When a hail of bullets extinguished dozens of lives at an elementary school last month, the ugly consequences of the nation’s gun culture shot into the media spotlight. The debate around gun control in the aftermath of Newtown has yielded confused policy proposals like further militarizing schools, or preemptively tracking mentally ill people.

But a key aspect of the gun-control debate remains hiding in plain sight.

Marijuana legalization is going to be an actual voting option for many people in this election cycle, and despite attempts by most politicians to avoid the topic, it has already become harder to do so. We have Presidential candidates this year openly calling for legalization, and President Obama has had to transition from laughing off legalization questions in a Town Hall to seriously acknowledging Latin American leaders calling for a real discussion about “market alternatives.” Regardless of how voting turns out this year, it seems inevitable that marijuana is heading inexorably toward some kind of legalization.

It is, perhaps, perfect timing for a book like: Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know.

I often read reporters promoting the myth of powerless top government officials, such as the false claim that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass anything. Or it’s the insistence that the President wants to do something, but can’t, because he is powerless on his own. This myth of the toothless President is perfectly exemplified by this article about drug policy, where a President actually has broad discretion to act.

You might have noticed this past week that the Department of Justice has seemingly declared war on Medical Marijuana dispensaries. The first salvo was probably at the end of September when the ATF issued a statement that it is illegal for medical marijuana users to use firearms. Since then, the four California US Attorneys have declared that California Medical Marijuana dispensaries have to close within 45 days:

MacKenzie Allen, the retired deputy sheriff and a currently a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has the #1 question in YouTube’s “Ask Obama” contest, in which President Obama will answer the top-voted questions in a live interview to be broadcast this afternoon from the White House. Allen’s question got twice as many votes as the next-highest voted question.

From the “guns don’t kill people — people kill people” file.

Last night the United States Senate voted to double the penalties for the nation’s newest existential threat: brownies made with marijuana!

No, really.

The Senate unanimously passed Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)’s “Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act of 2009″ (S. 258) that targets pot brownies and other marijuana edibles preferred by some medical marijuana patients.

Earlier this month the DEA conducted several coordinated raids of California medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives. Problem is, these DEA raids are in direct opposition to the directive issued by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder last year that designated raids on legal medical marijuana dispensaries to “not be a priority” for the DEA. Today, Firedoglake publisher Jane Hamsher joined drug policy reform organizations and a conservative group, led by the Marijuana Policy Project, in condemning the DEA’s raids.