A new poll provides further evidence that an overwhelming majority of Rhode Island voters stand with us in supporting regulating marijuana like alcohol. The survey found that 3 out of 5 Rhode Islanders favor making marijuana legal for adults. It’s encouraging that support continues to steadily rise (in 2015, support was at 57%), but it’s critical that we keep pushing. The Legislature won’t act unless their constituents contact them. If you are a Rhode Island resident, please tell your lawmakers to…

A guest column from MPP's Mason Tvert appeared today in the Providence Journal in Rhode Island. An excerpt is below, and you can click here to read the entire piece. Few social movements have advanced as far and as fast over the past decade as marriage equality and marijuana policy reform. An October Gallup poll found a record-high 58 percent of Americans think it is time to make marijuana legal — a far cry from the 25 percent support when the same question was asked in 1995. In July, the pollster…

In an unexpected slap in the face to local medical marijuana patients, last week the Rhode Island Health Department announced that it had rejected all 15 applicants to open the state’s first medical marijuana compassion center. Officials were originally supposed to reward the first licenses in June, but postponed after a series of delays. Rhode Island’s law calls for at least one, and up to three compassion centers to provide patients with safe access to their medicine. So why weren’t any applications…

Ongoing efforts to reform marijuana laws in Rhode Island received a huge endorsement today from the state’s largest newspaper. In this editorial, the Providence Journal calls for the decriminalization of marijuana, writing that “[t]he pursuit of nonviolent marijuana users puts enormous strain on the justice system, feeds corruption and wastes taxpayer dollars that could have been used more effectively elsewhere.” This call for sensible marijuana reform comes just days before public hearings will…