"President Barack Obama recently nominated Michelle Leonhart to direct the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. NORML is asking you to contact your Senator today and urge him or her to reject this nomination."
Visit NORML here to read more and for help contacting your local officials.
I contacted my officials and this is what I said:
"The War on Drugs" has been an utter failure. Prohibition actually causes those harms on society for which it was said to have been enacted to prevent. It creates a black market economy for the inevitable distribution of those now illicit substances which serves only to inflate prices, lining the pockets of those in the drug trade.
Year after year school-aged children report that it is easier for them to obtain marijuana than alcohol or tobacco. This is because alcohol and tobacco are legal and regulated. When we make something illegal we are essentially blindfolding ourselves, pushing an entire sub-culture underground and putting that substance out of the reach of our regulatory agencies.
If we truly want to protect our children, then we must stop wasting billions annually on failed prohibitive strategies and instead focus that revenue on prevention education that strives to teach kids the TRUTH about drugs and how some humans will inevitably choose to recreate. More funding could be allocated to drug rehabilitation services for those of our fellow American citizens who do fall prey the disease of addiction, which is a public health crisis rather than a criminal justice problem.
In short, "The War on Drugs" is a war on American families, on minorities, the youth, and on the impoverished. As a nation we must cast aside our prejudices and remove the blindfold that has kept us from seeing the true cause of our problems for some seventy years. We must repeal prohibition and stop this senseless violence perpetuated at the government level against non-violent, tax paying, everyday American citizens.
I'm a former U.S. Marine and a veteran of the war in Iraq, I'm mad as hell. I oppose prohibition and I vote! I also spend a great portion of my time spreading the truth about the harms of drug prohibition in hopes to do my part in the fight against the "War on Drugs."
Sincerely,
Yours Truly
