Over at Flex Your Rights, we've been getting a lot of questions lately about how to protect your rights when you're living in a college dorm. I put together this video response that I hope everyone will find helpful (I think a lot of the tips will be useful to anyone who's living around lots of other people, so this isn't just for students). Enjoy, and please share with any students you know.

Of all the fascinating reactions I've seen to Colorado and Washington's successful marijuana legalization initiatives, this is by far the most extraordinary.

Ballot measures to legalize marijuana in Colorado and Washington are polling strong on the eve of the election, and for many, this is a moment as momentous or more so than the presidential race itself. I've been too focused on other projects to comment regularly this time around -- and it hasn't been easy -- but tonight I can think of nothing else. And if you're reading this, I imagine you're thinking what I'm thinking.

Jacob Sullum shares this incredible story from a defense attorney in Kansas.

The tendency of the courts to trash our privacy rights in a pathetic attempt to prevent marijuana smoking is so routine that I seldom bother even to point it out anymore, but something about this case bugged me just enough to slap it around for a second.

The Partnership at DrugFree.org has been putting out outrageous anti-drug propaganda for many years, but this latest spot takes us in a really strange direction…

I don't even want to know how many times I've written about the reckless idiocy of this man, but what am I supposed to do, ignore him? The arrogance on display here is so perfectly horrible, I'm afraid I just can’t look away.

One month ago, Eric Holder testified before Congress that the Dept. of Justice is only targeting medical marijuana businesses that violate their state's laws. Anyone who didn't realize it was a lie should be getting the message right about now.

There's a fun little debate series over at U.S. News & World Report featuring some of the usual suspects squaring off over whether the drug war is the best or worst thing in the world (well, it can't be both). My favorite part is Kevin Sabet's attempt to make the drug war sound about as wholesome as a hug from a nun, which he accomplishes by pretending no one ever gets arrested for doing drugs.

Marc Ambinder has a totally weird and distracting piece in GQ

If you haven't yet seen DEA boss Michele Leonhart's frickin ridiculous congressional testimony last Thursday (or even if you have), please click over to Huffington Post where you'll find me ranting about it. 99% of the time when a drug warrior says something silly it doesn't become a big media story, but this one made the cut and for good reason. Check it out, then send the link to somebody cool.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel shows how you can please almost every political constituency by not arresting people for marijuana possession.

On Thursday, Eric Holder lied to Congress about DOJ's escalating attacks against medical marijuana:

Mr. Holder said federal officials are not going after those who are staying within the confines of their states' medical marijuana laws, but said some have "come up with ways in which they are taking advantage of these state laws."

"We limit our enforcement efforts to those individuals, organizations that are acting out of conformity with state law," Mr. Holder told a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. [Washington Times]

This week's exciting news that Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg are backing an effort to end New York City's mindless marijuana arrest crusade didn't exactly result in a round of applause at the FOX News studios. Here's Bill O'Reilly babbling about it.

The newest tactic of legalization opponents is to roll their eyes and pretend that reforming our drug laws is a frivolous issue. My latest Huffington Post rant attempts to demolish that argument. Let me know what you think.

 

It's kinda hard to pretend pot doesn't exist when almost everyone is talking about it. This week, both Reuters and  Associated Press dropped big stories about the implications of marijuana policy on the presidential election and the whole discussion is making Obama and Romney look a little silly.

Even as public opinion begins to shift in favor of marijuana reform, there remain some among us who just refuse to admit that this issue matters. In this clip, CNN contributor LZ Granderson viciously insults supporters of marijuana policy reform.

The rank hypocrisy of Obama's position on pot has been amplified rather dramatically by last week's revelation that he literally smoked more than his share of it back in high school. It's an important conversation to have, but I think this analysis by Paul Waldman in The American Prospect lands a little off the mark.

One of the most common questions we get at Flex Your Rights is how to handle a situation in which police claim to smell marijuana. This can happen whether or not you actually have marijuana and police actually smell it, so it's a situation everyone should be prepared for. 

My latest YouTube video takes a look at this tricky question.

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.