REPUBLICAN MOMS FOR MARIJUANA: 'TIME TO LEGALIZE IS NOW'

It Will Take Conservatives and Women to Help Turn Tide Against Pot Prohibition

BOULDER, Colo. -- As a Republican mother committed to legalizing
marijuana, political life can be lonely. But while many in my party
whisper about the Drug War's insanity, we should shout it from the
rooftop: the time to legalize is now.

Calling for a new approach doesn't make me a pothead. In fact, while I
freely admit to having previously smoked marijuana -- as do more than
95 million other Americans, including our last three presidents -- I
choose not to be an active marijuana user today.

While opponents may argue that legalization is all about a bunch of
twentysomethings wanting to get high, the debate deserves a more
respectful and truthful analysis.

Take medical marijuana. On July 20, Colorado's Health Board voted down
a proposal that would have effectively shuttered the medical marijuana
dispensaries serving as crucial sources of legal marijuana across the
state. As a result, courageous patients, including AIDS survivor
Damien LaGoy, will not have to take to dangerous streets to obtain
marijuana.

Instead, the state's nearly 10,000 patients can continue their
existing relationships with dispensaries, many of who deliver to the
homebound and hold extensive knowledge about the benefits and side
effects of specific strains.

To LaGoy, who weighs just 100 pounds, marijuana is the only medicine
proven to effectively combat the nausea he faces from his
pharmaceutical medications.

Even outside of medical uses, support for outright legalization is
skyrocketing. An April ABC News-Washington Post poll concluded that
national support stands at 46 percent.

Already, there is talk that Colorado may see a legalization bill in
2010. In 2006, voters were asked to legalize small amounts for adult
consumption. Forty-four percent said yes -- more than the number
supporting the GOP's gubernatorial candidate. With one more vote in
every 10, Colorado could become the first state to lift prohibition
entirely.

If history is any guide, the crucial female voting bloc, including
many Republicans, will provide the political will essential to making
this happen.

In 1929, it was the Women's Organization for National Prohibition
Reform successfully leading the charge to end America's decade-long
experiment with alcohol prohibition. While many of these same
activists fought just years earlier to forbid booze, they quickly
witnessed prohibition's devastating consequences, including increased
violence.

Just four years into the Women's Organization for National Prohibition
Reform's repeal efforts, prohibition was over.

Prohibition is a bipartisan creation, lending power to drug cartels
and bad public policy. One example: Students convicted of any drug
offense can be stripped of all federal financial aid, forcing many out
of school and into low-income communities where harsher drugs,
including methamphetamine, run rampant.

Courageous conservatives across the country, including Texas
Congressman Ron Paul, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo and
former New Mexico Gov. Tim Johnson, have all said yes to
legalization.

If we believe that smaller government is better government, we must
trust people to choose what to put into their bodies. If we support
legalized access to alcohol, cigarettes, and 700-calorie
cheeseburgers, we should legalize marijuana -- a far less harmful substance.

So what will I tell my kids when they are old enough to contemplate
marijuana use? I'll tell them I hope they make good decisions with
their bodies, which are sacred and should be respected. If all goes as
planned, I'll also be able to take them down memory lane, sharing what
it was like to have lived under prohibition.

How I dream of the sweet day that government finally relinquishing its
control, allowing my husband and me to finally parent our children.