Dispensary Operators Gather Signatures for a Referendum to Block the City’s Ordinance Seeking to overturn the city’s medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law. The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to [...]

Fullstory >>

North Carolina — When a seizure strikes, Joshua Cook typically hits the ground. His hands clench spastically into fists. His torso contorts. His body shakes uncontrollably for several minutes. The condition first struck the 25-year-old National Guard veteran while he was serving in Iraq three years ago. After receiving a medical discharge, [...]

Fullstory >>

While The Christian Science Monitor claims not to be an instrument of evangelizing, it does include a daily religious feature and it rejects drug advertising as well as images of smoking or drinking. It should come as no surprise then that in a March 12 editorial the Monitor showered praise on the nation’s drug czar [...]

Fullstory >>

HILO, Hawai’i – Marijuana advocate Roger Christie said his home and offices have been raided by federal agents and Big Island police. The founder and director of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry said records, cash and marijuana he uses as a sacrament were seized Wednesday. Christie said he knows of about half a dozen similar [...]

Fullstory >>

Olympia — Gov. Christine Gregoire is expected to sign a bill that will give more health care professionals the authority to recommend medical marijuana to qualified users in the state. Senate Bill 5798 allows naturopathic doctors, advanced physician assistants and nurse practitioners the power to OK a course of cannabis. It [...]

Fullstory >>

CannaMed – Colorado’s largest medical pot evaluation company – faces scrutiny for selling patient information Karen needed a medical marijuana card.  She’d smoked enough pot in her fifty years to know that it subdued her recurring headaches, her nausea, the pain that lingered from the knee surgery she’d had a few years earlier.  With all [...]

Fullstory >>

Washington, D.C. — The Obama White House has finally laid out its most thorough, reasoned rebuttal to arguments for marijuana legalization – countering a campaign that is gaining alarming momentum at the state level. The president’s tough position was delivered in early March by his “drug czar,â€� Gil Kerlikowske, in a [...]

Fullstory >>

The bill allowing patients to get medical-marijuana authorizations from a wider range of health-care professionals came a step closer to becoming law as it passed in the Legislature Thursday. Senate Bill 5798 extends the ability to authorize medical pot to a variety of other licensed health professionals in addition to MDs and [...]

Fullstory >>

Sacramento officials Thursday night presented a plan to cap the number of marijuana dispensaries in the city at a dozen and impose strict requirements for their operations. Faced with a packed room of pot shop owners and medical marijuana advocates, City Manager Gus Vina asked for measured input on “an emotional issue.” But [...]

Fullstory >>

Colorado — State lawmakers could be within shouting distance of a plan to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries with pending legislation that leaves hardly anyone happy. After hearing testimony late into the night on March 4, the House Judiciary Committee put off making any decisions about House Bill 1284, sponsored by Rep. [...]

Fullstory >>