Posts Tagged ‘legalize’

Moms Vs. The Drug War

Monday, May 14th, 2012

“Mothers throughout history have come forward for the sake of their children. We’re coming forth saying that the drug war has been more damaging to our families than the drugs themselves.” – Gretchen Burns Bergman, executive director of PATH

Moms United is a growing movement to stop the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are the result of deeply flawed, punitive and discriminatory drug policies. (more…)

Global Marijuana March 2012

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

Marches are underway across the land, as hundreds of thousands of people are showing their support for the movement to finally end marijuana prohibition.

In honor of this great day, here’s a lovely infographic showing the negative costs of  the ineffectual policies drug prohibition, and what could be gained by finally freeing the weed. (The stats pertain to America, but are equally applicable to any nation choosing to fight the war on drugs.) (more…)

Who Keeps Pot Illegal?

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Alternet writers put up a concise piece highlighting 5 Special Interest Groups That Help Keep Marijuana Illegal, something worth knowing if you didn’t already.

The 5 groups listed are:

  1. Police Unions
  2. Private Prison Corporations
  3. Alcohol and Beer Companies
  4. Pharmaceutical Corporations
  5. Prison Guard Unions (more…)

Free the Weed

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Seeing how it’s the time of year when billows of pungent smoke pour out across the world (Happy 4/20 everyone!), let us take a few moments to reflect upon the insanity that is drug prohibition.

Suppose every myth you’ve been led to believe about drugs is true, and that they are really an evil scourge on society; destroying families, fueling crime, and turning our young people into mindless addicts. Even if all that were factually accurate (which it isn’t), there is still something far more destructive to our world than drugs themselves. And that something is drug prohibition. (more…)

Legalization: It’s Working in Portugal!

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Ten years ago Portugal decided to end the war on narcotics, opting to decriminalize drug use and treat abusers as patients instead of criminals. The experiment is being touted as a resounding success, and needs to be replicated elsewhere everywhere.

According to health experts, the number of “problematic addicts” in Portugal has fallen by half since the early 1990s. As well, the nation has seen a “spectacular” reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes.

See! Prohibition has never shown results like these.

Just ask the escalating number of families in Mexico mourning their dead while under constant threat. Seeing the blatant failures firsthand, it’s no wonder Latin America is poised to follow Portugal’s lead and finally abolish the war on drugs.

Forget the old wives tales about drugs. They aren’t some bogeyman we can just scare off with guns and soldiers. Instead, let’s behave like sensible people and look for an approach to the problem that is proving itself a success. It’s time we give legalization a try.

Rational Reefer Reform

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Oh glorious days! The war against the war on weed is advancing across many fronts. As long as this keeps up, the Western world might actually climb out of the dark ages and finally purge the plague of drug prohibition.

Up in the Great White North, the Liberal party added legalization of marijuana to their platform. Not less enforcement. Not decriminalization. Actual full fledged regulation that allows the unfettered distribution and taxation of legal weed. Take that, Harper!

Spurred forward by the frigid temperatures, Michiganders just kicked of a campaign to amend state law and legalize marijuana for use with adults over the age of 21. Go Wolverines! Or should I say Weedverines? No… Wolverines is just fine.

Members of the Centennial State – Colorado – will soon get a chance, come November, to decide whether or not they’d like to legalize possession of small amounts of the sticky icky. Finally, a law-abiding rocky mountain high!

And last but not least, prepare your bullshit protection for when the US government will be forced to justify the Schedule I status of Marijuana in court. Watch as the contortionists from the pro-prohibition side attempt to show how one of the safest and most beneficial plants on earth is actually just as bad as black tar heroin.

Opposition to drug prohibition has never been stronger than it is right now. The end is in sight. Within a few years, if all goes smoothly, we’ll be able to look back on ourselves today with the same disdain with which we view the quaint alcohol prohibitionists from last century.

Glorious days, indeed!

Liberals Lead Legalization Lobby

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Out of nowhere, the Liberal party has jumped back into the running with the Canadian public, just by adding one simple policy to their platform: legalize marijuana.

Party members announced that “a new Liberal government will legalize marijuana and ensure the regulation and taxation of its production, distribution, and use, while enacting strict penalties for illegal trafficking, illegal importation and exportation, and impaired driving.”

Yes!!! Canada’s pro-cannabis movement just gained new levels of traction. Even though it is being pushed by the Liberals – 3rd prize in Canadian politics – this is still a huge milestone.

