Your California tax dollars at work...

Federal and state income taxes are due this week, and if you’re anything like me the sting of April 15 is an annual reminder of at least one expensive and ineffective government program: marijuana prohibition

I invite you to register your discontent with marijuana laws by making a generous contribution to the Marijuana Policy Project today.

Economists estimate that marijuana prohibition costs U.S. taxpayers anywhere from $10 to $31 billion annually in expenditures and lost tax revenue. And just about everyone agrees that these expensive policies aren’t working to curb marijuana use or availability. Indeed, many of us know the most tragic cost of prohibition is a loss of freedom and, in some cases, life itself.

Day after day, Americans throw more and more money at this catastrophic failure simply because we have no choice. Sadly, most people who support reform don’t do anything about it. But you are receiving this e-mail, so chances are you are invested in ending marijuana prohibition.

As Californians we have a unique opportunity to enact a more fiscally responsible and socially tolerant marijuana law. That opportunity is A.B. 390, pending state legislation that would completely end California’s war on marijuana. A.B. 390 would not only allow adults to use, cultivate, and possess marijuana for personal use, it would replace the criminal market with a taxed and regulated industry. A.B. 390 will receive its first committee hearing in Sacramento sometime early next year.

In the coming months, I hope you'll join with me and thousands of other Californians in building support for this historic legislation. The antidote to lamenting about your tax money being wasted on marijuana prohibition is to take this golden opportunity to do something about ending it.

Sacramento’s well-funded prohibition lobby is already working to scare legislators out of supporting A.B. 390. By donating generously to MPP today, you’ll be ensuring that an effective organization is speaking for you and millions of other Californians who want marijuana legal.

Thank you for your support. Together we can throw prohibition on the ash heap of history!