New York – The United States Cannabis Coalition is proud to announce the appointment of retired US Army Sergeant Boone Cutler to the USCC Advisory Board. A noted author, radio talk show host and veteran’s advocate, Cutler is an important activist for cannabis PTSD treatment. Cutler joins Board Member and […]

By Annie Loupy If you are a medical marijuana patient in Florida, you are familiar with the long and complicated history of cannabis legalization. The law is vague and restrictive causing backups, delays and inconvenient challenges. In 2016, Florida voters flooded the polls to allow legal medicinal use of marijuana. […]

On the heels of New Jersey Senator Cory Booker introducing the “Marijuana Justice Act” to repeal cannabis prohibition, the National Conference of State Legislatures has joined the call for legalization, urging the federal government to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances. This is the second year in a […]

The importance of keeping Medical Marijuana a vibrant industry is on many minds this 420. “Coming out of the military, I was put on roughly 12 pharmaceutical medications: from Depakote to Seroquel, Buspar, Zoloft, OxyContin, Percocet…and that’s just to name a few. That story is similar to a lot of […]

By Roger Stone President Donald Trump and Marijuana Politics is one of the most controversial decisions he will have to make . The question is whether to continue the federal stand-down by the us Justice department in which DOJ does not enforce federal marijuana laws where they contradict state laws […]

For someone new entering into the cannabis world, a person doesn’t go too long before they will hear the phrase, “standing on the backs of patients”. That’s because we as a country are at a critical moment in time in which we must negotiate the space between a community of […]

A new document out of the state police’s drug enforcement division on marijuana seems to invite federal prosecution to Oregon. The report is called A Baseline Evaluation of Cannabis Enforcement Priorities in Oregon, January 2017.  Oregonian/ Oregon Live reporter Noelle Crombie published details and conclusions of the report. The findings […]

Florida Amendment 2 marijuana legislation is in the news and some cities and counties are taking a Well, ‘Not Yet,’ Anyway attitude as they wait to see what happens in the state of Florida. Since the late twentieth century, over half of the states in the U.S. passed initiatives that […]

If there are two things president-elect Donald Trump loves more than anything else, it’s fame and money. Trump’s international recognition a flashy billionaire is undisputed. Despite the obvious thrill he gets from antagonizing opponents, the truth is the Donald wants to be popular. And there is no more popular political […]

President-Elect Donald Trump has surrounded himself with hard-liner, cannabis-hating ex-prosecutors. They present a clear and present danger to state marijuana legalizations across the USA and to the millions of Americans benefitting from medical marijuana and from the booming economies of legalized states. Actually, prosecutors don’t hate marijuana, they love it, […]

Marijuana-hating casino magnate Sheldon Adelson may be richest of the Big Prohibitionists. Long a deep-pocket donor to anti-cannabis causes, his latest handout gives a million dollars each towards defeating medical marijuana in Massachusetts and adult-use legalization in Nevada. With a fortune of around $30 billion dollars, Sheldon Adelson is the […]

In recent years, four states and the District of Columbia have legalized the sale of retail marijuana by popular vote. 25 more states permit medical marijuana or have decriminalized marijuana possession. Starting as early as 2011, polls consistently showed Americans’ support of legalizing marijuana. A number of states are likely […]

Neal Levine, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for LivWell Enlightened Health , has been through the trenches of cannabis activism and business, like very few have. Levine actually helped to oversee the grant from the Marijuana Policy Project for the very first campaign I was a part of, a local […]

Ever since Oregon legalized cannabis, thanks to the wisdom of over 56% of the voters in 2014, the sky hasn’t fallen, but, admittedly a lot of strange things have happened. (But Oregon isn’t like Florida crazy, or anything!) And while “Keep Portland Weird” is a slogan, Southern Oregon has its fair […]

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – The Democrats have become the first major political party in the United States to endorse “a reasoned pathway for future [marijuana] legalization” in their party platform at their convention in Philadelphia. The platform plank, fought for by supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, calls for the removal of […]

MANILA, Philippines – Over 300 people are dead in the streets at the urging of the newly elected president, who has called for police and vigilante executions of drug dealers and users. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared war on illegal drugs at the start of this month and shows no […]

Devisive Debbie Wasserman Schultz has finally resigned as Democratic National Committee chief. Followers of MarijuanaPolitics.com may have read this writer’s several posts criticizing Schultz as unfit for DNC chief or as a Democratic Representative to Congress. Her resignation will go a long ways in helping to unify the Democratic Party for the […]

