Yesterday marked the 12th anniversary of the passage of the first state law that effectively lifted criminal sanctions on the medical use of marijuana, California’s Proposition 215. In the years since 56% of California voters decided to stop criminalizing the ill, and public support for legal access to medical marijuana has grown to nearly 80%. That public sentiment has translated into policy reforms in at least 12 other states. One would think that California’s law enforcement officials would do…

Not only did Tuesday's election produce two major marijuana policy victories, but we also saw signs of progress in Washington, D.C. Barack Obama has consistently said that he does not support the federal government arresting medical marijuana patients in states where medical marijuana is legal. He also affirmed to MPP that he would not use federal resources to raid medical marijuana dispensaries in California, something his predecessor’s administration has done countless times. And the Politico reported…

Join Nydia Swaby as she answers this week's question: "Is marijuana a 'gateway drug'?" As always, please send us your questions about marijuana: [email protected] Subject line: Ask Nydia! Have you considered signing up for our free emails? We'll keep you up to date on the latest breaking marijuana-related news nationwide.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 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…

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.