Scott Morgan

President Obama has been taking a lot of well-deserved heat for his disjointed and disappointing approach to medical marijuana. Of course, with an election approaching, Obama supporters are struggling to explain why the many Americans who care deeply about this issue should support this president following...

In response to an online petition sponsored by the White House, which I signed seven months ago, I've finally received a response from Obama's Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, explaining why we can't let American farmers grow industrial hemp. It's written in rather plain language, but nonetheless betrays either...

The recent multi-agency federal raid of Oaksterdam University, a respected medical marijuana trade school in Oakland, has many people struggling to understand the Obama Administration's escalating campaign against medical cannabis. Most pernicious among these theories is an idea I've heard repeatedly from medical marijuana supporters in recent weeks:...

Do you know what your rights are when a police officer asks to search you? If you're like most people I've met in my eight years working to educate the public on this topic, then you probably don't.

It's a subject that a lot of people think they understand,...

This piece by Manon McKinnon at The American Spectator is so perfect an exhibit in pompous drug war cheerleading that one can construct a fairly comprehensive crash course in bad drug policy writing based entirely upon its contents. Let's take a moment to review some of the tactics...

Two different staffers at the Drug Czar's office have both used the same word recently to describe Obama's approach to drug policy. That word, if you can believe it, is reform. It's a term I use an awful lot myself, and I must admit I'm more...

This week's news that support for the legalization of marijuana has reached a record high of 50% ought to bother Obama's re-election team a little bit. No, not because pot's more popular than the president, although that really says a lot. The problem, rather, is that...

It's become pretty clear that the president is going to be asked about marijuana legalization absolutely any time he takes questions from the public, so it kind of amazes me that he is actually getting worse at talking about it. This latest exchange is just embarrassing:

President Barack Obama sidestepped...

The explosive debate over drug policy in America is now so impossible to ignore that even the president is often forced to comment on it. His typical script about emphasizing a public health approach with an increased focus on treatment and prevention has become quite familiar to those...

One of the most deeply imbedded ideas in our political culture is the notion that the public supports harsh drug laws and will punish politicians who deviate from the tough-on-drugs script. Unfortunately, that's precisely why a lot of good ideas never make it out of the conference room. It goes...

The Obama Administration's promising position on medical marijuana policy and the recent backpedaling that followed have generated plenty of discussion, but the most revealing aspect of this still-developing controversy has gone entirely unnoticed.

When DOJ released the infamous Holder Memo -- stating that...

This week's Supreme Court decision in Kentucky v. King has civil-libertarians and marijuana policy reformers in an uproar, and rightly so, but it's not exactly the death of the 4th Amendment. Here's a look at how this case could impact police practices and constitutional...

When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in October 2009 that the Dept. of Justice would respect state medical marijuana laws, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. By that time, any lingering support for aggressive federal raids on medical marijuana providers had dwindled into invisibility. The American...

When the news broke that Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske had applied for a new job as Chicago's police superintendent, drug policy reformers began salivating in unison for the inevitable debate over who would replace him in Washington, D.C. That discussion is premature, but the situation has nevertheless helped...

In an apparent effort to prevent marijuana legalization from again dominating the discussion, Obama's next online townhall event will not allow participants to vote on their favorite questions for the president. But what does that say about the politics of social media? And will it even work?