COMPASSION, NOT CRIMINALIZATION

Approximately 2.3 million people, 1 in 100 adults, are incarcerated
in the United States. More than 30,000 people are in prison in
California for a drug offense, two-thirds for mere possession. We
spend $49,000 per year on one inmate. In these dire economic times,
this is beyond irresponsible. It is insane to waste taxpayer money to
imprison a person for smoking, possessing or even abusing "pot."

In California, moms are uniting and leading the charge to end
marijuana prohibition, just as a group of mothers did to end the
prohibition of alcohol in the 1930s. We are fed up with the violence,
loss of lives and liberties caused by the war on drugs, so we are
demanding an end to the pointless criminaliization of drug users and
the needless deaths created by the illegal drug trade. We are joining
with mothers who have lost their children to overdose, and parents
whose families have been ravaged by addiction and incarceration, in
an effort to promote compassionate and therapeutic policies. We
cannot continue to try to punish our way out of what is essentially a
public health problem.

Prohibition has failed.

I endorse Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act
of 2010, not because I am in favor of drug use, but because I love my
children, and I firmly believe that the war on drugs has done more
harm than good to our society. Prop 19 will decriminalize possession
of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older. It will allow
local governments such as San Diego County to decide how to regulate
the sale of marijuana to adults. It is sound and reasonable public policy.

I have experienced the damages of marijuana prohibition first-hand.
My older son was arrested for marijuana possession in 1990, which
began a decade of recycling in and out of the prison system for
nonviolent drug charges and relapse. This was a devastating emotional
saga for our family, a tremendous waste of human potential and an
extreme financial burden to the state. Since that year, marijuana
possession arrests are up by 127 percent in California.

I believe that law enforcement targeting of marijuana has more to do
with "tough-on-crime" politics than reason and science. Although
violence isn't normally associated with cannabis use, the murder and
mayhem created by the drug cartels, which generate 60 percent of
their profits from marijuana alone, is wreaking havoc on both sides
of our city's border with Mexico.

Despite prohibition, marijuana remains widely available to young
people. Regulating and taxing marijuana would mean that youth have
less access. Law enforcement could focus on more important public
safety matters, and we could utilize our dwindling resources on
needed prevention and addiction treatment services. Classifying
someone who smokes marijuana as a criminal, or making a drug addict
into a villain, not only exacerbates the problem, but also promotes
fear-based stigma and discrimination and can lead to life-long social
exclusion.

It's time to dispel angry politics and embrace drug policies of
compassion and restoration, rather than criminalization and retribution.