Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
|
 Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 31,341
Last seen: 1 day, 6 hours
|
 ACLU Wants to Start a National Conversation on Marijuana Laws 
#8026950 - 02/15/08 01:41 PM (5 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
Marijuana: Washington ACLU Wants to Start a National
Conversation
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/523/washington_ACLU_marijuana_conversation_campaign
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington
(http://www.aclu-wa.org) Wednesday launched a multimedia public
education campaign designed to stimulate a national conversation
on state and federal marijuana laws, their history, and their
efficacy. The campaign, "Marijuana: It's Time for a
Conversation," includes an in-depth web site
(http://www.marijuanaconversation.org), an informational boolet,
and a 30-minute video on DVD with travel writer and public
television host Rick Steves (http://www.ricksteves.com).
Additionally, the material will be available to Comcast
subscribers through that company's On Demand service.
"I've traveled throughout Europe and seen how they handle
marijuana use and enforcement. I've learned that more thoughtful
approaches can work," said Steves. "We need the understanding to
go beyond 'hard' or 'soft' on drugs and find a policy that is
'smart on drugs'."
"We spend billions every year and arrest hundreds of thousands
of Americans simply for possessing marijuana. We need to ask
whether our laws are really working. Are they doing more harm
than good?" said Washington ACLU executive director Kathleen
Taylor in a statement (http://www.aclu-wa.org/detail.cfm?id=819)
announcing the campaign.
Each year, roughly $7.5 billion is spent on marijuana law
enforcement, and more than 800,000 Americans are arrested on
marijuana charges, close to 90% of them for simple possession,
the statement noted. Meanwhile, nearly 100 million Americans
have used the popular plant.
"Enforcement clogs our courts and criminal justice system,
diverting resources from more serious crimes against people and
property," said Taylor. "At the same time, an arrest for just
possessing marijuana has a life-changing impact on people. We
heard of people losing jobs and financial aid for college, and
of patients fearing that they may be unable to get medical
marijuana even when their doctors recommend it."
"As a parent of two teens I care deeply about this issue," noted
Steves. "I have seen how Europe has approached drug use as a
public health issue instead of building more jails. I find it
interesting that marijuana use in Europe among both teens and
adults is actually less than it is here."
"We think this is one of those times and issues where the public
knows things aren't working, people have talked about it
privately, but there is little or no public discussion," said
Taylor. "We intend to engage the public in a discussion. We're
excited to see where it goes."
So... anybody want to start a conversation? The Washington ACLU
is waiting to hear from you.
|
archetype
Stranger
Registered: 03/16/07
Posts: 314
Loc: Missouri
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
|
Re: ACLU Wants to Start a National Conversation on Marijuana Laws [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#8029201 - 02/15/08 10:56 PM (5 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
I really REALLY hope that this gains momentum and the conversation really does change things. Watching "Waiting to Inhale" opened my eyes to the fact that things are incredibly wrong right now and the government is just looking away from it. Something needs to be done, and this conversation is exactly what we need.
--------------------
All keystrokes performed on this user's account are completely random and are not to be taken seriously.
|
thepatient89
Stranger
Registered: 02/12/08
Posts: 6
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
|
Re: ACLU Wants to Start a National Conversation on Marijuana Laws [Re: archetype]
#8031601 - 02/16/08 06:00 PM (5 years, 3 months ago) |
|
|
This could be important in the long run. I hope the ACLU presses this upon the public, because a smart drug policy could change society in a way-the-fuck positive manner. Let's hope this goes somewhere.
| |
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Rono
712 topic views. 0 members, 1 guests and 1 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]
| | |
|
|
|
Images only 
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Edit 
Reply 
