Free Talk Live

Tony Ryan, Denver police officer of 36 years: "That's the theme of the second ad from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol camp: that marijuana does not lead to violent crime and that by allowing law enforcement to stop focusing on pot busts and instead freeing up their resources to be focused on serious crime, communities in Colorado will be safer."

California’s Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign announced today that they have submitted nearly 700,000 signatures to qualify their initiative for the November 2010 ballot. The initiative seeks to make personal possession (up to 1 oz.) and cultivation (up to 25 square feet) legal for adults 21 and up. The proposal also gives cities and counties the option to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana sales.

Elected officials take notice: support for drug policy reform, and even legalizing marijuana, is no detriment on the campaign trail -- and in fact it can be a key asset to electoral success. Last night The Colbert Report picked up on a trend that has bubbled up in the past year -- candidates are winning elections by supporting drug policy reform.

An initiative which would legalize medical marijuana has qualified for the November ballot in Arizona.

The Arizona Secretary of State on Tuesday informed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Policy Project (AMMPP) that it had turned in the required number of signatures -- 153,365 -- to qualify for the ballot. The initiative will be presented to Arizona voters for approval on November 2, reports the Tucson Citizen.

Colorado is working to becoming the first state to regulate production of medical marijuana. Regulators say pot consumers deserve to know what they're smoking, and producers should have safety regulations such as pesticide limits for plants destined for human consumption. Now, patients have no way to verify pot-shop claims that certain products are organic, or how potent a strain might be.

A concentrated preponderance of the voters countrywide are showing their passion for legalizing and regulating marijuana comparable to the manner in which alcohol and cigarettes are presently controlled. As the polls show most US citizens don’t believe smoking marijuana should be a crime for people to consume within the discretion of their own homes. A recent nationwide study of would be electorates showed that 56 percent favor the outright marijuana legalization, along with a strict regulating of the marijuana industry.

In 2006, voters in South Dakota become the first -- and the only -- in the nation to reject a state initiative legalizing medical marijuana, defeating it by a margin of 52% to 48%. This year, they will have a chance to reconsider. The South Dakota Coalition for Compassion announced this week it has gathered enough signatures to put its medical marijuana initiative on the November ballot.

The Detroit Election Commission voted 3-0 Monday to reject a Nov. 2 ballot proposal that would have asked Detroit voters to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

It has been a little over a month since Coloradans approved a groundbreaking law legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Now that the celebratory haze has settled, state officials and marijuana advocates on Monday began sifting through the thorny regulatory questions that go beyond merely lighting up.