A New Mexico state appeals court ruled this week that worker’s compensation insurance policies in the state must also cover medical marijuana in addition to any other treatments directly related to the injury.
The ruling stems from 55-year-old former mechanic Greg Vialpando, who uses medical marijuana to help alleviate the pain from a back injury in 2000. The man’s former employer, Ben’s Automotive in Santa Fe have fought the initial decision, arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay for something federally illegal.

The Inland Empire city of Riverside has successfully shut out marijuana dispensaries, taking its fight for its right to do so all the way to the California Supreme Court. City Hall won the battle, but a war still rages.
A group called Riverside Safe Access over the weekend announced that its measure to overturn the city’s weed shop ban has qualified for the local ballot. Read more over at the LA Weekly.

An anti-drug group looking to squash the legalization of medical marijuana in the state has released a website and an eight-minute ad that says that if Amendment 2 passes, marijuana will be legalized in Florida.
In the video titled “The Devil is in the Details,” the group claims that Amendment 2 is fraught with legal loopholes and language that would allow pot to be smoked and sold on the streets willy-nilly. Amendment 2 is not about legalizing medical marijuana, the video says, it’s about legalizing weed.

Like other medicines available only with a doctor’s permission, medical marijuana isn’t taxed in Massachusetts. But one lawmaker sees the green of money in all that green marijuana and wants to add a special sales tax to medical cannabis.
Sen. Brian Joyce on Tuesday amended a substance-abuse prevention bill to include a bill that would subject medical marijuana sales to the 6.25 percent state sales tax. That amendment was eventually removed and found ineligible. But that didn’t stop Joyce, who now says he’ll tack it on with the state budget.