"Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know" by Mark Kleiman and several other academics. It's a remarkably balanced assessment of the issues around legalization, and it disaggregates the multifold issues nicely in bite-sized chunks.

It just hit the book stores yesterday.

about the reason behind so many California medical
mj busts. (A bit off topic from your OP, don't mean to
hijack the thread)

This came from someone running one of the NM mmj
businesses: according to him, the people being busted
are making profits at odds with the status of nonprofit
orgs. There is also some grow limit set by fed and people
in CA keep pushing the limit or exceeding it.

The NM program is much more tightly regulated and
nobody here is getting busted. I don't know how
complete this information is but the source seemed
to be knowledgeable on this.
.

The issue in California is whether any sales of medical marijuana is legal. There is a huge ball of confusion about that, which will hopefully be sorted out shortly by the state Supreme Court. In the meantime, some local prosecutors say sales are illegal, while others are perfectly fine with them. There is no requirement that dispensaries be non-profit.

The feds in California have targeted all sorts of medical marijuana operations, including some that have been scrupulously complying with state laws and local ordinances.

There is no medical marijuana "grow limit" set by the feds. As far as they're concerned, it's all illegal. There are federal criminal penalties based on how many plants you grow. More than 99 plants gets you a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

About 500 California dispensaries have been forced out of business since the federal crackdown began last fall.

Your friend is right about New Mexico. Its tightly-controlled program has not attracted much federal attention.

But let's get past this medical marijuana issue by just legalizing pot.

it will be interesting to see how this all develops.

I also grow my own 10 x 10 plot here in Sonoma County, which is what the county allows. That keeps me out of the marijuana market. And I get to smoke my very own organic Sonoma Coast Sungrown. Yummy.

but we'll probably be the last state to legalize pot! Sure would make a nice retirement in my golden years.

and dysfunctional for profit prison industry leader, CCA located in our state.

I wish Tennessee would wake up, legalize cannabis and outlaw the for profit prison industry; before that evil, anti-freedom lobbying entity leads us down the road to Perdition.

Rather than going after war criminals and banksters.

by declaring Amendment 64 passed by the voters, and immediately enacted into law instead of waiting until July 1st of next year...

Then the U.S. Attorney John Walsh will have no choice but to resign after MMJ patients beat his door down and demand states rights.

It is legal under the 10th Amendment.

Legalize and end the insanity.

Thanks for the thread, Comrade Grumpy.

according to tpm, the president has about a six percent lead here. if we can get out the youth vote, i think obama could take the state.

anything less than an ounce will only get you a $100 ticket here as is.