Washington, DC: California Democrat Sam Farr, along with a bipartisan coalition of 27 co-sponsors, has reintroduced legislation to protect state-authorized medical cannabis patients and their providers from federal prosecution.

House Bill 3939: the Truth in Trials Act of 2009 would provide an affirmative defense in federal court for defendants whose actions were in compliance with the medical marijuana laws of their state.

Passage of House Bill 3939 would codify legal protections for defendants caught between state and federal laws, ensuring that they can cite state law as a legal defense in federal trials.

It states: "Any person facing prosecution or a proceeding for any marijuana-related offense under any Federal law shall have the right to introduce evidence demonstrating that the marijuana-related activities for which the person stands accused were performed in compliance with State law regarding the medical use of marijuana."

Said Farr: "This is a common sense bill that will help stop the waste of law enforcement and judicial resources that have been spent prosecuting individuals who are following state laws. This legislation is about fair treatment of defendants in medical marijuana trials, plain and simple."

Last month United States Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued a memorandum to federal prosecutors directing them to not "focus federal resources ... on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

Previous versions of the Truth in Trials Act were introduced in both the 108th and 109th Congress, but failed to receive a public hearing or a committee vote.

In June, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank reintroduced legislation – HR 2835: The Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2009 – authorizing the state-authorized use of medical marijuana. That bill remains pending before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500. Additional information about the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2009 is available at NORML's Take Action Center at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=14288611.

Augusta, ME: Voters decided on Tuesday in favor of a statewide ballot proposal expanding the state's decade-old medical marijuana law.

Nearly 60 percent of state voters endorsed Question 5: the Maine Marijuana Medical Act, which amends existing state law by: establishing a confidential patient registry; expanding the list of qualifying conditions for which a physician may recommend medicinal cannabis; and by allowing for the creation of state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries to assist in the distribution of marijuana to qualified patients.

The measure was opposed primarily by law enforcement agencies, including the Maine Prosecutors Association and the Maine Chiefs of Police Association.

Tuesday's vote marks the first time that citizens have voted specifically on the question of allowing for state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. Two other states, New Mexico and Rhode Island, have previously passed legislation allowing for state licensed marijuana distribution centers.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are presently operating in California and Colorado, but these operations are not licensed by the state.

In 1999, 61 percent of state voters approved the physician-supervised use of medical marijuana. However, the law did not establish a state identification registry for qualified patients, nor did it address regulating the distribution of medical marijuana.

Under state law, patients with a doctor's permission may legally possess up to two and one-half ounces of marijuana and/or up to three mature marijuana plants for medicinal purposes.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or visit: http://www.mainepatientsrights.org.

Breckenridge, CO: Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a municipal initiative to eliminate penalties on the adult possession of cannabis.

Over 70 percent of voters endorsed Measure 2F, which amends the town code to remove all criminal and civil penalties, including fines, on the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. Passage of the initiative also eliminates local penalties prohibiting the possession of cannabis paraphernalia by those age 21 or older.

Proponents of the measure, Sensible Breckenridge, gathered 1,400 signatures from registered voters to place the measure on the municipal ballot.

"This votes demonstrates that Breckenridge citizens overwhelmingly believe that adults should not be punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Sean McAllister, chair of Sensible Breckenridge and a member of the NORML Legal Committee.

The new law takes effect on January 1, 2010.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or visit: http://www.sensiblecolorado.org.

Augusta, ME: Voters will decide on Tuesday whether to approve a statewide ballot proposal that seeks to amend the state's decade-old medical marijuana law.

If enacted, Proposition 5: the Maine Marijuana Medical Act, would expand existing state law by establishing a confidential patient registry, and by allowing for the creation of non-profit state-licensed nonprofit dispensaries to assist in the distribution of medical cannabis to qualified patients.

To date three states – California, New Mexico, and Rhode Island – allow for the establishment of medicinal cannabis dispensaries.

If passed, Prop. 5 would also expand the list of qualifying conditions for which a physician may recommend medicinal cannabis.

The proposal's proponents gathered over 55,000 signatures from Maine voters to place the issue on the 2009 ballot.

In 1999, 61 percent of state voters approved the physician-supervised use of medical marijuana. However, the law did not establish a state identification registry for qualified patients, nor did it address regulating the distribution of medical marijuana.

Under state law, patients with a doctor's permission may legally possess up to two and one-half ounces of marijuana and/or up to three mature marijuana plants for medicinal purposes.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500, or visit: http://www.mainepatientsrights.org.

Breckenridge, CO: Voters will decide on Tuesday whether to approve a municipal initiative to eliminate penalties on the adult possession of cannabis.

If approved, Measure 2F would amend the town code to remove all criminal and civil penalties, including fines, on the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. Passage of the initiative would also eliminate local penalties prohibiting the possession of cannabis paraphernalia by those age 21 or older.

Proponents of the measure, Sensible Breckenridge, gathered 1,400 signatures from registered voters to place the measure on the municipal ballot.

In 2006, over 70 percent of Breckenridge voters endorsed Amendment 44, an unsuccessful statewide ballot initiative that sought to eliminate minor marijuana possession penalties.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or visit: http://www.sensiblecolorado.org.

Sacramento, CA: State lawmakers heard testimony on Wednesday in support of taxing and regulating the commercial production and distribution of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.

