This Week: Landmark Dispensary Ruling May Hurt the Feds; NY Governor Won ‘t Consider Lawmaker Pay In creases Until They Deal with Marijuana Issue; 11 Enemies of Medical Legalization; Media Ignored Findings Marijuana May Prevent Lung Cancer; Police Chase and Kill 3 Dogs in Marijuana Raid; and more.

This week’s photo:  Cheri with Libertarian party vice-presidential candidate Judge Jim Gray at a benefit for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

MEDICAL

Media Ignored Findings Marijuana May Prevent Lung Cancer – You’d think it would have been very big news in the spring of 2005 when Donald Tashkin, a professor of pulmonology at UCLA’s David Geffin School of Medicine, revealed at a conference that components of marijuana smoke, although they damage cells in respiratory tissue, somehow prevent them from becoming malignant. But headlines announcing “Pot Doesn’t Cause Cancer” did not ensue.

POLITICS/LEGAL

Landmark Dispensary Ruling May Hurt the Feds — A court ruling in San Diego could hinder the federal Justice Department’s war on California’s legal cannabis industry.  In what cannabis advocates called a “landmark ruling,” an appeals court in San Diego tossed out a dispensary operator’s drug-dealing conviction.

NY Governor Won ‘t Consider Lawmaker Pay In creases Until They Deal with Marijuana Issue– Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo restated his support this week in favor of legislation to equalize the state’s marijuana possession penalties.  Speaking Tuesday at the New York State Trooper Class of 2012 graduation ceremony, Cuomo said that he “would not consider” convening a special legislative session unless lawmakers were willing to consider reforms to reduce New York City’s skyrocketing marijuana arrest rates. Assembly and Senate lawmakers have requested a special legislative session be held following the Presidential election so that they can vote on a pay raise.

11 Enemies of Marijuana Legalization — Here are 11 of the worst—the most powerful and the most vehement enemies to cannabis legalization.

Legislator Accuses Marijuana Advocates of Harassment — When citizens have concerns, they contact their elected representatives, right? Right?? One Alabama legislator apparently could use a basic civics lesson; it seems Republican Rep. Jim McClendon has forgotten for whom he works. On Thursday morning, he sent an email message to constituents, colleagues and newspapers statewide accusing medical marijuana lobbyists of “harassment.”

Police Chase and Kill 3 Dogs in Marijuana Raid — He screamed, shouted and cried out: don’t hurt my dogs. But Detroit police didn’t listen, and now three dogs are dead.  During a mid-October marijuana raid on Detroit resident James Woods, police fatally shot three of Woods’ dogs, according to a report in the Motor City Muckraker. The raid is the latest example of the destructive impact the U.S. war on marijuana has on people’s lives.