U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced the White House's policy that federal resources shouldn't be wasted raiding medical marijuana dispensaries that operate within state law yesterday in a Justice Department press conference. You already know this, but considering that the DEA has conducted hundreds of these stupid raids over the past several years, this is a very big deal for medical marijuana patients and fans of compassion and sanity.

Attorney General Eric Holder reaffirms President Obama's campaign promise to end the raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in California, calling it now "American policy".

MPP executive director Rob Kampia will be interviewed by Fox News' Glenn Beck today about California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's bill to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. The show airs starting at 5 p.m. Eastern time. While TV schedules are always subject to last-minute change, we're told Rob should be on at about 5:20 p.m. Eastern.

From time to time we hear dubious claims that marijuana is carcinogenic, even though there's abundant evidence that marijuana's active components are actually pretty potent anti-cancer drugs. That alcohol is a far more serious cancer risk is underlined by this Washington Post story about a massive new British study  -- involving 1.3 million women -- indicating that even a single drink per day can increase the risk of many types of cancers. The researchers estimate that booze could account for as…

Rob Kampia, executive director of MPP, is interviewed by Glenn Beck about the California bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.

     California state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) today announced the introduction of legislation to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcoholic beverages. The bill, the first of its kind ever introduced in California, would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine, and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21.        Estimates based on federal government statistics have shown marijuana to…

One of the arguments regularly raised against medical marijuana is that THC is available in pill form, so -- according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other opponents -- patients don't need that nasty weed, which has all sorts of other stuff in it. The problem with that argument is that some of that "other stuff" is really useful, not to mention remarkably safe.  For example, an article recently published onlineby the journal Phytotherapy Research reviews the many beneficial effects of…

Many people are at least vaguely aware that government-sanctioned medical marijuana programs exist in Canada and the Netherlands. But few Americans are aware that another of America's strongest allies, Israel, also has a national medical marijuana program. And, according to a translation posted by MAPS of a recent article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, that program is growing. Three hundred patients are now enrolled, representing a 1,400% increase in new permissions to use medical marijuana in…

Two weeks and eight arrests after a photo of Michael Phelps smoking from a bong made headlines, Richland County, S.C., Sheriff Leon Lott has called off the criminal investigation of the Olympic champion. Unlike Phelps, who has expressed regret for the entire incident, Lott was unrepentant about wasting the county's time and resources on a case that at most would have led to charges of possession of a pinch of marijuana. He also didn't apologize for the armed raids and arrests of eight college kids…

One point upon which MPP agrees with federal officials is that kids shouldn’t use marijuana recreationally. But we’ve criticized exaggerated ad campaigns from the drug czar’s office on the grounds that lying to kids is likely to backfire. A study published recently by the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors suggests we’re right.   Based on a two-year survey of adolescents, researchers looked at how changes in teens’ expectations regarding the effects of using marijuana (i.e., that it would…