Bernie Sanders continued the messages and policy proposals that have helped him surge in the polls in tonight’s MSNBC Democratic Town Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike some politicians that tend to “play it safe” when taking a lead in a poll, Senator Sanders stayed consistent on marijuana legalization and […]

Two recent polls have shown a big surge by Bernie Sanders, turning the Nevada caucus on Saturday into a dead heat. In such a close race, is it possible that marijuana legalization supporters could tip the scales in favor of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the more progressive candidate on federal cannabis […]

Bernie Sanders’ proposal to deschedule marijuana just got a big endorsement: former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders. “I certainly would support” it, Dr. Elders told Marijuana Politics on Saturday. “You know, we don’t have cigarettes [in the Controlled Substances Act]. We don’t have alcohol on it,” she added, “So I […]

As I continue to take heat from the marijuana growers and True Legalizers™ in California over my support of marijuana legalization in the form of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), one thing that really bugs me is the deification of the plant and those who grow it. Look, they’re […]

One of the most soul-affirming things I get to do in my strange career is speak to men who have been incarcerated over flowers. The first such man I met was Bobby Platshorn. He was sentenced to 64 years in prison for importing marijuana from Mexico and South America in […]

The Oregon House of Representatives passed a landmark marijuana banking bill, exempting banks and credit unions from any state liability for conducting financial services with state-regulated marijuana businesses. Ultimately, the cannabis industry needs a federal fix to the banking issue, but the state of Oregon is showing real leadership by […]

Former President Clinton, stumping for his wife Hillary Clinton in Tennessee, contended that President Obama wasn’t “a change-maker.” Bill Clinton garnered quite a bit of media attention for stating that, “we are all mixed-race people” after Representative Steve Cohen introduced the forty-second president as a “heck of a stand-in” for the first […]

This weekend’s International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco was once again the premiere industry/activism event of the year. The Hyatt Regency is an amazing venue and the presentations and people at the event were top notch. I collected the audio from every speech and panel and will be uploading […]

Hillary Clinton claims that the policies of Bernie Sanders won’t help black communities, but activist Dr. Cornel West vehemently disagrees. Now that the Democratic nominating process is moving past the homogeneous demographics of Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton and Sanders are both making their case as to why their platforms […]

I got the chance to sit down with cannabis legend Tommy Chong at the International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco. Chong, 77, is parlaying his cannabis celebrity into a new brand, Chong’s Choice, as well as co-hosting a podcast with his son, Paris, to be hosted on CannabisRadio.com. I asked […]

For those not lucky enough to see Tommy Chong interviewed by Steve Bloom of Celebstoner and Freedom Leaf at the International Cannabis Business Conference  (ICBC), here are some highlights and notes, in a very stream-of-consciousness-kind-of-manner. This is according to my recollection, so most quotes are very much paraphrased: How are […]

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, our nation’s first African American Surgeon General was the keynote address this morning at the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICB) and Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Dana Rohrabacher followed her. Having Elders and two sitting Congressmen speak helped provide an overview of how far the United States has come […]

We caught up with Rep. Earl Blumenauer at the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) in San Francisco on Feb 13, 2016 to discuss the ongoing efforts to legalize and decriminalize Marijuana Medical and Recreational usage.

“Radical” Russ here, awaiting a flight to San Francisco to take part in the International Cannabis Business Conference at the Hyatt Regency. What an all-star lineup! You’ve got former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Tommy Chong in a CelebStoner stage interview, renown blogger and political pundit Andrew Sullivan, the Guru […]

Some political pundits and Hillary Clinton backers have rallied behind the still-Democratic-frontrunner’s closing statement in last night’s debate where she stated, “I am not a single-issue candidate and I do not believe we live in a single-issue country.” Some feel that Clinton finally found her message on why she is […]