State & Local Executive Branches

From the big picture of the origins and state of marijuana prohibition in America to the close-up portrait of one of the country's most pot-friendly and -dependent local economies, Doug Fine delivers with "Too Big to Fail."

A dispensary opens in Arizona as more get shut down in California and more California communities move to shut them down or keep them out. There's more news, too.

Utah is finding there's not much there there when it comes to drug-abusing welfare applicants, and it's paying good money to do so.

A federal medical marijuana banking bill was introduced, an Oregon bill that would allow and regulate dispensaries heads to the governor's desk, Berkeley and Oakland fight the feds.

Marijuana decriminalization goes into effect Monday in Vermont, leaving New Hampshire as the odd man out when it comes to decriminalization in the region.

Two bills reducing penalties for marijuana offenses have been signed into law in Oregon. They take effect immediately.

At least the DEA didn't raid anybody this week, but some Michigan cops did. That and more in this week's update.

State revenuers in Colorado have released temporary rules for governing the state's looming legal marijuana commerce, but at this point, they are only a sketch of what is to come.

California's medical marijuana dispensary numbers are shrinking under a two-pronged local and federal attack, leaving patients in the lurch. Advocates want more of a fightback.

It's been a good week for medical marijuana in state legislatures, with New Hampshire now poised to become the 19th medical marijuana state, and that's just for starters. Meanwhile, the war of attrition against California dispensaries continues.