As summer winds toward an end, it's time for the government's annual drug surveys to start coming out.  The first, being released Sept. 4, is the biggest federally-sponsored drug use survey, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Typically this is followed a few weeks later by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports -- not a drug survey per se, but the definitive annual accounting of marijuana arrests (which set yet another new record in the UCR report released last fall). Then, typically in December,…

Noting that his just-announced vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has acknowledged having smoked marijuana, MPP is urging Sen. John McCain to respect states' rights to set their own marijuana policies if he is elected president. On Aug. 6, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported: Palin said she has smoked marijuana -- remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law -- but says she didn't like it and doesn't smoke it now.  'I can't claim a Bill Clinton…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi answered questions yesterday submitted via the popular social news Web site, Digg.com.  Digg user adroit asked Pelosi, “[a]s a taxable resource, what stops marijuana from being legalized, for medicinal or recreational purposes, throughout the country?” “I myself have supported medicinal use of marijuana over and over again … there just isn’t enough support for it,” said Speaker Pelosi.  She then called on the public to help raise awareness about the issue, saying, “We need people’s…

At its August meeting, the 57-year-old Society for the Study of Social Problems passed a strong resolution in support of medical marijuana. SSSP's resolution goes further than some other groups have gone by specifically endorsing key legislative proposals in Congress. As the new resolutions haven't yet been posted on the SSSP Web site, here is the text in full:  2008 RESOLUTION APPROVED AT THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS AUGUST 1 BUSINESS MEETING Resolution: Medical Marijuana From:…

The sometimes-chaotic medical marijuana situation in California has spurred a fair amount of sensationalized and unbalanced press coverage, even in the esteemed New Yorker. Yes, there have been some problems and some misuse of the law, but an editorial in today's L.A. Times hits the nail on the head as to the real source of the problems: Most of the negative consequences [of Proposition 215] can be attributed to the gap between state and federal marijuana laws. The fact that even sellers considered…

It looks like the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will make taxpayers foot the bill for their lesson in constitutionality yet again, voting yesterday to continue their futile lawsuit against state medical marijuana laws. Although it hasn't been a problem for 40 other California counties, the board maintains that federal law prevents them from obeying a state law requiring a county identification card system for medical marijuana patients. The board – along with their counterparts in San…

A common source of frustration for MPP – and for most folks in the marijuana policy reform movement – is being mischaracterized as "pro-pot" or "pro-drug" by the press. Not only are these labels misleading and politically charged, they're completely inaccurate. Most of us who wish to end marijuana prohibition do so because we see the policy's utter futility and its legacy of failure and waste. Our argument isn't that marijuana is fun; it's that marijuana prohibition is a disaster, and that perpetuating…

Never fear, we're not asking readers to support the annual exercise in futility known as marijuana "eradication," which is now in full swing as summer nears an end and harvest season approaches. Not only has there never been the slightest indication that these campaigns reduce the marijuana supply -- the supposed objective -- but the U.S. Department of Justice's own National Drug Threat Assessment 2008 indicates that "eradication" campaigns directed at outdoor farms are actually driving a shift to…

While some medical uses of marijuana remain controversial, a new study of marijuana and HIV-related neuropathy published online in early August by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology closes the case regarding one important indication: neuropathic pain.  Neuropathic pain -- pain from damage to the nerves -- can be caused by any number of conditions, including HIV (as in this study), diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. And it is notoriously resistant to conventional pain drugs, as the article notes.…

Today's Associated Press story on a group of college presidents proposing reconsideration of the legal drinking age is accompanied in some outlets by a fascinating graph, reproduced here. Two things are striking: 1) The number of alcohol poisoning deaths in the U.S. each year is shockingly high, consistently between 300 and 400. The number of annual deaths from marijuana poisoning remains -- as always -- zero. 2) The number of alcohol poisoning deaths spiked just as the U.S. government started…