Marijuana Policy Project Foundation: Fill & Download for Free

Although my primary focuses in college were political science and criminal justice, I also took a lot of courses in technical writing, fiction writing, film and television, and journalism.I worked as a journalist on and off for many years, including as a political op-ed writer, a humor columnist, and as a political news journalist, honing my writing skills. I also worked in politics on presidential campaigns, state and local campaigns, and for a public policy lobbying organization, and in those various jobs I did a lot of writing for press releases, statements, letters to constituents and elected officials, and campaign ads.For a few years, I was a writer for various online sites dedicated to films and comics. I also worked as an administrator at one popular site, while contributing articles and reviews.Meanwhile, throughout my entire life I loved films and watched large numbers of them, as well as consuming a lot of television. I studied movies in my spare time, endlessly thinking, analyzing, and talking about them with family and friends. I read many books about cinema and filmmaking, as well as studying storytelling and mythology.In 2007, I had a discussion with friends about whether the film Superman Returns had been successful enough to serve as the foundation for a renewed Superman film series. I argued that despite its flaws, the movie was good and there was room for a great sequel that makes necessary adjustments and keeps the franchise going. When it started to look like Warner Bros. was rethinking whether to make a sequel or not, I decided — with encouragement from my wife — to try writing a sequel idea. That idea started out as a rough story draft, evolved into a full treatment, and then I went all-in and decided to try writing an actual screenplay.I went out and bought books about screenwriting, including Dave Trottier’s must-read The Screenwriter’s Bible. And then I did it — I wrote my first screenplay, a sequel to Superman Returns entitled The Man of Steel. It took me a a few months to write the story, and then several more months to complete the script. It was rough, but I was proud to have done it. At the time, I worked full-time at the Marijuana Policy Project on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as a media specialist and campaign ad writer/producer, so all of my screenwriting was done in my spare time.I spent several more months trying to figure out how to get my script read by someone capable of doing something with it. Believe it or not, at one point I even sent a copy of my script to Martin Sheen — whom I hoped would play Perry White — and was shocked when he wrote me a letter back, saying he read it and liked it, but wasn’t ready to step into the superhero genre yet (eventually Sheen portrayed Uncle Ben in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man).Eventually, though, I became discouraged and thought my hope to finally fulfill a lifelong dream of making movies was not in the cards for me. But then my wife was looking for a Spanish language tutor one night, and noticed an ad for a screenwriting seminar in D.C. the following week. She suggested I go to the seminar, learn all I could from it, and then grab hold of the lecturer’s leg and refuse to let him leave until he gave me advice on how to find an agent or someone to help me get my script into the right hands.I went to the seminar, learned a lot, and afterward talked with the teacher to ask his advice. He did me one better, reading the first ten pages of my script and telling me that although it wasn’t perfect and needed edits and rewrites, it was good enough to impress him. Right there, he called a manager friend of his who produces some of Vin Diesel’s movies, and told him my Superman script was good enough that they should try to help me. They got my script read by some producers and even some executives, and even had a lunch meetup with Jon Peters to talk about it. Unfortunately, Warner decided to reboot Superman instead of attempting a sequel to Superman Returns, so my script was obsolete…Which meant I just needed to write a new screenplay, this time to totally reboot Superman for the big screen. I worked with the same guys, who by now had become my friends — and with whom I worked on several subsequent movie and TV projects for several more years — and we put together a big Superman reboot project including a new (and even better) screenplay, treatments for two more films to create a full trilogy, concept art for Superman and the villains, and various pitch documents to describe Superman’s new world and the themes this new rebooted series would explore. But after more than a year of developing my script and trilogy ideas and preparing to pitch them to the studio, Warner announced a deal with Christopher Nolan and David Goyer to reboot Superman.During this entire time, I was still working at my regular full-time job. I continued to do so for a couple of years, writing other scripts in my spare time, until I’d written several scripts and made enough money to feel I needed to make a choice — keep pursuing writing as a career, or stop and accept a promotion at work. My wife and I discussed it, and she supported me in dedicating a couple of years to trying to make it as a screenwriter. Then, during that time, I began writing about screenwriting and movies here at Quora. That, in turn, caught the attention of Forbes, and I was hired by them as a contributing writer.Soon, I was making enough money from screenwriting and Forbes combined to exceed my salaried job at MPP, so it was clear I could continue working as a writer beyond my original two-year trial period. At in 2010, things were going well enough that we decided to move to Los Angeles so I could be closer to the film business, and so my wife (who is an attorney and lobbyist working for MPP as the director of state policies) could create a home office and continue her work in a state that has been on the cutting edge of marijuana policy reform.Now I live in Hollywood and have written a large number of screenplays for film and TV. I have a horror film going into production this year, and a few other projects in development as well. But it all started as a sort-of whim, to prove a good sequel to Superman Returns could be made. Luckily, I have never been the type of person to give up easily, and my stubborn refusal to quit set me on the path that led me where I am today. But I didn’t do it alone, I had immense support and encouragement from my wife, and lots of teaching and cowriter help from my good friend Ron Peterson who took time to listen to me and read my script at his screenwriting seminar all those years ago.

