National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

California Has No Clue How Much Money It's Making From Marijuana Sales

Most government agencies in California prefer to pretend that the state's medical cannabis industry doesn't exist. The state Board of Equalization is an exception -- and with good reason. State sales taxes are due on every medical marijuana transaction, and the BOE has spent time over the past few ... More >>

Thanks to "Dabbing," It Is Possible to Overdose on Medical Marijuana

"Marijuana is perfectly safe" is one of the marijuana legalization movement's most widely accepted (and most important) truisms. Comical estimations of what would constitute a "lethal dose" -- such as orally consuming more marijuana than the stomach can physically hold -- lead to the also-accep ... More >>

Attorney General Hopeful Wants to Ban All Marijuana Users From Driving -- Ever

Among the popular goofy Internet offerings of the last week is a CNN report in which the news network filmed three Washington residents navigating a driving test course -- in between marijuana smoke breaks -- with an instructor and police evaluating their performances. The verdict: you had to be rea ... More >>

Marijuana's Victory in Colorado, Washington Means California Will Follow Soon

An end to America's experiment with marijuana prohibition is in sight, after voters in Colorado and Washington approved re-legalizing the plant Tuesday. In California, where voters said "no" to adult-legal marijuana in 2010, the decisive passages of Amendment 64 in Colorado (54 percent yes to 4 ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Advocates to Protest Obama Tonight

President Barack Obama sure does love the Bay Area. Northern California has proved to be a very handy ATM for the president, who is making yet another fundraising swing through San Francisco on Monday night. And this one's special.Food legend Alice Waters and celebrity chef Tyler Florence are cookin ... More >>

Obama's Oakland Visit: Marijuana Lovers Promise To Be There

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign picked office space in downtown Oakland (of which there is plenty available) to house its Bay Area headquarters. The East Bay city has put in the work, and on Monday, Oakland will receive a presidential visitor for the first time in recent memory, when Ob ... More >>

NORML: Attorney General Eric Holder Lied to Congress About Marijuana Crackdown

Attorney General Eric Holder "lied" to members of Congress when he insisted that the only targets of the federal Justice Department's medical marijuana crackdown were breaking state law, cannabis advocates said today.On Thursday, Holder told the House Judiciary Committee the same mantra he and the f ... More >>

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

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 medical cannabis dispensary in town will be offering specials and discounts, and many will be offeri ... More >>

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

​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 struggle to organize and turn out supporters, who have proven less than eager to go public.Folks who ... More >>

Marijuana Sobriety Checkpoints: New Legislation to Outlaw Driving While Stoned

​Some will swear that marijuana has merit for motorists. Others fear impairment of any kind, at any level. We're pretty terrified of teen drivers, especially those with cell phones and hangovers, but we'll leave it to the government to intervene on this great debate. Driving while stoned would bec ... More >>

San Francisco Might Have More Medical Marijuana Users Than Black People

​The medical marijuana movement and hyperbole often go hand-in-hand. It wasn't more than a few years ago that the office of George W. Bush's drug czar spread the rumor that there were more pot clubs in San Francisco than Starbucks coffee shops, a drum they banged loudly and proudly (and one that, ... More >>

Feds Now Fight War on Medical Marijuana with Passive Aggressive Strategies

​Hard to believe it's been only two years since Attorney General Eric Holder shocked -- and relieved -- California's medical marijuana users when he said the federal government had no interest in prosecuting state-legal cannabis activities. The Bush Era was over -- no more doors kicked in by Kevla ... More >>

Cops Arrest Roughly 90 People an Hour for Marijuana Possession

tokeofthetown.comKeeping busy​It's hard sometimes to get a handle on raw numbers, likr the large figures dished out by the U.S. Census and other fact-issuing agencies.The FBI's annual Crime in the United States is a good example. To say that 13.1 million people out of a population of 308 million w ... More >>

Marijuana Advocates Unsure if New State Law Is Good or Bad

Who's he helping?brokencountry.com​Earlier this summer, medical marijuana advocates sounded the legislative alarm over a bill penned by a Southern California assemblyman that gives local governments the right to ban medical cannabis dispensaries, as many a Bay Area burgh from Danville to Daly City ... More >>

Rolling Paper: Looking at the Current State of Safe Access

Obama's Drug Czar Refuses to Meet With Cops Seeking End to War on Drugs

No you didn't!​In what way is Barack Obama similar to Richard Nixon (aside from ramping up someone else's foreign war)? Turns out common ground can also be found between Tricky Dick and BHO II when it comes to the drug war.A few weeks ago we told you about California NORML unhappily celebrating th ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Bills Killed by Odd Bedfellows -- Labor and Business Groups

