MPP, the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the U.S., works to remove criminal penalties for marijuana use, with an emphasis on protecting seriously ill medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail.
When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was illegal in every state and favorable legislation had not been introduced in Congress in a decade. Since then, the federal penalties for marijuana cultivation have been changed to provide for the early release of hundreds of prisoners; medical marijuana bills have been introduced in six consecutive Congresses, with the U.S. House debating and voting on our legislation five years in a row; medical marijuana is now legal in 13 states; and much more.
The Marijuana Policy Project does not condone the illegal use of marijuana. However, marijuana prohibition has failed. For instance, when asked in a 2003 survey, "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer, or marijuana?" 34% of teens said marijuana was the easiest to buy, followed by beer with 18%. MPP promotes the taxation and regulation of marijuana for adults, which would reduce the availability of marijuana to minors. Unlike drug dealers, licensed vendors would ensure that minors are unable to purchase marijuana, or risk losing their license.
Why you should care
Our marijuana laws aren't working. They cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year, keep police from focusing on real crimes, and don't keep marijuana away from minors.
In 2007 alone, there were 872,720 state and local marijuana-related arrests in the United States. (89% of these were for possession alone.) That's one marijuana arrest every 36 seconds.
Founded in 1995, MPP has 27,000 members, 100,000 e-mail subscribers, 36 staffers, and an annual budget of about $6 million.
72% of American adults believe that marijuana users should not be jailed - and a whopping 80% support legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients.
MPP is leading the fight to replace marijuana prohibition with taxation and regulation. It's just common sense.
Because i have maintained my New York State residency for several years and because my mom, who is suffering from cancer, is a New York State resident, I have sent letter after old fashion letter to her local Congressman, the Governor and Senator's office on behalf of the legalization of medical marijuana in the state of New York. And although i have received a great deal of positive feedback, still people in The Great State of New York must unnecessarily suffer with indescribable pain. This pain could be substantially reduced with just a small amount of marijuana. Please Help End This Ridiculous Law. Thank You.
Thx for the add...legalization of marijuana has always been important to me but lately it has been medically neccessary b.c. I was recently diag with m.s. I wish people knew what it is like to suffer thru painful and disabling spasticity and know there is a medicine that can help you but if you are caught with it you risk legal prosecution and losing your kids to help with your suffering. But thx for the add n let me know what i can do to help...
Enlightened people everywhere: Free online, for one more day only, watch the documentary that is rocking the country at: www.campfema.com Please just make the time and do it!
lets do this people! we are closer than we have ever been at anytime in history. call these politicians, spread the word, show people that dont know what the truth looks like. hats off to mpp, for getting us this far, i know people in there 60's who have told me that they've been hearing things for years and years and years, and have never seen anything tangable. but now, theyre seeing change. WE, are seeing change. i think i speak for us all when i say WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS! and i hope the law makes it that way too. good job mpp!
This recent development is great news. I am so encouraged!
5 years ago I never thought change like this was possible. It just shows what smart, consistent, focused effort can produce. The MPP rocks- Everyone who visits this page please consider donating what you can to continue the stellar work being done. Every bit counts.
I live in Texas so we do not currently have state laws for marijuana patients, but with the way things are going MPP might just have some cowboys with cataracts lighting up in no time!
yea mpp! Great job w the obama administration& making sure they stick to their promises for med patients! hope we can throw a benefit worthy of ur group:) thx again everyone for ur work!
Hi MPP, I am a high school student soon going to collage to Major in Botany, And to eventually open a Medical Marijuana shop Michigan, my home state. Just stopping in to say thanks for your help reforming medical marijuana laws, I am positive that now that Obama stopped raiding all law abiding growers that my dream will come true. Thanks a ton!!!!
I'm tired of being in pain. I don't want to use drugs that make me feel sick when I take them. I want an all natural medication. Marijuana. But I can't use this medicine because I need to work. To make money and live. I have to pass a piss test to get hired on, then a random down the road. MPP I live in Nebraska. What can you do for me????
I wish companies/employers didn't worry about marijuana. They shouldn't assume all potheads would come to work blazed, ready to steal money, or cause accidents that cost money for the company. Some of us are educated, honest, and hard working. We need to make a living too.
So there should be ways to go around it. Is it possible to start a real religion that bases it's practices around smoking pot? Therefore, any refusal to hire someone would result in a discrimination against religion.
I know, I know, it's silly. But take a look at any other religion. Compared to the marijuana religion, they're just as silly.
I'm so tired of the people in power whom hide behind the guise of morality in the interest of "children."
Their argument is weak, their reason is greed, and the only thing that stops them from being a common criminal locked up with us, whom have done nothing than use cannabis- is a suit.
MPP fights for more than just legalization, it fights for our basic freedom: choice.
Just thought I'd stop by and say high. I've been following your accomplishments through news, stock market and your blogs for a while now and just wanted to say keep up the great work. Educating the American people and supporting the cause is the key to changing laws.
Just caught the special "In pot we trust" A very informative documentary on medical marijuana. As a former caregiver of patients with cancer, stroke and post traumatic stress disorder, i know first hand of the healing properties of this plant. MPP you are kick ass!!! You represented yourselves in such a professional manner, it made all the naysayers, politicians and doctors that are against medicinal mj look like idiots! The show is proof positive of the benefits of this plant. The way it helped the mother with the stutter among others,was phenomanal!!!! She sounded totally normal! I never knew it could help a disorder as such. I think we have just scratched the surface on the ailments that could be alieviated with cannabis. And when i say we, i mean the smokers themselves. As they recieve no help from the government which ties the hands of the doctors. Its just sadistic that these people would be considered criminals unless residing in California or Alaska. Whats really pathetic is that the government re-legalized alcohol with all of its dangers, a substance which really has very little medicinal value if any and continues to kill people everyday. The intellegence of the government is clearly demonstrated as they continue to consider mj, (a substance that is impossible to overdose on) a dangerous drug keeping it illegal.
Here in Wisconsin we have a small window of opportunity to reclaim the public's right to use whatever medications,either natural or prerscribed in the maintenance of their health. I'm talking about the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. Cannibas hemp has been used as a medicine for centuries. Eli Lilly had many preparations made from hemp that's recorded in their pharmacopeia in the 1920's. The DEA's Law Judge issued a statement that 'In it's natural state, marijuana is the most therapeutically active substance known to man.". Many who are like myself and have neuromuscular ailments are prescribed drugs that are far more harmful to us than the symptoms we are trying to get rid of. For myself it's about not having my kidney's shut down from trying to stop muscle spasms and ending the nerve pains that run down my legs that no drug prescribed by any doctor can ease. Ideally,as a Constitutional Right,we should be able to use any product that has a positive effect on our individual health. Cannibas hemp whether smoked,eaten or vaporized can do that for millions of patients and that right of choice should be ours,not lawmakers. But we find ourselves needing the aide of Lawmakers to get that right returned to us. If you support a person's right to use cannibas hemp or use it yourself, PLEASE contact you local Senator and State Representitive at; http://www.legis.state.wi.us and tell them to make the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act a law. Thank-you
Have you talked to the governor lately?? You can just pick up the phone,dial 608-266-1212 and his friendly staffers willl take your message; " Please make the Jacki Rickert Medical marijuana Act an Executive Order and end patient abuse." They'll be glad to hear from you and you'll be glad you did,because you'll ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people
