15 Million Americans Have Been Arrested Because Pot Is Illegal

[kpete]

15 Million Americans Have Been Arrested Because Pot Is Illegal -- When Will Our Dumb Marijuana Prohibition Be Overturned?

Criminal laws are not an effective way to control marijuana; removing criminal penalties does not lead to increased use; decriminalization creates savings in law enforcement.
October 18, 2010 |

The great divide between politicians and the people is showing itself in California where polls show the voters support Proposition 19 and where the mainstream politicians mostly oppose it.

To many Americans, there are few policies more bankrupt than the prohibition on marijuana use, a recognition that a blue-ribbon panel reached four decades ago, urging an emphasis on drug education rather than incarceration.

In 1970, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended ending the illegality of marijuana in the United States. The Dutch also had a national commission that reached the same conclusion.

The difference was the Dutch listened to their experts and President Nixon and other American politicians ignored the U.S. experts. Well, the results are in – the experts were right and the politicians were wrong, even on the issue of how many people use marijuana. It turns out prohibition was less successful than decriminalization

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more:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148533/15_million_americans_have_been_arrested_because_pot_is_illegal_--_when_will_our_dumb_marijuana_prohibition_be_overturned/

[slackmaster]

1. I see Proposition 19 as step toward ending decades of oppression by government

It won't solve the whole problem, but it's the right thing to do.

The great divide between politicians and the people is showing itself in California where polls show the voters support Proposition 19 and where the mainstream politicians mostly oppose it.

Most "mainstream politicians" are seriously out of touch with the people who keep electing them.