Weed, weed, weed.

The LA Times reports on the DEA's efforts to target California's large, higher profile "medical" marijuana businesses.

The conservative Washington Times runs a UPI story that these larger business are claiming that they are unfairly targeted.

The conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ran a scathing anti-drug war editorial and a letter to the editor on the recent NORML report about marijuana as the U.S.'s largest cash crop.

Finally, a DEA press release from earlier this year on some dealer's creative packaging of marijuana. Includes photos.

I've seen some year-end commentary on failures in efforts to change marijuana policy in 2006, but I think there's little doubt that it gained traction as a political issue. Growing numbers of conservative ideologues are joining libertarians and liberal ideologues in calling for radical reform in drug policy. The issue may be placed on the back burner as we approach a presidential election cycle, but I don't see it fading. What's interesting about this is that the conservatives involved see it as a conservative issue, liberals involved see it as a liberal issue, and libertarians see it as a libertarian issue. If these groups can form a functional coalition, they could be pretty effective in advocating greater latitude for states to experiment with drug policy and organizing support for state-level legislation and ballot initiatives.