medical marijuana

By Associated Press

On a 34-13 vote Thursday, the Senate approved the measure after concurring with some changes made in the House. The bill now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire for her signature.

It adds physician assistants, naturopaths, advanced registered nurse practitioners and others to the list of those who can officially recommend marijuana for patients under the state's medical marijuana law.

Under current law, only physicians are allowed to write the recommendation.

By Skip Jone, NewsReview.com

American puffers have always had to deal with the fact that law-enforcement officials traditionally make a distinction between marijuana in plant form and concentrated derivatives such as hash and kief. Now that California has legalized marijuana for medicinal use, that distinction continues to send innocent patients to jail for possession of hash and other concentrates, despite the fact that they are clearly authorized by Proposition 215, according to former state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

“Concentrated cannabis or hashish is included within the meaning of ‘marijuana’ as that term is used in the Compassionate Use Act of 1996,” Lockyer determined in a 2003 ruling.

By. Ersun Warnke Salem-News.com Business/Economy Reporter

Comprehensive Marijuana reforms would increase revenues, create jobs, decrease law enforcement and incarceration expenditures, increase tourism, and create new educational opportunities in Oregon’s universities.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - The existing medical marijuana program in Oregon has been highly successful, but is in many ways less than optimal. I am not personally a medical marijuana user, nor do I have any association with the organizers of the medical marijuana regulation campaign in Oregon. My opinions on these issues are my own, and should not be confused with the proposals of any of the other groups who advocate on these issues.

By. Madison NORML Examiner Gary Storck

Madison: State medical cannabis activists have established a daily presence at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to push for passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act as the 2009-2010 legislative session winds down. There is a real sense of urgency and interest in the bill that extends from rural townships and villages across the state to the largest cities to people watching from around the country. A vast coalition of people across the state are getting involved, enlisting others and doing whatever they can to get the JRMMA passed: "This Bill, This Time!"

"Operation Floodgates" is an organized campaign aimed to highlight the urgency of the issue, to make people aware a bill is being considered and to allow constituents to act now and help legislators find the compassion and logic to allow the use of medical marijuana.

The daily presence on Wisconsin's Capitol Hill will soon be enhanced with the planned opening of a Wisconsin NORML  office close to the Capitol. This will also create a place for supporters to help out, pick up literature, learn strategies and skills, etc. 

By. Jessica Corry, Huffington Post

It takes a lot to get some of the state's most conservative lawmakers on board with a Democratic Congressman from the People's Republic of Boulder. But that's just what happened this week.

The unifying cause? None other than Colorado's hot button headline-grabbing medical marijuana debate. In coming together, however, rabble-rousers did so to draw awareness to a much more important cause: telling the federal government to butt out of our legislative process and local communities. On Monday, national media, including the New York Times, started taking note.

By William M. Welchand Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY

"I ask kids all the time, and they'll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because that is controlled by the government," he said, noting that drug dealers don't ask for IDs or honor minimum age requirements.

By Michael Roberts

Now, another curve ball. Massey and state senator Chris Romer, a co-sponsor of the bill, have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking that the Drug Enforcement Administration, which made some high-profile raids on medical marijuana enterprises -- most notably the home grow of Highlands Ranch's Chris Bartkowicz -- give it a rest while the lawmakers try to find what's described as "that rational middle ground."