As other parties see just how much the issue of legal weed resonates with the Canadian people, they too will be tempted to hop on the ‘Oh Cannabis’ bandwagon.

While Harper and his conservatives cram more crime bills down our throats, it is great to see that not all politicians have abandoned reasonable policies.

Ending the Global War on Drugs

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Armed conflict has a way of entrenching itself into the fabric of a society. Whether it involves a military force overseas or para-military law enforcement back home, if there’s an army being raised you’re almost guaranteed that someone, somewhere stands to reap huge profits off the imminent bloodshed.

Such is the case with the multi-billion dollar drug prohibition/incarceration business. As fruitless as it has proven itself, hundreds of thousands of people still depend upon the illegality of narcotics to earn their living. These inherently pro-prohibition people – DEA’s, jailers, lawyers – could find themselves out of work were drug use treated as a health issue instead of a criminal issue.

This is why the pro-legalization party has such an uphill battle to fight. A movement can have facts and justice and majority support on their side, but without the political clout equivalent to that wielded by the powers which profit from the status quo, draconian policies will continue to hold.

In a bid to bring drug policies up to the 21st century, libertarian think tank the Cato Institute are set to host a major conference today involving many prominent scholars and international leaders. The influential group will analyze global drug policy and propose practical alternatives, such as legalization.

If I had the opportunity to present a case against drug prohibition, it’d be a sweet infographic showing the darkest parts of prohibition contrasted with the light of legalization.

First, we’d look at the death toll along the US-Mexico border, where 11,000 people have been killed this year by criminal drug enterprises. These gangs would not have such tremendous reach without drug prohibition. Few industries pay quite like the hugely inflated narcotics market.

Then we’d look at Portugal, who legalized all drugs almost a decade ago to a resounding success. It turns out, giving users care instead of punishment actually resulted in a decline in drug use. And, without the need to hire armies, legalization ends up being cheaper to taxpayers while being less detrimental to society.

Yeaaaa… that’d make one sweet picture. The prohibitionists wouldn’t even know what hit ’em!

US Gov’t Welcomes Petitions from Citizens then Promptly Dismisses Them

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

(‘If pot is such a threat, why isn’t it dangerous at all?’)

As part of their open government initiative, the Obama administration has been welcoming petitions from the public. If any petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it’s sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response.

Garnering the most votes was a petition to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. This motion echoes the general sentiments of the US people, of whom more than half favor legalizing marijuana.

So what happened next? Did Obama give a speech about how he would be addressing the outdated pot laws? Did the policy makers finally admit defeat in the pointless war on drugs? Well, given how today’s post is so rife with cynicism, you just know neither of those things happened.

Instead, Obama’s Drug Czar put out a perfunctory response reiterating all the same old misleading talking points which have been manufactured and parroted throughout the many decades of drug prohibition.

Russ Belville from Norml offers an excellent point by point rebuttal of the Czar’s official reply, concluding with the following:

Thank you for wasting America’s time ignoring her wishes.  I encourage you to take a moment to actually read and answer the questions on these petitions.  Every answer you gave to “whether we should consider regulating cannabis like the far more harmful substances, alcohol and tobacco” was an excuse to make alcohol and tobacco prohibited like marijuana.

Every answer you gave to “how will the continued criminalization of cannabis achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?” illustrated that you’re continuing the same failed strategies as your predecessors.  We the People were hoping for some change.

It is such a shame. Another excellent opportunity for reform squandered by the protectors of the status quo. No wonder people are taking to the streets – their political system is clearly broken.

The global war on drugs should be condemned to a dark note in human history, next to witch hunting and bloodletting. Too bad our governments spearheading the change we are already beginning to create.

Experts Agree: The War on Drugs has Failed

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011


(More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. – Kofi Annan)

Fantastic news! A new 24-page report by a group of politicians and former world leaders has declared the War on Drugs to be an utter failure.

They argue that anti-drug policy causes “devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world” since all it does it fuel organized crime while costing billions in taxpayer dollars and leading to thousands of deaths.

The authors of the report lambast current prohibition policies, writing “Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won.”

The report concludes that governments should end criminalization of drug use, experiment with legal models that would undermine organized crime syndicates and offer health and treatment services for drug-users.

Finally, some sensible drug discussions at the highest level. Drug prohibition has been a tremendous blight on our species for decades now, highlighting the inherent injustice in the world’s political system. It is high time that we came to our senses about drug policy reform.

Man, I’m stoked! Today marks another important step towards ending these draconian days of drug prohibition, bringing us one step closer to ending war on earth.