Today, Sports Illustrated (on SI.com) breathlessly reported an “epidemic” of marijuana use among student-athletes eligible for the 2010 National Football League draft. Apparently, despite the fact that approximately 40 to 50 percent of high school students in the U.S. use marijuana by the time they graduate, it is somehow shocking that 20-33 percent of college-aged athletes have tried the substance.

Here is how one NFL team personnel executive described the “problem”:

"Marijuana use is almost epidemic, with more guys having tested positive for marijuana at some point in their college background than I can ever remember. It's almost as if we are having to figure out a new way to evaluate it as part of the character and background report, because it's so prevalent.”

The real question here is whether the simple use of marijuana by a student-athlete should be considered a “character flaw.” Sure it is illegal. But so is the underage use of alcohol. As is driving over the speed limit. Scouts do not consider someone a “character” risk for these actions.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a column on Alternet related to the Ben Roethlisberger situation. I made the point that the NFL’s existing policies steer players toward alcohol instead of marijuana. I believe what I wrote at the end of that column is relevant here:

Sure, players who use marijuana might still get in trouble with local law enforcement. And if they do, they will have to deal with the consequences. But the NFL has no reason to blindly and ignorantly mimic the government’s irrational marijuana policies. At some point even the government will stop the insanity and will allow adults to use marijuana instead of alcohol, if that is what they prefer. For now, the NFL needs to adopt that policy itself.

We are neither encouraging nor condoning the use of marijuana by students. But let’s get real about this. If people at some point in their life choose to make the rational choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol, why should any entity punish them for doing so or consider it some kind of Scarlet “M” on their record?

And to all you professional draft experts out there, maybe you should think twice this year before not drafting someone like Percy Harvin because of something you consider a character flaw.

After years of lobbying by MPP, patients, physicians, and other allies, New York State may finally be on the verge of passing a medical marijuana law.

A Senate budget resolution that passed last night includes a provision that supports including the legal sale of medical marijuana in the state budget. We hope that as the budget process continues, this language will also be included in the final legislation and will be passed as part of the budget process.

Senate Democrats estimate that licensing fees from dispensaries could generate up to $15 million that could go toward closing the state’s $9 billion budget gap.

This is a huge development. Stay tuned to MPP’s blog for updates.

Meanwhile, today, a medical marijuana bill, S. 4041-B cleared the Senate Codes Committee in a bipartisan 11-5 vote. This was the first time the bill passed the committee.

New Jersey resident John Wilson, 37, may spend the next five years in prison because he grew marijuana, which he used to treat his multiple sclerosis. A judge handed down the five-year sentence on Friday, months after a jury found Wilson guilty of growing 17 marijuana plants—which he used only to treat the effects of his debilitating illness.

Throughout most of his trial, Wilson was prevented from mentioning his disease to the jury. Then in January, New Jersey became the 14^th state in the nation to pass a medical marijuana law, but Wilson was still not allowed to argue a medical defense, because the law did not exist at the time of his arrest. New Jersey’s law does not allow patients to grow their own marijuana (as Wilson had done) but it will provide them with safe access to their medicine through dispensaries—which would have eliminated the need for Wilson to grow his own plants, if only the law had been passed two years earlier.

There is a chance that Wilson might receive parole and be out of prison in about a year, if he is accepted into the state’s Intensive Supervision Program, but that has not yet been decided.

In the meantime, his attorney, James Wronko, is promising to appeal.

“I continue to be amazed that in our system of justice, an individual who is growing marijuana to treat his personal multiple sclerosis ends up in state prison,” Wronko told a local news outlet. “I find it extremely ironic that an individual who could not afford medicine and had to resort to growing marijuana is now going to state prison where he will be given access to all the drugs available to treat multiple sclerosis.”

Your source for all the latest news and developments in the marijuana policy reform movement. In this episode Mike Meno is joined by MPP's Aaron Houston for a special talk on the Mexican drug cartels, boycotting Wal-Mart, and more!

