Medical Marijuana

Colorado's medical marijuana program is taking off, with the number of patients, recommending physicians, and dispensaries all on the rise. But a state agency has proposed rule changes that could blunt the growth, endanger the new-style dispensaries and make it more difficult for patients to obtain their medicine. There should be fireworks at Monday's public hearing on the proposal.

Cops who confiscate legally permitted marijuana or plants from patients and growers in California could pay out the nose for their violations of the constitution, a California appeals court has ruled in the first decision of its kind. That just might rein in some of those renegade, recalcitrant departments who want to ignore a law they don't like.

Voters in Oakland will decide whether to impose a whopping 1500% tax increase on dispensaries, and it's not an attack on them. In fact, it was the dispensaries' own idea. Talk about your good citizens.

When he got a 93-year sentence for a small medical marijuana grow in Oklahoma, Will Foster became a poster child for drug war abuses. A national campaign helped free him, and he headed for the friendlier climes of northern California, which released him from parole after three years. But Oklahoma wants him back, and now Foster has been in jail in California for the past 15 months fighting extradition. He needs your help.

South Korean authorities and public opinion take a hard line toward marijuana, so when a leading actress speaks out for legalization, the outrage is palpable.

Attempting to appease the opposition of Democratic Gov. John Lynch, the New Hampshire legislature has approved a medical marijuana bill that forbids patients from growing their own -- they would have to go to a "compassion center." Will that be enough to satisfy the governor?

Bryan Epis was the first medical marijuana provider to be prosecuted by the federal government, and he is one of dozens of people whose fate is still caught up in the federal system despite recent policy shifts by the Obama administration. Bryan is asking all of us to take action to help those who have risked much to help patients.

Rep. Barney Frank has reintroduced a bill to protect medical marijuana patients and providers and move pot from Schedule I to Schedule II. Will it get any further in a Democratic Congress than it did in Republican ones?

Explicitly acknowledging the medicinal use of the herb, the Croatian Supreme Court has thrown out marijuana possession charges against a war veteran who used it to treat PTSD.

The marijuana movement has a ways to go in Chile, according to a new poll. Only about 20% support legalization, and it's about the same for medical marijuana.