After MPP passed the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Michigan and the marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts -- both on November 4 -- I thought the MPP staff might get a little downtime to regroup for the 2009-2010 election cycle. Not so. In the last four months, the MPP staff and our allies have been working almost nonstop to respond to -- and take advantage of -- the many opportunities that have been presenting themselves across the country. I've never seen so much…

Has the dam finally broken on medical marijuana? It sure seems like efforts to protect medical marijuana patients are on the march across the U.S. In Illinois, where medical marijuana legislation has failed to pass for several years running, this year's bill just got out of committee in the state House of Representatives for the first time ever. Medical marijuana bills are also steadily advancing in Minnesota and New Jersey. Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, which has had a medical marijuana law since…

Marijuana Policy Project's Aaron Houston, Director of Government Relations, is interviewed on Russia Today about the benefits of taxing and regulating marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol.

  On Sunday night, CBS's "60 Minutes" did a grimly fascinating piece on the escalating drug war in Mexico. Reported by Anderson Cooper (whose day job, of course, is at CNN), the piece was as notable for what it didn't cover as what it did. Like most recent media coverage of the growing carnage along our southern border, the "60 Minutes" story carefully tiptoed around the proverbial elephant in the room. That elephant, of course, is prohibition. Here is a piece of what I wrote in a letter to Cooper…

The National Academy of Public Administration just released a devastating Senate-commissioned report detailing the failures of the drug czar's office during the Bush administration. Here are a few key findings from the report: 1) That the drug czar's obsession with youth marijuana use hindered the office's ability to construct a more coherent overall strategy for drug policy

 2) That the drug czar's office manipulated data to exaggerate -- and in some cases fabricate -- progress in reducing drug…

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced the White House's policy that federal resources shouldn't be wasted raiding medical marijuana dispensaries that operate within state law yesterday in a Justice Department press conference. You already know this, but considering that the DEA has conducted hundreds of these stupid raids over the past several years, this is a very big deal for medical marijuana patients and fans of compassion and sanity.

Attorney General Eric Holder reaffirms President Obama's campaign promise to end the raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in California, calling it now "American policy".

MPP executive director Rob Kampia will be interviewed by Fox News' Glenn Beck today about California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's bill to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol. The show airs starting at 5 p.m. Eastern time. While TV schedules are always subject to last-minute change, we're told Rob should be on at about 5:20 p.m. Eastern.

From time to time we hear dubious claims that marijuana is carcinogenic, even though there's abundant evidence that marijuana's active components are actually pretty potent anti-cancer drugs. That alcohol is a far more serious cancer risk is underlined by this Washington Post story about a massive new British study  -- involving 1.3 million women -- indicating that even a single drink per day can increase the risk of many types of cancers. The researchers estimate that booze could account for as…

Rob Kampia, executive director of MPP, is interviewed by Glenn Beck about the California bill introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol.