Drug czar John Walters is back in California this week, flying around the Central Valley in a Blackhawk helicopter surveying the progress of the latest marijuana "eradication" adventure.Bruce Mirken has already written about these gaudy publicity stunts, but since Walters and his ilk like to play soldier so much, let's see how their war on marijuana users is going elsewhere today ... Federal prosecutors won their case against Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch. Having successfully…

In case you've missed it, MPP-TV has been busy over the last couple of weeks producing a slew of new videos.  We've got Rep. Barney Frank and Rob Kampia discussing H.R. 5843, the “Personal Use of Marijuana By Responsible Adults Act,"  a couple of videos featuring an exclusive interview with Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, and a video of our chat with travel guru Rick Steves and his thoughts on marijuana prohibition.  Check them out, let us know what you think, and send us your ideas…

CNN just picked up on federal prosecutors' attempts to hamstring the defense of San Luis Obispo medical marijuana dispensary owner Charles Lynch, which went to a jury yesterday. As we've mentioned before, not only is Lynch forbidden from testifying that he operated within state medical marijuana laws with local officials' blessing, prosecutors even tried to bar "sick looking" witnesses from testifying on his behalf. Makes sense: It's much more difficult to convict an innocent man if the jury has…

A little while back, we held our third annual Party at the Playboy Mansion. During the party, a film crew produced a short documentary, which we're proud to present. See what celebrities think about marijuana policy reform, MPP, and our mission.

On July 30, 2008, MPP's Rob Kampia joined Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to discuss the benefits of HR5843, the “Personal Use of Marijuana By Responsible Adults Act." If you'd like to encourage your legislator to support this bill, visit https://www.mpp.org/federal-action/. Music is courtesy of His Boy Elroy. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/nc-sampling+/1.0/

Okay, "must" may be a bit strong, but before heading off on vacation for two weeks (and leaving you in the capable hands of my fellow bloggers), I want to mention two new books that deserve attention from anyone interested in marijuana and marijuana policy. Despite the awful title, "Dying to Get High"  is one of the most interesting books yet written about medical marijuana. Authors Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb focus on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a patient-run collective…

Good news for people who don't like their local governments wasting time and money challenging laws they don't like in futile court battles: For the second time, a California court -- in this case, the Fourth District Court of Appeals -- has tossed challenges to the state's medical marijuana laws by the counties of San Diego and San Bernardino. San Bernardino taxpayers had already footed the bill for about $60,000 in salaries alone for this misguided legal adventure when it got tossed the first…

This is the exclusive second part to our Profiles in Marijuana Reform interview with Milton Friedman, available only on tv.mpp.org.

Part 1 of our sit-down interview with Nobel Prize winning economist, Milton Friedman. Click here for the second part of our interview available exclusively at tv.mpp.org.

So police discover a package of marijuana apparently shipped to the mayor of a small town in Prince George's County and respond by sending a SWAT team to pounce on the unarmed man as he returns from work, killing his two Labradors for good measure. The police then handcuff him and his mother-in-law next to their pets and interrogate them for hours as blood pools on the floor. And a PG police spokesman says the raid was carried out properly according to their policies. I'm sure it was. Does anybody…