Marijuana Policy Project

Special Musical Performances from Comedic Actor Tom Green and DJ EZ Mike Along With a Set From Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel Live Auction in progress featuring Tenacious D/Jack Black film premiere tickets and Canister once holding U.S. Government Medical Marijuana Silent Auction at event to include artwork from Dali, Picasso, and Chagall Courtesy of Andrew Weiss Gallery in Beverly Hills

Los Angeles, Calif.- The Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana reform organization in the U.S., is pleased to announce comedian Rick Overton as emcee for their celebrity fundraising bash at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on March 30, 2006. The party will celebrate MPP's recent medical marijuana victory in Rhode Island and raise funds to continue MPP's political lobbying efforts, including its Nevada campaign to tax and regulate marijuana. The evening will also include a special musical performance from Hollywood comedian/actor/rapper Tom Green and DJ-EZ Mike (also known as Mike Simpson, a member of the hit-making music production team The Dust Brothers), in addition to a set from Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel. Tickets were $650 but the event is currently sold out.

Emcee Rick Overton most recently appeared in the film The Aristocrats, the acclaimed documentary chronicling the evolution of the most infamous joke in comedy. Rick has numerous TV and film credits and is an acclaimed comedy writer with an Emmy award for his work on HBO's Dennis Miller Live.

MPP is also offering up several auctions to help raise funds, including a current live auction featuring a Tenacious D/Jack Black package that will include tickets to the premiere of Jack Black's latest film, limousine transportation, and a signed poster. Also at auction is an actual canister from one of the seven federal medical marijuana patients. The canister was sent to the patient's pharmacist by the federal government with 300 marijuana cigarettes, a month's supply. The historical canister is now empty. At the event there will also be a silent auction with artwork from the likes of Dali, Picasso and Chagall amongst others, courtesy of the Andrew Weiss gallery of Beverly Hills.

With over 20,000 members and 100,000 email subscribers nationwide, MPP is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For years, MPP has worked to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail, and the group's efforts were directly responsible for the passage of the U.S.'s three newest medical marijuana laws, in Montana and Vermont in 2004 and Rhode Island this January.

Currently MPP is stepping up its efforts in California, where the medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, is under attack by a lawsuit filed by San Diego County. And MPP recently kicked off a historic campaign to tax and regulate marijuana in the state of Nevada, where MPP's initiative will appear on the November ballot. For more information about MPP, see www.mpp.org.

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