MPP is looking to connect with local activists in the target states, which include Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. MPP-funded groups would work to see marijuana legalized and regulated in a fashion similar to alcohol. A recent request for proposals asks applicants to devise "escalating tactics that would lead to a change in state law in three to five years via the state Legislature or the statewide ballot initiative process."

"It's about providing funding and providing organization," said MPP spokesperson Krissy Oechslin.  "We'd like to bring it off the street and regulate it."

Barnett Lotstein, a special assistant in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, sees the new campaign as an escalation of the recent campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Arizona. "The objective was, once you get people to think of drugs as medicine, the next step is legalization," he said. "The ultimate goal of people who propose the legalization of marijuana is the legalization of all drugs."

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by duarte... yuma AZ on 29 Sep 08 02:56 AM EDT

the government should be making money off marijuana by taxing it instead of ruining peoples lives by putting them in jails annd prisons. if you want to punish dealers what better way than to make it legal and tax it!! 420...

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