Sunbeam's alliance with the American Medical Association was the biggest failure. The five-year agreement, signed in 1997, allowed Sunbeam to market "Health at Home" products in nine categories including blood-pressure monitors, heating pads and vaporizers, with the AMA logo. To the consumer, it appeared that these were endorsed by the AMA when in reality, the AMA had conducted no testing on the products and had no input on quality, price orfunctionality. The announcement was met with outrage, some of the AMA's 300,000 members resigned, editorial writers criticized the deal and the AMA's CEO and two other top execs were ousted. The anger persisted and AMA walked away from the deal. Sunbeam sued for breach-of-contract and the AMA had to pay Sunbeam $9.9 million in damages. The AMA had asked IEG -- (company I co founded and thought leader in sponsorship and cause marketing)-- to weigh in on the agreement before it was signed. We'd been warned in advance that our counsel should be to go ahead with the Sunbeam deal if we hoped to get future business from the association. We advised the AMA and board members at the meeting, that going ahead with the deal, would be unethical and not to sign it.As it turned out, AMA's new executivedirector hired IEG to audit the rest of AMA's contracts to be sure there were no other conflicts and to head the task force that created the AMA's guidelines for cause marketing.The only other national cause marketing partnership that misled the public in this way was the 1994 deal between the Arthritis Foundation and McNeil/Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol. The agreement allowed Tylenol to market a co-branded pain reliever and Tylenol guaranteed an annual payment of $1 million. The Arthritis Foundation Pain Relievers were promoted as specifically formulated for arthritis sufferers but were no different than Tylenol. And, a $1 donation to the AF was promoted with purchase, yet the$1M was guaranteed, even if no sales occurred. The Attorneys General of 16 states and the District of Columbia sued McNeil for misleading consumers. Under the settlement, McNeil paid $90,000 to each of the states and DC plus $250,000 to the NIH for arthritis research.Both the AMA and AF occurred when cause marketing was relatively new and precedents had not been set. Both AMA and AFhave since been leaders in formulating ethical partnership guidelines and investing in research to understand how consumers perceive cause marketing.A more recent high profile cause marketing debacle was the 2010 Chase Community Giving initiative. The crowd sourcedtwo-part “vote for me” campaign was conducted on Facebook ended with allegations of cheating by both the winner of the $1 million, Invisible Children, and second place winner, the Isha Foundation. Even before the finals, the contest was tainted when in the first round, several nonprofits that had placed in the top 100--including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Marijuana Policy Project and an anti-abortion group--contented that they were disqualified over concerns about associating with their missions. The groups said they were among the top 100 vote-getters.Pepsi’s $20 million cause marketing campaign, Pepsi Refresh, has also been plagued by allegations of fraudulent voting.Another noteworthy flop was the 2010 Tails for Tails campaign by the U.S. arm of Australia's Yellow Tail wine. Yellow Tail, whose bottle label and company logo features a wallaby, announceda plan to donate $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States. In-store displays with the HSUS marks and logo promoted the partnership. A few weeks later, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance expressed its outrage that the company was supporting a group whose agenda was “reducing the consumption of meat and otheranimal-based foods.” HSUS critics pointed out in blogs and Tweets that the HSUS is not about pet shelters and is not affiliated with local humane societies. The outrage spread like wildfire culminating in the creation of a “Yellow Fail” Facebook page, which quicklygarnered 1,686 fans. In response, Yellow Tail USA posted this Tweet: “We’ve decided to use our $100K gift to aid animal rescue.” This announcement added fuel to the fire and within a few daysthe Animal Agriculture Alliance issued a news release with a copy of a letter from Casella Wines, the producer of Yellow Tail, stating that in the future, the company would only support organizationsthat provide care directly to animals, not lobbying efforts. Yellow Tail’s selection of HSUS was probably not a reflection of its support for HSUS values but rather a lack of due diligence.We hear the company mistook HSUS for the Anti-Cruelty Society.As was the case with Chase and Pepsi, the Yellowtail problem was not cause marketing but rather the sponsor’s approach to cause marketing. When done correctly, cause marketing is a win for nonprofits, their donors, volunteers and supporters as well as the brands that sponsor them.

