The Activists Spending Time and Money to Expand the Wave of Legalisation in the USA

The legalisation of marijuana in some US states has been possible thanks to the work and efforts of activist groups like the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). This non-profit organisation, based in Washington D.C., recently marked its 20th anniversary.

Since 1995 the MPP has been working towards the regulation of marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes. In fact, it was one of the most influential groups for the legalisation of cannabis in Alaska and Colorado, thanks to its solid financing, effective campaign messages, and experience in the implementation of electoral initiatives. It is hardly surprising that its founders are former staff members at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, founded in 1970.

After two decades of work, this organisation, financed through donations, will continue working for the legalisation of cannabis in California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine, some of the states scheduled to put the issue to a vote in 2016.

“Of the five campaigns that we are organising at the national level, Arizona is definitely the most heated, the most active,” explained Carlos Alfaro, political director of the MPP in Arizona. The group is going to redouble its efforts in this traditionally conservative state, with publicity materials, rallies and debates.

The Drug Policy Alliance, meanwhile, a non-profit founded in 2000, contends that marijuana-related arrests disproportionately affect racial minorities.

“I really believe that 2016 going to spell ‘game over’ [for the criminalisation of cannabis] because there is a good chance that a group of states will legalise marijuana,” stated Bill Piper, Director of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. It remains to be seen, next year, whether the green revolution will spread across the United States.