Re-Legalize Cannabis and End an Un-American Prohibition

Note: Guest Writer Dave Camp is a frequent commenter at NWCitizen and is working on I -1068.

I’m sitting in a chill wind on the corner as people stream by on their way to or from the market and it’s threatening rain. I observe and am open to conversation but few stop to sign my petition. The rejection is starting to get to me and I gain a new-found respect for the young traveller Greenpeace-ing his way across an indifferent America.

I’ve had better luck in friendlier environments, like the Coop, or outside Uisce on St. Patrick’s day. I’ve collected better than 400 signatures personally, and met a lot of very nice people.

And overwhelmingly, the people I speak with agree with Initiative 1068, which removes all penalties in Washington State, civil and criminal, for adult cultivation, possession, use, transport, and sale of “marijuana” (as hemp (English) and cannabis sativa (Latin scientific name) is incorrectly referred to in the statutes of prohibition.)

And this prohibition of a plant, this attempted genocide of a crop which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew, which clothed the Revolutionary Army and provided the paper upon which the Declaration of Independence was printed, is long overdue to end. Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol, which is actually toxic and addictive. Prohibition creates organized crime, turns the police into racketeers, and diminishes respect for the government. Prohibition is an experiment which has failed dismally. We’ve spent over one trillion dollars enforcing prohibition since Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1970, and here is the result: drugs are as available as ever, more potent, cheaper, and both usage rates and addiction rates are unchanged. The federal government’s response: more of the same. Santayana called it – the federal government must be insane. I’d say insane, stupid, and utterly corrupt. And, unfortunately, not exactly working for you unless your name is General Electric or Halliburton.

Fortunately, however, we live in an actual democracy in Washington state, where the people, by common consent, can make and change laws. And the laws prohibiting cannabis can be changed this year: I-1068 removes all penalties, civil and criminal, for the cultivation, possession, transportation, use, and sale of “marijuana” – which includes all varieties of cannabis sativa, including industrial hemp.

Why should we do this? My question is – who benefits by continuing this prohibition of what once was the largest cash crop in America? Certainly not the thousands of non-violent, non-harmful people whose lives are ruined for daring to possess cannabis. Certainly not the taxpayers of the state, whose money is wasted: we spend over $150 million per year enforcing cannabis prohibition in Washington state alone. Consider what a boon NOT spending this money on non-productive prohibition enforcement would be to the education and health systems of the state. We could eliminate the waiting list for Basic Health; we could reduce, rather than increase, teacher-pupil ratios; we could actually reduce the state deficit by taxing retail sales of cannabis which are currently part of the black economy and generate no tax revenues.

How many times does the experiment of prohibition have to fail before we figure out it doesn’t work, it has never worked, and it creates more harm than the private, consensual behavior it criminalizes?

The Whatcom County Democrats endorsed I-1068 on May 20th; I expect the Whatcom County Republicans should do the same since they endorsed Ron Paul in 2008 and Dr. Paul is on record for ending drug prohibition. Any person who is for freedom and against unjust dominion should be outraged by the continuing war on the American people which is called the “War on Drugs” by its perpetrators.

I believe this should be a unifying issue, assuming most people have common sense. I’ll close with a quote from the great emancipator (and a Republican):

"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his Presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany).

How far have we come as a nation from our origins, where people made their own entertainment and even Presidents had time to jam on the front porch? How far have we come from a time when hemp was the largest industrial crop by tonnage and value, used for fabric, cordage, paper, medicine, lubricants, feed, windbreaks and hedges, and recreation? How did we get from there to here, where such a useful crop has been banned and criminalized by the United States Government? And how can we restore some sanity? Vote yes on I -1068!