Kucinich calls for regulating MJ like alcohol

This article was up at NORML's website. I am not sure of DU's policy on copying entire articles even if they are non-profit so I will remove the shortest paragraph of this article that appears at http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5850

Presidential Candidate Says Federal Law Should Treat Pot Like Alcohol

December 4, 2004 - Washington, DC, USA

Kucinich Promises To End Marijuana Arrests; Establish "Guidelines Similar To Those Already In Place For Alcohol"

Washington, DC: If elected, Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) would end federal criminal prohibitions on the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, and establish national guidelines to regulate it like alcohol, according to a recent position paper posted on the "Kucinich for President" website.

"Current drug policy ... regards all users as abusers, and the result has been the creation of an unnecessary class of lawbreakers," Kucinich states in his position paper, entitled "Marijuana Decriminalization." "A Kucinich administration would reject the current paradigm of 'all use is abuse' in favor of a drug policy that sets reasonable boundaries for marijuana use by establishing guidelines similar to those already in place for alcohol."

<<paragraph snipped>>

"Non-violent marijuana users comprise the bulk of the half-million Americans imprisoned for drug violations, and many frequently serve longer sentences than do those convicted of violent crimes," Kucinich states on his website. "The rationale for continuing these draconian policies is unclear. Statistical evidence shows that marijuana use follows a pattern very similar to that of alcohol. Most marijuana users do so responsibly, in a safe, recreational context. These people lead normal, productive lives ­ pursuing careers, raising families and participating in civic life.

"In addition, marijuana has proven benefits in the treatment of numerous diseases, such as providing a valuable means of pain management for terminally ill patients. In either of these contexts, there is no rational justification for criminally enforced prohibitions. These unnecessary arrests and incarcerations serve only to crowd prisons, clog the judicial system, and distract law enforcement officials from violent crime. ... By ... moving away from criminally-enforced drug prohibitions, we will be moving toward safer streets and stronger communities."

NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that Kucinich is the first Democratic Presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter to make the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use a campaign issue. Previously, Kucinich, Massachusetts Congressman John Kerry, and front-runner Howard Dean had each voiced varying degrees of support for the use of medicinal marijuana - though as Vermont Governor, Dean vigorously opposed passage of a 2002 proposed law that would have legalized it for qualified patients. According to the Kucinich for President website, Kucinich would issue an 'executive order allowing marijuana for medical purposes, end DEA raids on medical marijuana patients and their providers.' For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751. To learn more about the candidates' positions on marijuana-related issues, please visit: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5722. Dennis Kucinich's "Marijuana Decriminalization" position paper is available online at: http://www.kucinich.us/issues/marijuana_decrim.php.

updated: Dec 04, 2003

"progressive"

he voted against it once, affirming that MJ was a dangerous addictive substance. He's just trying to find another niche, going as far left as he can go. It's nice to see he's come around to the right way of thinking, it's too bad he doesn't have a 8-ball's chance in Robert Downey Jr's pocket of being our next president and affecting any real kind of change. It's doubly depressing knowing that our greatest hopes for president at this point are just fine with the current state of prohibition.

nice little smear

When I first read the title of the post I thought it meant Michael Jackson and I thought yep, I agree with that too.

I'm still not supporting him for the nomination, but it's nice to see a politician saying the obvious about our ridiculous pot prohibition.

I'll smoke a joint for DK tonight!

--send him money, too!

http://www.kucinich.us

I've been reading Reefer Madness, by the guy who wrote Fast Food Nation, and I had an idea which may or may not be doable, but I'll never know unless I ask, so here goes:

As everyone knows, Ashcroft's DOJ is trying to take us to the dark ages as far as the issue of medicinal marijuana and decriminalization or whatever...even though Nixon's bipartisan commission recommended this be done in the 70s.

I do not believe ANY dem will ever try to deal sensibly with this issue because their opponents will attack them...and, in fact, more republicans have come out in favor of sane laws about this issue.

So what I wonder is this: I know some states allow resolutions or other such things to vote on particular issues. If a state doesn't have this option, is there some way to find out what each state has available as a way for citizens to "force" an issue onto a ballot for a vote?

This issue has support across political labels...dems, repubs, libertarians...

