Congress warms up to research on hemp

WASHINGTON — Hemp is a big winner in the new farm bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday.

While Congress has shown little interest in legalizing marijuana, members are warming up to industrial hemp, pot’s nonintoxicating sister plant. […]

The farm bill would allow state […]

One of the recurring themes I enjoyed on “The West Wing” was the big block of cheese day – an annual event where White House staff would hear concerns and ideas from citizens that normally would not get the government’s ear.

The current White House is resurrecting this notion with a virtual big block of […]

Nick Gillespie has an absolutely scathing OpEd in Time: Obama’s Unfathomable, Bottomless, Contemptible Cowardice on Pot

What does it say about our elected representatives when even a president who grants that marijuana is no “more dangerous than alcohol,” jokes about his past drug use, and faces no more elections in his lifetime is terrified to […]

Jacob Sullum nails it: Chris Christie Will End The War On Drugs – Just Like Obama Did

It turns out that Christie, who first called the war on a drugs a “failure” in 2012 (eight years after Barack Obama did), has something similar in mind. He does not want to stop responding to drug use […]

Here’s the section on marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs in the extensive New Yorker interview by David Remnick with President Obama:

When I asked Obama about another area of shifting public opinion—the legalization of marijuana—he seemed even less eager to evolve with any dispatch and get in front of the issue. “As has been well […]