The Department of Justice is changing its long-standing policy of ignoring state laws that allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes. This federalism question played out several years ago in the Supreme Court in the Raich case; Cato’s amicus brief is available here.

Cato hosted Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project in March, and you can view the event here. Glenn Greenwald wrote an influential study for Cato on the successful decriminalization of drugs in Portugal. Greenwald notes that he gets more invitations to speak on the subject now than he did when it was published.

A good first step. Fourteen states permit medical marijuana dispensaries; I suspect more are on the way now that this hurdle has been cleared.

Good News on Medical Marijuana is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

As of this writing, 13 states have passed legislation legalizing medical marijuana. President Obama’s pledge to stop raiding medical marijuana facilities was met with praise from opponents of the drug war, but what does it mean for the future of drug policy?

In Monday’s Cato Daily Podcast, Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, explains his organization’s goals and strategies for ending marijuana prohibition in the United States.

Our society is not quite ready yet to completely end marijuana prohibition. So what we want to do is keep as many people from being arrested and put in jail as possible in the short run. One way of doing that is to legalize medical marijuana state by state.

Kampia spoke at a policy forum on medical marijuana at the Cato Institute in March.

Monday Podcast ‘The Politics of Medical Marijuana’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Harvard Economist Jeff Miron tells CNN that the drug laws make no sense.

On March 17, Cato will be hosting an event about The Politics and Science of Medical Marijuana.  One of our guest speakers, Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project, was recently interviewed by Glenn Beck.

For more Cato work on the drug war, go here.

End Drug War and Save $77 Billion is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog