Legalization

For the first time in nearly a century, the California legislature took up marijuana legalization on this week. A Wednesday hearing on a legalization bill previewed the battle lines and arguments that lie ahead.

The world as we know it may indeed end in 2012, if the trend line in recent Gallup polls on marijuana legalization is any indication. More than half the people in the West now want to free the weed, and the figure is up to 45% nationwide.

On Wednesday, a Massachusetts bill that would legalize marijuana got a hearing before the legislature's Joint Revenue Committee. That's a start.

All of the attention has been on California, but it's Massachusetts where the state legislature will hold a hearing on a marijuana legalization bill next week.

Marijuana production and consumption has been a bone of contention in the South Pacific island republic of Fiji for years. Now, some comments from a leading NGO are heating up the controversy again.

Hundreds of people came to San Francisco last weekend for the annual NORML conference. The organizers can be forgiven if it seemed a bit California-centric because so much related to marijuana policy is occurring in the Golden State. With the clamor for marijuana reform gaining decibels by the day, the atmosphere was headier than ever.

Canada's "Prince of Pot" is in jail in Vancouver, awaiting extradition to the US to accept a five-year plea bargain for selling marijuana seeds to US customers. But if anyone thinks that is going to shut up Emery and his supporters, they should think again.

Libertarian Free Staters are staging daily pot-smoking civil disobedience protests in Keene, New Hampshire, and this week, the protests spread to Manchester.

Three prominent marijuana reform activists have penned a very valuable new book, "Marijuana Is Safer -- So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?" They make a compelling argument, and they do it very nicely.

Last weekend's Seattle Hempfest is likely to have been the biggest one yet, as multitudes swarmed the waterfront for the two-day bash. But there are critics aiming at it, including a leading drug reformer and a former Hempfest organizer.