You can't really win against business AND labor​Public safety and jobs. To a California politician, they are the bread and butter -- if bread and butter means getting elected, that is. There are fewer worse labels for a politician than "job-killer" or the pejorative "soft on crime."You'd think, th ... More >>

California Has 1.1 Million Medical Marijuana Users, NORML Says

We pot more than we need politicians​California is the most populous state in the Union. It's where the nation's medical marijuana movement was birthed, and the Golden State is also where the rest of the country gets most of its illegal pot, judging by law enforcement statistics (lo siento, Britis ... More >>

Marijuana Prohibition Turns 100 Today. What Is There to Celebrate?

Celebrate the birth of prohibition -- get high!​Alcohol prohibition did little to stop Americans from guzzling booze, though it helped make gangsters rich, cops and courts busy, and encouraged foreign imports of "medicinal whiskey" (sound familiar?)That experiment was short-lived -- ratified in ... More >>

Blowing Smoke: Obama Promises One Thing, Does Another on Medical Marijuana

Medical Marijuana: Is it Good for the Taxman or Is it Good for the Doctor?

Whereas California needs money from pot​Operating a medical pot farm is no small feat --  especially when we know there are plenty of police and prosecutors who aren't, ahem, kind to the industry.  But growing this cash crop could become even more costly and no safer under new legislatio ... More >>

Ammiano Bill: Growing Pot Would No Longer Be Automatic Felony

Turns out, you might not be considered a felon​Californians caught growing cannabis without a medical recommendation -- and indeed, some marijuana cultivators with medical recommendations -- are on their way to becoming felons. Law enforcement has no choice -- cultivation is a felony.Although that ... More >>

Dude, Stop That Coughing

It's time to vaporize.

Marijuana Legalization Opposed by Californians, New Field Poll Shows

Most Californians will pass, thanks​Poll Also Reveals Strong Support for Reform of State Budget ProcessA Field Poll released today shows that efforts to legalize marijuana in California have lost ground since last year, and that state residents currently oppose Proposition 19 -- a November ballot ... More >>

Will Tea Partiers Kill Pro-Marijuana Measure?

Fibonacci BlueSo paranoid. So uptight. So stiff. What could cure this? Hmmm...​On today of all days, marijuana is on everyone's mind. But that goes doubly for politicians: Just last week, state Democratic Party chairman John Burton told media that he and fellow Dems (like that Jerry Brown guy) ... More >>

A Big Fat Bowl of Nothing: What the Pot Limit Strike Down Really Means

What exactly did the California Supreme Court do Thursday, when it struck down a 2003 law limiting the amount of pot a medical marijuana patient can possess to eight ounces? A big fat bowl of nothing, says Dale Gieringer, who as director of the state office of National Organization for the Reform of ... More >>

Weed Takes Root

Marijuana's steady creep toward legalization nationwide

Chronic City: L.A.'s Marijuana Dispensary Ban Could Cost City Millions

Los Angeles' proposed medical marijuana ordinance -- which would ban the sale of pot at dispensaries -- could cost the city $36 million to $74 million in lost sales tax, according to a marijuana advocacy group.Photo by lavocado, Wikimedia CommonsOpen for business on L.A.'s Ventura Boulevard... but f ... More >>

Chronic City: Taking the High Road -- Attorneys Say DUI Laws Shouldn't Apply To Pot

Students for Sensible Drug PolicyHey, watch where you're going!​Remember the first few times you drove high? You knew you were stoned, you knew it might be dangerous to operate a motor vehicle, and you drove like a little old lady.This tendency of stoners to overcompensate for their impairment is ... More >>

Chronic City: After Further Review, Smoking Pot Doesn't Make You Crazy -- Blimey!

oldies.comWhich came first, the lunatics or the grass? The time-honored notion of reefer madness, given new life recently in the British tabloid press, has taken another hit from reality. Widespread marijuana use by the public has not been followed by a proportional rise in diagnoses of schizophreni ... More >>

Chronic City: Seeds of Change -- Marijuana Going Mainstream

Two major new polls underscored a fact many of us already know: When it comes to marijuana, the political ground is shifting underneath our feet - and the change is picking up momentum as it goes.

America and Marijuana: “Medicinal” My Ass

Stop Snitching

Medical pot activists haze the traitors who ratted out Ed Rosenthal

That Is High

Medical marijuana smokers face a 1,000-percent increase in cost of state ID card, which could force its demise

Letters to the Editor

Letters from March 7, 2001