MPP director of state campaigns Steve Fox will be interviewed on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” tonight about the recent offer that an MPP-backed Nevada group made to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Following Palin’s speech in Las Vegas this week to the national convention of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers, Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws offered the possible 2012 G.O.P. presidential contender $25,000 to make a similar speech to supporters of a regulated marijuana market. “Such a speech would…

Encouraging news from the City of Brotherly Love today: Philadelphia’s new district attorney and members of the state Supreme Court are taking steps to remove criminal penalties for people arrested with up to 30 grams (or a little more than an ounce) of marijuana. Under the new approach, those caught with marijuana would face a possible fine, but receive no criminal conviction. “The goal,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “is to sweep about 3,000 small-time marijuana cases annually out of…

Prohibitionists continue to shout whatever they can to frighten voters. As more and more U.S. citizens realize that current marijuana laws do more harm than good, the misinformation is going to get stranger and stranger. Just watch. One classic cry is that marijuana might cause cancer. Recent work out of Brown University actually reveals quite the opposite. Researchers gathered hundreds of people from Massachusetts who had head or neck cancers and compared them to similar people from the same neighborhoods…

Today, on more than 80 college campuses across the country, students organized by MPP-grantee Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) are calling for changes in campus policies that steer students toward the use of alcohol instead of marijuana. Although the national day of action was timed to coincide with the first day of Alcohol Awareness Month, the organizers played off the April Fool’s Day theme by emphasizing that the health and safety of students is not a joke. [Disclosure: I am…

I have to admit I was a little nervous when I first heard “South Park” was airing an episode about medical marijuana this week. The show’s creators have spent the last 13 years mocking public policy issues both credible and contemptible, and—as much as I try to have a sense of humor about these things—I was legitimately worried that the same guys who recently referred to Sarah Jessica Parker as a “transvestite donkey witch” might not portray medical marijuana in the best possible light. Luckily,…

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases that questioned a harsh federal law requiring the deportation of non-citizens who are convicted of certain crimes, including minor drug violations. Media reports on those whose lives hang in the balance over these decisions have included one horror story after another about people who in many cases were legal residents of the United States for decades, but were forced to endure brutal treatment and threats of deportation, simply for minor…

MPP spokesperson Aaron Houston debates Heritage Foundation's Ernest Istook on the benefits of ending marijuana prohibition and how it would adversely affect the profits of Mexican drug cartels. 03/29/2010

In 2009, the National Drug Intelligence Center’s annual drug threat assessment report stated that Mexican drug cartels operated distribution networks in at least 230 American cities. This year, the annual report describes how the cartels have since expanded their influence, how they operate in nearly every region of the continental United States, and how they are “active in more cities throughout the country that any other [drug trafficking organizations].” But, intriguingly, something is missing:…

MPP director of state campaigns Steve Fox debates Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation on the benefits of ending marijuana prohibition. 03/26/2010

MPP's Aaron Smith appears on CNBC debating prohibitionist spokeswoman Calvina Fay about the merits of TaxCannabis 2010, the initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. 03/25/2010