Medical Marijuana

Legislatures are in session across the land, and that's reflected in our update this week. Bills are moving, generally, but not, always in the right direction. Meanwhile, Arkansas looks ahead to 2014, and Oakland wants back in the Harborside case.

Support for marijuana legalization is at the highest levels ever recorded by the venerable Field poll, but not high enough to make potential initiative campaigners or contributors relaxed.

From the village board to the halls of Congress, medical marijuana is popping up all over. And there's action at various state houses, too.

Martin Lee has produced an excellent comprehensive history of marijuana, and Jim Rendon pays homage to those outlaw growers and breeders who bring us things like OG Kush and Granddaddy Purps. We review their books.

A North Carolina House committee has not only failed to approve a medical marijuana bill, it has acted to ensure that the topic cannot be raised again this session.

Most of the action was at statehouses this week, but there was also news from the Harborside Health Center battle in California and an announcement that the nation's capital will soon have its first dispensary.

With the introduction of medical marijuana and hemp bills this week, along with marijuana legalization legislation introduced earlier this month, Congress has a full-blown marijuana agenda before it this session. And now, it has an emerging cannabis caucus.

After the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that dispensaries are illegal, a conservative lawmker is introducing a bill that would allow them by local option.

What? Nothing happened in California? It's a rare week, but the quiet in the Golden State is being made up for by action in state legislatures around the land. And more.

A marijuana legalization bill has died in Hawaii after a head count found it would come up short in the House.