Progressive political blog FireDogLake launched its online marijuana legalization campaign yesterday. Complete with a website and an advisory board that includes former law enforcement officers, physicians, and activists, the campaign—called “Just Say Now”—is designed as a “transpartisan” nexus of sorts for the growing nationwide movement to end marijuana prohibition.
Partnering with FDL for the campaign is Students For Sensible Drug Policy, which recently made an excellent decision by naming our…
Rep. Mark Souder (R-Indiana), perhaps the most fanatic opponent of sensible marijuana laws in the U.S. Congress, announced that he is resigning this morning amid revelations that he had an affair with a 45-year-old staffer.
Souder, who was preparing to run for his ninth term in office, has spent the last 16 years fighting for cruel and unscientific drug policies, many of which have caused irreparable harm to his country and his constituents. Among the lowlights:
In defiance of mountains of evidence…
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…
Tonight at 8:40 p.m. Eastern time, MPP director of government relations Aaron Houston will debate former Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson on "CNBC Reports." The debate airs right before the premier of CNBC's documentary about the marijuana business, "Marijuana Inc.: Inside America's Pot Industry." The live debate will only be shown once (the documentary will repeat at 1 a.m. Eastern), but will also be available on CNBC's Web site.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected the decision of Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner and blocked a medical marijuana research project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst -- a project considered vital if marijuana is ever to be an FDA-approved medicine. The DEA's ruling, dated Jan. 7, was only released today.
MPP and other supporters of research reacted with outrage. "It's no surprise that an administration that has rejected science again and again has,…
The latest Crime in the United States report from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program is out, and the news is disturbing. Marijuana arrests set another all-time record in 2007, totaling 872,720 -- that's a marijuana arrest every 36 seconds.
Arrests for marijuana possession totaled 775,138, greatly exceeding arrests for all violent crimes combined, which totaled 597,447.
Bizarrely, at his recent press conference announcing new drug use survey data, White House drug czar John Walters stated,…
