Something is stirring in the U.S. news media that I was beginning to think I'd never see: In last two or three months, a complete rethinking of our marijuana laws has become a legitimate issue in the eyes of the mainstream media -- something it hasn't been for a long time.

To illustrate how big this is, let me take you back to early 2002, shortly after I started as MPP's communications director. The first time I ever called CNN to try to pitch them a story on marijuana policy, it went like this:

I said, "Hello, this is Bruce Mirken from the Marijuana Policy Project --" and the woman who answered the phone burst out laughing. She had to put me on hold for a minute to compose herself. When she came back on the line, she said, "Okay Mr. Marijuana, what can I do for you?" While this was not the actual producer I was trying to reach, she was the one you had to get through in order to speak to that person. And I never got through. 

Things have changed. 

Earlier this month, CNN called me to set up an interview with D.L. Hughley about marijuana prohibition. That interview is currently set to air this weekend on what turns out to be the final episode of "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News," which airs on Saturdays at 10 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Pacific and repeats on Sunday (though TV news schedules have a way of changing at the last minute). This comes on the heels of appearances by MPP executive director Rob Kampia and myself on CNBC, MSNBC and Fox News, among others.

Meanwhile, columns and editorials questioning prohibition seem to be nearly everywhere in recent weeks, including the Providence Journal, CNN's Web site, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times and many other outlets.

What was once dismissed as a fringe issue is suddenly mainstream. 

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Yesterday, the federal sentencing of medical marijuana provider Charles C. Lynch was postponed until at least April 30. Judge George H. Wu held off sentencing in order to give the prosecution time to provide him with a written copy of the new Department of Justice policy on medical marijuana.

In what might be a positive development for Charlie and supporters of medical marijuana, Wu said that the policy change could impact his sentencing decision.

According to reports from folks in the courtroom, the prosecution fought hard to urge the judge to impose a mandatory minimum five-year sentence.

Watch Reason TV's coverage of the press conference that followed yesterday's decision:

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MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia debates the failure of the war on marijuana and the benefits of taxation and regulation on CNBC Power Lunch. Also on the show was Asa Hutchinson, former head of the DEA. 03/20/2009

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Today, I've been doing a lot of thinking about Charles C. Lynch – a man who you must have already heard about here or in any number of news stories about his case. Charlie is one of the last victims of George Bush’s war on medical marijuana.

This is a man who complied with every state and local medical marijuana law and was even told by federal officials that they would leave him alone so long as he complied with these statutes. What Charlie didn’t expect was for a rogue county sheriff to call in the DEA to arrest and prosecute him under draconian federal marijuana laws, after being frustrated by California’s state law that should have protected him.

On Monday, Charlie faces sentencing on five counts of federal drug crimes in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He is facing up to 20 years in prison for helping sick and dying patients to obtain their medicine in a safe, clean setting. 

Charlie's sentencing comes only five days after U.S. Attorney General Holder confirmed that the nation’s policy on medical marijuana has changed for the better.

[caption id="attachment_369" align="alignright" width="373" caption="Charlie posing with a supporter during a rally at the Los Angeles federal courthouse, October 2008"][/caption]

All of us here at MPP – and indeed anyone who has ever met Charlie – are feeling a little sick right now thinking of what this good man is going through. Hopefully Charlie's judge is also sympathetic and will take state law – not to mention the recent policy change at the DOJ –  into consideration before handing down a sentence.

Charlie’s tragic story is a painful reminder of just how important our work is and how our destructive marijuana policy affects people's real lives, every day.

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There appears to be a problem with Americans' peripheral vision that makes us unable to see anything to our south. However, the real, hot drug war raging in Mexico has finally bubbled to the point where even we can't miss it.

We probably never would have noticed – nor even acknowledged the role played by Americans' insatiable appetite for illicit drugs including marijuana, which makes up about 60% of Mexico's drug trade – if it weren't for the inevitable expansion of that war into our own country.

The explosion of violence, most recently reported by The Washington Post, is shocking and heartbreaking. One thousand dead just this year. Two thousand guns flowing into Mexico from the United States every day. Mexican drug cartels operating in more than 230 U.S. cities, up from 50 as recently as 2006.

And federal law enforcement's take on this spiraling chaos?

"The violence we see is actually a signpost of success," Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence official Anthony P. Placido told the Post.

