Trenton state house vigil for medical cannabis advocate Cheryl Miller
by Chris Goldstein - In my opinion, the Nobel Peace Prize is well awarded. It may also be the strongest-ever political act of the premier peace-forwarding organization in the world. They offer the prize to President Obama not only for his achievements but also as an allotment of authority to work on the world stage, at a time when he needs it.
Here the Nobel Prize is not a symbol of recognition but a vehicle to end wars.
Many were surprised by the announcement. But I think we lose perspective on how momentous it is for an African American to be the leader of our powerful nation. Our President has shown himself to be quite adept at his job. His time in office so far, less than a year, has hinted at an influential presidency. The world looks at all of this, rightly so, as a major shift in the global political landscape.
As a journalist and radio broadcaster I have intensely covered the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005 I interviewed Mozzam Begg, a British citizen who was one of the first people actually released from Guantanimo Bay. The interview with Begg on his nightmare memoir Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanimo, Bagram and Kandahar was one of the most haunting conversations of my life. Mozzam is an innocent man who had endured some of the ultimate tortures of the body, mind and soul at the very hands of our country.
That interview and interacting with dozens of soldiers from both conflicts instilled a deep desire in me for our nation to end our large scale involvement.
But one ongoing conflict I covered as a journalist then became an advocate for takes place all around us every day: The so-called ‘war on drugs’ where marijuana smokers are the main target.
About 850,000 Americans are arrested for marijuana violations each year. More than for all other drugs combined. Most of the pot arrests (89%) are made for simple possession by state and local authorities. Disturbingly, in urban areas, minor marijuana violation enforcement is racially disparate. New York City and Philadelphia are dire examples of this trend with 90% and 75% of pot arrests respectively being young men of color.
Underground, domestic marijuana production remains this nation’s top cash crop. Over 100 million Americans have admitted to trying marijuana and there could be from 25-70 million regular consumers. Currently thirteen states have authorized medical marijuana programs. Some states such as California and Rhode Island allow for the sale of medical marijuana. Now, California is in the midst of a serious political drive to legalize cannabis outright for general production and sale to adults.
Instead of embracing this vast untapped economic and healthcare resource, we continue our iron fist of federal prohibition. In 1972 the Presidential Commission on Marihuana recommended that pot be removed from Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act and that personal use be decriminalized. President Nixon knew that marijuana enforcement could be used as a tool of force and ignored his own commission.
President Obama could enact a new commission to re-evaluate the issue. Perhaps he could make a more informed decision from the White House about this vital social justice policy.
We oppress tens of millions of our citizens each day and coldly ignore the benefits of cannabis. Marijuana prohibition has now become the most wasteful and harmful domestic government policy in American history. The billions of dollars we expend each year on all levels of government makes the vast scale of the marijuana policy tragedy reach into every single household in the country.
We make refugees of the sick and dying. Those with serious medical conditions, who can afford to do so, tear themselves away from their homes and families to flee to the states that do not persecute their citizens for choosing cannabis therapy. They run to a proven treamtent for pain, cancers, MS, HIV and other conditions.
The out-of-step laws of prohibition are used to terrorize tens of thousands of our own otherwise law-abiding citizens each year, most of them are the youth of this nation. We bring down all of our precious modern criminal justice resources on our fellow Americans who choose to partake in a substance less harmful than alcohol.
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The conflicts around the globe will take a major strategic effort to untangle. Yet the issue of our backward marijuana policy is something that has clear and easy solutions.
Some US States already lead by example and can showcase the positive effects of abandoning marijuana prohibition. Other countries such as Mexico, Portugal and Argentina have now decriminalized cannabis and we must look carefully at their new approach.
President Obama, please work at ending marijuana prohibition in the United States.
Please end this senseless war on our own citizens.
Changing cannabis policy can bring us tangible peace on our own ground.
Please let this Nobel Peace Prize work here at home.
Comments
The main thing holding the legalization of marijuana back is law enforcement. The primary reason they want it illegal is either due to ignorance relating to marijuana, or the fact that if marijuana were legalized, less police would be needed, since there would be less people going to jail, tons of gangs would disappear, considering gangs practically live off selling illegal substances, but most in particular; marijuana. There would be less need for police patrolling the borders to keep drug cartels and smugglers out. If marijuana were taxed on top of it being legalized, not only would money be saved, but there are claims that there would be as much as 33+ billion made in taxes for the government, if they taxed marijuana. But back to what I was saying, the main reason it's not legal, is because the police force and whatnot don't want to lose jobs. If we're so worried about jobs, why not make bread illegal? Then there would be much more jobs in the police force. LOL.
It's nice to have laws around where you can bust anyone at anytime, especially if they come from a culture that is different than yours.
One more thing, such an act as breaking an old "custom" is better done in a second and final term, during the final year as opposed to the first year in office....Politics.
Tsk, tsk...should of voted for Carter in 1980.
"A free society seeks to provide conditions in which each of its members may develop his or her potentialities to the fullest extent. A premium is placed on individual choice in seeking self-fulfillment. This priority depends upon the capacity of free citizens not to abuse their freedom, and upon their willingness to act responsibly toward others and toward the society as a whole. Responsible behavior, through individual choice, is both the guarantor and the objective of a free society. "
A direct quote from the 1972 Schafer Commission that Nixon ignored. Good writing on marijuana has been around forever, but it's been falling on deaf ears until now. A majority of Americans support a legalization model now.
Obama is no second coming, but hopefully he can be the vehicle for change in the same fashion as the Nobel prize. That is to say, hopefully he can inspire change in the masses. Because the vote will come down to us.
It's good to see that this country is finally (if slowly) moving toward decriminalizing marijuana. It may take another decade, but in the mean time you can use www.weedneedz.com to find your local pot doc, pay for your recommendation, and go to the nearest marijuana dispensary for your "meds". The question is, will your health insurance cover it? ;-)
the drug arrests are outrageous, but what's more important, they are are the real crime.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv4sA7v65mk
In college I was targeted by police after I visited a grow store that was a state police sting. The police made 300,000 in sales in less than six months. All the poeoplw who were busted had charges drop due to entrapment. In the area they policed very hard, which mayhave contributed to the youth experimenting with other drugs like meth and prescription pills. We have a huge addiction problem in this country. Marijuana being the least concerning. The policing agencies are more addictted to pot than all drugs combined. The marijuana laws are a civil rights issue. If you of color you are more likely to have your pockets searched. Time to get real about the real problem!
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.
Only on the authority of a clause about interstate commerce does the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Administration fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.
Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period. Drug juries exclude bleeding hearts.
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under prosecution of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as life is flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for selling seeds that American farmers use to reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.
I am all for ending the drug war. It is just terrible beyond belief. The DEAth agency is nothing but a federal jobs program for thugs. That being said: president Obama didn't deserve the Nobel Peae prize. Even if you think that his year in office has been one dedicated to creating a more peaceful world, it doens't matter. He was nominated for the prize after only having been in office for eight days. He should have had the grace and dignity to turn the thing down.
Grace and Dignity as defined by George Bush and his Vietnam escapades...Just what (and who) do we reward in our society?
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