ASA in the News

City Council approves rules for marijuana dispensaries

Paul Marini | March 11, 2014

Salvador Rivera, Fox 5 San Diego San Diego’s city council has cleared the way for medical marijuana dispensaries to operate legally in San Diego. It has given its final approval to an ordinance that will place a lot of restrictions...

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Law and order may soon be coming to the Wild West of weed.

Paul Marini | March 09, 2014

Lisa Leff, Associated Press A California lawmaker has introduced legislation to regulate the state's free-wheeling medical marijuana industry — the farmers that grow the drug, the hundreds of storefront shops that sell it and especially the doctors who write recommendations...

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Legislators grapple with merging medical and recreational marijuana

Paul Marini | March 08, 2014

Christopher Lopaze, Bainbridge Island Review Washington’s first marijuana retail license was recently issued, but legislators are still trying to reconcile the medical and recreational-marijuana markets before stores open this summer.

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Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington state since 1998, but new recreational marijuana laws are threatening not only patients’ rights, but also their access to medicine.

Paul Marini | March 06, 2014

Katie Rucke, MintPress News Almost six months after the passage of Initiative 502, medical marijuana advocates in Washington state rallied outside of the state capitol in order to “save medical cannabis in Washington.”

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The first medicine developed straight from pot plants is poised for FDA approval. What would that mean for medical cannabis, legalization, and patients in need?

Paul Marini | March 05, 2014

Paul Tullis, TakePart he Mayflower in Washington, D.C., is one the capital’s grand old hotels, presenting to Connecticut Avenue a broad, brick facade and an awning festooned with the flags of many nations, as if the king of one of...

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Health risks and benefits to medicinal cannabis

Paul Marini | March 04, 2014

Matlin Smith, Las Cruces Sun-News He got a severe knee injury in 2000. Soon after, there were three knee surgeries and many doses of high-strength pain medication. This Las Cruces man, a former school teacher for 15 years who asked...

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California cities, police chiefs support pot regulation for first time

Paul Marini | March 03, 2014

Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee The last time lawmakers tried to regulate California’s medical marijuana industry, the League of California Cities warned of “a radical expansion of existing law” and “a slippery slope to distribution of marijuana for recreational use.” And...

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Obama Hasn't Pardoned One of Them

Paul Marini | March 03, 2014

Nora Caplan-Bricker, New Republic When Robert Duncan got laid off from his job in T.V. production and a friend offered him a gig at a medical marijuana dispensary in northern California, he paid a lawyer $800 to review the company’s...

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How safe is marijuana?

Paul Marini | March 03, 2014

Kris Hermes, Letter to the Editor of USA Today It's disingenuous for the head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, to say that the trend of marijuana legalization has made research into it more "feasible." The National Institute...

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5 Reasons Washington's Proposed Restrictions on Medical Marijuana Have Patients Worried

Paul Marini | March 03, 2014

Jacob Sullum, Reason.com It looks increasingly likely that Washington's legislature will approve new restrictions on medical marijuana by the end of its current session a week from Thursday. The two leading bills both involve mandatory registration of patients, sharp reductions...

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