[inline:wheelchairmedicalmarijuana.jpg align=right]Last week, New York Times published one of the most powerful editorials about medical marijuana that I've ever seen. It was a moving personal appeal from Gustin L. Reichbach, a Justice of the NY State Supreme Court, who began treatment with marijuana after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
It's a story so moving you would have to be insane not to feel compassion for Justice Reichbach and patients like him. Unfortunately, long-time drug war defender David G. Evans is insane. In a calmly-worded, yet viciously dismissive letter to the editor, Evans suggests that the judge might be lying about his cancer treatment.
An medical marijuana initiative campaign is getting underway in North Dakota, people are going to federal prison in Montana, and the battles continue in California.
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past, in Drug War Chronicle.
Philadelphia pays for police misbehavior, more cops get caught pilfering the evidence, one gets caught helping a heroin dealer, and another goes down hard for helping drug traffickers.
As calls for legalizing marijuana and ending the drug war become increasingly commonplace in the press, so too do the inevitable shocked responses from frightened individuals who aren't always up to speed on the subject.
At their best, these people sound like they just found out about drugs yesterday.
A new Rasmussen poll has national support for marijuana legalization and regulation at 56%, up significantly from a poll just two months ago.
Here's one hell of an indignant rant against the drug war. No disagreement here.
Everywhere you look, the public is turning further against the war on marijuana and towards reform. The latest Rasmussen poll is another big indication of where we're headed:
US backing for and involvement in Honduras' war against drug trafficking is under increasing scrutiny after a DEA-involved raid that left four innocent people dead.
The Secret Service Colombia prostitution scandal has now ensnared at least two DEA agents in Cartagena. An investigation is proceeding.
The latest polling data on medical marijuana is striking and ought to shock some sense into the Obama Administration. Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks has great analysis.
A New Jersey marijuana decriminalization bill has passed its first hurdle, advancing out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee.