Washington Post, 28 Aug 2010 – The District is writing strict new rules to regulate its nascent medical marijuana industry, but some of the entrepreneurs best positioned to lead the way have blemished backgrounds – including drug convictions at odds with the city’s vision. Among the District’s 300 proposed rules is a requirement that operators would need to be “of good character”: No felony convictions or misdemeanor drug convictions allowed.

GW Hatchet, 26 Aug 2010 – Students who are prescribed marijuana under the new D.C. law permitting the drug for medicinal use will not be able to possess or use the drug on campus under the current GW student conduct policies, a University official said in August. Although medicinal marijuana was approved by the D.C. Council in July, GW’s Code of Student Conduct currently prohibits “possession or use of illegal drugs or controlled substances,” making it a violation for patients who attend GW to use the drug on campus.

Washington Post, 14 Aug 2010 – GIVE MEXICAN President Felipe Calderon credit for honesty as well as courage. Last week he presided over a three-day public conference to assess the results of nearly four years of war against Mexico’s drug cartels. Most of the facts were grim: – — According to the chief of the national intelligence service, 28,000 people have died violently since Mr. Calderon deployed the Mexican army against the drug gangs in December 2006. That number represents an increase of 3,000 over the death toll the government reported earlier this summer.

Washington City Paper, 12 Aug 2010 – Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn Wants to Be D.C.’S First Legal Medical-Marijuana Dealer. But First He Has to Navigate City Regulators, Well-Financed Competitors, and Suspicious Neighbors. Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn spent 27 years teaching the Torah in shuls from central New Jersey to southern Australia. Lately, he’s been talking a lot about a passage from Leviticus, the part about not standing idle while your neighbor bleeds.

Washington Post, 07 Aug 2010 – District liquor regulators will play a lead role in the city’s new medical marijuana program when it debuts Jan. 1, according to draft rules issued Friday by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). Under the regulations, the city health department would be responsible for registering legal marijuana users. But the licensing and oversight of the facilities that will grow and distribute medical cannabis would be handled by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and its enforcement arm, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. The prospect of having the same regulators overseeing medical marijuana and liquor stores concerns advocates who have fought to have cannabis recognized as a medical treatment, not just as a drug for recreational use.

Washington Examiner, 06 Aug 2010 – Re: “Washington the weed capital would be a bummer,” July 30 Instead of making sense of our epic Prohibition II: Reefer Madness, Harry Jaffe only continues the stereotypes left over from the days of Cheech and Chong.