MPP's video ad that began airing Friday on a jumbotron outside the NASCAR Brickyard 400 was pulled later that afternoon by the media company that owns the video screen. Grazie Media, which had solicited the ad from MPP, approved its content, and accepted payment for it, reportedly came under fire from marijuana prohibitionist organizations such as Save Our Society From Drugs, which claimed the ad's message that marijuana is safer than alcohol was false and misleading. In a statement, MPP's Mason…

NASCAR fans attending this weekend's Brickyard 400 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be greeted by an MPP video ad in support of making marijuana legal for adults. It is scheduled to air dozens of times on a jumbotron outside the entrance of the speedway, which will be "the epicenter of American stock car racing and North American sports car racing" this weekend, according to the event's website. The ad, which is already getting national media attention, is reminiscent of a beer commercial…

Despite the fact that black and white Americans use marijuana in comparable numbers, a new analysis of federal data performed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that blacks were nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2010. The report is the most comprehensive national examination of marijuana arrests by race and by county. According to the ACLU: "The aggressive enforcement of marijuana possession laws needlessly ensnares hundreds of thousands…

Things are looking good for a medical marijuana bill introduced in the New Hampshire legislature. The Concord Monitor reports: In advance of a hearing this week on a bill to legalize medical marijuana, a UNH-WMUR poll shows that 79 percent of New Hampshire adults support allowing doctors to recommend marijuana for patients suffering from serious illnesses. [emphasis added] This year's bill, H.B. 573, is similar to a medical marijuana measure that passed last year with bipartisan support. Unfortunately,…

Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland) is seeking to make Maine the third state in the country to legalize and regulate the adult use of marijuana. The measure would allow anyone 21 or older to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from a licensed retailer. Sen. Russell discussed the bill and its advantages on MPBN’s Maine Watch: State lawmakers will debate the bill this spring. If the measure makes it through the legislature, it’ll be sent to referendum. MPP's Maine Political Director, David Boyer, has…

There’s some big news coming out of Washington, D.C.: On Tuesday, congressmen from Oregon and Colorado introduced two historic federal marijuana reform bills to Congress. Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013. If passed, the bill would remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and institute a system similar to the alcohol regulatory structure that federally regulates marijuana. It would also transfer jurisdiction over marijuana…

The law overwhelmingly passed by Massachusetts voters in November officially went into effect on January 1, joining 17 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing the seriously ill to use marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. Nearly a third of the U.S. population can now access medical marijuana if they have a qualifying condition! While the people of Massachusetts are generally quite pleased about this, local governments are trying to delay implementation of the new law until the Department…

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, and our failed experiment with alcohol prohibition was put to rest. Americans grew tired of the ever-worsening violence associated with the rise of the criminal alcohol market that developed in the absence of a legally recognized and properly regulated industry. As a society, we came to realize that the dangerous and unavoidable collateral markets created by prohibition were in fact more detrimental to society…

When the San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers face off in game one of the World Series tonight, it will be the first time two teams from different medical marijuana states meet in the Fall Classic (The Giants and Angels played an intrastate series in ’02). There may be a smattering of Tigers fans in attendance, but unless they’re transplants living in California, they probably won’t be medical marijuana patients. When the series shifts to Detroit for game three, however, patients in California…

When a dedicated group of activists hoping to reform Springfield, Missouri’s punitive marijuana laws turned in thousands of signatures they had collected fair and square, they thought the next step would be for voters in Springfield to decide whether or not to support their proposal. In other words, they thought the initiative process works like common sense says it should. They were wrong. What happened next is an example of disenfranchisement so egregious it belongs in a work of fiction. The Springfield…