MPP spokesperson F. Aaron Smith responds to a raid on an illicit marijuana growing operation in Sonoma, CA. These raids usually target operations run by Mexican drug cartels and are the direct result of the prohibition of marijuana. He compares them to alcohol bootleggers and asserts that taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol will put these criminals out of business and save police time and money. 07/29/2009

It's already that time of the year again: CAMP season -- when law enforcement agents, donned in paramilitary gear, set out on the hunt for marijuana in the California wilderness. And prohibitionists are already touting massive plant seizures as a victory for their cause.

Over the past decade, CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) seizures have increased by 2,000 percent but marijuana use and availability have remained relatively stable. And besides being futile, this "eradication" program actually drives illegal marijuana farms further into hard-to-find wilderness areas that are the most ecologically sensitive.

Every summer, the media jumps all over the CAMP raids but all too often, reporters fail to ask the obvious question of why criminals are growing billions of dollars worth of marijuana on public lands in the first place. The answer, of course, is that prohibition fuels an illegal market in marijuana -- just as it did when alcohol was illegal in the 1920s. These criminal marijuana farmers are the bootleggers of the 21st century.

Regulating marijuana is the only way to get it out of the forests and into a controlled market.

After all, it's no accident that there aren't clandestine vineyards, hop fields, or tobacco plantations being planted in the forests of California.

Check out the highlights of MPP's 4th Annual Party at the Playboy Mansion, from June 4, 2009.

MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia appears on Fox Business News "Happy Hour" to discuss efforts in California to tax and regulate marijuana, and how it will help the state's revenue problems. 07/24/2009

TiVo alert! MPP executive director Rob Kampia will be on the Fox Business News program "Happy Hour" this Friday, July 24, discussing the economics of taxing and regulating marijuana. The show airs from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Is there something in the water over at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy that turns every new drug czar into a babbling idiot? If not, how else can one explain the latest statement from new ONDCP honcho Gil Kerlikowske? Has he somehow been possessed by the spirit of his predecessor, John Walters?

While never a reformer, Kerlikowske had a reputation for being pretty rational while he was police chief in Seattle. But a story in Wednesday's Fresno Bee quotes the drug czar as saying, "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit."

Bear in mind that this is from an administration whose declared policy is not to attack state medical marijuana laws (even though the law authorizing ONDCP requires the director to "take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use" of any Schedule I drug). And bear in mind that Mr. Kerlikowske's scientific judgment has been contradicted by, among others, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, American Academy of HIV Medicine, etc., etc., etc.

Click here to use our online action center to send a message to the president about his drug czar's statement.

Distressingly, Kerlikowske made the remark while tagging along on the latest adventures of California's marijuana "eradication" drive, for which he seems to have become an enthusiastic cheerleader. This is a campaign that, despite a 2,000% increase in plant seizures over the last dozen years, has produced zero reduction in marijuana availability. But it has had one notable impact: Until 2001, the majority of plants seized were on private lands. Now, nearly three-quarters are on public lands -- often environmentally sensitive areas located in national parks and forests. "Eradication" campaigns have literally driven growers into the hills, multiplying the environmental damage.

So the new drug czar is touting policies that make the problem worse while spouting unscientific nonsense. John Walters lives.

MPP spokesperson Dan Bernath appears on Russia Today to discuss the failure of marijuana prohibition and the move in California toward taxing and regulating the substance as a way to help the suffering economy. 07/23/2009

That would seem to be the implication of a new study just published online by the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. But the study's authors aren't so sure.

The study measured drinking patterns in individuals who enrolled in treatment for marijuana dependence as part of a study designed to test different treatment methods. Participants greatly reduced their marijuana use, but 73 % also increased the number of days on which they drank alcohol by at least 10%. Most also increased the amount they drank on those drinking days. This seems like prima facie evidence of a substitution effect -- alcohol being substituted for marijuana.

The researchers, surprisingly, don't draw that conclusion, based on the fact that drinking behavior did not seem to change in proportion with marijuana use. Instead, they write, "We are left with a mystery."

It seems to me that, in the absence of another plausible cause, substitution of booze for marijuana still looks like the most likely explanation, though more research is absolutely needed. Given what's known about the much more serious health risks of alcohol as compared to marijuana, this ought to cause at least some unease regarding the 140,000-plus Americans forced into treatment for alleged marijuana problems by the criminal justice system each year.

Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) said there is merit to the idea of legalizing marijuana on Monday, a surprising statement from a law-and-order Republican who once tried to ban any dietary supplement that makes you happy.

In 1995, then-Senator D’Amato introduced legislation to classify any “dietary supplement that claims to produce euphoria, heightened awareness or similar mental or psychological effects” as a drug. The legislation’s intent was to combat the popularity of ephedrine-based herbal supplements by banning them, the same logic he applied to marijuana prohibition as an ardent supporter of our current laws.

D’Amato now appears to have changed his position, telling Howard Stern on Monday “there’s some merit to” the idea of legalizing marijuana. If only he had come to that conclusion while he had the power to do something about it.

Yesterday, voters in Oakland, California overwhelmingly approved a proposal, backed by the city's medical marijuana community, that will create a new local sales tax for marijuana. The initiative, "Measure F," was one of  four budget-related measures in a vote-by-mail special election called by a city faced with a projected budget deficit of $83 million.

Medical marijuana collectives teamed up with city officials to propose the new tax, set at 1.8% of gross sales. The tax is expected to generate close to $300,000 for the city next year.

It's not every day that an industry stands up and says "tax us more." MPP commends Oakland's four medical marijuana collectives for stepping up to the plate and helping the bridge the city's budget gap.

This is the first time a municipality has levied a special tax on marijuana. For now, the tax will only apply to medical marijuana collectives, but once adult marijuana use is legal in California, it will apply to all sales.

A similar movement to tax medical marijuana sales is also underway in Los Angeles.