COALINGA, California – The Central California city of Coalinga has sold its empty prison to a marijuana company that will grow and process cannabis there. The abandoned Claremont Custody Center was sold to Ocean Grown Extracts for $4.1 million by the city, which had been struggling under almost $3.8 million […]

As a newly-minted medical marijuana patient, you’ve just achieved some protection from law enforcement if you choose to travel around your state with an ounce of marijuana. But, if you want to leave your state, you may be wondering, “which states accept my medical marijuana card?” Unfortunately, there are currently […]

The raw beneficial power of medical marijuana is actually lowering Medicare prescription use of opioids and antidepressants! In states where cannabis has become legal and available for medical use, Medicare users are choosing this safer substitute. So says a new study reported in Health Affairs, “Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Prescription […]

In upcoming elections, Florida contests for US senator, US Representative, and a medical marijuana initiative will help decide the legal future of cannabis both statewide and nationwide. Senate Race He’s baaaack! “Little” Mario Rubio will be running for senate reelection after all. This prohibitionist Republican used his first Senate term […]

Bernie Sanders has endorsed Tim Canova over Debbie Wasserman Schultz for US Representative in the August 30 Florida Democratic primary vote. The primary election offers the chance to replace anti-cannabis prohibitionist Schultz with drug law reformer Tim Canova.  Debbie, of course, is also the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, […]

California’s cannabis legalization measure garners most of the headlines and Nevada has already qualified for the ballot, but it looks like the conservative-but-with-a-libertarian-streak state of Arizona may have marijuana on the ballot this November as well. Massachusetts and Maine look like good bets to put marijuana legalization measures before voters […]

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz could be dumped in the August 30 primary! Schultz’s failings as a Democratic congressperson are huge. Supposedly a progressive, she instead opposes medical marijuana and joins corporate Republicans to support the predatory payday loan industry. Her neo-con, prohibitionist, and money grubbing politics belie her “progressive” […]

“I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death,” Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun wrote in a 1994 dissent where he declared, “the death penalty experiment has failed.” More than 150 death row inmates have been exonerated by evidence of innocence since 1973. A recent study has examined exonerations […]

The most recent polls continue to show momentum for Bernie Sanders as Super Tuesday 2 approaches. Following the huge (YUGE) upset in the Michigan Primary, where Sanders was trailing Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points in most polls, Bernie appears within striking distance in Missouri, Ohio and Illinois, with a […]

The fact that Bernie Sanders is just 7% down from Hillary Clinton in Missouri’s Democratic primary this Tuesday has been widely reported. The Docking Institute of Public Affairs Poll conducted for Missouri newspapers has the Democratic establishment candidate Clinton with 47% of the vote with the anti-establishment Sanders at 40%, within […]

The Democratic National Committee chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz is responsible for getting out the Democratic vote; she is failing terribly. Voter turnout in the 2016 elections will be key. So far in the primaries, Republican turnout has been huge; Democratic turnout has been hideous. See, “Here’s Just How Massive Republicans’ […]

One of the most soul-affirming things I get to do in my strange career is speak to men who have been incarcerated over flowers. The first such man I met was Bobby Platshorn. He was sentenced to 64 years in prison for importing marijuana from Mexico and South America in […]

Florida Senator Marco Rubio had his momentum (or “Marcomentum,” if you will) blunted by New Jersey Chris Christie at the final Republican debate before the New Hampshire primary. Rubio had been seen as the “establishment” candidate with the most momentum following his strong third-place finish, just one point behind national frontrunner […]

UPDATE: The final tally gives Hillary→ back that 0.3 percent “victory”. It’s past midnight now in Iowa, which means it’s now Groundhog Day. Formerly-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary→* Clinton has to feel like she’s watching 2008 play out all over again as some unknown senator comes at her from the […]

Rubio was the real GOP winner while the Democrats prepare for a  slog after a tie After months (years?) of campaigning in one of the more unique political seasons in modern American history, the Iowa caucus results are in. Republican Ted Cruz won a solid electoral victory while Marco Rubio […]

Iowa Democratic caucus voters have a huge burden on their shoulders as they decide who they will caucus for on Monday. Will they choose Bernie Sanders’ hopeful message of change or Hillary Clinton’s pragmatic realism (or is it political cynicism)? Iowa chose change in 2004, and despite the many unfulfilled […]

