Since the city ordered more than 600 medical pot shops to close last June, many of their former storefronts now stand vacant in a nearly moribund commercial real estate market hammered by the economic slump.

Aside from its outlaw image, one of the most vexing problems for medical marijuana is consistency. There are literally countless strains of the weed out there, and each one has different properties and effects.

After a California court of appeal rejected the city of Anaheim's argument that marijuana's federal outlaw status allowed the municipality to ban medical pot dispensaries, a pro-cannabis group is urging all cities in California that ban pot shops to change course.

A medical marijuana advocacy group sent letters Wednesday to about 140 California cities and counties that have banned pot dispensaries, including several in the Bay Area, and urged them to change their stance or face lawsuits.

Caren Woodson, director of government affairs at the patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) -- who has five sick relatives who used marijuana as medicine -- said that neighborhood dispensaries would keep needful patients out of situations in which they must obtain the pot illicitly.

After a Rancho Cordova woman complained last year about the skunky smell of pot being grown by a medical marijuana-using neighbor, one City Council member suggested a ban on residential pot cultivation.

After winnowing out medical marijuana clinics that violate provisions of Los Angeles' strict new ordinance, just 41 of the 169 applicants meet city standards for operating, court documents filed Thursday show.

Doctors, patients, and industry are bashing the organizers of HempCon, which took place August 6-8 in San Jose, for running a de facto medical marijuana prescription mill out of the trade show.

People with serious chronic diseases who want to participate in the state’s medical marijuana program may be able to sign up for a patient registry within the next four to six weeks, an advocacy group leader said today.

State appeals decision rejects lower court's use of federal law to uphold Anaheim ban

For more than two years now, authorities in San Diego County have been targeting marijuana defendant Jovan Jackson, a Navy veteran who operated a pot dispensary called Answerdam Alternative Care.

The dispute over Anaheim's 3-year-old ban on medical marijuana outlets is sent back to the lower court. But the judges do reject the city's position that U.S. law trumps California's laws on the issue.

Asthmatic medical marijuana patient Chris Diaz sits in jail in Brownwood, Texas, facing up to life in prison for a half ounce of marijuana and three grams of hash. Quadraplegic medical marijuana patient Chris Cain may be joining Diaz behind bars in Beaumont, Texas, after he goes to trial next week. When it comes to medical marijuana, Texas isn't California (or even Rhode Island), and don't you forget it, boy!

Medical marijuana is legal in California, and the US Department of Justice has made it policy to not go after patients and providers in compliance with state law, but California medical marijuana patients who live or travel within 75 miles of the Mexican border are encountering another problem with the feds: the Border Patrol.

The District of Columbia will join 14 states that have medical marijuana programs, but it won't happen until next year under a plan announced last Friday by Mayor Adrian Fenty (D). That and other restrictive provisions of the mayor's order and the city's draft administrative rules have advocates greeting the news with mixed feelings.

If Robert Bendula had his way, he would be working within the Department of Justice, but that's easier said than done. After a work accident in 1994, Bendula, of Tracy, is now one of about 400,000 Californians who have medical marijuana cards. For Bendula, he smokes between 3 and 5 grams of pot a day to help alleviate his pain.

The Glendale City Council is expected to extend moratorium on sites that sell marijuana.

On Friday, medical marijuana advocates were already questioning some of the regulations and asking why it would take so long for them to go into effect...Americans For Safe Access, took issue with regulations that put marijuana growers and sellers under the authority of the same city agency that handles liquor licenses, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.

Medical marijuana advocates have seized the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' new marijuana-friendly policy to challenge federal law that deems there is no legitimate medical benefit for marijuana.

Despite an Obama administration directive meant to put a halt to federal raids of pot shops in states where medical marijuana has been legalized, recent dispensary busts, including one in Southern California, have prompted a group of cannabis advocates to call on Obama to withdraw Michele Leonhart as his nominee to be the DEA's top cop.