Job Opportunity I: Communications Director, Marijuana Policy Project, Las Vegas

The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's largest marijuana policy reform organization, is seeking a Communications Director for MPP's office in Las Vegas.

MPP's ultimate goal in Nevada is to pass a statewide ballot initiative that would tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in Nevada, thereby ending marijuana prohibition in the state. This position is an exciting opportunity to play an integral role in a groundbreaking organization that seeks to significantly and permanently reform marijuana policy.

Candidates must have excellent oral and written communications skills, experience doing radio and print interviews, and an understanding of politics and public policy. The ideal applicant would have experience doing public relations for political campaigns, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and/or corporations. Applicants who have ties to the Nevada political and business community and/or are fluent in Spanish will be given priority. Professional copy-editing experience would be extremely helpful, but is not required.

The overarching goal of the position is to maximize the level of public support for ending marijuana prohibition in Nevada. To this end, the Communications Director is responsible for assisting in building a statewide coalition of organizations, editorial boards, and opinion leaders who endorse ending marijuana prohibition, including elected officials, physicians, business leaders, local government leaders, religious leaders, community groups, current and retired members of law enforcement, drug treatment specialists, and parents groups; aggressively pitching reporters and doing interviews to get MPP-NV's message into the news at every opportunity; writing news releases, op-eds, and letters-to-the-editor; arranging media interviews for the MPP-NV Director; giving public speeches and engaging in public debates; and conceiving of and writing blog posts for MPP's web site.

The Communications Director reports to MPP's State Campaigns Director, who heads up the Las Vegas office.

The salary for the position is $40,000 to $50,000. The position includes full health insurance and an optional retirement package.

To apply, please see http://www.mpp.org/jobs/process.html and follow the instructions there. Interviews are being conducted on a rolling basis, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

With 36 employees, 26,000 dues-paying members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, MPP is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit its use -- and believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment.