Pubdate: Sat, 08 Feb 2014
Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright: 2014 The Commercial Appeal
Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm
Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Michael Collins

COHEN'S DRUG COMMENTS GAIN FANS, GO VIRAL

Marijuana Laws Unjust, Lawmaker Says

WASHINGTON - At the grocery store, the pizza man and the cheese man
stopped him to thank him for his candor. On MSNBC, commentator
Lawrence O'Donnell lauded his intelligence and compassion. And on the
Internet, his remarks have been tweeted and retweeted, distributed and
discussed all across the blogosphere.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's rant earlier this week about what he considers
unjust marijuana laws has gone viral and made him a hero to those who
think the war on drugs has failed.

"It's been a phenomenal response," Cohen, a Memphis Democrat,
said.

And, he added, "just all positive."

Cohen's remarks, made Tuesday during a hearing before the House
Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, are not the first
time he has sounded off about the nation's drug laws. Yet they quickly
spread like wildfire.

During the hearing, Cohen complained to Michael Botticelli, deputy
director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, that marijuana
policies and other laws have resulted in a failed drug war and a
generation of young Americans who believe the government has lied
about the dangers of marijuana.

"Nobody dies from marijuana, but people die from heroin," Cohen said,
invoking actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's death last Sunday from a
suspected heroin overdose.

"Every second we spend in this country trying to enforce marijuana
laws is a second that we're not enforcing heroin laws," Cohen said.
"And heroin and meth are the two drugs that are ravaging our country.

"And every death, including Mr. Hoffman's, is partly the
responsibility of the federal government's drug priorities for not
putting total emphasis on the drugs that kill, that cause people to be
addicted and have to steal to support their habit."

Since his speech, Cohen said, the calls that have poured into his
office have been 15-to-1 in his favor. His Twitter account has picked
up nearly 400 new followers. And his YouTube videos of the remarks
have been seen more than 2,300 times.

Will all the attention help build congressional support for his bill
to set up a national commission to do a comprehensive review of
federal marijuana policies? Hard to say, Cohen said.

"This is a cultural lag, where the public is so far ahead of the
legislators, the congressmen," he said.

Still, "I think this is the most egregious example of an injustice
being done, where people's liberty is being taken," he said. "And
people know it."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D