The most common objections of those who are libertarian-leaning have to do with the Free State Project not yet having produced enough of a libertarian outcome in some policy area.“The Democrats took over the legistlature in the 2018 election. Doesn’t this suggest that the Free State Project has failed?”“New Hampshire still outlaws marijuana. Doesn’t this suggest that the Free State Project has failed?”“A new gun control law was proposed in New Hampshire. Doesn’t this suggest that the Free State Project has failed?”etc.No, this demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the Free State Project.It’s a Project, Dude!The first thing that the libertarian-leaning have to realize is that the FSP is a project. It is an exercise that we have to actually excecute. We are creating a free state, not moving to an already free state.Yes, New Hampshire has ranked as the #1 or #2 state in the freedom index over the last couple of decades <0941>. That was a large reason why we chose New Hampshire. But that doesn’t mean that New Hampshire is already a libertarian state. No, all it means is that, of all these other authoritarian states that are all slowly eroding their citizens’ liberty, New Hampshire is one of the least egregious starting out.But it is still a largely authoritarian state. It is still largely populated by authoritarians. It still has a relatively small libertarian population. It, like all the other states, is still sliding towards greater authoritarianism. We intend to stop that slide — we may not be able to stop that slide everywhere in the world, but in New Hampshire we’re gathering the forces to stop it at least here!We chose New Hampshire, not because it was already some ‘libertarian paradise’, but because this was the state where we thought we had a decent chance of succeeding in our project.But a project requires work! Complaining that New Hampshire is still not an ideal libertarian state is like going to the building site of a future skyscraper and complaining that the hole that we dug doesn’t offer a good view of the city. We kind of look at you like you’re a bit dull and then speak slowly to explain, “We haven’t built the skyscraper yet.”And that building is going to take time and effort. We’re going to have advances, and yes, many failures.Our goal is that shining beacon of liberty; just because all you see right now is a hole in the ground doesn’t mean it has failed; it just means that we’re only starting.It Requires Your Work!Here’s another thing that those who cast stones from afar ignore. All that work? Turning a statist state into the most libertarian state? It’s got to be done by people. And not just by any people, but by libertarian people. And not by libertarian people looking on impatiently from six states over and wondering why all the work has not yet been completed, but by libertarian people who move into the building site when it’s just a dream, who roll up their sleeves, and who start to lift rocks with the rest us so we can eventually set a foundation.A sense of entitlement? An attitude of living off the labors of others? That’s not what libertarianism is all about. That’s what authoritarianism is all about.Now, it’s understandable that having grown up and lived only in statist states, you forget what liberty means. So, let me remind you. It doesn’t mean that you wait around for some authority to conceive and to tax and to contract and to build you something, and then you, not having lifted a finger to build this thing, try to benefit from the labor that the authority stole to build it for you, all the while complaining that the authority’s implementation fails you miserably.Liberty means that you have the freedom to craft your own future. And that is all that the project, known as the Free State Project, is offering you. It’s saying, “Come here to New Hampshire and create — with other liberty lovers — the most free state that we can.”Telling those of us who have already moved here and who are trying right now to start building something, that the state is not as free yet as you would like it to be eventually, and therefore you’re not going to move here until it is, totally ignores who is supposed to be building the Free State.Get off your Lookie-Lou butts and come here and help us to build! We will welcome you with open arms.A Slow MoveNow, I’m sure that Jason Sorens did not anticipate that it would take 13 years years to get 20,000 libertarians to pledge to move to New Hampshire. He was pretty sure that his idea was so cool and so great, and