Get Tickets for MPP's Party at the Playboy Mansion Now

Tickets are on sale for MPP's fundraising party at the Playboy Mansion, which takes place June 4, 2009. Get yours here.

MPP-TV VIDEOS

Two-Minute Truths: Marijuana and Lung Cancer
Two-Minute Truths: The Gateway Myth
Just How Bizarre is Our Drug Czar?
Dr. Wagoner Speaks from the Heart: Yes on Prop 1 in MI
Robin Prosser: A Tribute
Lies in the War on Marijuana
Rachel Hoffman: A Cautionary Tale

In the News

MPP Says Michigan and Massachusetts Initiatives Signal "Sea Change"
Michigan voters said yes to medical marijuana by a ratio of nearly 2-1. ... Michigan is the 13th state to allow medical use of marijuana. ... Massachusetts voters on Nov. 4 approved the first statewide measure to decriminalize marijuana ... Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project ... said the efforts in Michigan and in Massachusetts demonstrate a "sea change" in public attitudes ... "Last year an American was arrested on marijuana charges once every 36 seconds, which is more arrests for marijuana possession alone than for all violent crimes combined." Kampia said in a press release. "Voters have loudly said, 'Enough!' ... "Marijuana prohibition is about to take its place next to alcohol Prohibition on the ash heap of history." (November 16, 2008)

Op-Ed Cites Michigan Medical Marijuana Initiative As Example of "Pure Democracy"
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "We pray to be conventional. But the wary Heaven takes care you shall not be, if there is any good in you." Regarding Ballot Question 2 to decriminalize an ounce or less of marijuana, many a politician's prayers to be conventional were answered. Instead of "together we can" or "change you can believe in" ... [too many] politicians in massive unison took a platform of "together you won't" and "more of the same." And then something funny happened. In Berkshire County, Question 2 was overwhelmingly supported. (November 10, 2008)

MPP Quoted on Wisconsin Considering Medical Marijuana
People who support using marijuana for medical purposes in Wisconsin hope a Michigan proposition could have a ripple effect in the Badger state. ... Twelve other states and Michigan allow severely ill patients to use marijuana in their treatment. ... "The federal government has been hostile to these laws," said Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that lobbied for the Michigan law. "But a quarter of the country now allows it." ... Groups including the Wisconsin Nurses Association and the Wisconsin Public Health Association support the legalization of medical marijuana. (November 8, 2008)

Hawaii County Makes Marijuana Lowest Law Enforcement Priority
Voters approved the [Hawaii County] measure [making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority] 34,957 to 25,464 in Tuesday's election. It was one of several victories for advocates of less punitive marijuana penalties. ... Other cities that have previously passed "lowest priority" initiatives in recent years include Denver, Seattle and Eureka Springs, Ark., as well as the California cities of Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Oakland. In San Francisco and West Hollywood, similar measures were passed by elected officials. (November 8, 2008)

MPP Quoted on Absurdity of New Drug Czar Ads
"Become a Burrito Taster!" screams its latest print ad [from ONDCP], designed to look like an old-school comic book pitch. ... The punchline comes at the bottom: "[T]here aren't many jobs out there for potheads." ... It's all a bit much for the folks at a Marijuana Policy Project ... "We couldn't make this stuff up," said Bruce Mirken, MPP's director of communications. ... On MPP's blog, Mirken continues: "By the way, jobs held by people who’ve acknowledged smoking marijuana include governor of California (Arnold Schwarzenegger), astronomer (Carl Sagan), mayor of New York (Michael Bloomberg), billionaire rock star/songwriter (Paul McCartney), and — well, you get the point." (November 7, 2008)

MPP Blog

Who Says Drug Warriors Can’t Be Funny?

Folks, it’s official: Opposition to safe, legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients has dwindled to the point where only the most obnoxious blowhards like Bill O’Reilly even bother stoking it. Here he is spouting off on the latest lie from the White House drug czar’s office that medical marijuana dispensaries outnumber Starbucks coffee [...]

Published: Nov 20, 2008 10:41 AM CST

More on ONDCP’s Nonsense About San Francisco Dispensaries

This little brouhaha is generating a lot of attention. Now Wired News weighs in with an amusing item. But it’s important to remember that this is serious stuff. While ONDCP continues to denounce medical marijuana as a “fraud,” here’s what the city of San Francisco’s health director, Dr. Mitchell Katz, had to say about federal raids [...]

