President Obama addressed the idea of taxing and regulating marijuana at an online town hall event today. His words: “No, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.” Clearly, he got that wrong. But that isn’t everything. The president himself, not the moderator who was reading questions submitted via whitehouse.gov, raised the topic. His answer was prefaced with the recognition that this was a “fairly popular question.” Actually, it was the most popular question, by far. Yet the president…

Yesterday, armed federal DEA agents raided Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic, a licensed medical marijuana facility in San Francisco. This action - seemingly at odds with the recent policy change announced by the U.S. Justice Department - drew the ire of San Franciscans, who overwhelmingly support medical marijuana access. [caption id="attachment_408" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="DEA raids S.F. medical marijuana collective, photo by MPP's Troy Dayton - March 25, 2009 "][/caption] According…

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…

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,…

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

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…

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…

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.

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…

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…