Why Should I Care?

Prop 19 is a California issue, it’s doubtful currently that any kind of national action will be taken as a result of the measure’s potential passing or failure. However it remains an issue that does affect people like you and me everyday. Federal raids on Marijuana dispensaries haven’t stopped patients who are in some cases students like you and yet in others people just like your parents or grandparents are still being prosecuted federally. The press releases have stopped being published by the DEA, our president has stated publicly that he enacted a directive to stop federal raids in states where it has been deemed legal. And yet things like what is shown here: http://youtu.be/RbwSwvUaRqc (NSFW Audio)

            

The raid shown in the video was conducted in Columbia, Missouri on suspicion of marijuana dealing, without any credible evidence police gained a warrant allowing them to perform the raid at night, while children were present in the home. Can one even imagine the thoughts in the minds of the children, and their parents and even neighbors while witnessing such incredible force deployed against a citizen in his own home. Even if you are opposed to legalization, it would seem to me that an opposition to this kind of police behavior especially in light of what the charges brought against the assumed were; a single piece of paraphernalia and an amount of marijuana that is below the threshold of a misdemeanor in Columbia’s city limits (1).

           

Legalization, even if currently flawed in it’s debut is still a necessary step forward in order to end the expenditure, fiscally and emotionally of all those who are on both sides of this supposed “war” on citizens, combating their private actions and assumed personal right to freedom. Billions of dollars every year are spent on law enforcement, training, prosecution, and the housing of non-violent offenders in increasingly privatized prisons(2,3). If citizens do not make a stand, nation wide to show they approve such legislation for those they do not even know nor where they might even live we may never see an end to such action by our government.

            

What is right is not always legal, and what is legal is not always right; knowing this Proposition 19 seeks to end at least in one state the prosecution and wanton destruction brought about by the illegality of a simple plant that with a long history of both therapeutic and recreational usage has shown itself to be safe, enjoyable, and readily available despite it’s prohibition. We must, at the behest of sounding panegyric support this measure nation wide and hope that California may serve as an example of what responsible adults can self determine for themselves and also what can happen if marijuana no longer must be associated with those elements of society we wish were not inherent at present. (4)


(1)http://web.archive.org/web/20080112054253/http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2005/11/10/marijuana-law-gets-new-review/


(2)  http://www.drugpolicy.org/library/factsheets/economiccons/fact_economic.cfm


(3)  http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/62


(4)  http://elections.firedoglake.com/2010/09/15/prop-19-cops-law-enforcement-support-marijuana-legalization/