MPP spokesman Mike Meno is interviewed on CBS 3 WWMT about Joseph Casias, a cancer patient fired by a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan. Mr. Casias was terminated for failing a drug test for marijuana, even though he has a license to use medical marijuana in the state of Michigan. The Marijuana Policy Project is promoting a nationwide boycott of all Wal-Mart stores to protest this injustice. 03/16/2010

One day after MPP called for a nationwide boycott of Wal-Mart stores in order to protest the company’s contemptible and baseless firing of Michigan medical marijuana patient Joe Casias, the world’s largest public corporation is already changing its position — albeit not to the extent we all desire.

A Wal-Mart spokesperson has told Fox News that the company is no longer challenging Casias’s eligibility for unemployment, reversing the despicable stance it took before news of the firing made national headlines.

While this change falls far short of the treatment Joe deserves after dedicating the last five years of his life to being a model employee for Wal-Mart, it’s at least a sign that Wal-Mart is feeling the heat from mounting criticism in a country that supports medical marijuana laws by more than 80%.

So let’s keep up the pressure! Allowing Casias to collect unemployment still doesn’t change Wal-Mart’s discriminatory policy of firing medical marijuana patients who are following state law and a doctor’s recommendation.

To learn how to e-mail Wal-Mart’s CEO to say you stand in solidarity with Casias and want Wal-Mart’s policy to change, click here.

Dave Schwartz, spokesman for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, appears on Nevada Newsmakers to debate the taxation and regulation of marijuana with Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick. Part 2 - 02/04/2010

Dave Schwartz, spokesman for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, appears on Nevada Newsmakers to debate the taxation and regulation of marijuana with Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick. Part 1 - 02/04/2010

This morning, the Marijuana Policy Project called upon shoppers across the country to join in a boycott of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to protest the unjust and potentially unlawful firing of Joe Casias, a 29-year-old medical marijuana patient and sinus cancer survivor who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor.

After dutifully working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, for five years, Casias was suddenly terminated because he tested positive for marijuana during a drug screening administered after he sprained his knee on the job. To make matters worse, Wal-Mart is contesting Casias’s eligibility for unemployment, and Michigan has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, at almost 15%.

MPP is asking shoppers to demand that Wal-Mart abandon its discriminatory policy of firing employees who are legal medical marijuana patients under state law.

We need to send a strong message to Wal-Mart and other businesses in medical marijuana states that it is not acceptable to fire sick people for trying to get better by following their doctor’s recommendation and obeying state law. Marijuana is a legitimate medicine, supported by science and protected by law in 14 states, including Michigan.

To send Wal-Mart an email saying that you disapprove of its policy and will refrain from shopping at Wal-Mart stores until it changes, click here.

Gil Kerlikowske, the man tasked with “protecting” our nation from the “dangers” of marijuana, appears to be supremely uneducated about the substance.  In a recent speech [pdf] to – hold on to your chair for the surprise – the California Police Chiefs Association, Kerlikowske defended the continuation of marijuana prohibition forever into the future by talking about the social costs of an entirely different substance – alcohol.

The tax revenue collected from alcohol pales in comparison to the costs associated with it. Federal excise taxes collected on alcohol in 2007 totaled around $9 billion; states collected around $5.5 billion. Taken together, this is less than 10 percent of the over $185 billion in alcohol-related costs from health care, lost productivity, and criminal justice.

Backed with this evidence, Kerlikowske concludes,

[I]t is clear that the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied.

No, Mr. Kerlikowske, it is not clear. You can’t just cite the costs of alcohol abuse and use them to conclude that marijuana would produce similar costs. What might have helped is if your speech included at least one statistic about the costs of marijuana use. And, no, the costs of “illegal drugs” grouped together (and including enforcement costs, no less) do not count.

But we are nothing if not helpful. We suggest the Drug Czar start educating himself with this Canadian study, which concludes that the health costs to society per alcohol user are more than eight times higher than the costs per marijuana user. After that he can peruse another study, “Alcohol and Violent Crime” (available here), which notes that alcohol-related crime costs more than $16 billion annually in the U.S. He might then try to compare that to the cost of violent crimes attributed to the use of marijuana (as opposed to violent crimes caused by the illegal marijuana market). Good luck finding that.

Not all drugs are created equal, Mr. Kerlikowske. We would expect you, of all people, to know the difference. It’s time for you to get “above the influence” of marijuana propaganda.