Now, I admit that international drug enforcement is not my area of expertise, but I seem to remember from my own stint in the military that we usually considered increasing violence to be a bad thing.

I'd be willing to write this off to being just one DEA guy with a tin ear and a delusional, rosy outlook, but this isn't the first time federal law enforcement has made this assertion. In February, an anonymous official told the Wall Street Journal, "If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence" in Mexico.

So we could reduce the demand for illegal drugs – and therefore the violence associated with their trade -- by ending marijuana prohibition and regulating the drug's manufacture and sale in the U.S. Except that would be seen by our federal law enforcement officials as a failure.

Maybe it's just me, but I could accept that kind of failure.

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MPP executive director Rob Kampia will appear on CNBC's "Power Lunch" to discuss U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's recent statements about medical marijuana and the economic benefits of changing our marijuana laws. The segment featuring Rob should begin shortly after 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

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For years federal officials have been trying to scare Americans, especially parents, into believing that marijuana is dangerously addictive. Former drug czar John Walters loved to deploy frightening statistics, as when he told the Cincinnati Post in 2005,  "Nationwide, the number of teens seeking treatment for marijuana abuse or dependency was higher than for all illegal drugs combined."

But the latest federal report on drug treatment admissions, released this week, shows that the majority of those in treatment for alleged marijuana abuse or dependence didn't seek treatment at all: They were forced into it.

According to the new report, which covers 2007 admissions, only 14.8% of marijuana treatment admissions involved people of any age checking themselves in to get help.  That compares to 36.1% for smoked cocaine users and 58.1% for heroin users. And in contrast to those in treatment for these truly addictive drugs, 56.9% of marijuana treatment admissions were generated by the criminal justice system. That is, people -- mostly young people -- got arrested for marijuana, were offered treatment instead of jail and, understandably, chose treatment.

A few other interesting tidbits about those in treatment for supposed marijuana abuse or dependence: They're disproportionately young, with over 40% aged 19 or under (as compared to 1.7% for cocaine and 2.7% for heroin). They're more likely than those  in treatment for other drugs to be employed, which is particularly startling given that so many are so young they're still in school. And they're far more likely than users of other drugs to be receiving outpatient treatment, with only 2.2% receiving inpatient detoxification, compared to 16.8% for smoked cocaine, 30% for alcohol, and 33% for heroin.

All in all, this is a portrait of a population that bears little or no resemblance to a group of addicts. The majority appears to be receiving drug abuse treatment they don't need in order to satisfy a legal system gone mad.

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When medical use of marijuana is illegal, it's not just the patients themselves who get hurt. Today's Chicago Tribune reports the story of police dispatcher Laura Llanes, whose aunt is battling breast cancer and suffering the side effects of chemotherapy.

Llanes told the paper that her aunt was "sick constantly, not eating, not having an appetite. She is diabetic. She has to eat. She was whittling away to nothing." So she obtained three joints worth of marijuana for her aunt, and it helped.

But when Llanes told a co-worker about it, word got to her supervisors, and now she's out of a job -- collateral damage in America's ongoing war on the sick.

On the bright side, medical marijuana legislation is under consideration in Illinois. To find out how you can help -- and especially if you live in Illinois -- please visit our Illinois page.

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MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia discusses the failure of the drug war and the benefits of ending marijuana prohibition with Al Roker on MSNBC. 03/15/2009

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There are a lot of colorful characters who, for fun and profit, devote their lives to prolonging the war on marijuana users, no matter how much damage it causes to society or how little it does to stem drug trade violence.

Many of these drug warriors are clearly unhinged, their views informed more by blind zealotry than by sober policy analysis. That's why I hesitate to post this video of longtime anti-drug culture warrior Joyce Nalepka attempting to disrupt a recent MPP-sponsored press conference regarding faulty drug tests administered by law enforcement. After all, there are shaky folks on all sides of the marijuana policy debate, and I don't think it's right to single out the clowns on such a serious matter.

However, as Nalepka herself points out in this exchange with MPP's Rob Kampia, she has drug policy experience – if not expertise – and the larger, federal drug war establishment hasn't exactly tried to disassociate itself from her. She's president of Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge and was once president of the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth, which Nancy Reagan chaired during her husband's presidency.

So who am I to protect her if she wants to make a fool of herself? Here she is, squaring off against Rob, in all her indignant, delusional glory ... 

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