Just Say “No” to Taxpayer Funded Medical Marijuana Raids

Since 2014, the Department of Justice has been prohibited from using taxpayers’ funds to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states that regulate its medical use.

But that could all change this week as Congress decides how to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year. 

At issue is a provision known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which maintains that federal funds can not be used to prevent states from “implementing their own state…

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Trump Should Abolish the Drug Czar’s Office

Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in February 2016. (Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

The Trump Administration is widely expected to pick Representative Tom Marino for Drug Czar.

Representative Marino is a longtime, rabid drug warrior who has a consistent record of voting against marijuana law reform legislation — a position that runs counter to that of the majority of voters and his own constituents.

His appointment to this office highlights the fact that this…

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The Challenge of Marijuana Legalization in the Trump Era

Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in February 2016. (Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

Senator Sessions is now the US Attorney General. Activists against Prohibition wait nervously to see what the new Administration will do….

There have been uncertain signals over the past few months from President Trump and a number of his advisers — everything from harsh rhetoric to States’ Rights Libertarianism.

Specific policies may come soon.

As we wait, those of us in…

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So We Have Attorney General Sessions. Whats Next For Marijuana?

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama speaking to supporters at an immigration policy speech hosted by Donald Trump at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (WikiMedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

Despite historic opposition, members of the United States Senate voted 52 to 47 last week to approve the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for US Attorney General.

While we are disappointed with this outcome, we are pleased that several members of Congress cited the…

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In Legal States, Marijuana Regulators Target Home Cultivation

Two cannabis plants being grown for personal use. (Wikimedia Commons)

Since its founding, NORML has advocated that statewide legalization efforts – whether through a ballot initiative or using the legislative process – should ideally include provisions that permit and protect the act of home cultivation by marijuana consumers. This advocacy has resulted in more than 16 states now allowing home cultivation, including in six of the eight voter-initiated measures passed in…

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Criticism of Massachusetts Lawmakers Meddling with Marijuana Legalization Initiative

A supporter holds up a “Yes on 4” sign at the 2016 Boston Freedom Rally (Scott Gacek/The Daily Chronic)

There has been much talk in the Massachusetts Legislature about making changes to the Question 4 marijuana legalization initiative, which was passed by Bay State voters Nov. 8.

The new law is already filled with restrictions designed to boost profits for the marijuana industry. Further restrictions will benefit the industry even more.

Examples can best be shown by making…

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Sewing the Seeds of Freedom After Marijuana’s Big Election Night Win

smoking-a-joint

An upwelling of discontent has swept our nation over what is often referred to as crony capitalism, the corrupt entanglement of the elites of business and politics. Anger cuts across the entire political spectrum.

After the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Ron Paul, and the Bernie Sanders Revolution, one would expect the cronies to retreat into the shadows. That is why it is so surprising and disturbing to those in the Cannabis Legalization Movement, to see their accomplishment so…

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Sowing the Seeds of Freedom After Marijuana’s Big Election Night Win

smoking-a-joint

An upwelling of discontent has swept our nation over what is often referred to as crony capitalism, the corrupt entanglement of the elites of business and politics. Anger cuts across the entire political spectrum.

After the Tea Party, the Occupy Movement, Ron Paul, and the Bernie Sanders Revolution, one would expect the cronies to retreat into the shadows. That is why it is so surprising and disturbing to those in the Cannabis Legalization Movement, to see their accomplishment so…

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After Nearly 80 Years of Marijuana Prohibition, the Tide is Turning

After Nearly 80 Years of Marijuana Prohibition, the Tide is Turning

As marijuana legalization gains traction across the country, some ask “Why now?” A better question perhaps is “How did this prohibition ever last so long?”

People have always suffered the compulsion to hunt scapegoats, and politicians are more than happy to pander to our harshest instincts. With two world wars and the Cold War, the 20th Century in particular, was a time of fear, with a hunger for social control and conformity. The malignant belief of the Communists and other totalitarians in the perfectibility of humanity at any…

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Ending Prohibition When Only 13% of Adults Are Smoking?

Ending Prohibition When Only 13% of Adults Are Smoking?

The latest Gallup Poll, based on polling conducted from July 13-17, 2016, reports that 13% of adults in the US are current marijuana smokers, and 43% have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. According to Gallup, the numbers of adults acknowledging their personal use of marijuana has risen from 7% in 2013 to 11% in 2015; and to 13% in 2016.

This may surprise some marijuana smokers, who tend to choose their friends (at least partially) based on their mutual enjoyment of marijuana, and to whom it may seem as if a majority of Americans…

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Looking Past the Party Conventions

Looking Past the Party Conventions

With the country so divided right now along party lines, as well as within each of the two major parties, it would be easy for voters to say “The hell with them all,” and sit this election out. Both of the major party candidates have record-setting voter disapproval ratings, assuring that our next president will be starting off their first term knowing that more than half the country did not like them, and would have preferred someone else for president.

But there really is no other choice this year.

History of Third Party Candidates

The…

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It’s Time To Get It Right in CA! Support AUMA

It’s Time To Get It Right in CA! Support AUMA

A few days ago the California Secretary of State’s office made it official; proponents of The Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) have handed-in more than 600,000 valid signatures, assuring that full marijuana legalization will appear on the ballot in CA in November.

That’s right; Californians this fall will have yet another chance to end marijuana prohibition and legalize the responsible use of marijuana in the most populous state in the country. Most of us would have predicted California would be the first state to legalize marijuana,…

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No, the DEA will not Legalize Marijuana on August 1

No, the DEA will not Legalize Marijuana on August 1

A weekly newspaper from Santa Monica, Calif., reported on Saturday that the “US Gov’t Will Legalize Marijuana on August 1,” claiming that “weed will soon be legal in all 50 states, with a prescription.”

According to the Santa Monica Observer, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intends to reschedule cannabis from it’s current status as a Schedule I drug to that of a Schedule II.

However, the only source of this information is an anonymous lawyer with knowledge of the matter:

The U.S. Drug Enforcement…

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Legalizing Marijuana and Your 4th Amendment Protections

Legalizing Marijuana and Your 4th Amendment Protections

The nationwide movement to legalize the responsible use of marijuana is a badly needed change in public policy, because it will eventually eliminate all but a few of the 700,000 marijuana arrests that occur each year in this country (there will always be a few who insist on operating outside the limits set by legalization). That fact alone would justify ending prohibition. We are needlessly criminalizing millions of otherwise law-abiding marijuana smokers.

The Fourth Amendment Protections

But the struggle to legalize marijuana is also part of…

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Was Anchoring Medical Marijuana to Recreational in Ohio Bad for Patients?

Was Anchoring Medical Marijuana to Recreational in Ohio Bad for Patients?

By now, everyone in the medical marijuana reform movement has seen the results in Ohio, where the commingled recreational and medical cannabis voter initiative (Issue 3) put forth by ResponsibleOhio was defeated at the polls by a nearly 2:1 margin.

Aside from sanctimonious hand wringing from recreational proponents treating patient access as a political weapon against those who had concerns with the implications of Issue 3’s licensing structure (which has been talked about ad nauseam and won’t be discussed in detail here), nobody has…

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