While Democrats tend to get the credit for lobbying for marijuana law reform, as President Obama has shown us, they really aren’t for it. The prison industrial complex i.e. private prisons, are against legalization and your local cops are also, (Stoner busts are easy non-violent ones. Plus, you get to mess with a brown skinned person) and cops donate to Democrats as a whole.

Yes. I do believe that Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton all toked.

Most Conservatives don’t support marijuana law reform based on old, outdated beliefs. The whole ‘gateway myth’ that Senator Roberts used as his cover all for not supporting legalization. Too bad that it’s a lie. Or, the whole ‘amotivational syndrome’ myth. Ask Michael Phelps, President Obama, or Bob Marley. Yes, some people tend to be lazy while high, but those same people would have been lazy if sober. Marijuana didn’t make them that way. There are no good reasons to keep cannabis illegal, but a ton of reasons for conservatives to support marijuana law reform.

The Tenth Amendment– The Tenth Amendment of The Constitution of the United States reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Which, as far as I can tell, means if it ain’t written in this here document, then the States have the power to enact their own laws and politicians have to respect that. (I’m a little shaky on my 10th. If I’m incorrect, please leave a comment) Although I do not claim to be a conservative, (Disclosure, I consider myself a liberal independent) I was lead to believe that this was a basic tenet of modern day conservatism. I could be wrong, but again, I’m on the other side of the fence so forgive me.

While it took a Constitutional Amendment to get alcohol prohibited and another one to get it repealed, cannabis has been systematically prohibited without any amendment for 80+ years. Some states will be legalizing marijuana in 2012, and the feds need to respect that as our founding fathers intended.

The Ballooning National Debt– As a country, we owe a lot of money to other countries. Like, to the tune of 14 trillion as of this writing. I’m not even broaching how to get that down overall, but one thing we must do is cut programs that don’t work or the people don’t want. In the case of prohibition, it’s both.

Prohibition just isn’t good business sense. Prohibiting cannabis hasn’t achieved it’s goal of making weed unavailable or unaffordable. That’s pretty hard to do with a weed that grows pretty much anywhere. In fact, since prohibition has gone into effect, usage has skyrocketed. Prohibition has failed. The DEA has failed, at least in regards to marijuana. Marijuana is now more

We should easily have the religious right on this...

accessible to teens than ever. So, why are we still funding it, when we owe so much?

It’s time to trim the fat.

Not to mention that we could tax legally grown and regulated marijuana. True, it wouldn’t get us out of the hole, but it’s a step in the right direction. Plus, legalization opens the door to a whole new industry. Which means new jobs. Not just ‘bud tenders’, and growers, but security guards. Insurance reps. Accountants. These new marijuana shops will need all of these things. As far as I understand economics, this would stimulate job growth. We all want that, right?

Freedom– Once again, correct me if I’m wrong. I was under the impression that conservatives love ‘freedom’. I don’t put that in quotation marks ironically. I just feel that we all have different definitions of the word. My definition involves the freedom to grow whatever I choose and the freedom to ingest whatever I choose. Who’s in charge of my body, me or the over reaching government?

Bigger Government– Conservatives are the party of smaller government, or so I’ve heard. So, why do we fund NIDA, The ONDCP, and propaganda programs like D.A.R.E with tax payer money? Why allow more government to strip us of our rights?

Yeah. If I hadn’t been so un-centered and manic at the meeting, this is what I would’ve said.

-Legalize It!-
-PT-