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 [...]

Last week, Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca held a press conference to announce that his department had a suspect in custody who confessed to three West Hollywood murders. Baca used the platform to advance the political message of the No on 19 campaign, claiming that the murders were the result of increased violence caused by [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Yesterday Barack Obama’s Office of National Drug Control Policy released its National Strategy for Drug Control. While the strategy was spun by Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske as one focusing on prevention and treatment over enforcement and criminal prosecutions, the amount of money spent proportionally is the same as during the Bush Administration.

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 [...]

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 [...]

When talking about ending the prohibition on Marijuana, it is almost impossible to wrap your head around the totality of problems and issues it touches. The externalities, long reaching negative effects, and indirect consequences create an enormous web that touches countless aspects of our society. The amount that Marijuana prohibition costs us as a society [...]

We recently polled both our online audience and our email list to determine if people thought t FDL should get involved in the marijuana legalization ballot initiatives in California, Washington and Oregon. The support was overwhelming — 97% online and 92% from our email list. Yes Percent No Percent Online 2,741 97% 99 3% Email [...]