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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."

For a muscular agency that combats vicious drug criminals, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration acts like a terrified and obstinate toddler when it comes to basic science. For years, the DEA and the National Institute for Drug Abuse have made it all but impossible to develop a robust body of research on the medical uses of marijuana.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said Friday his deputies’ marijuana enforcement would not change even if Proposition 19, which would legalize the drug in California, passes Nov. 2.

“Proposition 19 is not going to pass, even if it passes,” Baca said in a news conference Friday at sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park.

Economy of Medical Marijuana

Did you know that the United States government provides medicinal pot to only four citizens? Marijuana legalization measures have been appearing frequently in petitions and on ballots across the country and the world, but opinions vary. Currently 16 states and Washington D.C. have made medical marijuana available to certain patients. Learn about the medical marijuana market and where it might be heading.

FARMINGTON -- About 1,000 marijuana plants were stolen from a Farmington law enforcement storage facility overnight Tuesday.

Farmington police officers discovered the break-in Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., according to police Chief Jack Peck.

An overhead garage door had been "pried open" and much of the marijuana, seized Tuesday in a northern Franklin County drug raid, was gone, Peck said.

When Pompton Lakes police seized Darren Richardson’s car on a rainy September afternoon, they told him it was headed for an impound lot. When they returned it three weeks later, he says, the 2004 BMW belonged in a junk yard. According to police reports, the damage to the black BMW 325i came in the aftermath of a traffic stop during which officers detected a "strong odor of raw marijuana" inside the vehicle. Searching for a cache of drugs, members of three different police agencies and a detective from a federal drug task force spent two days tearing the car apart, the reports said.

In January The Silver Tour will begin a three-month saturation TV campaign broadcasting "Should Grandma Smoke Pot?" in Washington D.C, and as many cities as finances permit. As little as $10,000 can buy 100 half-hour broadcasts.

Has the national DARE organization -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- removed the discussion of marijuana from its curriculum? It appears the answer is yes, reports Kevin Shaub at KNDU, NBC TV News in Kennewick, WA.

10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY:
A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death. Sidney, S et al. Marijuana Use and Mortality. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 87 No. 4, April 1997. p. 585-590. Sept. 2002.