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Dear President Obama: Like millions of Americans, I choked up watching you take office Tuesday. And like hundreds of millions -- maybe billions -- around the world, I watched and listened to your inaugural address, riveted by the moment. One line jumped out at me: "We will extend a hand," you said, "if you are willing to unclench your fist." Your words were directed at hostile governments around the world, but they also embody how hundreds of thousands of suffering Americans view their own government. I'm…

Join Nydia as she answers this week's question: How can I help end the war on marijuana users? Do you have a question about marijuana? E-mail it to [email protected] with the subject line "Ask Nydia." Have you subscribed to our free national alerts? We'll keep you updated on the latest-breaking marijuana-related news nationwide. Check it out: www.mpp.org/subscribe

You wouldn't know it from their Web site, but it turns out the White House drug czar's office is legally required to provide the public with facts that are, well, factual. Under the Data Quality act, all government agencies, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy, are responsible for "ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information." You could print out the material on ONDCP's site, throw a dart at the printout, and probably hit an assertion that's…

Voting on change.org’s “Ideas for Change in America” came to a close today with “Legalize the Medical and Recreational Use of Marijuana” coming in as the most popular idea. The top ten ideas will be presented to President-elect Obama during a press conference on Friday. Change.gov, Obama’s official transition Web site, has twice opened up voting in a similar feature called “Open for Questions.” Each time, a question about marijuana policy reached the top ten. And each time, the transition team brushed…

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I must not be high enough to understand what exactly the point is of this latest ad from the drug czar's office -- the behaviors depicted in it seem typical for lots of teenagers, straight or stoned. Still, I'm happy to help them get their message out, whatever it is. Feel free to use the comments section and give me your own interpretations.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced penalties against the Rite Aid drugstore chain for a variety of violations of the Controlled Substances Act. These included having "knowingly filled prescriptions for controlled substances that were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose" and failing to account for shortages or surpluses "of the most highly abused drugs, including oxycodone and hydrocodone products." For these rather serious offenses involving highly addictive narcotics, Rite…

    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected the decision of Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner and blocked a medical marijuana research project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst -- a project considered vital if marijuana is ever to be an FDA-approved medicine. The DEA's ruling, dated Jan. 7, was only released today.     MPP and other supporters of research reacted with outrage. "It's no surprise that an administration that has rejected science again and again has,…

In its December issue, the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry published an essay by psychiatrist Stephen Kisely, who divides his time between Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, titled, "The Case for Policy Reform in Cannabis Control." Kisely's essay is so full of logic and common sense that the best thing to do is just quote it at length: "The lack of evidence for prohibition is highlighted by the fact that penalties bear little relation to…