Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jan 2012
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: John Lewallen
Note: John Lewallen is a Philo resident.

END FEDERAL MARIJUANA BAN

It is time for citizens to unite to end federal marijuana 
prohibition. The marijuana industry is in communities throughout the 
United States. Federal marijuana prohibition is generating violence, 
corruption, ignorance, and waste on many levels. To deal with the 
problems of marijuana abuse, and to develop the many new therapeutic 
uses of cannabis being discovered, we should bring cannabis into the 
light by repealing federal marijuana prohibition laws. The California 
Medical Association, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, and 
twenty-one members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently have 
called for an end to federal marijuana prohibition.

James T. Hay, president of the California Medical Association, said 
in an Oct. 16, 2011 news release, "This was a carefully considered, 
deliberative decision made exclusively on medical and scientific 
grounds. As physicians, we need to have a better understanding about 
the benefits and risks of medical cannabis so that we can provide the 
best possible care for our patients."

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Dec. 
13, 2011, to ask for an end to federal marijuana prohibition. 
"Inconsistencies in local, state and federal law create challenges 
within our public safety system network and criminal justice system," 
the supervisors stated. "Mendocino County supports the regulation, 
legalization, and taxation of marijuana.."

Here in Northern California, marijuana growing is a major source of 
livelihood. Medical marijuana is legal under California law. 
Mendocino County and other local governments are struggling to make 
regulations to permit medical marijuana growing, and to protect 
citizens from the negative impacts of marijuana growing and sales.

Now there is a federal enforcement attack on growers and dispensaries 
operating legally under California state law. Some local officials 
have received letters from federal drug enforcement officials, 
threatening criminal prosecution if they act to permit or regulate 
medical marijuana. The outlaw marijuana society we are creating by 
allowing federal marijuana prohibition is not good for us, our 
children or grandchildren. There are the vested interests of outlaw 
growers making profits, enforcement agencies building their budgets 
and seizing assets from outlaws, criminal gangs spreading corruption 
and violence in many nations, and a prison-industrial complex 
overcrowded with inmates convicted of marijuana offenses.

Youth with few employment opportunities are being drawn into the 
shadowy world of marijuana growing and sales. Houses which could 
shelter people without homes are used to grow marijuana secretly, 
using much electrical energy in a world crying for energy conservation.

Most tragically, proponents and opponents of marijuana are played 
against each other, preventing us from openly discussing the real 
problems of marijuana abuse by youth and others, and inhibiting 
research into the many healing uses of cannabis

Please consider joining me in demanding that 2012 be the year that we 
end the nightmare of marijuana prohibition by enacting HR 2306, the 
Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, introduced in the U.S. 
House of Representatives by Rep. Barney Frank and 20 co-sponsors on 
June 23, 2011. This law, when approved, will repeal all federal 
penalties for production, distribution and possession of marijuana. 
The only federal marijuana penalties will be for transporting 
marijuana to states in violation of state laws.

I hope our current California Northcoast congressional 
representatives, Mike Thompson and Lynn Woolsey, will hear from 
concerned citizens in a united outcry to enact HR 2306; and that 
California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein will introduce 
a companion bill in the U.S. Senate. The citizens of the United 
States ended alcohol prohibition, and I know we can work together to 
end marijuana prohibition. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom