The number of medical marijuana clinics in Minnesota will almost triple in the next few months.

That's by design. In fact, it's mandated by state law.

When Minnesota legalized medical cannabis last year, lawmakers set some of the most restrictive ground rules in the nation. Minnesota would decide who could grow the drug, who could buy it, and in what form it could be sold. The state also strictly limited where medical marijuana can be sold - just eight storefronts, scattered across the state.

[continues 512 words]

Google Considers Cannabis Dangerous, Unacceptable.

A Minnesota-based medical marijuana company says Google is blocking its attempts to advertise online.

Vireo, the parent company of Minnesota Medical Solutions, tried to take out a series of online ads in New York, where it operates four clinics and is one of several companies chosen by that state to grow and manufacture medical cannabis. Each time, Google rejected the ads, citing its policy against promoting "dangerous products or services."

On Monday, the company expanded its online advertising efforts to include the two Minnesota clinics operated by Minnesota Medical Solutions. Enrollment in Minnesota's medical cannabis program remains relatively low - 1,133 patients since legalization last July. But Vireo announced that it would also attempt to place "Minnesota-targeted Google ads to make it easier for Minnesota patients to learn about using our medicines."

[continues 463 words]

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Tom Wainwright, PublicAffairs, 278 pages, $26.99.

In "Narconomics," Tom Wainwright of the Economist brings a fine and balanced analytical mind to some very good research, undertaken largely in northern Mexico. By looking at the drug trade as a business, Wainwright is able to reveal much about why it wreaks such havoc in Central and South America. The issue of violence is not a random by-product of gangster culture. It is central to the industry, Wainwright observes, as the only way "to enforce contractual agreements." To control or police a market like drugs, the cartel must be able to wield decisive violence or, at the very least, be able to project a credible threat of violence.

[continues 151 words]

Officials Ask Public to Identify Dealers, Users As Wave Hits Northern Minn.

A wave of heroin overdose deaths and hospitalizations across northern Minnesota prompted an urgent plea from authorities Wednesday for the public's help in identifying dealers and users in an effort to prevent further tragedies.

Seven people have died and more than a dozen have been hospitalized in the past few weeks after ingesting heroin that in many cases was made even deadlier by the presence of added narcotics such as morphine and fentanyl, authorities said at Wednesday's news conference in Bemidji, Minn.

[continues 735 words]