UPDATE: Chris Christie has doubled-down on his Reefer Madness rhetoric and has become a caricature of a serious presidential candidate.  UPDATE 2.0: Christie flip-flops and says that the Drug War is a “failure”?!? While delivering a speech on Thursday, New Jersey Governor and presidential hopeful Chris Christie doubled-down on his […]

Chris Christie is making a habit of attacking states’ decisions to legalize marijuana, which he threatened to revoke this week should he become president. With the Republican debates only a week away, the New Jersey Governor is trying to stand out from other presidential candidates, and he has little time […]

Update: Blog “What Does Donald Trump Think of Marijuana Legalization” includes latest news and polls.  The 2016 presidential race is heating up with progressive Bernie Sanders, the favored candidate of many cannabis law reform advocates, gaining ground on the Hillary Clinton Machine on the Democratic side as Sanders’ progressive positions become […]

Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have consistently led in freeing cannabis from its current idiotic persecution. Proving again that Oregon leads, both Beaver State senators were joined by both Colorado senators and Kentucky republican Senator Rand Paul in addressing dismal marijuana industry banking problems. The Marijuana Business Access […]

Today, the United States Supreme Court announced its landmark Obergefell v. Hodges marriage equality decision legalizing same-sex marriage all across the country. The marriage equality and marijuana legalization movements share a lot of the same supporters National polling is very similar and the both causes have made dramatic advancements in […]

President Obama was expected to make great progress on marijuana law reform as candidate Obama certainly gave the cannabis community hope that we were electing a federal administration that would be smarter on drug policy. Unfortunately, the early years of the Obama Administration were a bit of a disappointment as […]

Supporting sensible federal marijuana policies used to one of the third-rail of American politics as politicians fell over each other to be the candidate toughest on crime. Today, a majority of voters support legalization and we are finally seeing a few major presidential candidates support federal marijuana law reform. Thus […]

Hillary Clinton will certainly be asked plenty of times about her marijuana policy as she travels the campaign trail. She will most likely be challenged from the left by Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side and potentially from the right by Rand Paul if he can escape the clown car […]

You would have to be living under a rock to not recognize that marijuana has gone mainstream in our society. Cannabis law reform measures are winning at the ballot box and more and more prominent people are supporting legalization. From entertainers to politicians, people are feeling comfortable coming out of […]

Marijuana legalization has been making inroads with Republican voters, especially millennials, but GOP support has lagged well behind Democrats and independents. Cannabis law reform advocates have long pointed out the conservative values demonstrated by marijuana legalization, including personal freedom, personal responsibility, entrepreneurship, smaller government and states’ rights. Marijuana law reform has […]

Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign is already a unique endeavor that will hopefully allow our nation to more honestly debate a whole host of issues, particularly on the Democratic side. Sanders will definitely push Hillary Clinton on many progressive issues and the Republicans likely will have to deal with the consequences […]

Oftentimes, I like to reflect upon how and why the cannabis community has made such great strides in recent years. Authors, chief petitioners, spokespeople, funders and advocates associated with prominent reforms capture the headlines and media attention, but the truth is that we all stand upon the shoulders of giants […]

New York federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s candidate to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, is a disappointing choice.  She will set back desperately needed criminal justice reform. If, at this point in American history, the criminal justice system needed an aggressive prosecutor at the helm, Loretta Lynch would be […]

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a Reefer Madness radical out of the mainstream. He has demonstrated a lack of respect for the citizens of New Jersey, especially those suffering from debilitating medical conditions, in how he has mishandled the state’s medical marijuana program. Now, with his sights possibly set […]

I previously blogged that marijuana law reformers should support Rand Paul as much as possible during the Republican presidential primary. Paul’s success may move both the Republican and Democratic candidates towards a sensible policy. While Hillary Clinton’s nomination on the Democratic side has had an aura of invincibility, that may […]

Towards the end of the Le’Or Cannabis Seder for a New Drug Peace, Sunday night, I was asked by a fellow cannabis law reform advocate who I favored right now among presidential candidates. I thought about it for a bit, but when considering who seems to be currently in the […]

Newsmax.com, a conservative website seems to have adopted a libertarian stance in its cannabis coverage. Columnist Jason Gray lists off his list of the top 10 marijuana-law reform politicians. I’ll have to put together my own list at some point, but I have to take pride in the fact that […]

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Conference (OMMBC) was by all accounts a great success, complete with news and notes about activism, culture and, of course, business. Typical of both the OMMBC and the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC), these conferences, lead by my friend and colleague Alex Rogers (longtime activist […]

Gary Johnson is a story that can only occur in America. Rising from basically a handyman business to a multi-million dollar construction company CEO would be enough for most people. Utilizing his personal story and political principles of personal freedom, self-reliance and limited government to successfully getting elected as governor […]

Once again Steve Cohen, US Congressman from Tennessee (TN-09), has shown great leadership in taking on the misguided and cruel drug war. He recently called out Attorney General Eric Holder to end the ludicrous Schedule I legal status for cannabis, just the latest of Cohen’s many courageous challenges to the […]

The evidence that marijuana has gone mainstream is everywhere: from politics to entertainment to culture to your personal discussions with friends and family. Poll after poll demonstrates majority support for cannabis legalization and super-majority support for medical access. Once the third-rail of politics, now it seems to be one of […]

Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been a longtime champion of sensible marijuana law reform. As a state legislator in Oregon, he voted to decriminalize personal amounts of marijuana all the way back in 1973. He has been at the forefront of cannabis law reform ever since, even when it wasn’t near […]

Yesterday, news hit that Senators Rand Paul, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker were to introduce a bipartisan medical marijuana bill in the United States Senate. Now, the qualifiers can be taken off, as the senators announced the bill this morning with a press conference. The marijuana law reform movement has […]

Republicans and Democrats have a hard time agreeing on much these days as gridlock dominates our political discourse. Cannabis law reform is one of the few areas that has some politicians looking to reach across the aisle. Once seen as a lefty-hippie position or an right-wing Ayn Randian libertarian stance, […]

Too often, marijuana legalization is seen as a liberal, Democratic policy ideal that is opposed by conservative Republicans. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who worked as a speechwriter for conservative icon Ronald Reagan, is doing his part to educate the public and his fellow Republican colleagues, that ending cannabis prohibition includes the […]