TIME TO CHANGE U.S. DRUG POLICIES

Editor of the Reformer:

An open letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

Not one American belongs in prison for drug use alone, in absence of
a real crime. Using any drug in and of itself should not constitute
criminal activity. Laws criminalizing personal behavior in which no
one harms others or their property are arbitrary and subjective means
that impose the will of one group of people on another. American
jurisprudence too often omits the laws of nature in favor of harsh
legal judgments that one-sidedly interpret some human behavior as
being unlawful.

Two people have recently come under criminal investigation following
marijuana allegations. How did it feel to learn of the arrest of your
wary-gazed and proud brother in Kenya who asks for nothing but the
dignity to live his own life; or an Olympic medalist groveling to the
media with an act of contrition that he did something "not in a
manner people have come to expect" of him? No one in good conscience
would make adults who use marijuana wait another day to exercise
their right of choice, free from criminal justice supervision.

Let us begin rational drug policy in your administration by ending
marijuana prohibition, and moving this important and lucrative crop
into the realm of a taxed and licensed supply and demand market for
adult consumption.

In the main, adult use of marijuana is not criminally intended nor
does it represent conduct unbecoming of a good citizen. Failure of
this nation to understand that sends the message to millions of hard
working, law abiding citizens that justice lay with the accusation,
not upon an actual crime.

Furthermore, it is an insult to the American people that they are
portrayed as incapable of maturely using marijuana in a manner
consistent with responsible adult behavior.

This is not solely a matter of who is right, it is a matter of
whether our nation is wrong to criminalize adults for private drug
use. By doing so, the American and international drug war sends an
immoral message to kids everywhere that adults settle their
differences by locking each other up. Moreover, that we stigmatize
adult behavior that turns friend against friend, brother against
brother, neighbor against neighbor and creates crime where there was
no crime before.

Therefore, we are not strictly writing to you as a matter of opinion
or advocacy. Rather, we appeal to your good conscience. Please ask
yourself, Mr. President, what kind of civilized nation puts its
people into prison for privately using drugs? When will this greatest
of modern human rights abuses come to an end, so that this nation, or
any nation, will never again conduct a war against its own people?

Dalan Crockett

and Paul Bennett,