In what turns out, sadly, to be the last episode of CNN's "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News," aired Mar. 28 and 29, D.L. devoted a large block of the show to proposals to make marijuana a legally regulated and taxed product for adult consumption. The first segment included an interview with yours truly, followed by Ronald Brooks of the Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition, who wants to keep arresting and jailing marijuana users.

MPP Director of Government Relations Aaron Houston talks about President Obama's flippant response to the question of decriminalizing marijuana at the first "Online Town Hall" on Russia Today. He also discusses how taxing and regulating marijuana will help quell the violence associated with the drug war in Mexico and provide a much-needed boost to the economy. 03/27/2009

White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs is asked to clarify President Obama's position on legalizing marijuana and on medical marijuana after he brought up the topic in the first Online Town Hall. Questions involving marijuana reform appeared in several categories and received far more votes than any other policy issue. 03/26/2009

A week after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would only target marijuana growers and collectives that were in violation of BOTH state and federal law, the DEA raided Emmalyn's California Cannabis

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…