Compared with the concerns of their voting constituents, elected officials and government agencies care far less about efforts to reform marijuana laws. After all, elected officials, and the government agency administrators they appoint, derive their power from the will and consent of the voters.Therefore, voters, like you, need to
1.) Stop electing politicians who increase the scope of marijuana prohibition and penalties therein, and
2.) Start electing politicians who favor marijuana law reform.For far, far too long marijuana smokers and marijuana law reformers have remained politically invisible to their elected officials.This must immediately change.
Play a role in ending marijuana prohibition
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Removal of
all penalties for the private possession and responsible use of
marijuana by adults, including cultivation for personal use, and
casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts. This policy, known
as decriminalization, removes the consumer -- the marijuana smoker
-- from the criminal justice system, while maintaining criminal
penalties against those who sell or traffic large quantities of
the drug.In 1972, President Richard Nixon's National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended
that Congress adopt this policy nationally in the United States.
Since then, more than a dozen government-appointed commissions in
both the U.S. and abroad have recommended similar actions. None
of these commissions have endorsed continuing to arrest and jail
minor marijuana offenders. Since 1973, 12 state legislatures --
Alaska,
California, Colorado,
Maine,
Minnesota, Mississippi,
Nebraska,
Nevada,
New York, North
Carolina, Ohio
and Oregon
-- have enacted versions of marijuana decriminalization. In each
of these states, marijuana users no longer face jail time (nor in
most cases, arrest or criminal records) for the possession or use
of small amounts of marijuana. According to national polls, voters
overwhelmingly support these policies. In Oregon, voters recently
reaffirmed their state's decriminalization law by a 2-1 margin in
a statewide referendum.More than 30 percent of the U.S. population
lives under some form of marijuana decriminalization, and according
to government and academic studies, these laws have not contributed
to an increase in marijuana consumption nor negatively impacted
adolescent attitudes toward drug use. . Enforcing marijuana prohibition
costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in
the arrest of more than 734,000 individuals per year -- far more
than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined,
including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. This policy
is a tremendous waste of national and state criminal justice resources
that should be focused on combating serious and violent crime. In
addition, it invites government unnecessarily into areas of our
private lives, and needlessly damages the lives and careers of hundreds
of thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens. We believe now,
as former President Jimmy Carter told Congress in 1977, that: "Penalties
against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than
the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the
laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal
use."
Click here to buy marijuana online legal alternative
"Marijuana
is the third most popular recreational drug in America"
(behind only
alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 80 million Americans.
According to government surveys, some 20 million Americans have
smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 11 million do so
regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our public policies
should reflect this reality, not deny it. Marijuana is far less
dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each
year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths
each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana
is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the
prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking
of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would
be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol
or tobacco."As with alcohol consumption, marijuana smoking can never
be an excuse for misconduct or other improper behavior. For example,
driving or operating heavy equipment while impaired from marijuana
should be prohibited. Most importantly, marijuana smoking is for
adults only, and is inappropriate for children. There are many activities
in our society that are permissible for adults, but forbidden for
children, such as motorcycle riding, skydiving, signing contracts,
getting married, drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco. However, we
do not condone arresting adults who responsibly engage in these
activities in order to dissuade our children from doing so. Nor
can we justify arresting adult marijuana smokers
on the grounds of sending a "message" to children. Our expectation
and hope for young people is that they grow up to be responsible
adults, and our obligation to them is to demonstrate what that means.
.
Legalize it - Marijuana -
Marijuana cannabis dot com supports the eventual development of a legally controlled market for marijuana, where consumers could buy marijuana for personal use from a safe legal source. This policy, generally known as legalization, exists on various levels in a handful of European countries like The Netherlands and Switzerland, both of which enjoy lower rates of adolescent marijuana use than the U.S. Such a system would reduce many of the problems presently associated with the prohibition of marijuana, including the crime, corruption and violence associated with a "black market."
some material used here was extracted partly from http://www.norml.org/
-world center for legalization of cannabis international free peoples
"One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968),
US clergyman, civil rights leader
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1838/a08.html
Newshawk: chip
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 26 Nov 2003
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2003, The Sun Herald
Contact: letters@sunherald.com
Website: http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Marie Caldwell
MODERN-DAY VERSION OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS -Marijuana(cannabis) legalization drug war goes on..
The Salem witch trials reveal striking similarities to our present-day war on drugs. Both were/are fueled by fear, not logic. The war on drugs is waged against substances deemed to "possess" individuals, either causing them to become evil or deliver death. The war on witches was against spirits declared to produce the same results. Both were/are moralistic in their declaration of saving humanity from sin by destroying a menace.
In reality, both were/are attacks on individuals, free will and choice. The tactics used in seeking out violators are the same. Enforcers must hunt. During the war on witches, those admitting guilt were given reduced sentences while those declaring innocence obtained harsher sentences.
Under either plea, the government confiscated the assets of the accused. Prosecutors were more interested in conviction than truth. Acquaintances were persuaded to snitch. In federal drug cases, every one of these same tactics are used today.
Both wars result in overcrowded prisons and favor conviction over rehabilitation. Both demonize the accused and financially and physically destroy families. Oddly, they both turn a deaf ear and instantly demonize individuals requesting consideration of alternative solutions. They brand them as either pro-drug or pro-Satan and play on public fear to maintain the status quo.
When a prominent governor's daughter was accused of being a witch, it was declared a private matter and never entered the courts. Today we have examples of this same practice in Noelle Bush and Rush Limbaugh. When poverty-stricken villagers were accused, a conviction nearly always ensued. Nothing has changed.
Mankind is still allowing a fear of spell-binding potions to overrule common sense. History will not be kind to us. They will sigh at our ignorance, bemuse our blind insanity and eventually vindicate our accused.
MARIE CALDWELL, Biloxi
www.marijuanacannabis.com
Copyright 2004 Marijuanacannabis.com
