Eric Sterling is a member of the Just Say Now advisory board, and President of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. He released this statement in response to comments made by LA County Sheriff Lee Baca to the effect that the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries has resulted in more crime in Los Angeles: In the early [...]

I can tell you from personal experience that there are many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who would like to be able to speak as directly as Senator Gravel about ending prohibition as a way not only to deal with the problem of violence on the border but also the mounting immigration problem (well, maybe not quite as directly). But they’re all frightened of stepping into the middle of the culture wars.

Ronald Reagan’s former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein, a member of the Just Say Now advisory board, appeared earlier today on MSNBC to make the conservative argument in support of allowing states to legalize and regulate marijuana. When Cenk Uygur asked why Fein is supporting efforts to legalize marijuana, Fein’s response was simply that [...]

Yesterday, FDL announced online and on CNN that we’re joining with Students for Sensible Drug Policy to launch the Just Say Now Campaign to end marijuana prohibition. The objectives of the campaign are: Organize transpartisan support for ending marijuana prohibition across the country by combining the online organizing efforts of Firedoglake, which has 100,000 readers [...]

If California legalizes cannabis, tax revenues would be $1.4 billion yearly, enough to send each CA adult $50, or hire 23,000 teachers.

In November, the voters of California will decide whether to end prohibition against cannabis. In preparation for the possibility that marijuana might soon become legal, regulated and taxed, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union is organizing workers in the medicinal-marijuana industry, which is already legal. That is what you would expect labor unions [...]

Two weeks ago, a federally funded drug task force called WestNet seized 200 signatures in support of placing marijuana legalization on the November ballot in Washington State while conducting a raid on a medical marijuana dispensary. Early in the morning, drug agents entered the home of the family that owns a medical marijuana dispensary known [...]

Keeping marijuana illegal is tantamount to taxing it—and that’s just fine with R. Gil Kerlikowske, federal drug czar, who says the high price discourages consumption by young people. His bizarre logic also admits that the profits of pot go into the hands of criminals, instead of enriching government coffers, like standard taxes on alcohol and [...]

In Congressional testimony today, two FBI officials said that “marijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican DTOs [cartels]“, calling it “a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year.” Of course, nowhere does the FBI make the obvious connection that if you want to stop the cartels from financing their operations with marijuana, you can make marijuana legal and cut out their legs from under the cartels.

Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana (CALM) has a new brochure arguing against legalizing cannabis. Not surprisingly, CALM has decided to use disingenuous and illogical arguments against legalizing and regulating Cannabis. From their brochure (via DrugWarRant): MARIJUANA CULTIVATION = ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER Drug cartels and illegal traffickers have found it easier to grow marijuana in our national forests [...]