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.

     California state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) today announced the introduction of legislation to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcoholic beverages. The bill, the first of its kind ever introduced in California, would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for beer, wine, and liquor, permitting taxed sales to adults while barring sales to or possession by those under 21.        Estimates based on federal government statistics have shown marijuana to…

One of the arguments regularly raised against medical marijuana is that THC is available in pill form, so -- according to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other opponents -- patients don't need that nasty weed, which has all sorts of other stuff in it. The problem with that argument is that some of that "other stuff" is really useful, not to mention remarkably safe.  For example, an article recently published onlineby the journal Phytotherapy Research reviews the many beneficial effects of…