Published: Nov 19, 2008 04:18 PM CST

Blog Wars Episode V: The Empire’s Hacks

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle’s “City Insider” blog picked up my last post about ONDCP’s spurious claims that San Francisco houses more medical marijuana facilities than Starbucks shops. A senior health inspector for the city told The Chronicle that ONDCP’s claim that nearly 100 medical marijuana facilities are operating downtown was “extremely incorrect.” The city [...]

Published: Nov 18, 2008 07:40 PM CST

Marijuana, Drugs, and Pregnancy Complications — Could Other Factors Be the Culprit?

Use of marijuana and other illicit drugs by women who are pregnant is a cause of great controversy and some political grandstanding. In a few cases, this has led to draconian actions, including felony prosecutions of women in Texas. Such actions are justified by studies that show that use of drugs such as marijuana or cocaine [...]

Published: Nov 17, 2008 04:00 PM CST

Lies, damned lies

Just one day before Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved their state’s medical marijuana ballot measure, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) falsely claimed that there are currently 98 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in downtown San Francisco. After drawing attention to the ONDCP’s boldface lie here on our blog, I decided to check in [...]

Published: Nov 12, 2008 04:29 PM CST

“Medical Marijuana Linked to Crime” — Oh, Really?

A news story from a Bend, Oregon TV station bears the alarming headline, “Medical Marijuana’s Link to Crime.” As this is becoming a recurring subgenre of local news stories, it bears some comment. The gist of this and similar stories is that sometimes people who possess or grow medical marijuana get robbed. Well, sure. So do [...]

Published: Nov 11, 2008 12:31 PM CST

ONDCP’s Ad Agency Peddles Booze to Kids

Yesterday we told you about a bizarre new anti-marijuana ad campaign from the increasingly beleaguered shop of White House drug czar John Walters. Well, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, things just get curiouser and curiouser. It turns out the ad agency that put the new ads together is an outfit called McKinney. And according to McKinney’s Web [...]

Published: Nov 07, 2008 11:53 AM CST

Get Local

MPP tracks marijuana policy in all 50 states and at the federal level.

Member Center

Victims

The Naulls Family

Ronald Naulls already had two successful careers when he established the Healing Nations Collective in Corona in 2006 to save fellow patients the hours-long drive to Los Angeles for medicine. Although it was widely considered a model medical marijuana dispensary, DEA agents invaded the Naulls family's home and businesses on July 17, 2007. They arrested Ronald and turned his three young daughters over to county child protective services, which charged him and his wife with child endangerment.

Kathryn Johnston

Members of a Georgia narcotics investigation team shot and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a drug raid in her Atlanta home November 21, 2006.

Tyrone Brown

Tyrone Brown served 17 years of a life sentence for testing positive for marijuana while on probation for a $2 stickup committed when he was 17. No one involved was ever able to explain the severe penalty.

Carter Singleton

65-year-old Carter Singleton was arrested for cultivating marijuana in 2003. Carter, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2001, was using medical marijuana to stimulate his appetite, after chemotherapy treatments caused him to lose 80 pounds in 5 months.

Suzanne Pfeil

Suzanne Pfeil is a paraplegic who suffers from severe pain and muscle spasms linked to post-polio syndrome. On September 5, 2002, more than 20 armed federal agents raided her medical marijuana hospice, holding assault rifles to the heads of patients and their caregivers. When Pfeil was unable to stand, the agents handcuffed her behind her back and left her on the bed for several hours.

Gary Silva

Medical marijuana patient Gary Silva, who suffers from degenerative disk disease and nerve damage, was asleep in his Sky Valley, California home, when he heard a knock on the door. When Gary, who cultivated marijuana in his home on behalf of his patients' collective, went to undo the deadbolt, DEA agents kicked in the door. The force sent Gary sprawling to the floor, dislocating his shoulder and causing lacerations to his face.

Unnamed Florida college student

On June 6, 2003, a 19-year-old Alachua County, Florida, college student was raped by his cellmate as he served the first of four weekend sentences for delivering marijuana, a felony offense. The student's cellmate was a violent offender in jail awaiting trial on sexual battery charges; the two men shared a cell because of jail overcrowding.

Alberta Spruill

On May 16, 2003, 57-year-old Alberta Spruill died of a heart attack shortly after police mistakenly raided her Harlem, New York, apartment for drugs. The office of the city medical examiner attributed her death to "the stress and the fear that she experienced" during the raid.

Lester Siler

In July 2004, Lester Eugene Siler, 42, was brutalized by five rogue police officers in his Tennessee home. Siler, who is illiterate, was beaten and threatened with shooting and electrocution and had his head held underwater in a toilet after refusing to sign a search consent form that he could not read. Siler's wife caught the incident on an audiotape which was later used to convict all five officers.

