The Chico News & Review, 07 Mar 2013 – Growers Got a Good Deal, but What About Non-Growers? Let’s be real: Medical marijuana is a joke. Everybody knows most of it goes to get people high, but still we persist in the pretense that it’s all about sick people getting access to their medicine.

Los Angeles Times, 08 Mar 2013 – L.A.’s Bill Rosendahl says life is ‘worth living’ again thanks to his regimen. But such success stories also show pitfalls of a DIY system. Bill Rosendahl lifts his walker over the threshold and carries it into the grow room before anyone in his entourage – press secretary, pot shop owner, pot consultant and bud tender – can rush over to help.

DrugSense

East Bay Express, 06 Mar 2013 – A New Report Also Shows That 20 Percent of the Drug Arrests Are Cannabis-Related Despite a City Law That Makes Pot the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority. Until US Attorney Melinda Haag launched her much-criticized crackdown on Oakland’s medical marijuana dispensaries last year, the city was held up as a beacon of level-headed tolerance toward cannabis in the pot-friendly Bay Area. And even when the statewide campaign to legalize pot for recreational use failed in 2010, city officials were still among the most outspoken in California for large-scale medical pot cultivation. Casual weed smokers have also found Oakland to be a welcoming place: The successful 2004 ballot initiative Measure Z made adult recreational use of marijuana the lowest law-enforcement priority for the Oakland Police Department.

The Times-Herald, 06 Mar 2013 – Regarding Michael McCoy’s March 2 letter, the people of Colorado and Washington state are way ahead of the politicians in Washington, D.C. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. As long as cartels control marijuana distribution, consumers will be exposed to illegal cocaine, meth and heroin. By taxing and regulating legal marijuana, Colorado and Washington state will effectively close the gateway to hard drugs. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Not just in Colorado and Washington but across the nation, it’s time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

Chico Enterprise-Record, 05 Mar 2013 – In your Feb. 26 editorial regarding the new pot ordinance, you stated: "Proposition 215 never said anything about growing." Unfortunately, you got it dead wrong. Proposition 215 states in pertinent part: "… Section 11358, relating to the cultivation of marijuana, shall not apply to a patient, or to a patient’s primary caregiver, who … cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician."

DrugSense

The Record, 04 Mar 2013 – New Bill Would Redefine Simple Drug Possession From Felony to ‘Wobbler’ Is every drug abuser a felon? Of course not. Many are just addicts. The vast majority are not murderers or rapists or robbers. The threat to the rest of us is pretty minimal.

Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb 2013 – SACRAMENTO – Saying the war on drugs has failed, state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has proposed allowing prosecutors to file misdemeanor rather than felony charges in cases of simple possession of heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs. Leno was joined Wednesday by representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of California and the NAACP in announcing the legislation. He predicted it would save as much as $200 million a year by keeping fewer offenders behind bars.

The Chico News & Review, 28 Feb 2013 – Ruling in San Diego Has Effect on Local Case The charges against former medical-marijuana dispensary operator Rick Tognoli (pictured) have been dropped based on a recent ruling in a San Diego case.