President-elect Barack Obama conducted a series of town hall meetings during his cross country “Mainstreet Tour.” On December 4, 2009 there was a memorable moment in Allentown, PA. There was an audible buzz in the crowd when it came time for questions from the audience. A large group of people eagerly pointed to one young man in hopes that Obama would call upon him. Obama said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Alright I’ll make you first just because everyone is very excited about this young man asking a question.” The young man was a sophomore at Lehigh Carbon Community College and based upon his studies of criminology he asked if the President had considered legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs, and non-violent crime. The auditorium immediately
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In fact, the police can now literally take your money if they even suspect that you’ve been involved in illegal drug activity. In those cases of civil asset forfeiture, you must sue the government and prove your innocence to retrieve your property. The drug war is directly responsible for a system that has fundamentally corrupted how law enforcement functions. Now, roughly half of the federal prison population is incarcerated for drug crimes. Every police department now has a direct financial incentive to crackdown on illegal drugs, rather than pursue more urgent criminal cases. The result is a prison population has nearly quintupled since the Reagan administration escalated the drug war. That explosive growth has led the government to outsource our prisons to for-profit, publicly-traded corporations. That is a multi-billion dollar industry which has corrupted the political process, through campaign donations and lobbyists, to ensure there is an increasing prison population in the …show more content…
Any independent person who looks into the scientific research should conclude that there is no practical reason for keeping it illegal. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated. We’re finally at a tipping point when the majority of Americans support legalization. That’s largely due to the strong economic benefits from legalizing marijuana. Hemp, marijuana’s highly mischaracterized sister plant, has unbelievable economic potential as well. However, there still is an uphill battle to overcome with legalizing marijuana and
In fact, the police can now literally take your money if they even suspect that you’ve been involved in illegal drug activity. In those cases of civil asset forfeiture, you must sue the government and prove your innocence to retrieve your property. The drug war is directly responsible for a system that has fundamentally corrupted how law enforcement functions. Now, roughly half of the federal prison population is incarcerated for drug crimes. Every police department now has a direct financial incentive to crackdown on illegal drugs, rather than pursue more urgent criminal cases. The result is a prison population has nearly quintupled since the Reagan administration escalated the drug war. That explosive growth has led the government to outsource our prisons to for-profit, publicly-traded corporations. That is a multi-billion dollar industry which has corrupted the political process, through campaign donations and lobbyists, to ensure there is an increasing prison population in the …show more content…
Any independent person who looks into the scientific research should conclude that there is no practical reason for keeping it illegal. Marijuana should be legalized and regulated. We’re finally at a tipping point when the majority of Americans support legalization. That’s largely due to the strong economic benefits from legalizing marijuana. Hemp, marijuana’s highly mischaracterized sister plant, has unbelievable economic potential as well. However, there still is an uphill battle to overcome with legalizing marijuana and