FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Contact: Violet Cavendish
[email protected]

Washington, D.C. — The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the nation’s leading cannabis policy organization, released an open letter to the cannabis industry today from Executive Director Adam J. Smith. Smith makes the case that robust independent advocacy is indispensable to industry's goals, and calls for a more strategic deployment of our collective political capital.

The letter explains that a vibrant and sustainable legal industry that includes rational regulation, reasonable taxation, and broad public access for adults and patients is the best antidote to dangerous, unregulated markets and is crucial to public health and safety. When the industry's profit incentives undercut its political credibility on these threshold issues, independent advocacy is uniquely qualified to make that case, particularly in the face of a resurgent neo-prohibitionist movement that is spreading shameful disinformation under the cynical mantle of "public health" and "protecting the children."

“A strong industry creates jobs, generates tax revenues, and revitalizes local economies. These arguments were, and still are, powerful incentives for reform. But they cannot finish the job of ending prohibition. They don’t speak to the deeper issues that first brought this movement together, nor can they speak with authority to address the concerns, including public health and safety, that many lawmakers and their constituents have about cannabis.”

The full letter is available here.

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Founded in 1995, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is the nation’s leading cannabis policy reform organization. MPP has played a central role in passing dozens of cannabis policy reforms in states across the country, including 14 successful cannabis legalization campaigns, and also works to advance federal reforms.

Visit www.mpp.org for more information.