Donald Scott

On October 2, 1992, 61-year-old Donald Scott was shot and killed by county sheriff's deputies on his ranch in Malibu, California. The deputies had a warrant claiming that Scott was growing thousands of marijuana plants on his property, but no marijuana plants were found. The federal government and Los Angeles County later settled a wrongful death lawsuit from Scott's family for $5 million.

Robin Prosser

Robin Prosser, of Missoula, Montana, used medical marijuana to treat an immunosuppressive disorder similar to lupus. Despite spending years in a successful fight to help establish a medical marijuana law in her state, federal authorities continued interfering with her access to medicine. On Oct. 18, 2007, after spending months in excruciating pain and unable to acquire the type and quality of medical marijuana she needed, Prosser took her own life.

Palm Beach County, Florida, school raid

Fifteen high school students in Palm Beach County, Florida, were arrested in January 2005 for selling drugs on school property. Some of the teens had sold as little as $10 worth of marijuana to undercover police officers who had befriended them. The teens, who will be tried as adults, face up to 15 years' imprisonment.

Don Nord

Though he was licensed in Colorado to use marijuana for medical purposes, 57-year-old Don Nord was arrested by DEA agents in 2003 and had his marijuana seized. Charges against Nord were eventually dismissed, but a federal court held in July 2005 that the DEA was not required to return his marijuana.

Cheryl Noel

In January 2005, 44-year-old Cheryl Noel was shot and killed by police officers raiding her Maryland home for drugs. Noel, who had been asleep when the raid started, came to her bedroom door with a gun — presumably in self-defense — and was shot and killed. Noel's husband, son, and a family friend staying in the house were charged with possession of a small quantity of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Jimmy Montgomery

Paraplegic medical marijuana patient Jimmy Montgomery was given a life sentence (later reduced to 10 years) for possessing two ounces of marijuana with intent to distribute. Evidence that he intended to distribute the marijuana came from a sheriff's deputy who was later convicted of embezzling seized property and assets.

Jonathan Magbie

Twenty-seven-year-old Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a Washington, D.C., jail. Magbie, a quadriplegic since age 4, used his chin to operate a motorized wheelchair and required a ventilator to help him breathe. The jail could not provide the medical help he needed, and by the time he was taken to a hospital, he was dead. Magbie was a first-time offender who told the judge that marijuana made him feel better and that he didn't think there was anything wrong with using it.

Rhiannon Kephart

In January 2005, 18-year-old Rhiannon Kephart received second- and third-degree burns to her chest and stomach when police set off a stun grenade during a drug raid. Kephart was not a target of the investigation.

Esequiel Hernandez

On May 20, 1997, 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez was shot in the back by U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexico border for drug smugglers. Hernandez, who was tending his family's herd of goats, bled to death. He was the first U.S. civilian to be killed by U.S. armed forces since the 1970 political protests at Kent State University.

Clayton Helriggle

On September 27, 2002, armed police officers raided a rural farmhouse in West Alexandria, Ohio, based on a tip from a convicted felon that there were drugs in the house. Nearly 30 officers, clad in body armor and riot shields, stormed the house with a battering ram and detonated stun grenades to disorient the occupants of the house. Awoken from his nap by the noise, 23-year-old Clayton Helriggle walked downstairs — allegedly with a gun — and was promptly shot in the chest by police. Two minutes later, he was dead in the arms of a roommate.

Goose Creek, South Carolina, School Raid

In November 2003, police officers with guns drawn swept through Stratford High School in South Carolina. Officers held guns to the backs of 130 students — a majority of whom were black though the school population is only 25% black — who were ordered to lie on the floor or kneel against lockers while police dogs sniffed for drugs. No drugs were found and no arrests were made.

MPP in the News

May 13, 2008 — MPP's Rob Kampia and Montel Williams discuss marijuana law reform on Fox Business News' "Happy Hour".

October 6, 2007 — Medical marijuana patient Clayton Holton asks GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney if he would end federal raids targeting patients in medical marijuana states during a forum in Dover, New Hampshire. Romney refused to answer Holton's question and walked away.

June 5, 2008 — MPP's Aaron Houston discusses the financial savings and potential revenue that could be generated by taxation and regulation of marijuana, on FOX Business News channel.

August 24, 2007 — MPP executive director Rob Kampia appeared on the Austin, Texas, ABC affiliate KVUE to discuss a new law allowing police the option of citing -- rather than arresting -- minor marijuana offenders. Each marijuana arrest costs Texas taxpayers an estimated $2,000 and takes a police officer off the street for four- to-six hours to book that nonviolent offender.

