President Elect Obama is known for reaching out beyond the beltway to take the pulse of the nation. His website, Change.gov offers all of us the chance to communicate our hopes, dreams, fears and needs. This is governance from the ground up, the way it was meant… Read full post »

and my house, whichever dies first.

or

The Magnificent Obsession of Small Birds 

I don't know what either of them did to incite such rage. My car is a sedate, though somewhat crumpled, 1994 Mercury Sable that has seen better days.… Read full post »

If we can hope for one thing in the upcoming Obama presidency it is a serious rethinking of the sinister, decades long War on Drugs. For those who dismiss this as a stoner wet dream, or a trivial, peripheral issue, I would suggest that this war is one being… Read full post »

Pomona, CA

On May 6, 2009, Candace Walsh, a 23 year old honor student from the University of California at Long Beach got a nasty civics lesson she won't soon forget. She was arrested, roughed-up, cuffed, stripped-searched, and thrown into jail, on what the police told her was a million dollar… Read full post »

Yesterday, I blogged about President Obama's dismissive and laughing response to the most highly rated question posted to the Online Town Hall meeting, and how he suggested that it said "something about the online community".

What was the question which drew such an embarrassed rejoinder from the Pre… Read full post »

The public did it again. They voted drug policy issues to the top of the agenda on Obama's latest experiment in civic give-and-take.

In preparation for the first online Town Hall meeting offered by the Obama Administration, the public was invited Wednesday to submit questions which would be addresse… Read full post »

                                                     ^{images courtesy cannabisbook.com}

There was a time when cannabis was used happily and without nega/… Read full post »

It may have taken a front page story on the Washington Times, but the White House has finally responded to protests over recent DEA raids on medical cannabis providers in states where cannabis is a legal medicine.

President Obama had stated repeatedly on the campaign trail, that he felt raids on legit… Read full post »

"The Path Through the Fence, in Pogonip"

It's six am. That's early for me. I've been up since 2:30, not by choice, wrestling with the basic question: who am I? I know I am not this body, which feeds me an endless stream of sensations, and moves in… Read full post »

Children are not stupid. Indeed, they tend to be more aware than most adults, who, by the age of 30 have generally devolved into repetitive patterns of mind and behavior. We either engage in futile endeavors to preserve the status quo, or launch doomed attempts at improvement by… Read full post »

Medical cannabis patients and providers breathed a sigh of relief, on Wednesday, when US Attorney General Eric Holder promised an end to DEA raids on Medical Cannabis Dispensaries.

About 25 minutes into a press conference to announce the results of Operation Xcellerator, a crackdown on the the Mexican… Read full post »

In 1974, University of Virginia researchers discovered something very unlikely. Cannabis, banned in the United States in 1937, and further demonized by the Nixon administration in 1968, had an unexpected property: it inhibited the growth of lung cancer cells. But, even more surprising was the respons… Read full post »

Without the overreaching ham-fisted neo-conservatism of this administration we would have all been boiled alive, weakly protesting (if at all) like a frog in a pot: "Is it my imagination, or is it getting warmer in here?"

It is our great good fortune that the tactics… Read full post »

Researches uncovered some surprising results in a cross-over study of accident victims in a Swiss hospital ER: Cannabis use is inversely proportional to injury risk. In other words, the more cannabis used, the less chance of accidental injury.

This same study showed a dose-dependent increase in inj… Read full post »

Presently, the United States Federal Government sweepingly includes marijuana (or cannabis) in its ongoing War on Drugs. This classification is arguably a relic of the politically-based vilification of cannabis that began in 1937, and seems to have little to do with actual dangers inherent in the sub… Read full post »

That's right, you are hearing this from a Yellow Dog Democrat. I've started out my civic career with vote for Hubert Humphrey right after 18 year olds were given the right to cast a ballot, and never looked back.

And you know what? I've had it. It happened this morning. I got… Read full post »

I was sitting at my kitchen table. My husband was away – doing a 14 month meditation stint in India. I was taking care of my mom, running our home business, showing my digital prints with a group of women artists, remodling two bathrooms, and acting as an advisor… Read full post »

If you could save a honorable man from going to federal prison, would you?

A post by Cheryl Aichele

You can help save a law-biding citizen from going to federal prison by simply writing a letter to his judge and asking for leniency in sentencing which is scheduled to… Read full post »

"Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of… Read full post »

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Fear of "the other" is at the core of marijuana prohibition. At least that is the conclusion that may be drawn from a review of its history, as outlined in a 70 page article in the 2009 Volume of the Utah Law Review. The article, entitled Medical Marijuana: The Conflict Between… Read full post »