On Tuesday, the campaign supporting the initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in California began running ads throughout the state urging voters to back Proposition 64.

Yes on 64 announced the ads in a press release this week:

The ads -- in a straightforward, fact-based way – highlight for California voters Proposition 64’s comprehensive approach to marijuana decriminalization, its toughest-in the-nation safeguards for families and local communities and its funding of important youth and job training programs.

To view the new ads, go to www.Yeson64.org 

“Californians overwhelmingly support replacing marijuana criminalization with a smarter, safer approach,” said Brian Brokaw, Campaign Manager for Yes on Proposition 64. “Proposition 64 is the most comprehensive, thoughtful marijuana policy in the nation and reflects the input of the hundreds of organizations and experts – and these ads are designed to straightforwardly communicate the vast safeguards and benefits of Proposition 64 to every voter in the state.”

Proposition 64 has been endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times and the Modesto Bee.

California Nurses Association recently joined the California Medical Association and the California Academy of Preventative Medicine in support of 64.

Other endorsers include: California League of Conservation Voters, California Council of Land Trusts, California State NAACP, California Democratic Party, Courage Campaign, Equality California, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, National Latino Officers Association, William C. Velasquez Institute and United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council.

Current and former elected officials in support include Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Sacramento Mayor-elect Darrell Steinberg, Democratic U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu and Jared Huffman, Republican U.S. Rep Dana Rohrabacher, State Senator Mark Leno, Assembly Speaker Emeritus Toni G. Atkins, Assemblymembers Rob Bonta, David Chiu, Susan Talamantes Eggman, Cristina Garcia, Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Kevin McCarty and Bill Quirk and Tom Campbell, the former Republican Congressman and Finance Director for the State of California.

The campaign in support of Question 2 in Nevada has launched a new ad campaign that highlights the ways in which regulating marijuana for adult use would benefit veterans and others who have difficulty accessing marijuana for therapeutic purposes via the existing medical program.

The ads — a statewide TV spot and several billboards appearing across the Las Vegas metro area — feature a Marine Corps veteran who substituted marijuana for prescription painkillers to alleviate pain associated with fractures in his leg began airing recently across Nevada to promote Question 2, which would regulate marijuana like alcohol for adults. The TV ad can be viewed below.

From the press release issued by the Yes on 2 campaign:

State Sen. Patricia Spearman (D – North Las Vegas) added: “As a veteran myself, I am very sympathetic to the plight of veterans who are suffering with pain, PTSD, or any other condition. If marijuana can help these veterans, I think it is our obligation to allow them to obtain the relief they deserve. If VA doctors are unable to provide recommendations to veterans so that they can obtain medical marijuana, there should be another option. A legal, adult-use marijuana market can address that need.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Sisvsv0pA]

The campaign in support of Prop. 205 in Arizona has unveiled a new billboard in downtown Phoenix that calls out the opposition campaign for running a "Reefer Madness" campaign "paid for with profits from opioid sales."

The ad refers to the "downright false" TV ads that are being run by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, a committee formed to oppose Prop. 205 that received a massive contribution from Insys Therapeutics, a local pharmaceutical company.

The Yes on 205 campaign also set the record straight in its first pair of TV ads, which recently began airing statewide. You can watch the latest ad below, or click here to view all of the ads that have been run thus far by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZErDn4EUlw]

The campaign in support of Question 1, the initiative to regulate and tax marijuana in Maine, held a news conference  this week to announce its final push before the election, including the launch of its first TV ad.

The ad features former Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion, who spent 32 years in law enforcement and understands as well as anyone why it is time to end marijuana prohibition. Watch the ad below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKI6GFfl1M4&w=560&h=315]

A Saint Leo University poll released in late September indicated public support for an amendment that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in Florida. Amendment 2 will allow Florida doctors to legally recommend medical marijuana to their patients with debilitating illnesses.

Passage of Amendment 2 also authorizes the Department of Health to issue identification cards to patients and caregivers who qualify, as well as register and regulate facilities to produce and distribute marijuana for medical purposes.

Although a Florida amendment to legalize the use of medical marijuana in 2014 was unsuccessful, advocates are confident that voter support is much stronger this year. The favorability of the amendment has increased from 65%  in June to 68% in September. The amendment is required to get 60%  of the vote for it to pass into law. In 2014, it received 58%.

“It appears as though medical marijuana supporters will get the victory they were denied by voters in 2014.” Frank Orlando, director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute, said. "The higher the turnout among young voters, the better the chance that this amendment passes.”

