A measure seeking to make personal marijuana possession and cultivation legal for adults appears to be headed to California’s November 2010 ballot. Proponents of the initiative -- led by Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee -- say they have more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot next year.

The initiative, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, would allow adults over 21 to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and cultivate a garden of up to 25 square feet. It would give local governments the ability to tax and regulate the distribution of marijuana but also would allow them to ban local sales. Language in the proposal leaves the state legislature the option to set up a statewide regulatory system for legal marijuana sales.

Ultimately MPP seeks a system under which marijuana is taxed and regulated throughout the state similarly to alcohol, but any relief from the misery of marijuana prohibition will be a good thing for Californians. Passage of this initiative would surely be a step in the right direction.

This measure is one of four marijuana reform initiatives circulating in California. However, the three others are relying on volunteer petitioners and seem to be far less likely to collect the 433,971 valid signatures needed to qualify in time for the 2010 ballot.

For more information or to become involved in the initiative campaign, visit TaxCannabis2010.org.

MPP spokesman Mike Meno discusses implementation of a medical marijuana program in Washington D.C. and the benefits it will have for seriously ill patients in the District. 12/14/2009

Tobacco kills at least 5 million people every year and the number could rise to 8 million by 2030, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization.  By contrast, there is not a single record of someone dying from using marijuana.  So, why is the extremely dangerous and lethal substance legal and the safer substance, sometimes used as medicine, illegal?

MPP spokesman Aaron Houston appears on ABC 7 Washington D.C. to discuss the Congressional approval of a budget that will allow medical marijuana in the District of Columbia. D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative to allow medical access to marijuana in 1998, but were prevented from implementing it until now by the Barr amendment. 12/14/2009

The federal government just released the latest ‘Monitoring the Future’ survey of teen drug use, and the results do not bode well for current policies. More high school seniors report smoking marijuana in the past 30 days than smoked cigarettes: 20.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent. And marijuana use is up (albeit in the same general range it’s been in for several years) while teen cigarette smoking continues to decline, and has dropped markedly since the early ‘90s.

Regulation of tobacco, combined with solid educational campaigns, has clearly cut youth access to cigarettes. It’s time for officials to take off their blinders and apply those same proven policies to marijuana.

Oh, and just in case someone tries to blame medical marijuana laws for the rise in teen marijuana use, use by teens has actually gone down in the medical marijuana states.

The U.S. Senate today passed historic legislation to end the decade-long ban on implementing a medical marijuana law in Washington, D.C. This marks the first time in history Congress has changed a marijuana law for the better. Only Obama’s signature is needed for the change to become law.

This is not only a huge victory for medical marijuana patients in the nation’s capital, it marks a historic shift on the medical marijuana issue nationwide. This is the first time Congress has given its assent to a state or local law that permits medical use of marijuana. Coming on top of the announcement that the Justice Department will no longer interfere with state medical marijuana laws, this shows that the ground has fundamentally shifted.

Before the D.C. law can go into effect, the city council will need to transmit the original 1998 initiative to Congress for a 30-day review period, which is not expected to present an obstacle. The law will take effect at the conclusion of this review, and the D.C. government will then be charged with creating regulations to govern the implementation of the initiative’s language.

It seems that Congress is finally listening to voters, who have supported protection for medical marijuana patients for well over a decade, as well as to the medical community’s growing recognition of marijuana’s medical value. Lifting the ban on D.C.’s law falls far short of sweeping, national reform, but it is surely a sign of good things to come.

Check out this point/counterpoint on medical marijuana on the new medical Web site, Pain.com. They tell us that as of this morning it was the most popular item on the site.

The following clip aired last night on "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.

One of the more outrageous and gut-wrenching trials involving marijuana in recent memory is taking place right now in New Jersey. Somerville resident John Wilson, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and treats himself with marijuana he grows, is being charged with operating a drug manufacturing facility, even though there is no evidence to show that Wilson supplied marijuana to anyone but himself.

Edward R. Hannaman, a board member of Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey, describes this horrendous injustice as such:

“Outrageously, but understandably, the prosecution desperately wants jurors to be denied all the truly relevant facts. It has fought to forbid Wilson from mentioning his disease, that marijuana has been proven to be an effective palliative for multiple sclerosis, that he was using it solely for that purpose, that 13 other states have legalized it for that purpose and that New Jersey is about to. All the jurors will be allowed to hear is evidence proving Wilson ‘manufactured’ marijuana. This is the type of injustice one is accustomed to seeing in a dictatorship -- not in America.”

The U.S. House of Representatives just voted 221-202 on the omnibus spending bill, which will allow Washington, D.C. to implement its medical marijuana law. The Senate will now take up the legislation; we expect it to pass there without any alterations. President Obama will sign the bill into law once the Senate has acted.

We expect all of this to happen very quickly; Congress and the president have until December 18 to finalize the legislation.