Kevin Ring has an appalling piece in The Daily Caller spelling out the careless and politically-motivated process through which new drug laws are created. This is some really jaw-dropping stuff.
Tell Congress to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act! |
Dear Friends,
With the current session of Congress winding down, there isn't much time left to reform our broken criminal justice system. So we've got to act now if we hope to achieve prison reform any time soon.
Senate Bill 714 will establish a National Criminal Justice Commission to "undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system ... and make reform recommendations for the President."
I think we can all agree that such an evaluation is sorely needed. The United States has the highest reported incarceration rate in the world, imprisoning a higher percentage of its population than any other country. Our incarceration rate is five times the world's average incarceration rate, with a total of 2,380,000 people locked up.
Please take time today to urge your senators to support Senate Bill 714. For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be e-mailed to your member of Congress when you take action through this page.
Your calls & letters to Congress have gotten us this far! Please keep pushing!
Sincerely,
Aaron Houston
Executive Director, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
P.S.Appreciate our work? Take a moment to support SSDP with a tax deductible end-of-the-year gift today.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 8, 2010
U.S. House Expected to Pass Resolution Today Calling for New Marijuana Strategy
Rep. Jared Polis, MPP Say It’s Time to End “Failed” Marijuana Prohibition, Regulate Marijuana Industry to Combat Drug Traffickers
CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP director of communications: 202-905-2030, 443-927-6400 or [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a resolution today declaring illegal marijuana cultivation on federal lands to be an “unacceptable threat to the safety of law enforcement and the public,” and calling upon the nation’s drug czar “to work in conjunction with Federal and State agencies to develop a comprehensive and coordinated strategy to permanently dismantle Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating on Federal lands.”
Speaking on the House floor yesterday, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) agreed with the goals of H. Res. 1540, but said the only way to accomplish such objectives would be to eliminate “the failed policy of prohibition with regard to marijuana and replac[e] it with regulation.”
“I have no doubt that marijuana plantations, as the resolution states, pose a threat to the environmental health of Federal lands, that drug traffickers spray unregulated chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, but I submit that the best way to address that is to incorporate this into a meaningful and enforceable agricultural policy for the country with regard to the regulatory structure for the production of marijuana,” said Polis, whose home state of Colorado has emerged as a national leader in the regulation of medical marijuana. “… As long as [marijuana] remains illegal and as long as there is a market demand, the production will be driven underground. No matter how much we throw at enforcement, it will continue to be a threat not only to our Federal lands, but to our border security and to our safety within our country.”
Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, today joined Rep. Polis in endorsing the underlying rationale of the resolution and suggesting that accomplishing the goals detailed in legislation will require an entirely new strategy by the federal government.
“Passage of this resolution will send a clear message to the drug czar and others that our current strategies for combating illegal marijuana production are not working and that a new direction is needed,” Fox said. “There are two choices here: continue the failed prohibitionist policies that encourage Mexican drug cartels to keep growing marijuana on federal lands, or embrace a new path that would acknowledge the reality that marijuana is not going away, but its production and sale can be sensibly regulated in order to reduce the harm caused by its illicit production on federal lands.”
With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.
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