"Today is a cruel and tragic day for sick and suffering people in Mississippi. As a result, tens of thousands of Mississippians with debilitating health conditions will be denied safe, legal access to something that can alleviate their pain and improve their quality of life," said Matthew Schweich, MPP's deputy director.
"The legislature must take action to fix the ballot initiative requirements and honor the will of their constituents by enacting Amendment 65 into law through the legislative process," said Matthew Schweich, MPP's deputy director.
"Federal legalization must be drafted and regulated to provide social and economic justice for the millions of lives upended by discrimination and unequal enforcement. By including those most harmed, we can build an equitable, well-regulated, and inclusive cannabis industry from the ground up," said Steve Hawkins, MPP's executive director.
"Minnesotans have suffered far too long under prohibition. Rather than continuing to waste resources on enforcing this failed policy, the Senate should heed the will of the voters and pass legislation to legalize cannabis for adults. Legalization would create thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in tax revenue, and it would reduce unnecessary stops, searches, and arrests that unfairly and unequally target Black Minnesotans," said Karen O'Keefe, MPP's director of state policies.
"The more states move on legalization, the more out-of-touch states that are left behind appear. Marijuana stores near state borders have parking lots full of license plates from their prohibitionist neighbors. It’s a very clear illustration of the economic growth that states are ceding to their neighbors the longer they fail to listen to voters," said Karen O'Keefe, MPP's director of state policies.
"It’s a bipartisan issue and the ‘Common Sense Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses and Medical Professionals Act’ introduced by Reps. Dave Joyce and Don Young is a promising step forward," said Steve Hawkins, MPP's executive director.
Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, praised the Republican-sponsored bill as a “promising step forward” in federal reform efforts. But he said in a statement he hoped that future versions of the measure would include “robust social justice and equity provisions to address the devastation caused by prohibition and the failed war on drugs.”
"With an overwhelming majority of Americans supporting the end of cannabis prohibition, it's clear that our country has a mandate to create a legal industry that supports both medical and adult-use. It's a bipartisan issue," said Steve Hawkins, MPP's executive director.
"I think that proponents for medical cannabis are willing to see compromises on the bill if that means getting something done," said Jared Moffat, MPP's campaigns manager.
“Every state that does not already have a medical marijuana law had something introduced” this year, said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for pro-legalization group Marijuana Policy Project. “Most of them have died.”