GOP Senate Candidate Dino Rossi: "This bill isn't going to stimulate anything other than sales of Cheetos"

Just one day after sending out a news release making pot jokes about a Washington State University study on marijuana’s effect on pain, Republican Dino Rossi’s U.S. Senate campaign is claiming he “intended no disrespect to medical marijuana research.”

On Thursday, Rossi released a statement ridiculing the two-year, $148,000 project by psychology professor Michael Morgan, whose study involves injecting synthetic cannabinoids (the active chemicals found in marijuana) along with opiates in rats to study how to improve treatments for people with chronic pain.

Rossi said taxpayers “are tired of their money going up in smoke,” and that instead of creating jobs, the money isn’t “going to stimulate anything other than the sale of Cheetos.”


Rossi thought it would make an easy target, after all: Talk about “wasteful” federal stimulus spending to rile up the Tea Party faithful, and then drag in a tired old stoner stereotype for good measure.

Denver news outlets have been sharing non-stop stories about the state of medical marijuana in Denver.

Voters approved a bill permitting dispensaries to be located in Denver. Many dispensaries have been established, and this appears to be a flourishing business. That's when Denver City Council stepped in to re-think the regulations in place. As Denver seeks to tighten up its rules around the distribution of medical marijuana, Washington D.C. passed a law that included a provision requiring medical marijuana to be provided to poor residents who qualify.

The details of this law, who qualifies for the reduced price, and what will that price be, is still being discussed. "Obviously because there's no roadmap on how to do this, it may require some tweaking over time," said David Catania, a D.C. councilman and the chairman of the city health committee that drafted the law. "We may, in fact, set an example for other states."

The law says patients "unable to afford a sufficient supply of medical marijuana" will be permitted to purchase it "on a sliding scale." Low-income patients will also receive a discount on a required city registration fee.

With the medical marijuana topic in the local news, it may not be long before Denver is discussing the pros and cons of the D.C law.

What do you think about providing the poor with medical marijuana discounts?

Mexico's former president, Vicente Fox, has joined the effort to legalize marijuana use and sale in his country as a way of defanging the drug cartels.

"We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs. ... Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don't harm those who consume them," he wrote on his blog. "Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power."

Fox's successor, President Felipe Calderon, is reluctant to endorse such a move, but he believes the nation should at least debate it. Lots of people are skeptical that it would do any good, especially since the country would continue to outlaw the harder narcotics like cocaine and methamphetamine that help drive border-area lawlessness.

A father and son were arrested and charged after authorities said they were growing marijuana plants in their homes in north suburban Skokie and northwest Indiana, the Cook County sheriff's office said today.

The sheriff's office estimated the seizures at the homes netted about $3 million to $5 million in marijuana, if the drug were to be sold on the streets.

The elder Zimmerman was charged with manufacturing and delivery of cannabis, a felony. Alan Zimmerman was charged with felony possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

More charges against the men are expected.

The investigation started when a Cook County sheriff's police narcotics officer developed a lead on a "suspected grow house operation" in Cook County, sheriff's police said. After an extended period of surveillance, the investigation led to the Zimmermans' Skokie house.

LOS ANGELES—One of two men charged with killing a worker at a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Daniel Deshawn Hinton also pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder, along with the special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery.

Police are still looking for 27-year-old Raymond Lemone Easter, who along with Hinton robbed the Echo Park dispensary June 24.

After ransacking the business and stealing money and marijuana, the robbers fatally shot Matthew Butcher and wounded a security guard.

The City Council offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to Easter's arrest.

Police are also looking for information about the third suspect and the driver of a getaway car.