LIST OF REASONS TO MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL
NEEDS TO BE EDITED AND COMPLETED so
PLEASE CONTACT CRIS ERICSON usmjp [at] aceweb.com
WITH YOUR IDEAS.
SHE IS ON THE BALLOT IN VERMONT
FOR U.S. SENATOR and for Governor,
AND YOU KNOW
YOU NEED HER TO BE ELECTED
TO HELP CHANGE MARIJUANA LAWS.

http://usmjp.com UNITED STATES MARIJUANA PARTY in Vermont

Cris Ericson will appear in televised debates on VPT/PBS
in Vermont Oct. 4th as a candidate for Governor
and Oct. 25th, 2012 as a candidate for United States Senator.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, running against Cris Ericson,
will appear in the Oct. 25th debate
and he is opposed to marijuana legalization.
http://www.vpt.org

So far, those are the only debates she has been invited to.
She was excluded from tonight's Governor candidate debate
on Vermont Public Radio, which she thinks is illegal because
they are partially federally funded.

1. marijuana is fun for adults to use in the privacy of their own homes or property
2. marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, and people should have an
equal right under the law to make their own choice
3. if marijuana was legal and a person thought their spouse or
child was over-doing it, similar to drinking too much alcohol, they could go to
a rehab and it might be paid for by insurance, rather than face criminal charges
4. legalizing and taxing marijuana will create an enormous tax revenue
5. handcuffing and shackling a person and putting them in prison causes far
more harm than marijuana
6. There are millions of regular pot smokers in America and millions more infrequent smokers.
Smoking pot clearly has far fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs
such as alcohol.

7. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana.
The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for
over 75 years
and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is
currently the largest
cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet.
Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and
unsupported by the facts,
and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the
rest of the world
is a ridiculous fantasy.

8. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics
and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced
against minorities.
African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the
United States and
about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for
26% of all marijuana arrests.
Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the
majority
of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking
marijuana in public view.
Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be
enforced fairly without regard to race;
far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic
Americans face a much lower risk of arrest.

9. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and
use among teenagers,
as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.
The illegality of marijuana make
it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers
to make easy money
selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were
ended through legalization
there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another. Teenage
use of alcohol and tobacco
remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal
for adults, however,
the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made even more widespread
by providing kids with
economic incentives to sell either one to their friends and peers.

10. Legalized marijuana would reduce the flow of money from the American
economy to international
criminal gangs. Marijuana's illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling
to the United States
extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground
economy while diverting
funds from productive economic development.

11. Marijuana's legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a
valuable and diverse
agricultural crop in the United States, including its development as a new
bio-fuel to reduce carbon
emissions. Canada and European countries have managed to support
legal hemp cultivation
without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to legal
marijuana remains the
biggest obstacle to development of industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural
commodity. As US
energy policy continues to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels
as an alternative
to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the more
important to develop
industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source - especially since use of hemp stalks
as a fuel source will not
increase demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana
will greatly simplify
the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation in the United States.

12. Prohibition is based on lies and disinformation. Justification of marijuana's
illegality
increasingly requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record,
causing harm to
the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials, and scientists throughout
the country.
The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century
and the modern
scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past
and present.
Many claims of marijuana's danger are based on old 20th century prejudices
that originated
in a time when science was uncertain how marijuana produced its characteristic
effects. Since
the cannabinoid receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these
hysterical concerns
about marijuana's dangerousness have not been confirmed with modern
research. Everyone
agrees that marijuana, or any other drug use such as alcohol or tobacco
use, is not for children.
Nonetheless, adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that
marijuana can be
used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or society.

13. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol. It is established
scientific fact that
marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible,
and marijuana
is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat
marijuana users
more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco.

14. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be
taxed to support
beneficial government programs. Law enforcement has more important
responsibilities than
arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession, especially
given the additional justice
costs of disposing of each of these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice
more expensive and less
efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems,
and diverting time
of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime,
the sexual abuse
of children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide
needed and generous
funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.

15. Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and use
as a recreational drug
with relatively mild side effects. Many people use marijuana because they
have made an informed
decision that it is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a
variety of serious ailments.
Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea, spasticity, and other symptoms
for many individuals
who have not been treated successfully with conventional medications.
Many American adults prefer
marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to relax.
Americans use marijuana
because they choose to, and one of the reasons for that choice is their
personal observation
that the drug has a relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage
side effects. Most
marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana's side effects,
and those who do not,
choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana use is the result of informed
consent in which
individuals have decided that the benefits of use outweigh the risks,
especially since, for most
Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low risk of arrest.

16. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana
probation and
accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.
Despite the threat
of arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana
users have persisted
in their support for legalization for over a generation. They refuse to give
up their long quest for
justice because they believe in the fundamental values of American society.
Prohibition has
failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last
generation. The issue
of marijuana's legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will
simply not go away.
Marijuana will be legalized because marijuana users will continue to
fight for it until they succeed.


