For decades, advocates of marijuana policy reform have argued that a regulated and taxed marijuana market would generate revenue for government on the local, state and federal levels. There have even been studies projecting tax revenues from marijuana sales at $6.2 billion and even $31 billion annually.

Occasionally – although far too rarely – we have even seen elected officials reference the possible revenue-generating benefits of a legal marijuana market. But today we read something that we can’t recall seeing before. A notable elected official actually cited a legal and taxed marijuana market as the best means of generating revenue for her state.

Betty Yee, chairwoman of the five-member California State Board of Equalization, made her feelings clear after a gloomy speech about the state’s current fiscal situation. Here is how the article conveyed her position:

As for new revenues, Yee is favoring Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s marijuana legalization approach, which will likely appear in some form on the November ballot and would allow the state to regulate and tax marijuana growing to the tune of about $1.4 billion a year.

Will she be ignored or will she be joined by other elected officials finally willing to accept this most logical position? We are hoping – and advocating for – the latter.

Twenty-four-year-old American Ivory Williams—one of the fastest 100-meter sprinters in the world—will not be allowed to compete on the U.S. Team for this year’s World Indoor Championships.

His offense? He tested positive for marijuana. Now Williams, who just last month ran the fastest 60 meters in the world, will be ineligible to compete for the next three months and will have to complete an anti-doping educational program.

It’s simply maddening to see a 24-year-old world-class athlete get sidelined from his sport just because he used a substance that is safer than alcohol and isn’t exactly what you’d call a performance-enhancing drug.  To add insult to injury, his manager felt compelled to issue a token apology, saying Williams exhibited “poor judgment.”

In a related, possibly even more frustrating story, the defending champion in the Iditarod—where dogs do the racing, not humans—might now be disqualified because he uses medical marijuana to treat the effects of throat cancer. [Read more →]

Talk about seeing the error of his ways.

John J. Dilulio, Jr., the man who once co-authored a book with two former drug czars that described America’s drug war as “the most successful attack on a serious social problem in the last quarter-century,” has now reversed course, writing in the journal Democracy that it is “insane” to “expend scarce federal, state, and local law enforcement resources waging ‘war’ against [marijuana] users.”

Specifically, Dilulio, who served for eight months in 2001 as director of President George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, listed making medical marijuana legal as one of “six steps to zero prison growth,” along with removing all federal mandatory-minimum drug sentencing policies. He also said the United States should “seriously consider decriminalizing [marijuana] altogether” because marijuana arrests have “close to zero” effect on crime rates and there is “almost no scientific evidence” showing marijuana to be more harmful than alcohol or legal narcotics.

[Read more →]

In a fantastic example of how much the times have changed, the front-page, above-the-fold story in this morning’s USA Today, the “nation’s newspaper,” is about the “growing national movement” to reform marijuana laws.

Quoting numerous voices from within the marijuana policy reform movement, including MPP’s Kurt Gardinier, the piece highlights the growing public support for ending marijuana prohibition, paying particular attention to the many states that have passed or proposed legislation to allow medical marijuana, eliminate criminal penalties for possession, and even tax and regulate the nation’s largest cash crop like alcohol.

Years ago, such a huge splash in the mainstream media would have been hard to fathom. Hopefully it will serve to further sway public opinion in favor of much-needed reform.

Since 1965 over 20 million Americans have been arrested for a marijuana related charge, and that number grows by two about every minute. You heard me right. Someone in this country is arrested on a marijuana charge every 36 seconds–clearly marijuana prohibition isn’t working. But we can’t relent. We need to keep letting our government know how we feel.

For the second year in a row we have an opportunity to let the Obama administration know what ideas are most important to us. Last year ending marijuana prohibition was the number one idea on change.org’s top 10 “ideas for change in America” list, but it currently sits out of the money in fourth place. Let your voice be heard and vote to end marijuana prohibition once and for all (voting ends March 12).

When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last year that the federal Department of Justice would no longer prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers complying with state law, reform advocates cheered it as the greatest victory in over a decade.

The shift in federal policy was indeed a breakthrough for the medical marijuana movement, but did little good for Bryan Epis of Chico, California.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Bryan to prison for a 2002 conviction involving 100 marijuana plants he maintained for several state-legal patients. Under the current administration’s policy, Bryan would likely be left alone by the feds, but the problem is that his arrest and conviction occurred well before the new policy was implemented.

Bryan was sentenced to ten years in federal prison and has already served two years behind bars, but has been out on various appeals since 2004. Today he’s sitting in the Sacramento County jail awaiting transfer back to a federal penitentiary.

Friends and family are hoping President Obama pardons Bryan so that he isn’t forced to waste more of his life locked in a cage because of his compassion towards sick and suffering patients.

Bryan’s partner is circulating a petition urging President Obama to grant a pardon and she requests your help. A printable petition form can be downloaded here. Please help Bryan by collecting as many signatures as you can and mailing the petition back to the address at the bottom of the page.

In the latest sign of a growing embrace of medical marijuana by the business community in this country, a California-based insurer said this week that it will now offer medical marijuana-related coverage in all 50 states.

A spokesman for Statewide Insurance Services said the new program will include operations related to medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, including workers’ compensation, general liability, auto insurance, equipment breakdown and damage, and property or product loss—including marijuana spoilage.

As the cultivation and distribution of state-sanctioned medical marijuana proliferates in 14 states (and counting), it is only right that such establishments receive the same protections as other legitimate businesses. By taking this much-needed step, Statewide is helping to send a strong message to the rest of the country that this nearly untapped-market is not just credible, but ripe for new business opportunities, and here to stay.

The total amount of marijuana seized by the DEA nearly doubled from 1,539 metric tons in 2008 to 2,980 metric tons in 2009, according to numbers disclosed by the DEA as part of their budget request for 2011.

Meanwhile, the cultivation of marijuana in Mexico rose 35% in 2008 to nearly 30,000 acres, according to a report released by the U.S. State Department.

These latest numbers confirm that the only thing an increase in the amount of marijuana seizures by the DEA will do is force more marijuana to be grown by gangs in Mexico, lining the pockets of drug cartels, and further fueling the bloodshed along our border and in our respective countries.

When is the U.S. government going to realize that they will never eliminate the demand for marijuana? There is only one real solution to this crisis: tax and regulate marijuana.