Albany Democrat-Herald, 22 Jan 2012 - A Dozen Years After Fleeing the Valley, Bill Conde Remains As Pro-Hemp As Ever Editor's note: Today is the first installment in a monthly series that revisits and updates stories we reported on as the 21st century began a dozen years ago.

The Daily Astorian, 19 Jan 2012 - Nature's Choice's Nick Clark Seeks City Council's Support for a Medical Marijuana Fiesta; Legality Questioned Marijuana tents, food carts, hemp products and more are proposed for the city of Astoria's first hemp festival, if Nick Clark of Nature's Choice has his way.

The Louisville Eccentric Observer, 18 Jan 2012 - Kentucky Loses a True Original With the Death of Gatewood Galbraith Gatewood Galbraith, one of the most memorable and iconic figures in the history of Kentucky politics, died in his sleep on Jan. 4 at the age of 64.

Tucson Weekly, 12 Jan 2012 - Is It Time To Discontinue Use Of The Word 'marijuana'? From the 1954 Funk and Wagnalls New Practical Standard Dictionary. I happen to own an unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, which might be a cumbersome thing but for the fact that it's a compact version printed with four reduced original pages per page. Even with that, the 1933 dictionary is more than 4,000 pages, and I have always considered it a definitive source on English.

Northern Star, 09 Jan 2012 - NEW research on cannabis suggests smoking a joint might not be as bad for the brain as it was once thought. The research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, shows cannabis users' memories are as good, if not better, than non-users'.

Prince George Free Press, 06 Jan 2012 - Pot and I are familiar acquaintances but we've never been formally introduced. That's right. Since Grade 8, I've known of friends and family who regularly indulge in the pleasures of cannabis but alas, I have abstained. I can name six people right off the top of my head that I could go to and get immediately hooked up with a bag of botanical but I guarantee, I'm on no one's source list.

Sacramento News & Review, 05 Jan 2012 - 4: Number of persons approved by the federal government to smoke medical marijuana. (according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) 16: Number of medical-marijuana states. 750,000: Estimated number of qualified patients in California. (according to NORML)

Lexington Herald-Leader, 04 Jan 2012 - Gatewood Galbraith, an iconic Kentucky political figure and perennial candidate who won many hearts but never enough votes, died early Wednesday, just two months after running his fifth campaign for governor. He was 64. Mr. Galbraith died at home in his sleep, surrounded by family after suffering pneumonia that was complicated by chronic emphysema.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 03 Jan 2012 - PORTLAND, Ore) Paul Stanford had lived a life of error, missteps and regrets, one laden with betrayals and failure. Then, on Nov. 3, 1998, Oregon voters approved the medicinal use of marijuana. And in this way he was saved.

The Daily Sentinel, 28 Dec 2011 - A group pushing for a citizens initiative to legalize small quantities of marijuana will submit more than 155,000 signatures next week to put the amendment on next year's ballot. Mason Tvert, a proponent of the measure and head of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said Wednesday he and hundreds of volunteers are nearing the end of the petition-signature stage to get the measure on the November ballot.

Independent on Sunday, 18 Dec 2011 - A crowd of about 300 people participated in a lively demonstration in Valletta yesterday, organised by the group 'Legalise it, Malta!' which is calling for the decriminalisation, classification and the eventual legalisation of cannabis. The demonstrators, consisting mainly of people in their 20s, walked along Republic Street, chanting "Legalise it, legalise it" and "We're no criminals" to the beat of bongos as they stopped in front of the Law Courts building before proceeding to Palace Square.

The Northern River Echo, 15 Dec 2011 - It isn't every day that you meet a former stockbroker turned hippie. I'm sitting with Nimbin's unofficial mayor, Michael Balderstone, at the Nimbin HEMP Embassy, watching locals and tourists wandering past colourful painted shopfronts. The little village of Nimbin has a unique laid-back lifestyle and it's going on around us. People are drinking coffee, chatting with others as they pass by, some are shopping for organic vegetable seedlings and hemp-based soaps. For the past 20 years, Michael has been the public face of the North Coast's Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) movement. As the president of the Nimbin HEMP Embassy and the founder of the Nimbin Museum, Michael is a self-proclaimed hippie and advocate for all things hemp; but his life wasn't always about living the alternative lifestyle and promoting decriminalisation. Before finding his way to the North Coast 26 years ago, Michael spent his school days at a private boarding school in Victoria before heading off to find his fame and fortune as a high flyer on the stockmarket.

The Herald, 14 Dec 2011 - A BETTER WAY TO MAKE PAPER It's particularly frustrating that the sale of the Kimberly-Clark paper plant apparently fell through over environmental clean-up concerns, after the company spent $300 million since 1995 upgrading its wastewater and pulp-making systems. Now, the company plans to raze the waterfront site and sell it for development.

Chicago Reader, 05 Dec 2011 - On the morning of October 27, after several weeks of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Cook County commissioner John Fritchey stepped before reporters to make a demand that would have been unthinkable just a short time earlier: Chicago police should stop arresting people for possessing small amounts of marijuana. As recently as the summer, many elected officials viewed marijuana decriminalization as a daring if not suicidal political move-and that's among the pols who think it's a good idea. But this fall, Fritchey coaxed a rainbow coalition of three aldermen-one black, one white, one Hispanic-to stand at his side as he called on city officials to implement a smarter, more lenient pot policy.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 14 Nov 2011 - FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks City Council passed a resolution Monday "emphatically" urging the state to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp. The resolution, introduced by Councilman Lloyd Hilling, also urges the state "to petition the president of the United States and his Drug Enforcement Administration either to justify constitutionally its ban on hemp or to nullify its restriction on its cultivation and distribution in the United States.

The Gainesville Sun, 06 Nov 2011 - The Event Returns After an 11-Year Absence, and a Few Hundred Show Up to Watch. The revival of Gainesville's Hemp Fest - a celebration of the many uses of the hemp plant - may have attracted a smaller crowd Saturday than in the past, but organizers believe they are closer than ever to their goal of at least limited legalization of marijuana.

Columbia Daily Tribune, 26 Oct 2011 - Question: If total legalization of marijuana was a ballot issue in our state, how would you vote? You would be allowed to grow it, sell it, smoke it, chew it, drink it, eat it legally - no misdemeanor, no felony. Maybe marijuana would be kept under thumb as we do with age restrictions on tobacco and alcohol, but for those older than 18 or 21 - legal.

The Bakersfield Californian, 11 Oct 2011 - Central Valley congressmen, including Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, need to come to a consensus about the regulation of industrial hemp -- a harmless, nondrug cousin of marijuana with many commercial uses in clothing, food and bath products. Should federal laws be changed to allow its cultivation? We say yes, and so do many valley growers -- along with Gov. Jerry Brown, who was nevertheless compelled to veto SB 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program. Brown's lone complaint: the conflict with federal law.

The Bakersfield Californian, 11 Oct 2011 - Though Gov. Jerry Brown called federal regulation of industrial hemp plants "absurd," potential enforcement of those regulations ultimately led to his veto of state Senate Bill 676, which would have allowed hemp cultivation in four California counties, including Kern, as part of an eight-year pilot program. Supporters of the bill said the federal categorization of industrial hemp plants as the same as marijuana plants is woefully outdated and the fact that industrial hemp is imported for legal products means Californians are missing out on a cash crop.