Californians may continue to grow and use marijuana in certain cases to treat illness, a federal appeals court in San Francisco has decided.

Some lawmakers would rather juggle nitroglycerin than debate an issue as volatile as the medical use of marijuana. But a consensus seems to be slowly developing that marijuana should be treated like a prescription sedative: dangerous but still useful to the seriously ill.

Wisconsin advocates for the legalization of medical marijuana are praising an Oshkosh lawmaker for a bill they hope will raise discussion on legitimate use of the drug. Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, introduced a bill into the State Legislature this week that would allow the medical use of marijuana for illnesses and ailments including AIDS, cancer and glaucoma.

With roughly six months to go before Detroit voters weigh in on a ballot measure on whether to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the city, the issue is picking up steam.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco has refused to reconsider its ruling that allows Californians to grow and use marijuana to treat their illnesses.

A bill legalizing the medical use of marijuana is gaining momentum in the New York state Assembly, with bipartisan sponsorship and a successful vote Tuesday in the Assembly Health Committee.

California state Attorney General Bill Lockyer was honored Tuesday in Oakland by a medical marijuana patients' group for his support of their legal case.

Merced County supervisors Tuesday morning heard Dustin Costa discuss medical marijuana - this, after he was arrested last Thursday when police found about 1,000 marijuana plants in his home.

The City Council is getting puffed up about marijuana. After sitting on the shelf for nearly a year, a resolution calling on the state to legalize the medical use of marijuana got its first airing yesterday at a Health Committee hearing.

I called an Oakland police officer after the Presidents Day planting of marijuana seeds in the lawn at City Hall. There seemed to be no effort to stop the medical marijuana protesters from scattering seeds on the well-kept grass of another kind.

Buoyed by a recent federal court decision, a small but growing number of California doctors are treating patients with marijuana for a host of medical conditions, including some controversial ones, such as adult depression and attention deficit disorder in children.

Since Oregon's medical marijuana initiative became law in 1998, more than 6,000 individuals have received medical marijuana cards. Given that many Oregon companies now test for drugs, it was inevitable that one or more cardholders would test positive, get fired and sue.

A growing number of cases illustrate the huge disparity in the enforcement of California's Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative allowing sick and dying people to use and grow marijuana.

The beauty of Jefferson's marketplace of ideas is that it opens our society to all voices and all arguments, presuming the most persuasive will rise to the top. But those who promote the War on Drugs find this a dangerous concept. Drug reform makes too much sense and in recent years has been too compelling to voters.

Medicinal marijuana may soon be available in Canadian pharmacies. Officials from Health Canada met behind closed doors yesterday with pharmacists, medical experts, police and medicinal pot users to discuss access to medicinal marijuana.

Drs. Phillip A. Denney and Robert E. Sullivan last week opened in a Lake Forest strip mall a medical practice devoted to recommending medical marijuana to patients. In focusing their entire practice on that narrow specialty, the pair joined a handful of doctors statewide — mostly in Northern California — openly promoting the treatment of a variety of ailments with cannabis, which California voters legalized with the approval of Proposition 215 in 1996.

Medical marijuana advocates spread pot seeds on the lawn of City Hall to protest a proposal to tighten restrictions on what have been called "Oaksterdam" cannabis clubs.

Medical marijuana advocates dipped into burlap sacks filled with cannabis seeds and planted a pot crop on the Oakland City Hall lawn Sunday to protest a proposal to tighten restrictions on "Oaksterdam" dispensaries.

Plans to make marijuana available by prescription to British multiple sclerosis sufferers promise to shake up the debate in the USA over legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Buoyed by a recent federal court decision and changes in state law, this seaside sanctuary for the medical marijuana movement might soon try to help establish nonprofit cooperatives to grow pot for the ill.