I’m a political junkie and have watched all of the Republican and Democratic presidential debates so far. If I were one of the moderators, these are the marijuana questions I’d ask the candidates for president: Democrats , you’ve called not for rescheduling, but descheduling of marijuana. Would that mean moving […]

Debbie Does Malice, Again: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz just reaffirmed her support for continued cannabis criminalization. As chair of the Democratic National Committee, the Florida congresswoman has shown herself to be inept, biased, and unfair. She is especially ignorant regarding cannabis prohibition. Schultz has been a divisive disaster for Democrats and must be replaced […]

California’s importance to the cannabis community almost cannot be overstated. Representing greater than 10% of the the United States’ population and economy, California’s economic impact really dwarfs other states, accounting for a greater gross state product than Texas and Illinois combined, as well as New York and Florida put together. […]

Each and every year, the cannabis community can celebrate success and 2015 was no different. While off-year elections are not going to usher in as many monumental changes as election years, there are still electoral, political and cultural victories to celebrate. Many political victories have been ushered in or aided […]

A day after the Oregon business plan summit ended, The Oregonian newspaper ran an editorial about Governor Kate Brown’s failure to lead.  It was a harsh rebuke of Governor Brown. No doubt being governor is hard.  But when it comes to cannabis in Oregon, failure to lead sums it up. The Oregonian followed up their rebuke of Brown with another […]

UPDATE: I have now linked to the new, amended version of the Sean Parker Initiative at http://rad-r.us/CA-AUMA2. 2016 looks to be a banner year for marijuana legalization. Nevada is already on the ballot and initiatives are expected to make the ballot in California, Arizona, Maine, and Massachusetts as well. There […]

Tom Angell, writing at Marijuana.com, broke the news yesterday of Richard Lee’s endorsement of the Sean Parker-led initiative to legalize marijuana in California for the 2016 ballot. It’s a seismic shift in California marijuana reform politics. For me, it’s like watching a telenovela – ¡La Gravedad Del Dinero! Money is […]

UPDATE: Holly Holm defeated Ronda Rousey to win the UFC bantamweight championship at UFC 193. Ronda Rousey is obviously not afraid of speaking her mind. From her belief that women don’t need others to take care of them to sex, Rousey seems to speak authentically off the cuff. Some love […]

All this week I’ve been writing about Ohio Issue 3, the constitutional amendment vote in just seventeen days to legalize marijuana. But also lurking on the ballot on November 3 is Ohio Issue 2, the so-called “Anti-monopoly amendment” added by the Ohio legislature in a transparent attempt to defeat marijuana […]

The data are in from the first year of drug testing people applying for welfare benefits in Tennessee. Like every other state that pursues this policy, they only ended up wasting money and catching only a tiny fraction of the applicants with a failed drug test. Florida pioneered this cruel idea […]

Less than a week after what many saw as a lackluster performance at the second official GOP debate, Donald Trump is still leading in the polls and back on the attack, this time on Instagram implying that Jeb Bush must be totally high. In a video posted yesterday, The Donald’s […]

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and failed California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has won two debates thus far according to political conventional wisdom, the first FOX News second-tier debate and then the latest top-tier debate on CNN. While Fiorina’s tenure at HP was very controversial, including sales to Iran despite U.S. sanctions, […]

I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s Republican Presidential Debate. There was an obese governor from Arkansas calling for a cure for heart disease that isn’t cutting down on the Chick-fil-A. There was governor after governor telling 54% of last election’s voters how proud they are of de-funding the Planned Parenthood clinics […]

The 2016 election is shaping up to be a landmark year for the cannabis community, with more marijuana legalization measures passed in any one year, not to mention a the potential to elect a president willing to allow states to legalize “without restriction“, at least support the ability of localities […]

Federal cannabis policy is a major issue that impacts lives, jobs and budgets across the nation and actually impacts the global Drug War as well. It would only make sense for 2016 presidential candidates to address the fact that four states and our nation’s capital has legalized marijuana, with a host […]

UPDATE: I have some very astute readers. One who shall remain anonymous but is very well-educated on the intricacies of state governments critiqued my Terrible Precedent section. I’ve modified the text with italics for the inserts and strikethrough for the deletions. It’s on the ballot now. ResponsibleOhio, the group that shocked […]

There now exists here in Oregon an affiliate of Kevin Sabet’s Project SAM, the ironically-named Smart Approaches to Marijuana, where the “smart approach” is to maintain adult marijuana prohibition but soften the penalties a little bit. I like to call it the “Kinder Gentler Drug War” approach. The head of […]