Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed what was considered the most strict medical marijuana bill in the country. The bill restricted use of medical marijuana to only terminally ill patients suffering a debilitating illness. A last minute amendment even removed eligibility for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who need the drug to combat nausea. A provision allowing patients to grow their own marijuana plants was also removed in hopes of increasing the chance for approval despite concerns of a possible veto. (more…)

A medical marijuana bill that would of helped thousands of patients in Missouri was killed by a single politician. Speaker Ron Richard extended his role from Speaker of the House to Sole Decider when he went back on his word (and job) to assign the bill to a committee, ensuring not a single word from either side of issue would be heard. A far cry from his website slogan “Promises made… Promises Kept”. (more…)

Medical marijuana patients and advocates had a big day Wednesday as the states of Minnesota, New Hampshire and Rhode Island all voted and passed medical marijuana bills aimed at seriously ill patients.  A similar bill in Illinois was expected to be voted on as well, but was delayed so the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Haine, could amend the bill to address the concerns of some law enforcement officials. If the Minnesota, New Hampshire and Illinois bills become law, it would make 16 states with legal medical marijuana in the U.S (Rhode Island already passed a medical marijuana law in 2006).  Here is a more detailed look at each bill and its current status to become law: (more…)

Today in a press release, Cannabis Science Inc., a pharmaceutical cannabis company, announced they have offered to produce up to 1 million doses of its whole-cannabis lozenge, and provide them to the Homeland Security Administration for distribution at cost. The Company’s non-toxic lozenge has properties that could alleviate many of the symptoms and harmful effects of the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 swine flu viruses, and has offered its assistance in response to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s declaration of a public health emergency due to the emerging Swine Flu pandemic. (more…)

President Obama angered many marijuana supporters when he laughed off questions about marijuana legalization in an online town hall saying “the answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy — (laughter) — to grow our economy”. Many took Obama’s answer as a rude side step of an important issue, and are upset that while the President stated that he does not believe legalization is a good economic strategy, he ignored the fact that marijuana legalization is about more than tax revenue for the government.

Polling data shows that the support for marijuana legalization has increased since 1989, however there is no correlation between support of marijuana legalization to the status of the economy. So if generating billions of dollars for the government is not the only motivating factor in marijuana legalization, what else is causing this increase? (more…)