Legalization of Cannabis

This petition is as dedicated as I am to legalizing what could be a $35.8 billion dollar cash crop in the United States. However, the petition isn't just about the plant as a crop, but also as a boost for industrial and commercial America. Hemp is a material that could easily take the place of many expendable resources, as it is extremely versatile. Paper, plastics, even fuel can be obtained from hemp, and obtained more naturally, with less environmental impact. I am proud to support such "Green" ideas as this. Creative, progressive thinking is what America needs most right now, and this is the right kind of idea to put us on the tracks to solving national and international problems.

Now, you may be thinking the thoughts, the doubts that have been conditioned into our society, what Reefer Madness so wrongfully instilled in the minds of Americans young and old in the 30's. You may be thinking, feeling, whether it be quite literally or in the form of some underlying resistance to these ideas, that cannabis sativa is a bad thing. That is simply not true, and it should be known! The disinformation campaigns claimed that smoking marijuana would cause a psychological break, or brain damage. What happened to that theory? It was discarded as ludicrous after scientific studies proved it harmless to physical and mental health. Yet people are still allowed to develop a fatal dependence on tiny carcinogen factories called cigarettes despite it’s proven effects. The advertisements said marijuana would cause birth defects; again, they were disproven by science. And yet still you can drink your baby to a deformed mass, and for only pennies on the dollar! And finally, there's the intent of the commercials and drug talks, to dissuade youth from taking drugs, and yet teenage drug use is still so prevalent. The campaigns themselves often contribute to their own defeat, so why is the government still using scare tactics? Because they cannot break from the rituals, "morals" that contribute nothing to society, that mean nothing, vestigial parts of a time more gullible than ours. We wouldn't be fooled by Reefer Madness today, would we? Would we? And thanks to this misguided tradition, we are left with the problem, rampant crime on the streets of our cities and towns, all generated by the term "illegal".

I contacted my local legislators, then county legislators, then state legislators, hurrying from one bloated bureaucracy to the next, trying to communicate that the actions that need to be taken are the opposite of current policy. Current policy supports a strategy of wild stamping, an ineffective attempt to crush the problem, which instead is pushing the problem deeper into the cracks, into the foundations of our society. Our police force charges about, imprisoning the innocent, wrecking havoc against the perceived threat, and all the while we are left under the crushing weight of the prison bills, $2 billion a year just for those imprisoned for possession. The action that needs to be performed is just as simple as mindless attempts at quashing the problem: a lifting. Lift the bans that pin the problem and society along with it, lift the label, and in doing so, we lift ourselves up by the shoulders, and stand again as proud as we ever had.

Sadly, not one of my attempts at a dialogue with legislature has been met with any sign of life. I want to tell you now and assure you that I write this not with a tone of bitterness, but a tone of determination. We will not continue to suffer the weight of our outdated and irrational fear. I have faith that this generation has learned the lessons that were taught so harshly to the unsuspecting citizens of the past. We are not a generation of suckers.