Members of the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety called for the hearing, entitled "Examining the Fiscal and Legal Implication of the Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana." The hearing was chaired by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), sponsor of Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act.

California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer urged the Committee to stop arresting adults who consume marijuana responsibly. "The laws against marijuana wrongly criminalize millions of otherwise law-abiding Californians," he said. "Marijuana should be legal for the same reason that alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and other substances are legal: (1) millions of Californians value and enjoy its use; (2) their use poses no inordinate hazards to society; (3) the prohibition of marijuana artificially creates crime and black-market traffic in the same way as alcohol prohibition and (4) deprives our economy of legal business and revenues."

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano added: "The criminal prohibition of marijuana provides law enforcement and state regulators with no legitimate market controls. This absence of state and local government controls jeopardizes rather than promotes public safety. I urge this Committee to move forward with the enactment of sensible regulations for legalizing marijuana."

"There is a gravitas to this issue now," said Assemblyman Ammiano at a press conference prior to the hearing. "It is inevitable that there will be some change in the way marijuana is viewed legally."

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

Concord, NH: Senate lawmakers fell two votes shy of the two-thirds support necessary to override the veto of a bill that sought to allow for the limited use of medical marijuana by state-authorized patients.

Senators voted 14 to 10 on Wednesday in favor of overriding a July veto by Democrat Gov. John Lynch, who argued that any use of marijuana was in violation of federal law. Supporters of the bill needed 16 Senate votes to override the Governor's veto.

The House had previously voted 240 to 115 to override the Governor.

If passed, New Hampshire would have become the fourteenth state since 1996 to enact legislation allowing for the use of medical marijuana by state-qualified patients.

New Hampshire's law would have been the most restrictive of any state that has enacted medical marijuana legislation.

For more information, please visit: http://nhcompassion.org.

Princeton, NJ: A majority of west coast voters, and 44 percent of the nation, are "in favor of making marijuana legal," according to national poll of 1,013 likely voters published this week by Gallup.

Fifty-three percent of west coast voters said that they supported regulating marijuana, while 46 percent said they opposed the idea. Regional support for legalization was second highest on the east coast, where 44 percent of respondents backed legalizing pot.

Among self-described "liberals," 78 percent endorsed legalization, as did a majority of "Democrats" and half of "Independents." By contrast, only 28 percent of self-identified "Republicans" supported amending marijuana laws.

According to polling service, which has been posing the marijuana legalization question to likely voters since 1970, national support for the issue has never been higher. In 2005, the last time Gallup posed the question, only 36 percent of Americans said they backed legalization.

Among women voters, support for legalization has risen 12 percent since 2005.

The Gallup poll results echo those of separate national polls conducted this year by Zogby, ABC News, CBS News, Rasmussen Reports, and the California Field Poll – all of which reported greater public support for marijuana legalization than ever before.

Responding to the Gallup poll results, NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said, "Public support for replacing the illicit marijuana market with a legally regulated, controlled market similar to alcohol, complete with age restrictions and quality controls, continues to grow nationally, and has already achieved majority support on the west coast – where many voters are already familiar with the state-licensed use and, in some cases, sale of medical cannabis."

He added, "As voters and legislators continue to look for alternative ways to raise revenue for public services and reduce law enforcement costs in this troubled economy, we expect Americans' support for regulating cannabis to only grow stronger in the years to come."

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.

Arlington, VA: Nearly six out of ten individuals enrolled in drug treatment for marijuana were referred there by the criminal justice system, according to a new report issued by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

"In 2007, the criminal justice system was the largest single source of referrals to the substance abuse treatment system," states the report, entitled "Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions Referred by the Criminal Justice System." "[T]he majority of these referrals were from parole and probation offices."

Fifty-six percent of individuals in drug treatment for marijuana were referred there by the criminal justice system, up from 48 percent in 1992. Overall, 37 percent of all drug treatment admissions were based upon criminal justice referrals.

Commenting on the statistics, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: "These figures make it clear that it is not marijuana use per se that is driving these treatment admission rates; it is marijuana prohibition that is primarily responsible. These people for the most part are not 'addicts' in any true sense of the word. Rather, they are ordinary Americans who have experienced the misfortune of being busted for marijuana who are forced to choose between rehab or jail."

Treatment statistics published by the federal government this past spring reported that over 37 percent of the estimated 288,000 thousand people who entered drug treatment for pot in 2007 had not reported using it in the 30 days previous to their admission. Another 16 percent of those admitted said that they'd used marijuana three times or fewer in the month prior to their admission.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org.

Washington, DC: United States Deputy Attorney General David Ogden issued a memorandum to federal prosecutors on Monday directing them to not "focus federal resources ... on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

The directive upholds a campaign promise by President Obama, who had previously pledged that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue."

Commenting on the directive, NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said: "We applaud the administration for discouraging the use of federal resources to improperly target and prosecute state-authorized medical marijuana patients and their providers. However, this directive ushers a change in policy rather than a change in law. A better solution would be for Congress to move expeditiously to pass House Bill 2835, The Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act of 2009, which would ensure – once and for all – that medical cannabis patients in states that have approved its use will no longer have to fear arrest or prosecution from federal law enforcement agencies."

Introduced in June, HB 2835 has 29 co-sponsors. The measure awaits action from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.