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Today, a new Colorado report compiled by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area finds marijuana-positive traffic fatalities, hospitalizations, marijuana use, and illegal market activity have exploded since marijuana legalization. “This report, coming on the heels of the Surgeon General’s health advisory on marijuana and in the midst of a marijuana vaping crisis, piles […]

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd ate a marijuana edible in Denver, and we hope you’ll read her full report about the experience.

Even parents who support marijuana legalization expect strong regulation of the drug that includes bans on public use and advertising of any kind, according to the results of a national survey released today in Denver by The Partnership at Drugfree.org.

In line with recent calls for Washington to “get it right” and for “strict controls” on the state’s new marijuana marketplace, the Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention (WSAVP) recommends the implementation of policies to prevent youth marijuana use and promote healthy communities.

As The Daily Chronic reports, Washington is many months away from implementing a state-regulated marijuana market.

The 52 pages of regulations that were approved unanimously by the state Public Health Council will allow patients approved for medical marijuana to receive up to 10 ounces as a 60-day supply, though some acutely ill patients could receive more with permission from their doctors.

As Boston magazine reports, the official medical marijuana regulations crafted by the Department of Public Health aren’t even fully in effect, and already, activists are planting the seed for the next step in the pot saga — full legalization of the drug.

At meeting with state legislators in Atlanta, Ga., today, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said the dichotomy of “punishment versus rehabilitation” oversimplifies the issue of marijuana legalization. He said he worries about legal marijuana being marketed to kids; presumes marijuana revenues will be outweighed by the costs of abuse; and favors arrests for users that […]

Colorado voters didn’t exactly think through Amendment 64, the state constitutional amendment they approved last year to legalize recreational use of marijuana.

We at Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) commend the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee for sending two anti-marijuana resolutions to the full state Senate with “do-pass recommendations.”

Patrick Kennedy spoke with MSNBC in January 2013.

SAM Director Kevin Sabet debates Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance on July 17, 2012 on CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello.

Prohibition — America’s notoriously “failed social experiment” to rid the country of alcohol — took center stage this week as PBS broadcast Ken Burns’ highly acclaimed series on the subject. And already, it has been seized on by drug legalization advocates, who say it proves that drug prohibition should be abandoned. But a closer look […]

Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit substance in the United States. Little is known of the role that macro-level factors, including community norms and laws related to substance use, play in determining marijuana use, abuse and dependence. We tested the relationship between state-level legalization of medical marijuana and marijuana use, abuse, and dependence. Methods: […]

Project SAM directors Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet wrote this column, published Jan. 12, 2013 in The Denver Post.

As the Washington Times reported Jan. 11, 2013: “What I want is to slow this train down and kind of begin a discussion before other states rush to judgment, which is what I think happened here,” Patrick Kennedy said (during the formal launch of Project SAM at The Denver Press Club).

Ed Gogek, a self-described “lifelong partisan Democrat” and physician who serves on the board of Keep AZ Drug Free, published an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that his party should not embrace legalization. Democrats have long pilloried Republicans for ignoring science, he wrote, but they’ve done just that when it comes to marijuana: […]

As the IrishCentral.com reported Jan. 11, 2013: “Former Rhode Island Congressman and recovering addict Patrick Kennedy is spearheading the fight against the legalization of marijuana in the United States through his new nonprofit organization, ‘Smart Approaches to Marijuana.’”

As Alex Dobuzinskis of Reuters reports today in the first news story about Project SAM:

We’re not doing well providing work for our young people. When they do find work, they’ll probably earn less than their parents, probably form less stable intimate relationships, and age into more uncertain retirements. But, hey, don’t say we do nothing for our kids. Instead of work, marriage, and security, we can offer pot, porn, […]

On Election Day, marijuana enthusiasts rejoiced as Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana. (Ballot initiatives in Oregon and a medical initiative in Arkansas did not fare so well.) From the federal government’s perspective, however, marijuana remains illegal. It is anyone’s guess what the Obama administration’s next move will be, but it is important to understand that […]

In 2010, Denver psychiatrist Christian Thurstone explained to National Public Radio’s Neal Conan that the state’s relaxed laws made the drug widely available — and irresistible — to too many adolescents.

Tomorrow, voters in three states will decide whether marijuana should be legal. For some people, even those in recovery, marijuana use presents a net benefit in society. They believe others can enjoy a joint once in a while without suffering significant consequences. For others, marijuana represents a serious health and social problem. I was senior […]