Gil Kerlikowske, the man tasked with “protecting” our nation from the “dangers” of marijuana, appears to be supremely uneducated about the substance. In a recent speech [pdf] to – hold on to your chair for the surprise – the California Police Chiefs Association, Kerlikowske defended the continuation of marijuana prohibition forever into the future by talking about the social costs of an entirely different substance – alcohol.
The tax revenue collected from alcohol pales in comparison to the costs…
Joseph Casias, 29, has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor.
Despite his condition, he has dutifully gone to work every day for the last five years at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, where in 2008 he was named Associate of the Year.
Casias is also a legal medical marijuana patient under Michigan state law. He uses marijuana with the recommendation of his doctor to relieve the effects of cancer.
But Wal-Mart, the world’s largest public corporation, has no sympathy for his condition or…
For decades, advocates of marijuana policy reform have argued that a regulated and taxed marijuana market would generate revenue for government on the local, state and federal levels. There have even been studies projecting tax revenues from marijuana sales at $6.2 billion and even $31 billion annually.
Occasionally – although far too rarely – we have even seen elected officials reference the possible revenue-generating benefits of a legal marijuana market. But today we read something that we can’t…
Twenty-four-year-old American Ivory Williams—one of the fastest 100-meter sprinters in the world—will not be allowed to compete on the U.S. Team for this year’s World Indoor Championships.
His offense? He tested positive for marijuana. Now Williams, who just last month ran the fastest 60 meters in the world, will be ineligible to compete for the next three months and will have to complete an anti-doping educational program.
It’s simply maddening to see a 24-year-old world-class athlete get sidelined…
Talk about seeing the error of his ways.
John J. Dilulio, Jr., the man who once co-authored a book with two former drug czars that described America’s drug war as “the most successful attack on a serious social problem in the last quarter-century,” has now reversed course, writing in the journal Democracy that it is “insane” to “expend scarce federal, state, and local law enforcement resources waging ‘war’ against [marijuana] users.”
Specifically, Dilulio, who served for eight months in 2001 as director…
In a fantastic example of how much the times have changed, the front-page, above-the-fold story in this morning’s USA Today, the “nation’s newspaper,” is about the “growing national movement” to reform marijuana laws.
Quoting numerous voices from within the marijuana policy reform movement, including MPP’s Kurt Gardinier, the piece highlights the growing public support for ending marijuana prohibition, paying particular attention to the many states that have passed or proposed legislation to allow…
Since 1965 over 20 million Americans have been arrested for a marijuana related charge, and that number grows by two about every minute. You heard me right. Someone in this country is arrested on a marijuana charge every 36 seconds--clearly marijuana prohibition isn’t working. But we can’t relent. We need to keep letting our government know how we feel.
For the second year in a row we have an opportunity to let the Obama administration know what ideas are most important to us. Last year ending marijuana…
When U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last year that the federal Department of Justice would no longer prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers complying with state law, reform advocates cheered it as the greatest victory in over a decade.
The shift in federal policy was indeed a breakthrough for the medical marijuana movement, but did little good for Bryan Epis of Chico, California.
Last week, a federal judge ordered Bryan to prison for a 2002 conviction involving 100 marijuana…
In the latest sign of a growing embrace of medical marijuana by the business community in this country, a California-based insurer said this week that it will now offer medical marijuana-related coverage in all 50 states.
A spokesman for Statewide Insurance Services said the new program will include operations related to medical marijuana dispensaries and growers, including workers’ compensation, general liability, auto insurance, equipment breakdown and damage, and property or product loss—including…