Dear friends,

To have a shot at removing the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana, we need at least 26 states to legalize medical marijuana. This will give us a clear path to victory in Congress and/or the federal courts.

As of today, medical marijuana is legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia.

To get to 26 states, we need to run ballot initiatives in some tough states in November 2012 – Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. And to get on these five ballots in November 2012, we need to start the signature drives soon, with the first being in Arkansas.

Please help MPP succeed with a new experiment: I want to see if we can fund the entire signature drive in Arkansas through monthly credit card donations from you and others on this e-mail list. Please start donating $10 or more on your credit card today.

As soon as we get up to $10,000 in monthly donations, we'll start funding the signature drive in Arkansas. Public opinion polling shows that 58% of Arkansans would vote for a medical marijuana initiative there, so the key is to put such a question on the ballot for them to approve.

Assuming a typical validity rate of 60% for signatures collected, we'll need to collect 110,000 gross signatures in order to end up with the required 65,000 valid signatures. It costs about $1.50 to collect and verify each signature, so here's the cost of the campaign:

The signature drive will take about 18 months to complete, so as soon as you and other allies begin monthly credit card donations totaling $10,000, we'll start the signature drive, and then you can sit back and watch us win in Arkansas, and hopefully other states, too.

In a couple weeks, I'll update you on how much money we're receiving in new monthly donations for the Arkansas campaign.

Please help me show that this experiment can work — that fewer than 1,000 people across the entire country can join together to help the first state in the deep south to legalize medical marijuana. We need to do this if we want to get to 26 states.

Please donate $10 or more on your credit card today so that we can start the signature drive in Arkansas.Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

Help us meet our mission

Raised in ’10:$2,721,628
Goal in ’10: $3,400,000

MPP will be able to tackle all of the projects in our 2010 strategic plan if you help us meet this challenge.

To contact MPP, please click here or reply to this e-mail. Our mailing address is Marijuana Policy Project, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20002. Any donations you make to MPP may be used for political purposes, such as supporting or opposing candidates for federal office.

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Dear friends:

Yesterday voters turned out across the nation to vote on a number of marijuana-related initiatives, including four major statewide initiatives. Here are the results:

Arizona: Proposition 203, which would bring a working medical marijuana law to the state, is too-close-to-call at the moment, as tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of additional ballots remain to be counted.  MPP will continue to closely monitor the outcome of this proposition over the coming days.

California: Proposition 19, which would have made the personal possession and cultivation of marijuana legal and would have allowed regulated distribution systems on the local level, did not pass. It did, however, receive a very respectable 46 percent of the vote.

South Dakota: Measure 13, which would have protected seriously ill South Dakota residents from arrest and prosecution for using medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation, was ultimately rejected by voters.

Oregon: Measure 74, which would have established oversight and licensing requirements for medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon, was also defeated by the voters yesterday. This loss, however, does not in any way affect Oregon's existing medical marijuana law.

On a positive note, two gubernatorial candidates with good positions on marijuana policy reform won their respective elections.  Peter Shumlin in Vermont and Dan Malloy in Connecticut both have positive outlooks on marijuana decriminalization, giving those states a leg-up when it comes to passing positive marijuana-related laws in the next several years. Incidentally, Shumlin also supports dispensaries, which are not currently a part of Vermont's medical marijuana law.

Finally, here are the results of some significant local marijuana-related initiatives across the country:

California: Two of two dispensary bans were defeated in California local elections. Additionally, Kamala Harris is currently maintaining a slim margin of victory over drug-warrior Steve Cooley in the California race for attorney general race.

Massachusetts: Nine of nine public policy questions asking legislatures to vote in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana like alcohol passed. Nine of nine public policy questions asking legislatures to vote in favor of medical marijuana legislation passed.

Colorado: In 42 cities and counties in the state, voters were asked whether medical marijuana dispensaries should be allowed in their locality. Citizens in eight of these regions voted to allow the dispensaries.

Wisconsin:Two of two referenda asking the Wisconsin legislature to enact medical marijuana legislation passed.

We've all seen the election results by now, and while some may feel disappointed, I believe now is the time for us to look ahead.  2012 is closer than it seems, and with marijuana-related issues now firmly entrenched in the national consciousness we have an opportunity to forge ahead and make 2012 the most successful year we've ever experienced.  But we can't do it alone.

Of the nearly 100,000 people who will receive this email today, less than 6,000 have donated to MPP's work so far this year.  If you and the other 94,000 people who have not yet donated each gave just $10 to MPP today, we would generate nearly $1,000,000.  That's money that we can put directly toward ending marijuana prohibition sooner, rather than later.

Ending marijuana prohibition is a matter of 'when,' not 'if' and every dollar you donate helps bring that 'when' closer to today.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

Help us meet our mission

Raised in ’10:$2,706,258
Goal in ’10: $3,400,000

MPP will be able to tackle all of the projects in our 2010 strategic plan if you help us meet this challenge.

To contact MPP, please click here or reply to this e-mail. Our mailing address is Marijuana Policy Project, 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20002. Any donations you make to MPP may be used for political purposes, such as supporting or opposing candidates for federal office.