I oppose what I believe to be the misguided drug war. Public opinion surveys show that people across the country, and particularly in Southern California, want to end the war on drugs. The main obstacles to legalizing marijuana are the powerful pharmaceutical, alcohol, and private prison companies. They make millions of dollars from the war on drugs. It is time to take corporate money out of politics, end the drug war, and provide legal and healthy alternatives for everyone.
In many of the states that have moved in the direction of legalization and regulation of marijuana for personal use, entire new industries have been created, all of which add jobs and increases tax revenues and crime rates are falling. While I do support the individual state’s rights to allow individuals to make their own decisions, I believe strongly that it is time for decriminalization and legalization.
It is important to understand that the drug war institutionalizes racial, generational, and economic injustice, by disproportionately punishing people of color, young people, and people with lower incomes at far greater rates than the population as a whole. The drug war results in mass incarceration which enriches the private prison companies. More than half a million people are behind bars on drug charges in the U.S., often destroying families.
There are other life altering consequences. People convicted of even misdemeanor drug offenses, including marijuana possession, are denied access to education, housing and federal financial aid under federal law, and often find that they are unable to find suitable employment. In some states, those convicted of non-violent drug felonies are barred for life from voting, even after they have served their sentences, regardless of whether they are employed, paying taxes, and raising families.
People should have the freedom to decide with their doctors whether to use medical marijuana, and to decide for themselves whether to use marijuana recreationally. We don’t need more prisons. We need more jobs, more educational opportunities and more treatment programs to provide a better means to help them recover.
