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(Huffington Post) A transpartisan coalition of prosecutors, judges, cops, students, bloggers and political operatives on both sides of the aisle launched a campaign Tuesday to bring an end to marijuana prohibition, focusing on ballot initiatives in 2010 and 2012. The campaign, “Just Say Now,” gets its name from Nancy Reagan’s iconic anti-drug slogan from the 1980s that has become synonymous with the government’s black-and-white approach to drug policy.

“The stars are aligning in a very interesting way with Tea Party activists, who are generally libertarian,” said Aaron Houston, head of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, on a conference call Tuesday afternoon announcing the formation of the coalition. “On the right and left it’s a very popular issue.”

The campaign will be backing marijuana initiatives in 2010 in Arizona, Oregon, California, Colorado and South Dakota. The group will back initiatives in Nevada and elsewhere in 2012.

Bruce Fein, a member of the coalition, was Ronald Reagan’s associate deputy attorney general and is a prominent civil libertarian. “This is a fundamental issue of states’ rights,” said Fein.

A lead organizer of the campaign, Jane Hamsher, founder of Firedoglake.com, went on CNN Monday night to challenge existing notions about marijuana prohibition.

Can you think of another issue where you’ll find liberal bloggers and former Reagan staffers in agreement?  Where conservative stalwarts like the late Milton Friedman and William Buckley support the same position as Alice Huffman and the California NAACP?  Where “Tea Partiers” and “Netroots Nation” have a similar view?  Where a libertarian favorite like Rep. Ron Paul and openly gay liberal Rep. Barney Frank find common ground?  Where some former cops and the people they’ve busted agree the bust was unjust and unnecessary?

It’s beginning to feel like the only one who don’t support sensible marijuana law reforms are the people who represent The People.

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Cannabis Conversations

• Ethan Nadelmann: Highlights of Opening Remarks at DPA Reform Conference in Albuquerque, NM.

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: What the Science – “Higher (feat. Tiffany Paige)”

Cannabis Conversations

• Aaron Houston, MPP Federal Lobbyist, on Mexican drug cartel influence in small town America
• Lorenzo Jones, A Better Way Foundation, on the progress of reform in Connecticut
• Whitney Taylor, former campaign director, on new civil fines for “public consumption” following passage of her Massachusetts’ Question 2 decrim measure
• Karen O’Keefe, MPP State Programs Director, on new medical marijuana bills that take away right to home grow or restrict qualifying conditions

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Yes, the wall is crumbling.  We are winning, but it’s not over yet.  It ain’t over ’til the fat lady (can walk into a store in any state, county or municipality, show ID proving they are of legal age, purchase marijuana for recreational use, go home, roll a joint (fill a pipe, bong, vaporizer) fire it up, relax and then) sings.

Good job, Aaron, and I know how the time constraints are on live national TV, but will somebody, please, anybody, when the prohibitionist says that the taxes on tobacco and alcohol don’t begin to cover the social costs, instead of going with the “marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco route”, which is undeniably true, swing it back to the economic argument and say:

“22 million Americans are smoking pot already and we’re taking in zero revenue to cover any social costs, which, since marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, will be much lower. And since the greatest costs from marijuana are from policing people for it and dealing with the crime and violence of a black market, we’ll do much better than break-even on the deal.”

President Obama responded last week to the most popular question submitted by online voters – whether marijuana should be made legal in order to bring this huge underground industry into the legal economy – by treating it pretty much as a joke.

But the time for jokes has passed. Our marijuana laws are killing people.

The solution is obvious. After all, there’s a reason these gangs aren’t smuggling wine grapes. Prohibition simply doesn’t work – not in the 1930s and not now.

via SFGate “Pot laws are no laughing matter“