[UPDATED AT BOTTOM] Marijuana Policy Project communications director Mike Meno is leaving the fold. Meno took over for former communications director Bruce Mirken last year. In his farewell email, Meno writes:
Friends and Colleagues,
It’s with mixed emotions that I’m writing to let you know I’ve decided to leave the Marijuana Policy Project at the end of this year. Beginning in late January, I am going to head up communications for another Washington-based nonprofit lobbying group, [an atheist group], which seeks to defend and strengthen the separation of church and state, while also promoting greater acceptance of nonbelievers.
It has been a true pleasure to work alongside many of you during these historic months in the campaign to end marijuana prohibition, and I will continue to champion the cause and follow all your fine work, while keeping myself open for other ways to stay involved in the movement. I want to thank each of you who has helped or encouraged me during my 1+ years at MPP, and wish you all the best in future endeavors.
If you should ever like to get in touch with me for any reason, please feel free to contact me at this email address, or at [redacted], which will be my new work email starting next month. One of my first items of business will be to launch a new blog for [an atheist group], so stay tuned, for I hope to still see some of you again in the blogosphere!
Best wishes and happy holidays
Mike Meno
Based on what I’ve heard from members of marijuana reform groups as well as from within MPP, the organization is on a downhill slide. Early this year, the group’s founder and executive director Rob Kampia stepped down in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment, and underwent treatment for addiction. He’s back in charge now, but the incident (or rather, series of incidents) eventually cost MPP most of the support it had received from billionaire philanthropist Peter Lewis, who resigned from MPP’s board. (To put Lewis’ loss in context: In 2007, he gave $3 million to MPP; this year, he gave $900,000 before his split with the organization, and not a penny after.)
According to my sources, MPP’s employee count has roughly halved since 2008, when many of Kampia’s problems reached a boiling point. This may have affected the organization’s ability to provide resources for Prop 19 in California (which failed) and a medical marijuana initiative in Arizona (which passed). Unless the organization finds a way to boost its funding, members of other national marijuana reform organizations have questioned whether MPP can be of much help in 2012.
Full disclosure: Meno and I worked for the same Philly newspaper during the same period in 2007. Meno was not a source for the reporting that occurred separate from his email.
Update: To clarify, the email was forwarded to us by a friend of the former MPP communications director. Meno has since emailed me to say that letter was not meant for public dissemination.