Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Contacting President-elect Obama

President-elect Obama has provided a venue for citizens to express their ideas to him during this transition period. Please take the opportunity to contact him at change.gov and let him know what you think.

(Unfortunately, the drug war problem is not on the list of "checkable" issues, but there is a field to write in "other issues." Be sure to add "Marijuana Law Reform" in that field.)

I wrote, urging first of all for peace, abroad and at home. I said we could do nothing effective or meaningful until we had that, and I reminded him that peace also meant domestic peace, that we could not continue the drug war focused against young people and minorities, and we must end the horrifying violence against women in their homes.

I wrote, reminding him that prosperity is meaningless without peace (and peace meaningless without liberty) and asked him to consider peace his primary directive in the presidency. O, I know everyone cares uppermost about the economy right now, but that's why I wrote as I did. Environmental conservation, renewable energy, immigration, these and others are important issues to me, but if we WAR, of what concern are they? And how can we solve them when our finances and passions are spent on violence?

I closed with congratulations for his (our) win, thanked him for his efforts and for his willingness to assume this awful burden and expressed my deepest wishes for his well-being, both personal and public.

I don't know what else I can do, but express my support and urge others to do the same. Please take a few minutes to fill out the form provided at change.gov. We want to keep this precious opportunity open and the energy flowing in the right direction. Ignore the cynics. Brush aside the hatred. Keep moving forward with the hope the President-elect has inspired, and we might, just might, establish the peace, liberty and prosperity we seek.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Marijuana Reform Will Happen

I can feel a change a-comin', there's a wave of calm washin' over me
And I can feel a change a-comin', there's of wave of calm washin' over me
-Marcia Hines

That's how I feel this morning as I discovered that marijuana law reform was approved in several state elections, from Massachusetts to Hawaii. Read the results here at NORML's blog.
State by state, the will of the people is being expressed. Within five (seven years at the outside), I believe the law of the land concerning marijuana will be reformed. At the least, it will be decriminalized. At best, it will be legalized, become a viable cash crop, subject to health regulations and taxation. It's high time America took control of marijuana production, sale and use, removing it from the hands of illegal dealers, and into the sphere of legal, profitable, taxable use of industrial materials, recreational and medicinal substances.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Drop in the Bucket

In 1977, Jimmy Carter urged Americans to conserve energy, and we didn't do it. Look where our inaction led us, to continued addiction on foreign oil, global warming, and to outrageous prices for gas.

In 1977, Jimmy Carter urged Congress to decriminalize marijuana, and it hasn't been done. Look where our inaction led us, to incarceration of petty smokers, billions of dollars spent on futile law enforcement, escalation of violence among producers and distributors and federal violation of states' legal and constitutional authority. In addition, if we had taken the extra step of legalization, we would not have lost out on the billions in tax revenues and industry profits.

Apparently, we (Americans) are in the process of agreeing to $700 billion in new debt in order to bail out the financial institutions in crisis. Though it's just a drop in the bucket, it is time for the long-awaited legalization of marijuana with conservative estimates of revenue generated at $16 billion per year.