GW Hatchet, 21 May 2012 – The Foggy Bottom neighborhood could soon be home to one of the District’s first medical marijuana shops. A small startup called Herbal Alternatives sought approval from the neighborhood’s top advocacy group May 16 to move forward with its dispensary license application, which must also receive final approval from the D.C. Department of Health.

Washington Post, 15 May 2012 – MARIJUANA MAY HELP RELIEVE MUSCLE TIGHTNESS LINKED TO MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS THE QUESTION Marijuana has been investigated as a medicinal aid for people with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions. Might smoking marijuana help relieve the muscle spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis?

Washington Post, 05 May 2012 – During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama raised hopes among those who support medical marijuana by pledging to respect state laws on the issue. But his administration has reversed course and massively escalated the federal government’s attacks on medical marijuana businesses, most of which are legal under their states’ laws. This is perplexing because medical marijuana is far more popular than Obama is. A Washington Post-ABC News poll from January 2010 found that 81 percent of Americans supported legalizing medical marijuana. A CBS News poll from October found that 77 percent of Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for serious medical conditions. By contrast, the president’s approval rating last October hovered around 42 percent – and is currently about 47 percent.

Washington Post, 05 May 2012 – Just what parents don’t need: another way for their kids to get high, or worse. And getting that buzz, that glow, that trip to an altered state is so easy. There’s no need to bother with street dealers or big drug traffickers.

The Hill, 27 Apr 2012 – In the wake of the Summit of the Americas meetings earlier this month, it is time to get to the heart of the problem of illegal drugs and related violence. We must pull back the curtains on the false debate between legalizing drugs and current drug policy. The real answer lies in our ability to aggressively reduce the U.S. demand for illegal drugs.

Washington Post, 16 Apr 2012 – I applaud George F. Will for raising all the right questions about the efficacy of our nation’s drug prohibitionist policies [“The benefits of legalizing drugs,’ ” op-ed, April 12]. Reasonable people can disagree about whether drugs should be legalized, and when it comes to marijuana, polls reveal that our country is evenly divided. What is not reasonable, however, is to keep in place our 25-year-old punishment scheme for drug crimes. Passed in the mid-1980s, mandatory minimum sentencing laws continue to send first-time and low-level drug offenders to prison for excessive terms. Even those who continue to support drug prohibition (and prison terms for the worst offenders) should be able to see the wisdom of scaling back these financially and socially costly laws.

Washington Post, 15 Oct 2010 – BOSTON – In the upcoming California referendum on legalizing marijuana for recreational use, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske have something in common. Both are missing the forest for the weed. According to recent polls, Californians are on the verge of approving the legalization of marijuana and overthrowing nearly a century of failed American drug prohibition. Hail to the Golden State.

Washington Post, 13 Sep 2010 – SECRETARY OF STATE Hillary Rodham Clinton caused a stir last week by suggesting that Mexico’s drug-trafficking gangs were beginning to resemble an insurgency, like that which has plagued Colombia. She’s right in the sense that the cartels have come to effectively control parts of the country, where they “attempt to replace the state,” as Mexican President Felipe Calderon put it last month. Like most insurgencies, the Mexican drug armies also have an external source of funding and weapons. Shamefully, that is the United States. A new report details the abundance of U.S. weapons delivered to the cartels — and the inadequacy of U.S. efforts to stop the illegal trafficking. According to authors Colby Goodman and Michel Marizco, at least 62,800 of the more than 80,000 firearms confiscated by Mexican authorities from December 2006 to February 2010 came from the United States. Guns are being smuggled across the border at a rate of up to 5,000 per year. The top two varieties are assault rifles: Romanian-made AK47s and clones of the Bushmaster AR-15.

Washington Post, 05 Sep 2010 – MEXICO CITY — On Nov. 2, Californians will vote on Proposition 19, deciding whether to legalize the production, sale and consumption of marijuana. If the initiative passes, it won’t just be momentous for California; it may, at long last, offer Mexico the promise of an exit from our costly war on drugs. The costs of that war have long since reached intolerable levels: more than 28,000 of our fellow citizens dead since late 2006; expenditures well above $10 billion; terrible damage to Mexico’s image abroad; human rights violations by government security forces; and ever more crime. In a recent poll by the Mexico City daily Reforma, 67 percent of Mexicans said these costs are unacceptable, while 59 percent said the drug cartels are winning the war.

GW Hatchet, 02 Sep 2010 – GW Needs To Revisit The Medical Marijuana Ban With the passing of Initiative 59 this spring, medical marijuana became legal in the District. Finally, the D.C. Council realized the lunacy of keeping the substance illegal for medical purposes. But GW administrators clearly still fear the reefer, because they have banned the use or possession of medical marijuana on campus.