(SitNews) Washington, D. C. - The nation’s largest marijuana policy organization announced Monday it will support efforts to end marijuana prohibition in 10 more states by 2017, including Alaska. The Marijuana Policy Project’s announcement came one day before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing at which it will address the U.S. Justice Department’s recent decision to allow states to regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana.

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is working with a coalition of local advocates in Alaska currently collecting signatures to place an initiative on the 2014 primary ballot that would tax and regulate marijuana for adults. According to MMP, a Public Policy Polling survey from March showed that a majority of Alaskans support making adult marijuana use legal and allowing sale of the substance in state-licensed stores similarly to alcohol.

“By any scientific measure, marijuana is objectively less harmful than alcohol,” said Liz Young, campaign analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s time we stop driving people to drink by punishing marijuana consumers simply for choosing to use a safer alternative to alcohol.”

The U.A. Justice Department announced on August 29th that it will not seek to prevent Colorado and Washington from moving forward with implementation of voter-approved laws establishing state-regulated systems of marijuana cultivation and retail sales. Federal prosecutors were also advised not to target businesses and individuals complying with state laws regulating and taxing marijuana.

“Marijuana prohibition has been just as problematic and counterproductive as alcohol prohibition,” said MPP executive director Rob Kampia. “We look forward to working with elected officials, community leaders, organizations, and other local and national allies to develop more effective and efficient marijuana policies.”

MPP will work with local and national allies to pass voter initiatives in at least five states and bills in five state legislatures to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with systems in which marijuana is regulated and taxed like alcohol.

In addition to supporting a petition drive led by Alaska activists to place an initiative on the August 2014 ballot, the Marijuana Policy Project will work to pass initiatives in Arizona, California, Maine, and Nevada in the 2016 election. The organization is participating in lobbying and grassroots organizing efforts to pass bills in the Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont state legislatures by 2017. MPP has been the lead advocate for changing most state-level marijuana laws since 2000, and it was the largest backer of the successful 2012 initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

The Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.

The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest marijuana policy organization, has been responsible for changing most state-level marijuana laws since 2000.

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