DeVaughn Ward, senior legislative council for the Marijuana Policy Project, said on average, police in New Jersey arrest someone on marijuana charges once every 22 minutes. “This means that unless the Legislature enacts decriminalization between now and Election Day, thousands of New Jerseyans will have their lives turned upside-down by cannabis possession arrests,” Ward said.
If the legislature fails to enact decriminalization, more than 30,000 individuals in New Jersey will face traumatic arrests and prosecutions while voters wait for Election Day.
Evidence of MPP's effectiveness? Of the 11 states with some form of legalization law on the books, the organization led the political campaigns for eight.
Raising taxes too quickly and too high could lead people to turn to the well-established illegal cannabis market, Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies at Marijuana Policy Project, told Law360, saying that maximizing tax revenue should not be the sole focus of initial legalization. "Having a lower tax rate can certainly help steer people towards the legal regulated market," O'Keefe said.
“We will not fundamentally change policing practices in this country until we put an end to the war on drugs, and it starts with ending the prohibition on cannabis,” wrote Steve Hawkins, who heads up the Marijuana Policy Project, adding that legalization would eliminate the principle pretext for racist police stops. “While cannabis legalization alone will not save Black and Brown lives, it offers an opportunity to re-center policing away from a focus on the drug war to a focus on community healing and positive relationship-building. In that, there is hope.”
Matt Schweich with the Marijuana Policy Project, a group who helped South Dakotan's for Better Marijuana Laws get Constitutional Amendment A on the ballot, says this is what the people of South Dakota want.
Most state legislatures are out of session. But Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for Marijuana Policy Project, expects them to address cannabis and criminal justice issues with more urgency when they return.
As of May, over 54,000 Missouri citizens were enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program. Projections from Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics expect the program to generate $269 million in medical sales by 2024.
Leaders of ballot measures to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational uses in South Dakota rolled out for reporters a list of 50 people endorsing their efforts Wednesday.
Last month, 34 state attorneys general wrote Congress urging that the SAFE Banking Act be included in the COVID-19 stimulus package working its way through Capitol Hill. But as the debate between senators rolls on, the cannabis industry doesn’t have a consensus on the letter’s efficacy.