Beyond the documented health benefits of cannabis, one of its more revered effects is the creativity it inspires in many of those who consume it. Noted thinkers, artists, scientists, and even executive-level businesspeople have celebrated marijuana’s effects on their work, and we’re not just talking about Hunter S. Thompson, Snoop […]

Local officials across the United States are attributing a rise in violent crime and emergency room admissions to a spike in synthetic marijuana, the profits from which are funneled to the Middle East. CNN reports that according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, 3,682 people reported feeling ill […]

Jeff Mizanskey, a nonviolent Missouri man sentenced to die in prison for marijuana, granted parole today following great advocacy work by his family, Show-Me Cannabis and Missouri NORML! Mizanskey’s attorney, Dan Viets, is the Show-Me Cannabis Chairman, the longtime leader of Missouri NORML and my first cannabis law reform activist […]

As he made clear on Sunday, Bernie Sanders is serious about criminal justice reform. Speaking to an estimated 28,000 people at a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon, the Democratic candidate emphasized the need for change in terms of how crime is dealt with in the United States, making clear that […]

The New York Times call to repeal federal marijuana prohibition was a monumental event for advocates and the mainstream media’s coverage of of all things cannabis. Once derided in the media, the support of the Gray Lady. While more and more people move away from traditional media, like print newspapers, the […]

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had an eventful little Saturday in Seattle to say the least. In a much-publicized encounter a couple of apparent Black Lives Matter protestors took over the stage at an afternoon anniversary celebration of Medicare and Social Security, decrying Seattle as a racist city and demanding a […]

The mainstream coverage of marijuana has certainly improved over the years. As many know, when cannabis was first prohibited, the media sensationalized the marijuana menace by utilizing Reefer Madness propaganda. Mainstream coverage, while not rising to the levels of the Reefer Madness was relatively terrible just a few years ago. […]

Update: Bernie Sanders in Seattle: “Too Many Lives Have Been Destroyed by the War on Drugs.” Update 2.0: Commits to Criminal Justice Reform Before His Largest Crowd Ever; 28,000  Supporters in Portland, Oregon Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is taking his presidential bid to the West Coast, with a rally tonight in Seattle, tomorrow […]

Jon Stewart signed off from “The Daily Show” for good, leaving many people weepy and wondering what they are gonna do without his brand of irreverent satire in our lives. I watched the finale with a group of cannabis advocates at the Leisure Public House following a Portland Women Grow […]

Last night was the first of the Republican Presidential candidates’ debates, presented by FOX News and Facebook, and in four hours there was not one mention of the War on Drugs. As fellow Marijuana Politics blogger Romain Bonilla noted, the debate would have been a great opportunity to discuss marijuana policy, […]

The debate between the bottom-tier GOP candidates who didn’t poll high enough to make FOX News’ Prime Time Trump Spectacular may not have been the biggest ratings draw tonight, but it did provide for some interesting debate and soundbites. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, promised to re-invade Iraq […]

Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been one of the most prominent elected officials fighting for sensible marijuana laws for over forty years, going all the way back to his state legislator days in the early 1970s when he helped Oregon become the first state to decriminalize cannabis. Portland’s Representative certainly hasn’t […]

Later today, Republican presidential candidates will participate in a two-hour debate on live television, where there’s a good chance they will be asked to address issues of marijuana policy. The primetime debate, organized by Fox News in Ohio, will begin at 8:50 pm Eastern time and will feature the top […]

One of my stock lines on the speaking circuit is that if marijuana had been legal in 2000, Al Gore would have been our 43rd president. If 9/11/2001 had blocked your mind from recalling the events of just ten months prior, let’s refresh the memory. Al Gore had won the […]

Members of the media weren’t allowed into the $2,700 a head Hillary Clinton fundraiser in one of the most posh neighborhoods in pot-friendly Portland, Oregon, but that didn’t prevent some details of her talk from being reported upon as some attendees dished some details. Of course, most interesting to us here […]