17. Liberty: people deserve freedom to use marijuana.
The first and most basic reason that marijuana should be legal is that
there is no good
reason for it not to be legal. Some people ask 'why should marijuana be
legalized?"
but we should ask "Why should marijuana be illegal?" From a philosophical
point of
view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves.
The government
only has a right to limit those choices if the individual's actions endanger
someone else.
This does not apply to marijuana, since the individual who chooses to
use marijuana does
so according to his or her own free will. The government also may have
a right to limit individual
actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual. But this
argument does not
logically apply to marijuana because marijuana is far less dangerous
than some drugs which
are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco.
SUMMARY: Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they
should use marijuana.
The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they
do not harm others.

18. Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive.
The second important reason that marijuana should be legal is that it would
save our government lots of money. In the United States, all levels of government
(federal, state, and local authorities) participate in the "War on Drugs."
We currently
spend billions of dollars every year to chase peaceful people who
happen to like to
get high. These people get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have
to foot the bill.
We have to pay for food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs,
and other
expenses to lock these people up. This is extremely expensive!
We could save billions
of dollars every year as a nation if we stop wasting money locking people
up for having
marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be
able to collect
taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug
education programs
and other important causes.
We would have more money to spend on important problems
if marijuana were legal.

19. Failure: prohibition doesn't help.
The third major reason that marijuana should be legal is because prohibition
does not help
the country in any way, and causes a lot of problems. There is no good
evidence that
prohibition decreases drug use, and there are several theories that suggest
prohibition
might actually increase drug use (i.e. the "forbidden fruit" effect, and easier
accessibility for youth).
One unintended effect of marijuana prohibition is that marijuana is very
popular in American
high schools. Why? Because it is available. You don't have to be 21 to buy
marijuana --
marijuana dealers usually don't care how old you are as long as you have
money. It is actually
easier for many high school students to obtain marijuana than it is for them
to obtain alcohol,
because alcohol is legal and therefore regulated to keep it away from kids.
If our goal is to
reduce drug consumption, then we should focus on open and honest programs
to educate
youth, regulation to keep drugs away from kids, and treatment programs for
people with drug
problems. But the current prohibition scheme does not allow such reasonable
approaches to
marijuana; instead we are stuck with 'DARE' police officers spreading lies
about drugs in schools,
and policies that result in jail time rather than treatment for people with
drug problems. We tried
prohibition with alcohol, and that failed miserably. We should be able to
learn our lesson and stop
repeating the same mistake.
SUMMARY: Prohibition does not work. Education and treatment are better
ways to address the drug problem.

20. Medicinal use: Marijuana can be used as medicine because it helps to
stimulate apetite
and relieve nausea in cancer and AIDS patients.

21. Hemp: The hemp plant is a valuable natural resource. Legalizing
marijuana would eliminate
the confusion surrounding hemp and allow us to take advantage of hemp's
agricultural and industrial uses.

22. Religious Use:Some religions instruct their followers to use marijuana.
Just like Christianity and Judaism instruct their followers to drink wine on
certain occaisions,
some Hindus, Buddhists, Rastafarians, and members of other religions use
marijuana
as part of their spiritual and religious ceremonies. These people deserve the
freedom to
practice their religion as they see fit. The First Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution says
that the government cannot 'prohibit the free exercise' of religion, and
so marijuana should be legal.

23. Americans who are tired of living in fear of their government because of marijuana prohibition.

24. Americans are fed up with the intrusion into our personal lives, with urine testing at work
and at school, with armed home invasions, and with the possibility of prison because of a plant.

25. Americans feel it is time for the 20 million Americans who smoke marijuana on
a regular basis to stop hiding their love for this plant and unite as one large
body of voters to demand an end to the unconstitutional prohibition of marijuana
and the drug war. The U.S. cannot lock up 20 million people.

26. The War on Drugs causes more harm than the drugs themselves ever will.

27. United WE are a potential 20 million vote political machine.
WE want to live free and WE must be determined to stand up, be
counted, demonstrate, rally, and write.

28. Waiting for the government to silence us all in the American prison system
is not an option! Too many of our brethren are there, in prison right now.

29. More Americans are in jail today for marijuana offenses than at any previous
time in American history. The war against marijuana is a genocidal war waged
against us by a government determined to eradicate our plant, our culture,
our freedom and our political rights.

30. Cannabis is a vegetable and an essential nutritional component of our diet.
We are nutritionally deficient in cannabis and have the symptoms of Cannabis
Nutritional Deficiency Disease. We should be juicing pot, eating it raw
( it is NOT psychoactive when eaten raw and many times more medicinal )
and cooked, enjoying the seeds ( great protein source ) and roots and having a
good smoke afterward.
Eat weed!

31. we need to shut down Washington by getting at least 3 million people to walk on
Washington. Basically they will be overwhelmed and they would have to listen to us.
The cops would not be able to stop 3 million people, the National guard couldn't
unless they shot us, which WON'T happen. Until a HUGE group walks on
Washington it will many more years of BullSh*T and red tape and them
trying to figure out how the drug companies can make money and then
make it illegal for you to grow your own..This is the way these scum bags think,
we've been too nice and they ignore us, they have to be made to listen.
For God sake Hemp built this country but tobacco took over, but Hemp has
over 100 industrial uses plus it makes OIL.. The rich don't like it because they
can't figure out a way to make profits from it, but smart buisiness men would see
that Hemp is an amazing product that can make 1000's of things. It has 85%
Cellulose when tree's only have 40%, that's why Hemp makes better paper,
LIKE OUR CONSTITUTION.