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Marijuana Policy Project
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Founded by Rob Kampia in 1995, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is now the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the U.S., with more than 24,000 dues-paying members and more than 180,000 e-mail subscribers.
MPP focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use, with a particular emphasis on making marijuana medically available to seriously ill people who have the approval of their doctors.
The aim of the MPP is to minimize the harm associated with cannabis. MPP advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of cannabis, arguing that a regulated industry would separate purchasers from the street market for cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs.
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[edit] 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. On January 25, 1995, the two activists incorporated the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) as a not-for-profit organization in the District of Columbia. MPP has grown to 24,000 members and is the largest cannabis policy reform group in the United States. The organization has 35 staffers and an annual budget of about $6 million, plus a separate $1.5 million grants program.
[edit] 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 and technology entrepreneur/activist John Gilmore.
[edit] Advocacy
[edit] 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."
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 cannabis 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.
[edit] 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 for using cannabis. 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?"
[edit] Major Accomplishments
This is a summary of some of MPP's major accomplishments:
[edit] 2007
November 2007 — The MPP grants program funded a successful initiative to make marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority in Denver, Colorado.
July 2007 — Following an intensive MPP lobbying campaign, MPP helped to garner 165 votes in the U.S. House of Representatives to stop arresting medical marijuana patients — an all-time record of support for medical marijuana access.
[edit] 2006
November 2006 — MPP's high-profile ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada received 44% of the vote, tying with Alaska for the all-time largest vote ever to end marijuana prohibition in a state.
November 2006 — The MPP grants program funded successful initiatives to make marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority in three California cities (Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Santa Monica) and in Missoula County, Montana.
January 2006 — The Rhode Island Legislature overwhelmingly overrode the governor's veto of MPP's bill to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest — making Rhode Island the 11th state where medical marijuana use, possession, and cultivation is legal. This was the first state medical marijuana law to be enacted over the veto of a governor.
[edit] 2004
November 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 eight 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).
November 2004 — The MPP grants program funded 13 of the 16 local marijuana-related initiatives that passed in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Missouri.
November 2004 — U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), with the assistance of MPP, drafted and introduced the first-ever medical marijuana bill in the U.S. Senate.
September 2004 — 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.
May 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.
April 2004 — MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia testified before the U.S. House subcommittee on drug policy, attacking the federal government's medical marijuana policies, as well as subcommittee Chairman Mark Souder (R-Ind.) — one of the House's most vehement opponents of medical marijuana. Kampia was the only anti-prohibitionist to testify at the hearing.
January 2004 — In the months leading up to the New Hampshire Democratic primary election, MPP helped persuade a majority of the Democratic presidential candidates, including John Kerry, to pledge to end the arrest of patients in states with medical marijuana laws.
[edit] 2003
December 2003 — MPP funded, through its grants program, litigation that led to a precedent-setting decision by the largest federal appeals court in the country, which ruled that federal laws against marijuana do not apply to sick people who use medical marijuana with the approval of their physicians in states where medical marijuana is legal. This decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2005.
July 2003 — Fully 152 members of Congress voted for the "Hinchey Amendment" to the spending bill for the U.S. Justice Department. The legislation, co-written by MPP, would have prevented the DEA from spending any money to raid or arrest medical marijuana patients and caregivers in states that have medical marijuana laws.
May 2003 — Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) became the first Republican governor to sign medical marijuana legislation. MPP lobbied the Maryland Legislature for four years to pass the bill, which now protects medical marijuana patients from imprisonment.
April 2003 — MPP worked with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to write and introduce the "Truth in Trials Act" in response to the federal trial and conviction of medical marijuana provider Ed Rosenthal, who was not allowed to introduce evidence at trial that he acted in compliance with California state law.
[edit] 2002
November 2002 — Despite being defeated by Nevada voters by a 61% to 39% margin, MPP's high-profile ballot initiative to remove criminal penalties for adult possession of marijuana generated more public support, dues-paying members, and positive news coverage than any other project in MPP's history. The coverage of the campaign culminated in a front-page story in the November 4 issue of Time magazine.
[edit] 2001
March 2001 — MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia testified before the U.S. House subcommittee on drug policy, arguing that a medical marijuana case before the U.S. Supreme Court was limited in scope and did not affect the ability of states to determine their own medical marijuana laws. Hostile subcommittee members argued with Kampia, and one called him "an articulate advocate for an evil position."
[edit] 2000
June 2000 — Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano (D) signed MPP's medical marijuana legislation into law, making Hawaii the first state to pass a medical marijuana law through its legislature, rather than through a ballot initiative.
April 2000 — President Bill Clinton (D) signed into law an asset forfeiture reform bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). MPP generated grassroots lobbying pressure in support of the legislation, which makes it more difficult for the government to seize the property of marijuana users, as well as alleged and suspected marijuana users.
[edit] 1999
March 1999 — The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued its landmark medical marijuana report, finding that "there are some limited circumstances in which we would recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses." In early 1998, MPP coordinated the testimony of dozens of medical marijuana patients and researchers at IOM's hearings.
[edit] 1998
November 1998 — MPP worked with local AIDS activists to pass a medical marijuana initiative that the activists had placed on the local ballot in Washington, D.C. Though Congress blocked the city from counting the votes for 10 months, a lawsuit brought by the ACLU revealed that 69% of city voters approved the initiative. Unfortunately, Congress continues to prevent the law from taking effect.
[edit] 1997
December 1997 — The American Medical Association's House of Delegates voted to adopt a report that (1) recognized the existence of scientific research showing marijuana's medical value, (2) recommended that doctors and patients should not be punished for discussing marijuana as a treatment option, and (3) urged the federal government to expedite medical marijuana research. MPP worked for months to persuade the AMA to adopt these improvements to a policy that had been fairly hostile to medical marijuana.
[edit] 1995
April 1995 — The U.S. Sentencing Commission voiced its unanimous approval of an amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines, which established shorter sentences for people convicted of cultivating marijuana. MPP was helpful in persuading the commission to vote 7-0 in favor of the penalty reduction, which took effect on November 1, 1995. A subsequent 7-0 vote on September 6 made the change retroactive, resulting in the early release of an estimated 950 federal marijuana prisoners.