Two Simple Steps to
End Marijuana Prohibition!
Two Simple Steps to
End Marijuana Prohibition!
Step 1: Find Your Officials
Use this page on NORML.org to help you find representatives and senators that represent your local area. This site will hook you up with their mailing address and their website. Usually, you can choose if you want to send your letter via mail, e-mail, or an online form.
Not everyone in congress fully understands why marijuana prohibition should be ended. This letter makes it obvious. Democrats have a majority in congress right now, and generally, they will be more willing to support this. Take advantage- send this letter TODAY!
Each letter sent is a seed planted in the collective mind of congress.
Step 2: Copy & Paste, then SEND!
Dear [[ CONGRESSMAN/SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE INSERT-NAME-HERE ]] ,
I am writing simply to ask what your position on marijuana legalization efforts are and what (if anything) is currently being done to make progress with this issue. I realize that marijuana prohibition/legalization is a controversial issue, but I believe we are due for a serious re-evaluation of the effectiveness of the prohibition policy that has been in place for over 60 years. I ask that you please consider the points I make in this letter with objective eyes.
It seems like the idea of ending marijuana prohibition has never been taken seriously. In the past, people have regarded it largely as a minority "hippie" issue. However, I recently came across an organization calling itself Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (or LEAP) which is made up of over 5,000 former police officers, judges, DA's, and lawyers. They tour the state, country, and continent explaining how this is an issue which affects all of us in a very serious way.
Their message is simple - the drug war is just as much a failure and harm to society as prohibition of alcohol was in the 1920's and 30's. The war on drugs does not achieve its goal of reducing drug supply or demand; it simply pushes the sale of drugs into a dangerous unregulated illegal underground market. The result is organized crime, gangs, violence, sales to minors, unregulated and untaxed distribution, billions of tax dollars wasted to arrest and incarcerate non-violent users, criminal records and ruined lives of harmless citizens, loss of respect for law enforcement, endangered lives of police officers called to deal with violent organized crime, and so on.
LEAP (www.leap.cc) argues that the unintended consequences of the prohibition policy on marijuana are more harmful to society than marijuana itself. They suggest replacing the current policy of prohibition with a policy of regulation and taxation similar to that used with alcohol and tobacco products. In effect, this would dissolve the underground market and the violence associated with it. In addition, the government is put in control of distribution, not thugs. The government will be able to regulate precisely who buys and who sells, where marijuana is sold, and to whom.
The use of a criminal penalty has proven to be an entirely ineffective means of deterring people from using marijuana, and equally ineffective for keeping people off of marijuana. Ending the prohibition of marijuana is about ending the organized crime associated with the underground market. Once that is achieved, policies other than prohibition should be tried as a means of deterring and treating marijuana substance abuse problems in our society. Addiction and dependence is clearly a public health issue, not a criminal issue. If non-prohibitive efforts can free people from addiction to nicotine successfully, then similar policies should prove effective for treating marijuana abuse. Besides, taxpayers shouldn't have to pay to feed and house non-violent pot smokers in prisons; pot smokers should out of prisons and paying taxes like the rest of us.
I believe we need to reconsider this war we're waging against our fellow citizens. Over the past century, millions of harmless marijuana users' lives have been ruined over simple possession charges. Meanwhile, this drug war gives ACTUAL violent criminals a profitable entrance into a dangerous illegal market. What do we have to show for this? Drug availability remains as high as ever - the war on drugs has completely failed to accomplish its goal. Yet we continue to waste taxpayer money, misdirect law enforcement, clog our courts and jails with harmless pot smokers, ruin the lives of decent people, and surrender control of this product and market to thugs who sell to kids without thinking twice, don’t pay taxes on their sales, and will not hesitate to use guns and violence to protect their share of the market profits.
It is time to find a policy that works to reduce the harms of drugs on our society, not one that both amplifies them and creates new ones. Thank you for considering this issue.
Sincerely,
[[ YOUR NAME HERE ]]
"You must be the change you want to see in the world... Just put forth a
clear enough request and everything your heart desires must come to you."
-Mahatma Gandhi
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