Quote of the Day: “What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state [medical marijuana] laws.” Barack Obama, Oregon Mail Tribune, March 22, 2008
On June 23, Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced a bill that would end federal prohibition of marijuana and would let the states decide for themselves whether it should be legal.
Six days later, the Obama Administration broke an earlier promise and declared war on medical marijuana patients – even in states where medical marijuana is legal (PDF document).
Although the Administration claims it wants federal laws enforced in all states, the problem is that federal marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional, immoral, and counter-productive.
That’s why I sent a letter to Congress asking them to pass the Frank-Paul bill using our End the Mexican Civil War campaign. {link outdated}
The hard-wired message says, “Please bring peace to both Mexico and the United States by ending the War on Drugs.”
To this, I added the following personal comments, which you may borrow from or copy…
An excellent first step in ending Drug Prohibition is Barney Frank’s and Ron Paul’s H.R. 2306, which would end federal prohibition of marijuana so that the various states would decide, for themselves, whether it should be legal. A laboratory of 50 state policies can teach us a great deal.
Is supporting this kind of bill politically dangerous, like it used to be? More and more Americans are seeing that the War on Drugs is a failure, and support for marijuana legalization is expanding.
Supporting Frank-Paul will promote justice…
* The President has broken a promise and is INCREASING raids on medical marijuana patients and their providers; Frank-Paul would end this
* Frank-Paul will substantially decrease gross violations of our civil liberties, such as civil asset forfeiture
* Frank-Paul will also reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system
* And will reduce the number of broken homes and lost futures due to drug convictions
Moreover, everyone knows that Prohibition hasn’t worked. It has…
* NOT had any noticeable effect on usage
* led to violence on our streets and bloody civil wars elsewhere; Mexico’s drug war has cost 30,000 lives in just 5 years
* has squandered tens of billions of dollars to prosecute non-violent drug “offenders”
* led to overcrowded prisons, and an overloaded justice system
Supporting Frank-Paul will mean you are abiding by your oath of office…
* Prohibition violates the Tenth Amendment; early in the last century, everyone agreed that Prohibition required a constitutional amendment
* Frank-Paul conforms to the standards and intent of the Commerce Clause
* Studies have demonstrated that marijuana is far less dangerous than the federal government insists, and that it can have medical and psychological benefits. EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE, don’t individuals have a Ninth Amendment right to decide for themselves?
END LETTER
You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System. {link outdated}
Does State prohibition really make “society” healthier? Learn the interesting historical answer in this brand new and highly-relevant article at the Downsize DC Foundation website. {link outdated}
In preparing this Dispatch, I was struck by how many promises Barack Obama has broken — how many groups he filled with “hope” during campaign season, only to “change” his word when the moment of truth came during his presidency. This Dispatch provides another unfortunate example. Maybe you know people who care deeply about the issue of marijuana prohibition who believed that, at least on this issue, the policy would improve.
Would you be doing those persons a favor if you shared this message with them? Might they join you in taking action using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System?
Thanks for taking action and spreading the word,
James Wilson
Policy Research Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.