Marijuana Policy Project

The Marijuana Policy Project, or MPP, is an organization in the United States "working to minimize the harm associated with cannabis"[1]. MPP advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of cannabis, arguing that a regulated cannabis industry would separate purchasers from the street market for cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, MPP's activities forced public health officials to expend unprecedented amounts of time and resources fighting legalization initiatives.

History

MPP founders Rob Kampia and Chuck Thomas originally worked at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. In 1995, after months of in-fighting, NORML director Richard Cowan fired Kampia, Thomas, and two other staffers who had been pressing Cowan for organizational change. Kampia and Thomas began creating their own organization, implementing the ideas they'd pushed at NORML.[2]. On January 25, 1995, the two activists incorporated the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) as a not-for-profit organization in the District of Columbia[3]. MPP has grown to 21,000 members and is the largest marijuana policy reform group in the United States. The organization has 26 staffers and an annual budget of about $4 million, plus a separate $2 million grants program.

Organization

MPP, like many advocacy groups, is divided into two legal entities, one a lobbying group and the other an educational group. The public education branch can accept tax-deductible donations, while the lobbying group can use its funds to directly influence politicians. MPP receives substantial funding from Progressive Corporation executive Peter Lewis.

Prominent VIP supporters

MPP's supporters include:

• TV host Montel Williams.
• Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
• Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.
• Actor Jack Black.
• Actor/singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
• Comedian Bill Maher.
• Author Tom Robbins.
• Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles
• Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow.
• Former Surgeon General of the United States Joycelyn Elders.
• Comedian Adam Carolla.

Advocacy

Ballot initiatives

In 2002, the organization successfully challenged a decision by the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics to bar Initiative 63, a medical marijuana petition, from the ballot. MPP was able to prove that it had, in fact, gathered enough signatures. However, a federal appeals court struck the measure from the ballot on unrelated grounds[4]. Congress had already enacted a law that D.C. voters would not be allowed to decriminalize marijuana, but a district court had ruled the law unconstitutional. The appeals court reversed the ruling, killing Initiative 63.

In May of 2004, at the conclusion of MPP’s intensive, three-year lobbying campaign, Vermont became the ninth state to enact a medical marijuana law — and only the second state to do so through its legislature, rather than through a ballot initiative. In the same year, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling (issued one year before) that permits adults aged 21 and older to use and possess up to four ounces of marijuana in the privacy of the home — maintaining Alaska as the only state where the non-medical use of marijuana is legal in any context. The MPP grants program funded this litigation.

Later in 2004, MPP funded and ran the campaign that succeeded in passing a statewide medical marijuana initiative in Montana with 62% of the vote — the highest margin of victory for any of the medical marijuana initiatives that have passed in 10 states since 1996. MPP also provided the majority of funding for an initiative to regulate marijuana in Alaska, which failed with 44% of the vote (but still set the record for the largest vote to end marijuana prohibition in any state).

In November 2006, an MPP-supported medical marijuana initiative lost in South Dakota, with 52% voting "no"; This was the first time a medical marijuana ballot failed. MPP also funded three successfully enacted measures in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Santa Monica, California, that "make marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority." MPP also funded a similar initiative that passed in Missoula County, Montana.[5]

Nevada

Another one of MPP's major projects was Measure 9, a 2002 initiative in Nevada to decriminalize the possession of three ounces of marijuana by adults aged 21 or over and regulate cannabis sales through retail establishments. The proposed constitutional amendment would also have mandated penalties for underage smoking and smoking in motor vehicles, casinos, and other specified areas[6]. Many marijuana advocates were not pleased with these clauses, which would have been difficult to change once engrafted in the state constitution[7]. The measure failed, garnering only 39% of the vote. Previous legalization initiatives had failed by wider margins, but those campaigns were not as well-funded. MPP blamed the measure's failure on law enforcement officers illegally campaigning during working hours, and unlawful interference by the federal drug czar.

MPP tried again in 2004 to get a similar measure on the Nevada ballot, but the firm hired to coordinate the campaign lost a box of signatures required to get the measure on the ballot.

MPP went on to place the measure on the state's 2006 ballot, spending almost one million dollars of out-of-state money to enact the new law. Question 7 in Nevada, which would have legalized up to one ounce of marijuana, failed to pass.

War on Drug Czar

Deciding that government propaganda was a major obstacle to its ballot initiatives, MPP launched its "War on Drug Czar," filing numerous complaints against Office of National Drug Control Policy chief John P. Walters. In a December 5, 2002 Reuters article, Rob Kampia proclaimed, "We want him out of the picture. We want him excommunicated from the federal government forever"[8].

The complaints, filed with state officials, focused on ONDCP leaders' visits to Alaska, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon. Director John Walters travelled to Nevada and Oregon and Deputy Director Scott Burns travelled to Alaska and Montana to speak against marijuana reform initiatives. However, they did not file any campaign expense reports, which laws in those states require for persons or organizations spending money to either support or oppose ballot measures[9].

Radio campaign

In July 2006, MPP launched a radio advertising campaign that calls out prominent public officials, including President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Al Gore, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as having admitted to using marijuana. The ad, which will run on 141 radio stations nationwide, asks: "Is it fair to arrest three quarters of a million people a year for doing what presidents and a Supreme Court justice have done?"

References

• Official Website
• Bonni, Joe: You Down With MPP?, Boston Weekly Dig, Feb. 11, 2003.
• Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana - Nevada, website for 2006 initiative in Nevada.
• Drug Policy Organizations, James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door.
• D.C. Medical Marijuana Initiative, Marijuana Policy Project.
• Initiative Petition, A Marijuana Legalization Initiative State of Nevada, A Guide to Drug-Related State Ballot Initiatives, National Families in Action.
• Marijuana Policy Project Grows to 11,000 Members, Marijuana Policy Project, Jan. 9, 2003.
• Nevadans for Compassionate Use.
• Zwillich, Todd: Activists Accuse 'Drug Czar' of Illegal Campaigning, Reuters, Dec. 5, 2002.