Pot leads to decreased beer consumption and a decrease in drunk driving deaths, two college professors concluded.

D. Mark Anderson, a Montana State University economics professor, and Daniel Rees, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, studied the effects of Montana's medical marijuana statutes and concluded pot was being used to replace alcohol.

But the researchers won't go so far to say that the drop in traffic deaths are a direct result of medical marijuana laws or that it doesn't interfere with driving as much as alcohol. Other factors, such as patients staying home, may be contributing to the decline.

"We are hoping it will stimulate some kind of policy discussion beyond what's discussed in the press," Anderson told Missoulian.com. "That's the goal of doing this research. Hopefully when states decide whether to legalize medical marijuana or decide to go back on legalizing it, that this will be some research that will be included in the discussion."

Advocates of abolishing the nation's drug laws are looking further than just government-sanctioned pot and hash. They're arguing their position as a civil rights matter.

Citing the changing perceptions and positions of politicians and the population at large, AlterNet.org notes that the nation's prison population went from about 500,000 in 1980 to over 2.3 million inmates today, with the U.S. having the largest incarcerated population in the world.

Most of the convicts are in jail because of drug-related offenses, and pro-legalization advocates argue their lives are irreparably changed by the stigma and the forfeiture of rights felons suffer. Former drug offenders are shut out from education, housing, employment and voting.

“You can’t keep having a theoretical dialogue about a drug war that don’t have any victims,” Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services For Prisoners with Children, says. “We’re the ones that’s occupying the cases. We’re the ones that’s getting gunned down by the police. We’re the ones that’s injuring ourselves through the overuse of it.”

Marijuana collectives in California are going mobile — though it's not for convenience. It's a response to the federal crackdown on medical pot storefronts, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Owners of the collectives admit they'd rather maintain a physical location because patients are nervous dealing with someone they don't know coming to their homes and the additional risk of the delivery vehicle being held up. But the reality of hundreds of dispensaries going out of business because of "land lord letters" forced many to change their business models.

"We sort of predicted this," Dale Gieringer, head of California's NORML chapter, says. "I could see cars going around. I could see delivery trucks. It's sort of what one expected. ... I've seen a decline in delivery services in the last four or five years as dispensaries have proliferated. I suppose that will go in the other direction now."

Amid the confusion and aggravation of the federal crackdown on collectives, California Attorney General Kamala Harris asks the state's legislature to clarify its laws regarding its medical marijuana laws, MercuryNews.com reports.

Harris is turning to the legislature to spell out the marijuana rules and regulations of the state because she's concluded that any clarification she provides does not have the authority of law. It's hoped that if the laws are clearer, it will put an end to the cases the feds are filing against dispensaries.

"The facts today are far more complicated than was the case in 2008," Harris states. "I have come to recognize that non-binding guidelines will not solve our problems—state law itself needs to be reformed, simplified and improved to better explain to law enforcement and patients alike how, when and where individuals may cultivate and obtain physician-recommended marijuana."

Christmas music, black friday sales and seasonal treats aren't just for shops at the local mall. According to the Associated Press, medical marijuana collectives are also getting into the groove of the holidays.

"We have a whole bunch of decorations up, holiday music playing. It's pretty festive here right now," says Ryan Hudson, executive director for The Apothecarium, a medical marijuana collective. "Why not? We are just like any other business, in that regard."

From edibles flavored with spices to offering their locations for toy drives, dispensaries are going with the groove of the season. Pro-pot activists are also getting in on the action, offering marijuana-themed gift bags in exchange for contributions to the cause.

Millions of dollars in lost tax revenues and thousands of lost jobs — that's the negative economic impact the federal crackdown on medical marijuana shops, according to SanDiego.com.

"The city has turned its back on the only real booming industry in San Diego," medical marijuana user Rudy Reyez told the website. "I don't see any other industry taking off. Let's face it. The city had the potential of taking in so much more tax revenue."

Collectives generate around $80,000 apiece adding up to $8 to $10 million in state total taxes. The staff the stores employ number around 2,000 in the San Diego area. Half of the city's 222 dispensaries have closed, totaling $9 to $13 million in unemployment checks, with even more shutting their doors because of the pressure from the U.S. Attorney. There's also the business expenses of telephone service, internet access and upkeep in addition to advertising. (The U.S. Attorney in San Diego threatened to go after media outlets that take advertising from medical marijuana dispensaries, as well.)

The current drug schedule the federal government's placed marijuana in is reserved for drugs that supposedly have no medical use.

However, the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients reports the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is about to grant an exclusive license to KannaLife Sciences for drugs based off the chemical composition of cannabis.

"We find it hypocritical and incredible that on the one hand, the U.S. Department of Justice is persecuting medical cannabis patient associations, asserting that the federal government regards marijuana as having absolutely no medical value, despite overwhelming clinical evidence," says Union director James Shaw. "On the other hand, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning to grant patent rights with possible worldwide application to develop medicines based on cannabis."

Critics of the government's stand on marijuana for medical use have pointed to conspiracies involving drug companies blocking patients access because of the ease of pot's cultivation and use. With this potential license, this theory moves from fringe to pretty goddamn likely.

San Francisco Assemlyman Tom Ammiano met with U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag about the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries, reports the San Francisco Bay Guardian — however, he may have left with more questions than answers.

According to an aide for Ammiano, Haag spoke nebulously about the dispensaries' distance from schools and playgrounds. The arguments confounded Quintin Mecke, the aide, because of the security and the need for an identification and prescription card to obtain pot.

"No high school kids are getting pot from the clubs," he said.

Stranger still is the downward trend of marijuana use by high schoolers in the Bay Area. This decline — with schools supposedly surrounded by the medical pot shops targeted by the federal government — bucks the national average of pot on the rise by the same age group.

Ammiano also said during the meeting he supported stronger state regulations on the collectives. Haag would not offer any thoughts as to recommendations to any future policies.

The federal stance on medical marijuana grows curiouser and curiouser, to say the least.

While the debate over the medical use of marijuana for the general public has been going on for decades, it's recently moved to the locker room with the recent suspension of Washington tight end Fred Davis and left tackle Trent Williams.

In a column for The Washington Post, Courtland Milloy argues marijuana use may be beneficial for jocks. He argues the tokes Davis and Williams took could have taken away any anxiety, fear or depression. In research, athletes who've smoked pot before competing reported better decision making, better creativity and better mental focus.

However, Milloy also points out the current anti-drug organizations tasked with ensuring the players of various professional sports are clean would never OK marijuana for use.

But in the same way medical marijuana began as a fringe idea and is now a reality, the idea of pot going from a gateway drug for slackers to part of a high performance sports regimen may yet come to pass.

The state of Arizona brought a lawsuit to federal court seeking clarification of its voter-approved caregiver laws. Seeking to avoid prosecution by federal agencies, Gov. Jan Brewer asked the court to give a decision as to its opinion of the law.

The judge, Susan Bolton, was not amused, azcentral.com reports. She said courts were not in the business of forming opinions for states and wondered why the state's attorney general wouldn't render their own decision in the matter.

"I'm used to having the plaintiff opposed to the defendant," the judge said. "You've got to advocate for one or the other, and you're not advocating for either."

Critics of the state government, however, believe the tactic is to use the court to find the statute invalid without rousing the ire of the people.