State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 14 yesterday, calling on Congress and the president to enact national policies allowing patients and their caregivers safe access to medical marijuana. The resolution urges an immediate end to DEA raids on medical marijuana facilities in accordance with statements made by Attorney General Eric Holder that such activities are no longer consistent with Department of Justice priorities. Similar to another resolution also introduced…

The House committee that oversees the Department of Justice (DOJ) passed an amendment today that adds language to the committee's report urging the DOJ to clarify its position on state-legal medical marijuana. The provision is a non-binding recommendation, but carries weight given the committee’s role in funding the department. The need for a clearly articulated policy was highlighted in March when DEA agents raided Emmalyn’s California Cannabis Clinic. The raid, seemingly in conflict with Attorney…

It is conventional wisdom that any substance use during drug treatment leads to lower rates of success. But a new study in the American Journal on Addictions suggests that's not always so. The study looked at patients in treatment for opiate dependence using a drug called naltrexone – a treatment whose effectiveness, the researchers write, "has been severely limited by poor adherence." As part of a study designed to test two different support protocols intended to help patients stay on naltrexone…

The long, sad story of Charles C. Lynch should take a major turn this Thursday, June 11, when Judge George Wu is expected to finally determine a sentence for the federally-prosecuted but state-legal medical marijuana provider. MPP has joined Charlie's defense team and many supporters in calling for as lenient a sentence as possible in this tragic case of federal interference with California's voter-approved state law. Our friends over at Reason TV released this new video, aptly set to the tune of…

Today the Obama administration unveiled a new antidrug strategy for the Southwestern border, a region plagued by horrendous violence from Mexican drug cartels. Alas, the plan simply rearranges the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic. Lovely chairs they may be, but the boat's still going down. The plan, as reported by the Associated Press based on an advance copy, includes lots of technological fixes like "visual shields near border-crossing points so that drug cartel spotters can't alert approaching…

I've recently been corresponding with a medical marijuana patient and Navy veteran, Eugene Davidovich, who was recently arrested in a particularly slimy undercover sting operation. Eugene, a member of a San Diego medical marijuana collective, was contacted by an undercover cop posing as a registered, licensed medical marijuana patient who asked for his help obtaining his medicine. You can probably guess the rest, but here's a link to a good comprehensive story on his arrest. Prosecutors argue that…

The surprising finding that THC might help at least a small percentage of schizophrenia patients for whom conventional treatments have failed was reported in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.  This is surprising because, as the British government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reported last year, "there is clear evidence that the use of cannabis may worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia and lead to relapse." The ACMD -- a far more objective body than any U.S.…

There was good news on medical marijuana from two statehouses late today:   In Rhode Island, the news hasn't hit the wires yet, but a statement from the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition reports: "Tonight, Wednesday, June 3, the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted 64-4 for a bill to allow the Health Department to license a non-profit compassion center to grow medical marijuana for state-approved patients." Having already passed the Senate, the bill now goes to Gov. Donald Carcieri. The…

In the May issue of Current Opinion in Psychiatry, two noted researchers weigh in on the marijuana debate with an article titled, "The Challenges in Developing a Rational Cannabis Policy." Australian Wayne Hall and American Michael Lynskey urge that international treaties be rewritten to allow nations more freedom to experiment with policy changes, and more research aimed at weighing the costs and benefits of prohibition. Along the way, they make a number of noteworthy observations, including this: The…

Apparently, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy's standard of proof for the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana is pretty high. Much higher, than that of, say, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, which in 1999 concluded, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana." The board was required by a court order to evaluate the scientific evidence surrounding medical marijuana Monday to determine whether it ought to be…