August 8, 2008 -- MPP's Dan Bernath discusses the portrayal of marijuana users in films and television on CNN Headline News' "Showbiz Tonight."

April 16, 2008 -- MPP's Neal Levine on CBS affiliate WCCO in Minneapolis, urging Minnesota lawmakers to pass a law protecting qualified medical marijuana patients from arrest.

Jan. 24, 2008 - Bruce Mirken appears on FOX affiliate KTVU in San Francisco, discussing the California Supreme Court decision giving employers the right to fire legal medical marijuana patients in the state.

Jan. 27, 2008 - Bruce Mirken appears on KRON in San Francisco, discussing the California Supreme Court decision giving employers the right to fire legal medical marijuana patients in the state.

March 9, 2007 – MPP's Rob Kampia appears on Fox News Channel's "The Big Story" to discuss dispensing medical marijuana to high schoolers who have doctor's recommendations and parental consent

July 30, 2007 — MPP's Bruce Mirken discusses the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana on the Comcast Network's "Art Fennell Reports."

May 4, 2005 — MPP's Rob Kampia speaks in favor of federal legislation to protect medical marijuana patients at a Capitol Hill news conference on Wisconsin's WSAW-TV.

December 19, 2006 — MPP's Rob Kampia appears on MSNBC to discuss a new study identifying marijuana as the top cash crop in the U.S.

May 22, 2003 — MPP's Rob Kampia watches as Gov. Robert Ehrlich (seated, center) signs Maryland's new medical marijuana bill into law.

June 6, 2005 — MPP's Bruce Mirken discusses the Supreme Court medical marijuana decision on San Francisco's KRON-TV.

May 4, 2005 — Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) presents MPP's Public Face of Reform Award to TV host and medical marijuana patient Montel Williams at MPP's 10th anniversary gala in Washington, D.C.

March 11, 2007 — MPP's Aaron Houston discusses medical marijuana on Fox News Channel's 'Studio B.'

Oct. 6, 2006 — MPP's Bruce Mirken discusses new research showing marijuana may prevent Alzheimer's disease — and holds up the U.S. government's patent on cannabinoids as nerve-protecting agents — on CNBC. Note the misleading, DEA-supplied "fact" at the bottom of the screen.

June 6, 2005 — MPP's Rob Kampia discusses the Supreme Court's medical marijuana ruling on MSNBC.

May 9, 2005 — Comedian Tommy Chong and MPP's Rob Kampia at MPP's 10th Anniversary Gala in Los Angeles.

Celebrities

Singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco is on MPP's advisory board.

MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia and award-winning news correspondent John Stossel

In March 2006, more than 700 MPP supporters attended MPP's party at the Playboy Mansion, raising more than $170,000 for MPP's work to reform marijuana laws. - Pictured: Hugh Hefner after receiving Pioneer Award from MPP's Rob Kampia.

"Marijuana is beneficial to many patients." — Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General

"It's about personal freedom. We should have the right in this country to do what we want, if we don't hurt anybody. Seventy-two million people in this country have smoked pot. Eighteen to 20 million in the last year. These people should not be treated as criminals." — Woody Harrelson

"[A] marijuana grower can land in prison for life without parole while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian nightmare and it exists only because politicians fled in the face of danger." — Garrison Keillor, radio personality

Montel Williams called for passage for New York's medical marijuana bill at an MPP-organized press conference in Albany in May 2004 (pictured here with New York health officials and legislators).

Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman -- shown here with MPP's Rob Kampia -- was a lifetime member of MPP and a staunch advocate of marijuana policy reform.

"I am absolutely in support of legalizing marijuana. It doesn't make any sense to me to keep it illegal when there is little argument that alcohol and tobacco are clearly far more deadly." — Margaret Cho

"There's been medical marijuana ever since there's been medicine. Nobody gets hurt, so why not? People still smoke marijuana, and they still go to work." — Gary Coleman

Marijuana Policy Project

Get Tickets for MPP's Party at the Playboy Mansion Now

MPP-TV VIDEOS

In the News

MPP Blog

Get Local

Member Center

Victims

The Naulls Family

Kathryn Johnston

Tyrone Brown

Carter Singleton

Suzanne Pfeil

Gary Silva

Unnamed Florida college student

Alberta Spruill

Lester Siler

Donald Scott

Robin Prosser

Palm Beach County, Florida, school raid

Don Nord

Cheryl Noel

Jimmy Montgomery

Jonathan Magbie

Rhiannon Kephart

Esequiel Hernandez

Clayton Helriggle

Goose Creek, South Carolina, School Raid

More Victim Stories

MPP in the News

Celebrities