What if there were a grass roots effort to force this issue onto ballots for 04 elections?

There would be an additional benefit to doing this, maybe, too.
If people had an issue they wanted to vote on, those who maybe are more typically apathetic would show up at polls to vote.

The hard religious right, Bush's base, is already going to turn out, so I don't think that having such a proposal or referendum or whatever would make that much differenced for their turn out.

Not only that, but having this issue on a ballot would allow our nation to discuss the hypocrisy behind this issue, such as the following quotes from "Reefer Madness" ---

Newt Gingrich introduced a bill to legalize medicinal use of m. in 1981. As speaker of the house in 1996, he sponsored legislation which sought a life sentence or death penalty for anyone who brought more than 2 oz of m. into the U.S.

Congressman Dan Burton intro'd leg. requiring the death penalty for m. dealers in 1990. In 94, his son was arrested for taking approx 8 lbs of m. from Texas to Indiana. While awaiting trial, Dan Burton's son was arrested for growing 30 m. plants in his apt. Police found a shotgun, too. Under federal law Burton's son was looking at five years mandatory minimum for the gun, plus as many as 3 yrs for the m. under state law.

...federal charges were never filed against Dan Burton's son.
Congressman Randy Cunningham, in 96, attacked Clinton for being soft on crime and cavalier toward drug use. Four months later, Cunningham's son was arrested for helping to transport 400 lbs of m. across state lines. Cunningham's son confessed to being part of a smuggling ring which transported as much as 30 thousand lbs of m. across the U.S. (a crime which can lead to life w/o parole).

Cunningham pleaded for his son because he had a good heart and hadn't been in trouble before. The son got 2.5 years...but could have gotten a shorter sentence..except that he tested positive for cocaine three times while out on bail.

Conneticut federal prosecutor Leslie Ohta seized the house of an eighty year old couple whose grandson had drugs in their house...she claimed they should have known.

Not so long after, her 18 year old son was arrested for selling LSD from her car, and was alleged to have sold m. from her home. Neither her car nor her home were seized.

...on the other hand, there is no study which shows that moderate use of m. is any more harmful that moderate use of alcohol.

in addition, for those undergoing chemo, the ability to grow m. could provide an inexpensive and helpful herbal remedy for nausea and appetite loss.

So...my question is this- how can people take it upon themselves to introduce measures to bring sanity to this issue?
-- by introducing referendums across the nation in cities or states to make reasonable laws.

btw, I'm not ms. smoker. I just cannot believe how stupid and, worse, how life destroying the ill-conceived laws in this nation are concerning m.  

I asked a lawyer here how any state, whether they had the ability to have "propositions" or whatever on a ballot or not how people could lead the way to stop the stupidity and horrible miscarriage of justice which results in people with small amts of m. to serve longer sentences than child molesters.

He said maybe this would be a way, but did not elaborate because this was just in passing and I had to leave...

He said that jurors are considered "finders of law."

So, are there any lawyers here who can inform as to how this fact can lead to a situation in which Americans can force an honest look at our current laws?

Would this mean that someone would bring a civil suit which would be tried before a jury... or a class action suit to be tried before a jury concerning the gross and prejucidical application of the law concerning m.?

Would there be a phase of "discovery" in such a trial in which medical evidence would be entered into the record, along with examples of the ways in which the laws have not been fairly applied?

...Along with showing the ways in which those who have been convicted of small amts of possession serve longer sentences than violent criminals...and are then housed in prisons with violent criminals?

Could this also allow evidence to show that politicitans have changed their approaches to this issue based upon pandering, rather than fact, and the ways in which they suddenly become "liberals" when it's their own families facing unjust imprisonment?

also, could a discovery phase bring to national attention the ways in which prosecutors and others use the seizure laws as forms of extortion, along with the industry which provides those charged with people to give up in return for lighter sentences by paying someone for names?

I want to know how to do this.

And I think it is an issue for all who do not currently smoke, but who did inhale who know that this is a bullshit set of laws and a waste of taxpayer money, lawmakers' time, and a terribly unjust way in which laws destroy lives for no reason other than bad luck or lack of connections to powerful lawmakers or bank accounts.