shops. A senior health inspector for the city told The Chronicle that ONDCP's claim that nearly 100 medical marijuana facilities are operating downtown was “extremely incorrect.” The city official confirmed that there are actually 24 medical marijuana facilities in the entire city.

The Chronicle further pointed out how absurd ONDCP's claims were from the perspective of anyone who actually knows San Francisco, and noted that ONDCP couldn't even get their numbers straight when it came to how many Starbucks are in the city.

It didn’t take long for the ONDCP to respond with a new blog post announcing the “good news” that their previous post received some “MSM (mainstream media) attention.” The fact that the drug czar's office considers an article calling them liars to be “good news” should tell you all you need to know about George W. Bush’s drug policy hacks.

ONDCP also altered its original post by reducing its random figure of 98 dispensaries to 71 – an equally arbitrary number. They claim to have obtained their list of medical marijuana dispensaries from a Google search; however the Google.com I use doesn’t yield results approaching anywhere near 71. Of course, a link to ONDCP’s source is conspicuously missing from their post.

ONDCP also decided to take a swipe at MPP and other supporters of medical marijuana by calling us “Washington, D.C. based lobbying groups that, attempting to legalize marijuana outright, prey on the compassion of voters.” Apparently, then, the dozens of prestigious medical organizations that support medical marijuana are also nothing more than predators for legalization...?

It's ONDCP that's really the distant Washington, D.C.-based group preying on taxpayers - who are forced to pay for the outright lies broadcasted on their blog, regardless of what San Francisco city officials or its hometown newspaper have to say about reality.

The truth is that San Francisco's leaders have worked hard to regulate the city's medical marijuana facilities, and it's the federal government's war on marijuana users that has caused real harm to the city. 

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Use of marijuana and other illicit drugs by women who are pregnant is a cause of great controversy and some political grandstanding. In a few cases, this has led to draconian actions, including felony prosecutions of women in Texas.

Such actions are justified by studies that show that use of drugs such as marijuana or cocaine while pregnant may lead to low birth weight and other adverse effects. But most of these studies have not controlled for all the other factors potentially affecting these women, including stress, lack of early prenatal care, and not having enough money for necessities. A recent study in the Journal of Urban Health suggests that these other factors may be responsible for much of the tendency toward low birth weight (which, in turn, is associated with poorer infant health) that has been attributed to the use of marijuana or other drugs.

In this study, conducted with patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, women who used marijuana, cocaine, or opiates were much more likely to also suffer stress and depression, lack money for necessities, use alcohol or cigarettes, and not have early prenatal care. Interestingly, once other drug use was taken into account, the apparent effect of marijuana on birth weight disappeared. And once the other risk factors were considered, the effect of cocaine and opiates on low birth weight was no longer significant. The researchers suggest that drug use may be more a marker of risk than an actual risk factor for low birth weight.

None of this means that using marijuana or any other drug (when not medically indicated) during pregnancy is a good idea. But it does suggest that draconian policies that criminalize women may be aiming at the wrong target, and that programs that help women access prenatal care and deal with the other problems in their lives that are putting their unborn babies at risk might do more good.

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Join Nydia Swaby as she answers this week's question: Does marijuana cause lung cancer?

Have you considered signing up for our free emails? We'll keep you up to date on the latest breaking marijuana-related news nationwide.

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Just one day before Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved their state’s medical marijuana ballot measure, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) falsely claimed that there are currently 98 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in downtown San Francisco.

After drawing attention to the ONDCP’s boldface lie here on our blog, I decided to check in with San Francisco’s Health Department – the agency responsible for licensing medical marijuana facilities within the city.

Sure enough, according to them, the ONDCP’s figure is inflated by more than 400 percent: there are actually only 24 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in all of San Francisco.

One would think that the federal government would have done its homework before spending your hard-earned tax dollars posting lies online and even going so far as to fabricate a map showing make-believe medical marijuana club locations.

Sadly, in classic drug-warrior form, the ONDCP are continuing to lie to the public about medical marijuana without even an attempt to back their claims.

On a more jovial note about the ongoing anti-marijuana nonsense, our friend Mark Hughes in MPP’s Communications Department developed this hilarious parody of the ONDCP’s absurd new advertising campaign -- enjoy:

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A news story from a Bend, Oregon TV station bears the alarming headline, "Medical Marijuana's Link to Crime." As this is becoming a recurring subgenre of local news stories, it bears some comment.

The gist of this and similar stories is that sometimes people who possess or grow medical marijuana get robbed. Well, sure. So do people who possess other items of value -- jewelry, cars, high-end electronics, etc.

For example, 1995 Honda Civics were the most-stolen vehicle in 2007 according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, but we have yet to see any news stories shouting, "Honda Civics Linked to Crime!"

What's happening, of course, is that some in law enforcement are trying to blame the victim in order to discredit medical marijuana, and some in the media are acting as their unwitting accomplices.

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Yesterday we told you about a bizarre new anti-marijuana ad campaign from the increasingly beleaguered shop of White House drug czar John Walters. Well, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, things just get curiouser and curiouser.

It turns out the ad agency that put the new ads together is an outfit called McKinney. And according to McKinney's Web site, one of the agency's clients is Southern Comfort, a brand of liquor -- a drug that's not only more addictive than marijuana, it's vastly more toxic and orders of magnitude more likely to induce violence or aggression.

Oddly missing from ONDCP's new ad blitz is any warning about the dangers of booze. But part of McKinney's work for Southern Comfort is something called the SoCo Night Institute, which is pretty explicitly aimed at students. "Featured Courses" include "Dancing With a Drink in Your Hand."

Meanwhile, blogger Radley Balko was so amused by ONDCP's new campaign that he's asking readers to send in names of successful, important people who've used marijuana. We suspect it will be a very long list.

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