Legalization

Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, an attorney and mother of two elementary school children, opines on why parents should support legalizing marijuana.

Nicholas W. Payne, the Green Party candidate vying to unseat five-term incumbent Rep. Clark J. Chapin, R-New Milford, believes the state would save both dollars and lives by legalizing drugs. "This election's all about money, jobs and taxes," Payne said. "In New Milford you don't see violence on the streets ... It's the expense of (fighting illegal drugs) I'm going after."

The Liberal Democrats were told that their drug policy is wrong and the party should support the legalization of cannabis and moves to provide pharmaceutical heroin to addicts instead of methadone. Ewan Hoyle, founder of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, accused candidates and MPs of being "silent" on drugs since the issue was last discussed at conference in 2002.

As medical marijuana proponents have pointed out since the Controlled Substances Act was passed by Congress in 1970, cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years, and there has never been a reported case of a marijuana overdose. Moreover, in recent years clinical researchers around the world have demonstrated the medicinal value of cannabis. ReasonTV talked to a doctor, a pharmacist, and a patient to get three firsthand perspectives on medical cannabis.

It appears that there is a growing contingent of marijuana users and people associated with the industry, both legal and illicit, who are actively fighting against efforts to make marijuana legal for all adults.