Pubdate: Fri, 20 Feb 2009
Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW)
Website: http://www.drugsense.org

LETTER OF THE WEEK

TIME TO CHANGE U.S. DRUG POLICIES

By Dalan Crockett and Paul Bennett

Editor of the Reformer:

An open letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr.  President,

Not one American belongs in prison for drug use alone, in absence of 
a real crime.  Using any drug in and of itself should not constitute 
criminal activity.  Laws criminalizing personal behavior in which no 
one harms others or their property are arbitrary and subjective means 
that impose the will of one group of people on another. American 
jurisprudence too often omits the laws of nature in favor of harsh 
legal judgments that one-sidedly interpret some human behavior as 
being unlawful.

Two people have recently come under criminal investigation following 
marijuana allegations.  How did it feel to learn of the arrest of 
your wary-gazed and proud brother in Kenya who asks for nothing but 
the dignity to live his own life; or an Olympic medalist groveling to 
the media with an act of contrition that he did something "not in a 
manner people have come to expect" of him? No one in good conscience 
would make adults who use marijuana wait another day to exercise 
their right of choice, free from criminal justice supervision.

Let us begin rational drug policy in your administration by ending 
marijuana prohibition, and moving this important and lucrative crop 
into the realm of a taxed and licensed supply and demand market for 
adult consumption.

In the main, adult use of marijuana is not criminally intended nor 
does it represent conduct unbecoming of a good citizen. Failure of 
this nation to understand that sends the message to millions of hard 
working, law abiding citizens that justice lay with the accusation, 
not upon an actual crime.

Furthermore, it is an insult to the American people that they are 
portrayed as incapable of maturely using marijuana in a manner 
consistent with responsible adult behavior.

This is not solely a matter of who is right, it is a matter of 
whether our nation is wrong to criminalize adults for private drug 
use.  By doing so, the American and international drug war sends an 
immoral message to kids everywhere that adults settle their 
differences by locking each other up. Moreover, that we stigmatize 
adult behavior that turns friend against friend, brother against 
brother, neighbor against neighbor and creates crime where there was 
no crime before.

Therefore, we are not strictly writing to you as a matter of opinion 
or advocacy.  Rather, we appeal to your good conscience. Please ask 
yourself, Mr.  President, what kind of civilized nation puts its 
people into prison for privately using drugs? When will this greatest 
of modern human rights abuses come to an end, so that this nation, or 
any nation, will never again conduct a war against its own people?

Dalan Crockett and Paul Bennett

Pubdate: Wed, 11 Feb 2009

Source: Brattleboro Reformer (VT)
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