Medical Marijuana

Latest Articles

Medical marijuana 2.0

In a tough political environment, the movement weighs a tricky reinvention
The medical marijuana movement has always had to be nimble.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 11, 2012

Photos: Freedom Rally 2011 at Boston Common

Mass Cann/NORML's annual Freedom Rally | September 17, 2011
Mass Cann/NORML's annual Freedom Rally comes to the Boston Common on September 17, 2011.
By K. BONAMI | September 19, 2011

Rolling Rally: Our guide to the 22nd Annual Freedom Rally

Make the most of your freedom
It would have been impossible — or at least boneheaded — to print this sort of treasure map a few years ago.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 19, 2011

Gubernatorial Scorecard
This week, we continue with a running feature, the Gubernatorial Scorecard. Every so often, we'll rate Lincoln Chafee from 1 to 10 on both the politics and substance of his most recent maneuverings.
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX STAFF | July 27, 2011

Portland’s medical-pot prognosis: Keep patients waiting

Stoned-walling
The bloom is off the buds, that's for sure.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 20, 2011

Up in smoke?

Obama is threatening a medical marijuana crackdown in Rhode Island and across the country. Should Governor Chafee call his bluff?
Ten months after President Obama took office, his Justice Department issued a remarkable directive.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | July 19, 2011

Higher education, with joint enrollment

Summer school
When he's teaching pot-growing classes at places like the Ramada convention center in Saco, Ray Logan doesn't use actual marijuana plants for demonstration — he substitutes basil or pepper plants, whatever's available that day from High Tech Garden Supply.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 15, 2011

Obama's medical marijuana crackdown

Weed Dept.
Rhode Island's medical marijuana community took another hit this week — only this time it didn't result in any healing.
By DANIEL MCGOWAN | May 04, 2011

Smoke Local

Where will marijuana fit into Maine's economy?
Lobsters, blueberries, potatoes, and . . . pot? As Maine's medical-marijuana program inches closer to business-as-usual, weed is on the verge of becoming a meaningful part of the state's economy — a budding piece of Maine's local, sustainable, pro-agriculture aesthetic.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 16, 2011

Mass pot reform blazes up

Legalize It
The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (MassCann) is hardly a stoned cadre of spliff-roasting slackers. They don't have that luxury.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 06, 2011

Election whoas

Diverse-city
Never before have a I seen such a classist, racist, lock-step-thinking set of election results in my time living here, and I — OK, kidding; kidding. Just wanted to get a rise out of the people who still think I'm all "Maine is a mess" and "White people suck."
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | November 11, 2010

Illegal smile

What if toothpaste were as hard to get as medical marijuana?
Suppose you lived in an alternative universe, and you needed toothpaste, so you could brush your alternative teeth and look hygienic.
By AL DIAMON | August 11, 2010

Where to put the pot?

Scouting locations for Cumberland County's first medical-marijuana dispensary
With last week's decision that Northeast Patients Group, based in Augusta, has been chosen by state health officials to open the first medical-marijuana dispensary in Cumberland County, we have moved just a tad closer to having an actual functioning medicinal-pot system in Maine.
By KEGAN ZEMA | July 14, 2010

Where to put the pot: Our map

Pronounced "pot lend"
Scott Getchell's rendering of a site map for medical marijuana dispensaries in Greater Portland.
By SCOTT GETCHELL | July 14, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Reefer gladness at the Crowne Plaza

Remedy
Thirty-five years ago, a doctor took Elvy Musikka aside and told her that she’d go blind from her glaucoma if she didn’t start smoking. Marijuana, that is.
By ELIZABETH RAU | April 21, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Pot bill progresses in Augusta

C'Mon Doc ...
At the end of February, Topsham became the latest Maine community to consider moratoriums on medical-marijuana dispensaries in the wake of last November's election.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 10, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Up in Smoke in New Hampshire

Live Fried or Die Dept.
President Barack Obama has championed a platform that pledges commitment to a green economy. But this probably isn't what he had in mind.
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | January 06, 2010

2009 had some redeeming qualities - really

Don’t look back in anger
Let's get serious: For many Portlanders, 2009 was a crap year.
By DEIRDRE FULTON AND JEFF INGLIS | December 22, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Referendum explainer

What you need to know about all the questions you’ll have to answer
There are seven statewide referendum questions on the November 3 ballot.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | October 28, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Weed picking up speed?

Just say now
When the Phoenix published a cover story about the potential tipping point in the fight to end marijuana prohibition, we smelled something in the air: it seemed more than ever that such a resolution might be possible.
By MIKE MILIARD | July 09, 2009

An old dog teaches his tricks

A Maine marijuana icon hopes to reinvigorate his cause
"You can call me a pothead," slow-talking Harry Brown tells me, roughly 15 minutes into my visit to his 80-acre farm in Starks, Maine.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 10, 2009

Legalize pot now

With support from the unlikeliest circles, this could be marijuana's moment
The Obama administration, already overtaxed with two foreign campaigns, made headlines this past week when the White House's newly minted director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy called for an end to the "War on Drugs."
By MIKE MILIARD | June 01, 2009

Going to pot

State medical marijuana law advances
The state's medical-marijuana laws, which govern how patients can access pot for medical purposes, is on the brink of significant change.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 15, 2009

By | January 01, 0001