Free Mary Jane
Free Mary Jane
Grass, weed, kush, ganja, reefer, smoke, J, hash, nug, bud, Mary Jane; the flower of many names, Cannabis sativa, but more commonly recognized as marijuana. Cannabis’ roots have been imbedded in American culture since the late 1800’s. And has been through a legal rollercoaster ever since. Cannabis has gone from a government mandated crop, one of which you could pay your taxes with, to an “evil weed” and slowly up to what some view as a miracle cure. Currently 17 states have legalized marijuana in one form or another. Six additional states are seeking legislation change in 2012. If all are successful this will bring the total to 23 states, or nearly half of the country. Unfortunately the current remaining 33 states that have failed to pass cannabis reform laws continue to enforce a harsh drug policy under the prentices that they will be viewed as “tough on drugs” by the federal government and then supplied revenue in the form of grants to help fund the “war on drugs”. In other words, the harsher you are, the more they pay you. I have a personal problem with laws being used under the pretenses of profit over individual prosperity
As our prisons continue to fill and our economy crashes, we look around for answers as to how we can stop this trend and hopefully reverse it. For many the answer is simple; fully decriminalize cannabis. Every thirty seven seconds someone is arrested in American for a cannabis related “crime”. That equates to roughly 2335 people a day. Full decriminalization of cannabis will by default cause an immediate drop in the crime rate, which will in turn free up the time for law enforcement to focus on crimes that actually have a victim; ie. rape, molestation, robbery, etc. That solves the problem of overcrowding our prison system with non-violent generally law abiding citizens. This is not a theory, its actually occurred. the Netherlands was forced to close eight prisons after changing their drug policy. The cited reason;
Grass, weed, kush, ganja, reefer, smoke, J, hash, nug, bud, Mary Jane; the flower of many names, Cannabis sativa, but more commonly recognized as marijuana. Cannabis’ roots have been imbedded in American culture since the late 1800’s. And has been through a legal rollercoaster ever since. Cannabis has gone from a government mandated crop, one of which you could pay your taxes with, to an “evil weed” and slowly up to what some view as a miracle cure. Currently 17 states have legalized marijuana in one form or another. Six additional states are seeking legislation change in 2012. If all are successful this will bring the total to 23 states, or nearly half of the country. Unfortunately the current remaining 33 states that have failed to pass cannabis reform laws continue to enforce a harsh drug policy under the prentices that they will be viewed as “tough on drugs” by the federal government and then supplied revenue in the form of grants to help fund the “war on drugs”. In other words, the harsher you are, the more they pay you. I have a personal problem with laws being used under the pretenses of profit over individual prosperity
As our prisons continue to fill and our economy crashes, we look around for answers as to how we can stop this trend and hopefully reverse it. For many the answer is simple; fully decriminalize cannabis. Every thirty seven seconds someone is arrested in American for a cannabis related “crime”. That equates to roughly 2335 people a day. Full decriminalization of cannabis will by default cause an immediate drop in the crime rate, which will in turn free up the time for law enforcement to focus on crimes that actually have a victim; ie. rape, molestation, robbery, etc. That solves the problem of overcrowding our prison system with non-violent generally law abiding citizens. This is not a theory, its actually occurred. the Netherlands was forced to close eight prisons after changing their drug policy. The cited reason;