Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sam Sloan Backs Colorado's "Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act" Ballot Initiative

Sam Sloan, a candidate for the Libertarian Party's 2012 Presidential Nomination, has come out in favor of Colorado's "Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act", which will give the residents of Colorado an opportunity to vote in favor of ending marijuana prohibition in their state this November. The act was recently approved for the ballot on February 27, 2012 by Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

Colorado now joins Washington as one of two states where measures specific to legalizing cannabis will appear on the ballot this year. The Colorado initiative seeks to allow for the limited possession and cultivation of cannabis by adults age 21 and over. The measure would further amend state law to establish regulations governing the commercial production and distribution of marijuana by licensed retailers.The measure is supported by NORML, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, SAFER, Sensible Colorado, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and the Objectivist Party of Colorado.

Mr. Sloan issued the following statement regarding his full support for the legalization of marijuana:

Marijuana should be completely legal. There should be no criminal prosecutions of any kind related to marijuana. Actually, where I am right now, Marin County, California, is a major place for the growth and production of marijuana. I do not grow it myself but there are a lot of marijuana farms around here.Government helicopters fly around here looking for these farms.

I believe that the way to sell this idea to the general public is to tell them that marijuana will be taxed and regulated just as alcohol is and therefore their own tax burdens will be reduced. So, legalizing marijuana will save YOU money.

An additional benefit to legalizing marijuana is it will end the drug wars over marijuana. The President of Mexico is complaining about the flow of guns from the USA into Mexico which has resulted in 47,500 people being killed. But the problem is not the guns. It is what the guns are used for, which is to fight wars over the drugs that are made and grown in Mexico and then imported into the USA. If the drugs were legalized, which I believe they should be, there would be no more wars fought over them and no more innocent children being killed.

The cartels are fighting over the right to import marijuana into the USA. If marijuana were legalized, our small but simple pot farmers here in Marin County would take over the market and reduce the USA's balance of payments' deficit.

Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, wrote a letter to supporters on March 2, 2012, which read, in part:

Never before has support for legalizing marijuana been so widespread or so out in the open.

Public support for making marijuana legal has shifted dramatically in the last two decades, especially in the last few years. For the first time, a recent Gallup poll found 50 percent of Americans support making marijuana legal, with only 46 percent opposed.

The New York City Council recently voted overwhelmingly (44-3-1) in support of a resolution calling for the New York State Legislature to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. While that is no doubt a worthy first step, many libertarian activists in New York State feel that only full marijuana legalization will do at this point.

Patrick R. Killy, Vice-Chair of Long Island Libertarians (a chartered chapter of Empire State Libertarians), commented on the need to legalize marijuana:

As a passionate critic of the failed "War on Drugs", I support the full legalization of marijuana. Smoking weed is as American as Apple Pie. Apparently, a number of our early Presidents and Founding Fathers grew hemp as a commercial crop and there is even some evidence that many of them may have smoked cannibis recreationally.

When marijuana is legalized, new businesses will spring up. Perhaps a new chain of "Bull Dog Cafes" where you can buy healthy treats such as yogurt, fresh squeezed juice and marijuana and then relax in a music video emporium before going about your daily business. Farmers and entrepreneurs will again begin planting hemp for the hundreds of uses it can be sold for.

It is outrageous that hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested and given citations each year for marijuana possession and use. There are clearly better uses for our tax dollars in the current economic climate.

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