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Tell your representative in Congress to put an end to the war on marijuana users
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I really agree with you, Donegal. On July 21st, I wrote a blog entry to that effect "Fix the Deficit -End the Longest War in American History" http://recipesforabetterworld.blogspo.... I've come to the conclusion that the crimes surrounding drugs are more of a threat to public safety than the drugs themselves. At this point, I think we should legalize and regulate all of them. I live in Evanston just north of Chicago where too many children and teenagers have been killed in drive-by shootings, mostly gangs fighting over territory. If they didn't have drugs to sell, these gangs would lose a lot of their power.
This is one area where I would agree with the "stay out of our personal lives" party, but don't see much chance of them going there. Where they like to talk about personal liberty and state's rights, they also like to legislate morality. If you want some shocking statistics on the "War on Drugs" read Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow".
Michelle Alexander
On June 23, 2011, a handful of visionary and courageous Members of Congress, led by Rep. Barney Frank, introduced the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011," a bill that would treat marijuana the way alcohol is treated under federal law. It would give each state complete freedom to regulate marijuana in the manner it believes is in the best interests of its citizens. If a state wants to make marijuana available to patients, it can. And if it prefers to make marijuana legal for all adults, it can do that, too.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on marijuana prohibition over the past forty years. And for what? Usage rates don't change. The price of marijuana doesn't change. All prohibition has done is ensure that profits have remained underground while marijuana itself has been unregulated and less safe.
It is time to tell your representative in Congress to put an end to this massive waste of government resources. States must be set free to experiment with marijuana policy.