WAR ON OUR RIGHTS

I am pleased to see that we may finally get to vote on the issue of
marijuana prohibition.

Unlike alcohol prohibition, which required a constitutional amendment,
marijuana prohibition was enacted by Congress in 1937, based on
reefer-madness fears and racial stereotypes.

Today, nearly 70 million Americans admit to having tried it. Over 650,000
marijuana arrests occur every year. About 85 percent of those arrests are
for simple possession - not manufacture or distribution.

This is not a war on drugs, but rather a war on our constitutional rights
as Americans. The war on marijuana is a colossal waste of our tax dollars
and destroys the lives of otherwise law-abiding individuals and their
families.

I look forward to the day when Washingtonians can look back on marijuana
prohibition as a policy as misguided as alcohol prohibition.

Regulate it, tax it, and stop arresting those who use it!

Jennifer Schleve, Port Angeles