Medical Marijuana

Upstart New York Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer parted ways on the issue of medical marijuana.

The San Diego-area medical marijuana community is reeling under assault from the DEA and local officials, but is already fighting back at city hall and in the courts.

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long has written a medical marijuana initiative ballot summary that appears to violate state law.

Despite the government's downgrading in 2004 of marijuana from a Class B drug to the less serious Class C, members of two British medical marijuana groups are headed to trial this week and next, and could face up to 14 years in prison.

Just a week after the US House of Representatives voted to continue funding Justice Department raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal, the feds struck again. Five people have been arrested in a series of DEA and local police raids Thursday hitting 13 medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego County. Some people are being charged under state marijuana distribution laws in the cooperative federal-local effort. More arrests are expected, local law enforcement officials said.

In what could be the first sign of a course reversal by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which has scoffed at medical marijuana in the past, the group announced this week it will fund a study.

For the fourth consecutive year, an effort is underway in Congress to stop the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration from arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers in the 11 states where it is legal. Amendment sponsor Rep. Maurice Hinchey and others spoke with DRCNet about its prospects. Next week the US House of Representatives will vote again on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment, which if passed will forbid the US Dept. of Justice from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. It's crucial that more members of Congress vote for medical marijuana this year than did last year.