Consider this: As I write this, with 67% of precincts reporting, marijuana decriminalization is passing in Massachusetts with 65% of the vote. Obama, who is carrying the state handily, is getting 62%.

In Michigan it's similar. With 40% of the vote in, medical marijuana is passing with 63% while Obama is carrying the state with 55%.

And this is not just a blue state phenomenon. In 2004, George W. Bush carried Montana with 59% of the vote, while medical marijuana passed with 62%.

Memo to the new Congress and President-elect Obama: Sane marijuana policies are not controversial.

We'll have more on this soon, but voters in Massachusetts and Michigan appear to have passed both MPP ballot initiatives, making this one of the biggest nights for marijuana policy reform ever.

Massachusetts is now the 12th state to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana -- and the first to do so by voter initiative in the world! -- and Michigan is now the 13th medical marijuana state and the first in the Midwest. That means that one in four Americans now live in a state that protects patients who use doctor-recommended medical marijuana from arrest.

Like I said, it's a big night. Congratulations and thanks to everybody who worked so hard to pass these important reforms and to all the voters who saw past the fear-mongering and distortions from opponents of these sensible policies. Check out our complete list of marijuana policy-related ballot initiatives and their results here.

Last week, the illustrious Bruce Mirken told us about how opponents of Michigan’s “Proposal 1” are lying to voters by saying that there are “pot-smoking clubs” in every neighborhood in California.

Now the marijuana-obsessed Drug Czar’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is spewing more hogwash about California’s medical marijuana situation.

The ONDCP’s blog is claiming that there are more medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco than Starbucks coffee shops. Their “analysis” concludes that “in downtown San Francisco alone, there are 98 marijuana dispensaries, compared to 71 Starbucks Coffee shops.”

Surprise! Contrary to their own stated policy of "maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information" the ONDCP is lying to us.

There are only 25 medical marijuana dispensaries in the entire city of San Francisco. This figure was reported in a San Francisco Chronicle article just last month.

San Francisco’s dispenaries are tightly regulated by local land-use ordinances and, contrary to the ONDCP’s claims, there is no evidence that they cause an inordinate amount of crime.

Most patients in San Francisco actually want to see more points of access to medical marijuana in their city. After all, there are almost 60 Walgreens pharmacies successfully dispensing Oxycontin, morphine, and a number of other potentially dangerous medications within city limits.

Every time I think the murder of 22-year-old Rachel Hoffman couldn't get more repulsive, new details emerge suggesting there's no end to the incompetence, recklessness, and misplaced values of the officers who caused her death.

The young woman – whom the Tallahassee Police Department recruited as a confidential informant after threatening her with a marijuana charge – was murdered by the drug dealers she'd been sent to ensnare in a sting operation.

One of the many confounding aspects of the case to me was why they would send Rachel to buy not just an uncharacteristically large amount of drugs, but a gun as well. She had never been in legal trouble for anything except a couple relatively low-level drug offenses mostly involving marijuana, and she had absolutely no history of violence.

It now appears she suggested purchasing the gun herself because the cops had led her to believe a more high-profile bust would mean the end of her obligations as a CI, and that she would then be allowed to move on with her life.

The officer supervising her CI activities also continues to stick to his dubious claim that Rachel was a big-time drug dealer making $26,000 a week, even though her friends say they never saw her with that kind of cash or drugs, and her dad still paid her rent. Curiously, the officer also said he trusted her with the money she was given for the sting operation because she was a "very religious, family-oriented girl," and that stealing would have been out of character for her.

I suspect that Rachel's handlers in the Tallahassee Police Department knew she wasn't really a criminal in any practical sense. She was just an unlucky soul who got caught up in the ridiculously wide net created by our marijuana laws. In our cruel system, that means those sworn to protect her were now entitled to exploit her, and that she had forfeited her claim to our most basic civil right: life.

The last of three Atlanta police officers pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston nearly two years ago, thus concluding the federal investigation of that tragic incident.

It appears likely the investigation report will fault shortcuts taken by Atlanta narcotics officers to secure illegal search warrants, which, if you'll read our summary of the incident, you'll see is a grotesque understatement in Ms. Johnston's case. These officers arbitrarily targeted the woman's home as a crack house, lied to secure a no-knock warrant, shot her five or six times, and then attempted to plant a small amount of marijuana in order to justify their rampage.

Vile abuses of authority are a terrible, inevitable part of human nature. Accountability and harsh justice for the men involved in Ms. Johnston's death are necessary and appropriate. But until we look at the policies that embolden such men, expect more abuse.

After all, these drug enforcement professionals believed they might get away with the senseless slaying of a 92-year-old woman if she were found possessing marijuana. What does that say about the attitudes that underlie our marijuana policies?

The opposition to Proposal 1, the Michigan medical marijuana initiative, is going on the air with this new TV ad -- a spot so egregiously dishonest that even my very jaded jaw dropped when I saw it. It may set an all-time record for the most lies ever packed into a 30-second commercial, spoken by a narrator over grainy, black-and-white footage of what purports to be a medical marijuana dispensary. The most obvious:

1) California's medical marijuana law is "just like Proposal 1." No, it's not. California's law has almost none of the limitations and restrictions the Michigan proposal does -- including a defined list of qualifying conditions and a mandatory patient registry and ID card system. And unlike California's law, Michigan's initiative does not authorize dispensaries. Period.

2) "Hundreds of pot-smoking clubs opened in strip malls all over the state. They grow pot there. They smoke it there. In every neighborhood." Even if this had the slightest relevance to Michigan (which it doesn't -- see above), the statement is just plain false. I say this with some certainty, since I live in San Francisco, perhaps the most medical marijuana friendly city in the state. California dispensaries are not in every neighborhood: Most communities have none at all, while others have strictly regulated where they can locate. Many do not allow smoking on site, and almost none grow on site.

I happen to think medical marijuana dispensaries -- when appropriately regulated and well run -- are a perfectly fine thing, but they are simply irrelevant to the Michigan debate. But the opponents know the facts won't help them, so in desperation they resort to shameless lies.

Please take a second to learn the truth about Proposal 1 and how you can help.

It turns out that three of the Massachusetts district attorneys leading the fight against Question 2, the Massachusetts marijuana decriminalization initiative, admit to having used marijuana themselves in the past. To our knowledge, they have yet to explain how their having criminal records that would have barred them from their present careers would leave the state  better off.

You may remember a few weeks back when Dan posted a couple of John Walters's question and answer segments from a drug czar press conference where Walters claimed that "finding somebody in jail or prison for a first time, non-violent offender [sic] for possession of marijuana is like finding a unicorn."  More recently, Ben found plenty of unicorns by Walters's definition.

Over at MPP-TV, we decided to take a look at the drug czar's numbers and do the math ourselves ... and came up with this video on his bizarre claims. Enjoy!

Drug Czar John Walters claims that finding a first time marijuana offender in jail for possession is like finding a unicorn. Here's what we think.

You know what you can get for just seven cents per day? Not much! But, just seven cents a day will get you a MPP membership and the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you are helping the nation’s number one marijuana policy reform organization.

There is evidence that marijuana may work synergistically with opioid pain drugs, allowing equal or better relief with reduced doses of narcotics and reduced development of tolerance to the drugs. But most of this evidence comes from animal studies, so data from human clinical trials is urgently needed.

Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California, San Francisco, is doing just such a study right now and needs volunteers who are suffering from chronic pain and currently taking OxyContin or MS Contin. Compensation and assistance with transportation to San Francisco are available. If you or anyone you know might be eligible to participate, please check out the details here and consider joining this important effort.