About one-third of “unlikely” voters in Oregon said they were more enthusiastic and more likely to vote after learning that a medical marijuana initiative was on their state’s ballot this year, according to a new survey released today by the measure’s campaign. Measure 74 – which has been endorsed by the Oregon state Democratic Party – would add state-licensed dispensaries to Oregon’s existing medical marijuana law. According to the survey, which polled a random sampling of under-40, Democratic and…

Former U.S. Surgeon General -- and MPP VIP Advisory Board member -- Joycelyn Elders appeared on CNN yesterday to argue against the criminalization of marijuana users. "Marijuana has never caused anybody directly to die," she said. "It's not a toxic substance ... We can use our resources so much better. I think we need to legalize marijuana for adults, and tax it so we can use the money for much better things." Elders is just one of the countless other esteemed medical, legal, civil rights, law enforcement,…

According to the Associated Press, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter earlier this week to former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration in which he promised that the Justice Department would continue to enforce federal marijuana laws in California even if the state’s voters approve Proposition 19, which would make marijuana legal for all adults 21 and older and allow localities to tax and regulate marijuana’s sale. In response, Steve Fox, director of government relations for the…

If you believe most headline writers, yesterday the RAND Corporation released a study that said ending marijuana prohibition in California would do little to take away profits from Mexican drug cartels. But if you take the time to actually read the study, you’ll learn that Mexican cartels make billions of dollars from exporting marijuana to the United States (not including profits from the marijuana they grow within our borders), that a statistic originally put forward by the U.S. drug czar’s office…

There’s been a great deal of chatter recently about what the federal government can or will do if Californians wisely pass Proposition 19 in a few weeks (read up here and here for example). President Obama has several choices, but the one I want address here is the one recently urged by nine former DEA heads (pdf):  for the feds to sue California in an attempt to declare the law null and void under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution because it violates the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). I…

Ever since California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill decriminalizing possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in the Golden State, opponents of Prop 19 have latched onto this development as their latest (bogus) talking point for why voters should reject the ballot measure on Nov. 2. Their argument goes something like this: By making possession a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor, people will no longer be arrested for marijuana possession in California; therefore, one of the main…

This weekend, Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, joined a growing number of Latin American leaders, academics, and artists in calling for an end to failed prohibition policies: “[Legalization] is the only solution," said the author. "Drug trafficking can not be defeated by military means.” It seems strange that such well-respected members of Latin American society are more and more willing to come out in favor of reform, while here in the States, most public officials…

There are just 21 days left until California voters decide whether their state becomes the first in the nation to make marijuana legal for all adults. And as the campaign enters its final stretch, support for ending marijuana prohibition in California continues to pour in from all kinds of sources. Late last week, the League of United Latin American Citizens of California (LULAC) – part of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group – became the latest statewide organization to endorse Prop 19.…

“The Colbert Report” dedicated about a third of last night’s episode to a lively discussion about Prop 19 in California – and it was chalk full of gems. After rallying his audibly excited audience with an overview of where the measure stands (“If Prop 19 were a human, it would be the most popular candidate in California”), host Stephen Colbert turned to two guests – Joseph Califano, of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson – to argue for and against…