By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
While D.C. officials wait for six firms to grow medical marijuana in warehouses less than five miles from the White House, the role of cannabis in American life is taking center stage in political and legal bouts across the country.
Prosecutors charged two more activists Sunday with crimes tied to the two-day NATO summit, accusing one of saying he wanted to blow up a downtown Chicago bridge and a second with seeking to build pipe bombs.
Applicants hoping to dispense medical marijuana in the District have until Halloween to submit their plans to city officials, pushing the long-awaited program forward even as federal prosecutors put a scare into the cannabis industry's prospects in California and other states.
For a brief time earlier this month the National Cancer Institute, a branch of the federal government's National Institutes of Health, had posted a webpage touting the possible benefits of marijuana in fighting cancer tumors. But less than two weeks after it went up, the webpage was altered and the approving words stricken.
"It's very puzzling," Mr. Hermes said.
But the long-awaited debut of cultivation centers and dispensaries in the District -- at "the doorstep of the federal government" -- could help turn the political tide in nationwide advocates' favor, said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.
