Marijuana Policy Project

Marijuana Policy Project

Abbreviation	MPP
Motto	"We Change Laws"
Formation	1995
Legal status	Non-profit organization
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Region served	United States
Executive Director	Rob Kampia
Website	mpp.org

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is the largest organization working solely on marijuana policy reform in the United States in terms of its budget, number of members, and staff. Its stated aims are to: (1) increase public support for non-punitive, non-coercive marijuana policies; (2) identify and activate supporters of non-punitive, non-coercive marijuana policies; (3) change state laws to reduce or eliminate penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana; and (4) gain influence in Congress. MPP advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, envisions a nation where marijuana education is honest and realistic, and believes treatment for problem marijuana users should be non-coercive and geared toward reducing harm.

MPP co-founders Rob Kampia, Chuck Thomas, and Mike Kirshner originally worked at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). In 1995, after months of in-fighting, NORML director Richard Cowan fired Kampia, Thomas, and another staffer who had been pressing Cowan for organizational change. Kirshner quit NORML at the same time. Kampia, Thomas, and Kirshner began creating their own organization, implementing the ideas they'd pushed at NORML. On January 25, 1995, the three activists incorporated the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) as a not-for-profit organization in the District of Columbia.

MPP has grown to over 32,000 dues-paying members and is the largest marijuana policy reform group in the United States. The organization has 30 staffers and an annual budget of about $2.85 million.

MPP, like many advocacy groups, is divided into two legal entities, one a lobbying group and the other an educational group. The public education branch can accept tax-deductible donations, while the lobbying group can use its funds to directly influence politicians. 100% of MPP’s funding comes from the individual contributions of their more than 36,000 members. MPP supporters come from every U.S. state, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.

The Marijuana Policy Project devotes a significant amount of its efforts to changing laws at the state level. MPP has been responsible for most of the major state-level marijuana policy reforms enacted in the past decade. MPP played a lead role in drafting the historic 2012 Amendment 64 initiative in Colorado, which made the state the first place in history to legalize marijuana possession and personal cultivation. MPP also provided most of the financial support for the campaign and helped coordinate the day-to-day operations. In addition, MPP provided the bulk of the funding, staff, and expertise to the successful 2014 legalization and regulation campaign in Alaska, and the successful 2016 legalization and regulation campaigns in Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Further, MPP and the campaign committees it funded also played a leading role in successful efforts to pass 12 of the 20 most recent state medical marijuana laws (in Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and six of the eight most recent decriminalization laws (in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont).