A group of over 300 economists, many of which are extremely high profile voices, including nobel laureates Milton Friedman from Stanford, George A. Akerlof from University of California, Berkeley, and Vernon L. Smith from George Mason University, have signed an open petition to the President, Congress, Governors and Legislators aimed at bringing attention to a paper published by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron that suggests that the federal government would save $7.7 billion annually if marijuana were legalized. Additionally, the same report suggests that legalization would save more than $6 billion more per year if it was taxed the same way alcohol and tobacco are.

After much anticipation, New Jersey has gone and awarded its first permit to legally grow medical marijuana. Montclair, New Jersey's Greenleaf Compassion Center received their permit on Monday. The next step requires Greenleaf to acquire a second permit that would allow them to legally sell the medical cannabis to qualified patients.

On Friday, the news surrounding CU Boulder's 4/20 smokeout went from bad to worse as the university has announced that all
"unauthorized non-affiliates" will be turned away this Friday in efforts to manage the potential disruption on the campus' Norlin Quad.

Earlier this month, news broke that rally-goers would be ticketed for any marijuana-smoking.

The announcement can be seen on the university's website. A CU Colorado ID will be needed by all faculty and students to get on campus, and violators face up to six months in jail and a $750 fine. To clarify - those punishments are simply for tresspassing on the campus, not for actual possession of marijuana.

The Palm Springs City Council voted 3-2 in favor of amending the city's medical marijuana zoning ordinance to allow for a fourth dispensary permit. The same vote also allowed C.A.P.S. Apothecary, an unlicensed Palm Springs marijuana collective, a permit to operate within the law by reinstating them as holders of the third permit.

This is a major victory for medical marijuana in the Coachella Valley, as one City Council member, Ginny Foat, expressed that she was impressed with the way that the services that C.A.P.S. provided had noticeably improved the quality of life of one of her close friends who was dying of cancer. "They have been operating outside of the law, that's a fact," she said, "But they needed to be there for their patients. I don't agree with what they did, but I understand what they did," she was quoted as saying.

While in Colombia for the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama told Enrique Acevedo of Univision that "I don't mind a debate on issues such as decriminalization." While he was careful to point out that he didn't agree that it was a solution to the problem, he did say that "given the pressures that a lot of governments are under here - under resourced, overwhelmed by violence - it's completely understandable that they would look for new approaches and we want to cooperate with them."

The Supreme Court in British Columbia ruled today that marijuana is just as legal in baked goods as it is dried and smoked.

Or rather, what's good for the bong is good for the brownie.

Though Health Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Regulations specifically call for "dried marihuana", Justice Robert Johnston deemed Friday that the distinction is unconstitutional.