Email Author Chris Roberts

2012 Stories by Chris Roberts

• Medical Marijuana Users Don't Need to be Marijuana Farmers, Court Says

  published May 25, 2012

  It doesn't take much to join a collective or cooperative in California, be it a grocery store or a medical cannabis dispensary. In the former, perhaps all you need is a small fee; in the latter, a doc... More >>

• Another Poll Shows Marijuana Legalization Has Overwhelming Support

  published May 23, 2012

  If only President Barack Obama was marijuana, then he'd win reelection by a landslide.Marijuana legalization enjoys a 20-point advantage in the polls among American adults, according to a recent surve... More >>

• Medical Marijuana Activists Occupy the Capitol

  published May 22, 2012

  As the pleasant Sacramento spring turns into the furnace of the Central Valley summer, so too is the heat turned up in the corridors of the state Capitol: It's budget season, and it's also last call ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Cops Fight Clarity of Medical Marijuana Sales

  published May 18, 2012

  Police in California have long expressed displeasure with the state's medical marijuana laws. And with good reason: Cops might have the legal right to haul into court medical marijuana merchants who e... More >>

• Smoking Medical Marijuana Helps MS Patients, Study Says

  published May 14, 2012

  A common critique of medical cannabis is that there's no way anything "smoked" can be beneficial to someone of ill health. This simple and convenient theory -- smoking (tobacco) is bad, therefore anyt... More >>

• Progressively Modest: Eric Mar Stays out of the Headlines

  published May 16, 2012

  Supervisor Eric Mar won't make national news shutting down late-night fast-food restaurants or getting a strippermobile towed from an Outer... More >>

• Meet the California Lawmakers Who Are Enabling the Marijuana War

  published May 10, 2012

  Losing efforts sometimes score wins. Medical marijuana scored such a moral victory late Wednesday, when 163 members of Congress voted in favor of not allowing federal dollars to be spent on busti... More >>

• California Congressmen Push Spending Cuts on Federal Marijuana Enforcement

  published May 09, 2012

  National budget hawks incensed over San Francisco's supposedly profligate spending ought to spend a few minutes in Congress, observing the dollar requests submitted by federal departments.Take the $28... More >>

• Gary Johnson, Libertarian Candidate, Gives Marijuana Supporters an Alternative to Republicans

  published May 07, 2012

  Will Ron Paul Supporters FollowrFor all the love showered upon him by cannabis and hemp activists, Ron Paul was always going to be a bitter pill for liberals to swallow. On the surface, the straight-t... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Is Marijuana Like Steroidsr

  published May 04, 2012

  Among the Drug War's finer ironies is the treatment of marijuana by the world of sport, which has taken a deliciously schizophrenic view on the miracle/devil plant: It's a gateway drug that dooms its ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Obama Explains Medical Marijuana Crackdown -- Sort Of

  published Apr 26, 2012

  Mystery accompanied the federal Justice Department's crackdown on California's state-legal medical marijuana industry since Oct. 7, when prosecutors formally declared their war on weed. Who was behind... More >>

• Marijuana Legalization Efforts Fail in California, Thanks to Money and The Feds

  published Apr 24, 2012

  Few successful political movements count their finest hours a loss. Yet 2010 will remain the high-water mark of the marijuana legalization movement for at least another two years -- or longer, if the ... More >>

• Anti-Marijuana Rally Draws Chinese Families, Supervisor Candidates

  published Apr 23, 2012

  Medical marijuana is not a political issue for Leon Chow. Or so the labor organizer insisted Saturday morning, when he led about 100 mostly Chinese men, women, and children on a mile-long march in opp... More >>

• Marijuana Day: San Francisco's Guide to Music, Comedy, and Protest on 4/20

  published Apr 20, 2012

  If you're reading this, it's arrived: the marijuana holiday, the tokiest of tokies, the Christmas/Chinese New Year/Yom Kippur of cannabis use. The 20th day of April, the beloved 420.Woot.Today, every ... More >>

• Oaksterdam University Goes Volunteer-Only, Future Uncertain

  published Apr 18, 2012

  The federal Justice Department does not yet have Richard Lee's head. But in the wake of a multi-agency raid on Oaksterdam University, they have his business.The "cannabis college," Oakland's best know... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  #OpCannabis: Anonymous Pushing Marijuana for 4/20

  published Apr 16, 2012

  Not every innocuous schoolboy joke becomes a worldwide cultural phenomenon, but this one -- 4/20, 4-20, four twenty -- has had legs since it began 41 years ago at San Rafael High in Marin County.This ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Mayor's Office Says Medical Marijuana Is a "Nuisance" Akin to Liquor Stores, Strip Clubs

  published Apr 12, 2012

  It took some doing, but Mayor Ed Lee at last gave medical marijuana the lip service it had been seeking for months with a statement where Lee dubbed state-legal medical cannabis "legitimate," and expr... More >>

• Mayor Ed Lee Finally Breaks Silence on Medical Marijuana

  published Apr 11, 2012

  "If you get Ed Lee on record about medical marijuana," more than one well-connected San Francisco politico has told us, "you deserve a medal."Our best efforts were all deflected, including a situation... More >>

• A Real Waste: Lack of Paper Clogs Plans for Tenderloin Toilet

  published April 11, 2012

  In today's Bay Area, $150,000 can get you a house in East Oakland, or a public toilet in the Tenderloin. Such a princely sum for a throne fits... More >>

• Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Stay Open Despite Federal Deadline

  published Apr 09, 2012

  On the day the federal government wished HopeNet to close, the operators of San Francisco's oldest licensed and taxpaying medical marijuana dispensary prepared accordingly: They grilled hot dogs."We m... More >>

• Oaksterdam University Pledges to Re-Open After Federal Raid on Marijuana Leader

  published Apr 03, 2012

  What many saw as the inevitable hit Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee on Monday, when federal agents came knocking at the home and businesses of the man who has become the marijuana movement's de-facto f... More >>

• Red Cross Calls for Drug Decriminalization

  published Apr 02, 2012

  It turns out it's not just the Castro or rural America: The entire world has a meth problem. rWorldwide demand for methamphetamine "appears to be expanding significantly," according to the 55 countrie... More >>

• Medical Marijuana Ban in Daly City Means More Business for S.F. Pot Clubs

  published Mar 30, 2012

  It's not often that a police department will recommend a medical marijuana delivery service.Yet the Daly City Police Department did just that this week, endorsing the Purple Dinosaur delivery service ... More >>

• Marijuana-Like Compounds Stop Spread of AIDS, Study Says

  published Mar 29, 2012

  In many ways, without AIDS, there would be no medical marijuana. But there could be a twist, according to new research: With medical marijuana (or synthetic marijuana-like compounds), there could be f... More >>

• Pot Grows on File: Bill to Force Medical Marijuana Users to Register with the State

  published Mar 26, 2012

  Whatever scent you may detect on street corners on a sunny day in the Mission, know this: Marijuana users aren't exactly out of the closet. The city's medical marijuana activist groups continue to str... More >>