Another poll released by the Florida Chamber of Commerce indicates that Amendment 2 is receiving 73% favorable support. The one take-away that voters supporting Amendment 2 have to consider is the importance of showing up to vote at the polls when it counts the most, on Election Day.

The Yes on 2 campaign working hard to maintain support and is currently working to raise money to counter an expansive campaign of misinformation by the much more well-funded opposition.

Backers of Initiated Ordinance 300 (I-300), a Denver ballot measure intended to permit cannabis consumption in certain private places in order to reduce it in public spaces, announced Tuesday that it had received several major political endorsements. The Democratic Party of Denver, New Era Colorado, State Sen. Irene Aguilar of Denver, and State Rep. Jonathan Singer have joined more than 100 local businesses and organizations that are encouraging Denver residents to vote “YES” on 300 to establish a Neighborhood-Supported Cannabis Consumption Pilot Program.

I-300 would permit certain private establishments to allow adult cannabis consumption in designated areas if they follow a number of guidelines. The city will only issue permits to establishments that have received formal support from their officially recognized neighborhood organization or business-improvement district. A full description of I-300 is available here.

I-300 received the support of nearly three-fourths of the voting members of the Denver Democratic Party’s Central Committee. Multiple precinct captains and party leaders spoke in favor of Initiative 300, while no members spoke in opposition. Sen. Aguilar was among party members who spoke in support of I-300, citing a need for places where tourists and residents can safely and legally consume cannabis if they do not have a private residence where they can do so.

[caption id="attachment_10077" align="alignright" width="200"] Del. David Moon[/caption]

The Marijuana Policy Project announced Wednesday that it is endorsing Del. David Moon for the Maryland Senate in District 20. The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee is expected to appoint a successor to Sen. Jamie Raskin, who is running for Congress.

As a member of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Delegates, David Moon has been an impassioned leader and a continuous advocate for marijuana policy reform, including acting as an important sponsor of legislation to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. While some Democratic members of the House were joining their Republican counterparts in co-sponsoring bills to recriminalize smoking in public, which would have continued the racially disparate enforcement of the criminal law against people of color, Del. Moon was trying to move Maryland’s policy forward.

For example, he introduced a bill to help victims of prohibition expunge past convictions for marijuana possession. This is especially important because African Americans in Maryland have historically been 2.9 times more likely to be arrested for possession despite very similar usage rates. Thus, Black Marylanders are more likely to be burdened with a criminal record that can derail their ability to get a job and cause other collateral consequences — an issue that was not addressed in the decriminalization bill.

Delegate Moon is as impassioned about bridge-building as he is about policy solutions. He regularly crosses the aisle to discuss key civil liberties and decriminalization issues with conservative colleagues from across the state.

The FBI just released its annual Crime in the United States report, detailing national crime data for 2015. According to the report, marijuana arrests are at a two decade low. This is definitely a good sign, but even one marijuana arrest is too many, and more than one marijuana arrest occurs every minute.

Huffington Post reports:

...authorities in the U.S. made 643,000 arrests for marijuana-related charges in 2015 ― or about one every 49 seconds. Charges related to the drug accounted for 5.9 percent of all arrests, and about 43.2 percent of all drug arrests. 

The number of marijuana arrests has been generally decreasing since peaking in 2007. That year, police made 872,720 total arrests related to the drug, including 775,137 for possession. Just about 574,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2015 involved possession, and arrests for the sale and manufacture of the drug reached a nearly 25-year low.

...

Opponents to legalization often downplay the significance of marijuana arrests, arguing that they don’t lead to severe punishments and that a very small percentage of Americans wind up jailed for low-level marijuana offenses. 

Yet a recent report from the Drug Policy Alliance found that getting arrested for marijuana can still significantly affect a person, even though marijuana-related penalties have been scaled back in many places over recent years. 

“A marijuana arrest is no small matter,” reads the report, which also shows that most people arrested for marijuana are held in jail for a day or more. Many are also branded with a permanent criminal record, which can hurt their employment status and access to education and housing. 

Additionally, a one-year HuffPost analysis of jail deaths found that several inmates arrested on a marijuana offense died behind bars.

Such arrests are also costly ― authorities spend approximately $3.6 billion annually enforcing laws against marijuana possession, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

With five states considering initiatives to regulate marijuana like alcohol in November, another three voting on medical marijuana initiatives, and lobbying efforts planned in dozens of states next year, we could start to see those numbers drop even more in the coming years. There is still much work to do.