that we libertarians were so frustrated having to suffer authoritarian measure after authoritarian measure implemented against us in our authoritarian states, that we would sign up to his idea in droves. But no, it was a long 13 years of explaining and cajoling and urging, and throwing big parties where we tried to get a few more people to sign up. <1246>So, “The Move” didn’t even start until about four years ago. And given how over-optimistic we were on getting libertarians just to sign their intention to move, most of us think that it’s going to take us a while for those 20,000 people to move up here. <1229> But it would take a lot less time if you — yes, you — were to move today.So far, we have over 2,000 libertarians who have pulled up stakes from their statist states and have moved to NH (and another 2,000 NH residents who have joined us in our efforts). But the move was scheduled for 20,000 libertarians, and so with only 2,000 libertarians who have moved so far, we are only about 1/10th through with the move.Jason calculated that 20,000 libertarians in a small state like NH could have a tremendous impact electorally. That doesn’t mean that 1/10th of that move will have a similarly large impact. Our impact grows exponentially with the number of movers.And remember, the move is only Stage 2. (Stage 1 being to get liberty-minded people to sign up to move.) <0995> Stage 3 is actually creating that liberty in the Free State, in concert with all the other libertarians who will have by then moved here.So, judging the “outcome” of the project when we are only 1/10th of the way through the Stage 2 mobilization part of it, ignores how big a task creating a free state is. If this were easy, it would already have been done. It needs us because it is hard.So, instead of noting that the outcome isn’t perfect, settle up your affairs and move here. You’ll be helping so much more to create the outcome we all want.No Top-Down GoalOne of the frustrating things for us movers is when non-movers look at all the work that is left to do and complain that their pet <Policy Area X> is not up to their standards yet, and so they won’t deign to move until we make it acceptable to them.Well, without some authoritarian ruler here directing what we must do, who do you think decides what gets done first and how it’s done?That would be you!If you were here, and you were upset that NH still inflicts, say, violence on otherwise innocent, peaceful people for simply inhaling cannabis into their own lungs, don’t complain to me. Get off your butt and change it.Two weeks ago, a Free Stater decided to really focus on supporting shooting ranges. He created a new group amongst the already-moved FSPers, and it took off. They are talking legislation, and start-ups, and older shooting ranges, and are patronizing places together, and joining boards and coordinating with outside agencies.That is what a “project” looks like. It means, you see a need, and given an increasing, large set of allies, you gather the FSP associates who agree with you, and you maka you own pizza pie. <1176>{Kramer explains Make Your Own Pizza}And in this distributed, bottom up way, the resultant Free State that we will create up here in New Hampshire, when 20,000, 40,000, 80,000 libertarians are living here, will not have been detailed beforehand in some white paper written in an academic department of a leftist college; the actual Free State that we create will be revealed by the actual actions of the liberty lovers — like you — who moved up here to do the work to create their Free State. <0889>Other MigrantsNew Hampshire is right now in a battle between Free Staters and Authoritarians. You see, authoritarians are also moving here, for some of the reasons why we chose New Hampshire (e.g., low crime, no income tax, no sales tax, etc.)But the thing about authoritarians is they want to take advantage of the outcomes of freedom, but they think that freedom can always be improved a bit by a little more authoritarianism. And so, they come from their bottom-of-freedom-states: Massachusetts or New York or Connecticut or Vermont, and start right away suggesting new laws because, even though they came here to escape the results of their authoritarian ideas, they can’t help but bring their hellhole with them.And right now, there’s more of them moving here than there are of us.For sure, our migration is accelerating. And let’s face it, all we’re asking for here is 20,000 to move. 20,000 liberty movers is just a small portion of the number of us who should be