Press Release: Reformers to Call for New Approach at Annual Marijuana Eradication Conference Monday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                 

MAY 7, 2010

Reformers to Call for New Approach at Annual Marijuana Eradication Conference Monday

At Monday Press Conference, Former Law Enforcement Officers, Clergy Members, and Other Advocates Will Call for an End to Ineffective, Wasteful Eradication Campaigns

CONTACT: Aaron Smith, MPP California policy director …………… [email protected] or 707-291-0076

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — From May 10 to May 13, local, state, and federal law enforcement officers will gather at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego to begin organizing this year’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), which, since 1983, has inarguably failed to achieve its stated goal: reducing marijuana use and availability by eradicating illegal grow sites. On Monday, at a press conference at the same hotel, advocates will call on officials to end this wasteful policy, the wisdom of which is being increasingly called into question as Californians prepare to vote on a November ballot initiative that would end the state’s prohibition on adult marijuana use.

         “These so-called ‘eradication’ efforts have had zero effect on marijuana use, availability, or price, but once again, California law enforcement agencies are perfectly content to throw more tax money down the CAMP rabbit hole. It’s time to stop this insanity of repeating the futile exercise of CAMP and instead replace marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation,” said Aaron Smith, California policy director for MPP, who is leading Monday’s press conference. “Only then will we be able to eliminate the clandestine marijuana plantations — just as the repeal of alcohol prohibition did away with the bootleggers of that era. It’s no coincidence that drug cartels don’t plant vineyards or hops fields in our national forests.”

         WHAT: Press conference to call for an effective marijuana policy and an end to an eradication campaigns

         WHEN: Monday, May 10, at 11:00 a.m.

         WHERE: U.S. Grant Hotel, Sycuan Parlor, 326 Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101

         WHO: Speakers who will question the wisdom behind CAMP will include:

Leo Laurence, a retired deputy sheriff and former legal researcher for the San Diego County District Attorney’s office, now a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The Rev. Canon Mary Moreno-Richardson, an Episcopal priest and coordinator for Hispanic Ministries at St. Paul’s Cathedral in San Diego, who has worked extensively to prevent violence in the community and help at risk youth.

         With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.

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