State lawmakers are halfway to repealing Montana's medical marijuana law. By a vote of 62-to-37, legislators voted to advance the bill out of the House to the Senate.

House Speaker Mike Milburn says law enforcement can't control the sudden growth of the multi-million dollar industry and its rampant proliferation.

"It's going well beyond what people in Montana thought they were voting for," said Milburn, (R-Cascade). "Lots of support from the community, from the schools, from the law enforcement agencies, even from out of state law enforcement, that you can't control it. You can't put sideboards on it. You can't regulate it when it's gone this far."

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Indiana may not currently have much in common with California, but that could change due to recent legislation that would place the Hoosier state one step closer to
decriminalizing marijuana.

Senate Bill 192 successfully passed through the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters on Tuesday with a vote of 5-3.

The bill would require an existing committee to research the effects of marijuana’s current illegal status.

According to the Indiana General Assembly’s website, the Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee would study marijuana’s possible medicinal usage, its effect on the Indiana justice system and whether or not it should be controlled and regulated like alcohol.

Continue reading at Indiana Daily Student

Much like Tom Cruise a few years ago, Chuck Norris has become the latest celebrity with the dubious honor of having a new strain of marijuana named after him.

Back in April ’08, lawyers for Tom Cruise became “concerned” over licensed cannabis clubs in Northern California selling a strain of marijuana called “Tom Cruise Purple.” It reportedly featured a picture of Tom Cruise on the front laughing hysterically. Said one weed connoisseur, “I heard it’s the kind of pot that makes you hallucinate.”

Indeed, the new "Chuck Norris Black and Blue Dream" is described as having "quite the kick." Get it? Ha.

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Earlier this month, Mexican soldiers stack bails of marijuana -- 134 tons of it -- to be burned near the city of Tijuana. Credit: Getty Images

When California voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana use, the ballot initiative will be closely watched in Mexico.

In California, supporters of Proposition 19 say one reason to legalize pot in the state is to help reduce the violent illegal drug trade south of the border, where Mexico's drug war has claimed some 29,000 lives over the past four years.

But in Mexico, there is no clear consensus on how the passing of Proposition 19 would affect the Mexican drug trade.

Read the rest of this interesting article at NPR.com

The push to legalize marijuana in California is seeing increased public support.

A field poll shows likely voters support Proposition 19 by a 49-to-42 percent margin. In July Prop 19 trailed by four points.

The new field poll is similar to an exclusive Action News Poll conducted by SurveyUSA this month. It showed 47-percent of likely voters said they would vote to legalize marijuana, while 43-percent were opposed.

Read the full story and view the video at ABC 30 KFSN

Iowa likely won't be the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana any time soon, but there has been plenty of talk about the idea with two bills in the Legislature and a possible recommendation on legalization Wednesday by the state pharmacy board.

Although both legislative measures are considered dead for the session, backers said support is growing and some expect the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to add to the momentum when it discusses the issue and considers recommending whether marijuana should be allowed for medical use.

"We're supposedly the drug experts and so, I would hope that the Legislature would consider the recommendation valuable to them," said Lloyd Jessen, executive director of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.

Medical marijuana initially came before the pharmacy board in 2008 when the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and others petitioned the board to remove marijuana from the Legislature's Schedule I classification. To be classified as Schedule I, a drug must have a high potential for abuse and no safe medical use.

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Muraco Kyashna-Tocha, 49, of Seattle, has grown marijuana legally since 1999. Kyashna-Tocha has had five neck and back surgeries and said that using marijuana manages her pain enough so she can engage in daily life. Credit: Chris Joseph Taylor/The Seattle Times

If you happen to be a medical marijuana patient like me, you’re well aware that there are lots of folks who still harbor some enormous moral judgments about cannabis and those who use it medically — even in the states where it is legal.

If you aren’t a patient, chances are you may either already know one, or soon will. As the acceptance of the medical use of pot grows, so does the number of patients choosing this option.

So let’s talk about those moral judgments.

Medical marijuana patients are too often given to understand that we should somehow feel vaguely guilty about the relief that we get through using the herb.

We are given, intentionally or not, little cues which seem to carry the message “You are a little less than entirely acceptable to polite society.”

To some of us, that feels a lot like “Why don’t those people just stay at home?”

While “interacting” with a proudly ignorant Twitter user today, I was freshly reminded of this unfortunate dynamic, and it got me thinking about the same old tired, threadbare judgments and stereotypes that patients must deal with, over and over and over again.

Sometimes the attitudes manifest themselves a little more subtly.

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On Thursday, a Denver news station interviewed Chris Bartkowicz about his medical-marijuana operation in the basement of his home. Bartkowicz, confident of his compliance with state laws, boasted of its size and profitability.

"I'm definitely living the dream now," he told 9News.

The following day, the dream was over.

Drug-enforcement agents raided his home, placed him under arrest, and carried off dozens of black bags of marijuana plants and growing lights.

The Obama administration promised in October that the federal government would respect state laws allowing the growing and selling of marijuana for medicinal use, but the Drug Enforcement Agency sent a loud message with the arrest of Bartkowicz.

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Zeta Ceti constructs a display at the iGrow warehouse in Oakland, a one-stop shop for medicinal marijuana cultivation. Credit: Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Call it the Walmart of weed.

In a 15,000-square-foot warehouse just down the road from the Oakland Airport, an entrepreneur is opening a one-stop shop for medicinal marijuana cultivation that's believed to be the largest in the state.

Don't know the first thing about growing pot? The folks at iGrow have a doctor on site to get you a cannabis card and sell you all the necessary equipment for indoor, hydroponic cultivation - from pumps, nutrients and tubing to lights and fans.

Don't know how to set it up? For a fee, on-site technicians will show you how to build it in your home and even maintain it weekly.

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The Lenoir County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Office calls it one of the most sophisticated marijuana growing operations they’ve ever uncovered.

Three people are in custody on drug-related charges, after a growing operation was found in a buried school bus. Sheriff Major Chris Hill says digging the large hole and then getting the bus in it required both thought and effort.

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The American Medical Association has taken a giant step by asking the federal government to take marijuana off its most restrictive list of controlled substances while the AMA conducts research into the potential medical uses of cannabis.

By listing pot on "Schedule 1,"the federal government officially labels marijuana a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, even though California law allows the use of medicinal marijuana under certain circumstances.

"The idea that cannabis has no medical use is absurd on its face, because I know every materia medica (pharmacology text) that has been written has included cannabis as a medicine. The first medical textbook, written by Sir William Osler, said marijuana relieved migraines," said Dr. David Bearman, a Goleta physician widely known for his advocacy of medical marijuana.

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