here. Why shouldn’t we have 100,000 libertarians in this state? We’re more than 1/50th of the population of the US, why shouldn’t we have 1/50th of the states?If you think about it, we have about three million pretty hard-core libertarians (1%) in the United States, almost 100% of whom are really frustrated with their states and their inability to turn back the ever-rising authoritarianism. And if you expand our definition to include “pretty libertarian”, we have maybe 10 million. And heck, if you expand it to the “liberty leaning”, we have maybe 60 million who could conceivably come and join us. <0788>What hope would those Massholes — escaping Massachusetts rulers but bringing their Massachusetts laws to New Hampshire — have then?And why shouldn’t we, who desire just one free state out of 50 otherwise authoritarian states — erect some big signs on the Interstate:You Are Entering New HampshireLive Free or Die!All Freedom Lovers Welcomed(Please Continue On to an Adjoining StateIf You Require Greater Governance.)Don’t Want to Leave My JobNow, New Hampshire has one of the lowest unemployment rates of any state. (Just wait until we’re entirely crypto and gold up here!!) But a lot of our people have specialized educations and are looking for specialized jobs, which are currently offered exclusively in the most statist states.Well, here’s the thing: There is no political movement that is more entrepreneurial than libertarianism. <1029>So, how about you stop worrying about working for The Man, and come up here and build a new company? Hire only Free Staters. Advertise for Free Staters to move to NH to join your company! Coordinate with other Free Staters — you’ll already have a built-in customer set. Become the corporate change you want — Do Well by Doing Good.Or, is a new high tech firm a bit ambitious for you? Do you want a nice place to live? Buy a rooming house and set it up for Free Staters. AirBnB Free Staters who come here looking at possibly moving. Offer short term leases to Free Staters while they are looking for permanent housing.You are way too dedicated to human freedom to miss out on this opportunity, and you are way too clever and too entrepreneurial to be stopped by such weak arguments.TL; DR;Look, there are lots of reasons not to move to the Free State yet — especially if you are hoping that someone else will build it for you. <1166>But aren’t you tired of being a minuscule minority, despised simply because you don’t believe in initiating violence against your otherwise peaceful, innocent neighbors?Wouldn’t you be happier if you weren’t bitching about ever encroaching totalitarianism, but were actually creating more and more liberty each day? <1153>Don’t you yearn to be able to breathe free? To wake up in the morning with the knowledge in your heart that today, in this one corner of an otherwise violent, coercive, authoritarian world, you’ll be going to sleep just a little bit more free?Wouldn’t you rather be surrounded by people whose primary ethic is not to initiate violence against you, who won’t steal your stuff or make you obey their whims, who won't use psychopathic politicians as proxies for their evil, violent methods?Don’t you want to tell your grandchildren that you didn’t just whine about the lack of freedom for humanity? No, you built freedom, and that is the reason why they have the opportunity for even greater liberty in their lives?Well, if that’s you,Bienvenue au New HampshireLive Free or Die!All Freedom Lovers WelcomedSee Related:1384: Primer: How to get involved in the Free State Project, the mass migration of libertarians to New Hampshire?1153: How is the Free State Project impacting New Hampshire politics?1229: How does the Free State Project plan to attract 20,000 pro-liberty people to New Hampshire?1176: Should I move to New Hampshire to build a local libertarian community?0995: I’m Moving To Free State New Hampshire1246: Review of PorcFest0861: Do you plan to participate in the Free State Project?1244: Where in the world should economists pay a visit to?0539: Why live in authoritarian Boston rather than free state New Hampshire?0534: What is the intent of the Free State Project?1166: Q: Where’s Dennis? (A: Creating Freedom In NH)0941: 17 Years of Freedom in the States0889: Why can’t libertarians tell us precisely what their future society will look like?1029: Why are libertarians more likely to be entrepreneurial?→ Essays on <The Free State Project (FSP)> by Dennis→ Return to the <Table of Contents> for Dennis’ Libertarian Essays<, FSP, Diffusing,>