HR2306

We want to see you get involved in your community and let folks know what’s going on with cannabis prohibition. While we are obviously huge proponents of cannabis’ medicinal properties, we also realize that when you’re confronted with skeptics it can be difficult to determine how to counter their skepticism. What angle do you take? Different groups have taken different angles, and some have taken many. We tend to approach each of these situations differently, and in the case of HR2306 we’ve decided to address law enforcement. We feel that the facts that are available regarding cannabis arrests, and the costs of cannabis prohibition give a very clear summation of what is wrong with our current system.

HR2306 is a Congressional bill proposed by Republican Ron Paul, and Democrat Barney Frank. If passed the bill would end the federal control of cannabis and leave the regulation of cannabis to be decided by individual states. To be perfectly frank we’re not focused on whether or not the bill passes. While an end to cannabis prohibition is certainly favorable, we’re picking up this issue as a means to get community members activated, and get folks to lean on politicians and show their support for the end of cannabis prohibition. By the calculations of Harvard Economics professor Jeffrey Miron the drug war costs the country roughly $70 billion annually. An end to the federal prohibition of cannabis would eliminate $7.7 billion in spending and generate an estimated $2.4 to $6.2 billion annually through tax revenue. Can we really afford to be spending this money, losing out on revenue, and causing irreparable damage to our community members (according to Jon Gettman’s study of national arrest data from 1995-2002, 61% of those arrested for cannabis possession are under 24 and 85% are male)?

We need to stop using cannabis as a means to persecute people, because historically that’s all it has been. Cannabis prohibition was initiated by Harry Anslinger, and it was nothing more than racism disguised as a health and safety issue. Harry Anslinger was fearful of the corruption of white society by blacks and Mexicans. As the Director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics he made it his mission to persecute people with black skin, people from Mexico, and any white person who sought to associate with them. Because he couldn’t persecute them outright for having black skin, or being from Mexico he deviously outlawed cannabis which was common in both black and Mexican communities at the time. Cannabis itself was arbitrary, it could have been anything in its place, and all the ills of cannabis that Anslinger exclaimed were actually just his fears of people with black skin, and people from Mexico. It wasn’t that cannabis would destroy society, but the people who smoked cannabis would have—in Anslinger’s eyes—destroyed white society. It’s really disgusting, and devious. And because of this man, we are still subjected to this racist hateful legislation which masqueraded as an issue of public health and safety, but which was actually a means of oppression that can be traced to slavery, sergregation, jingoism, xenophobia, and the other blemishes upon the history of this nation’s privileging of freedom.

But, the good thing is we have the chance to turn back that legislation. At the time, if folks had realized the impending ramifications of Anslinger’s ill behavior I do believe they would never have allowed cannabis to be prohibited. According to the FBI’s most recent statistics cannabis posession accounts for a whopping 46% of all drug-related arrests in the country. The next largest statistic is BOTH cocaine and heroin and/or their derivatives at 17.7%. A whopping 26.53% of ALL ARRESTS IN THIS COUNTRY are males between 15 and 24 being arrested for cannabis possession. But what do these statistics say? Well if we look at it from a strategic standpoint the War on Drugs is essentially based on mowing down the least dangerous enemy on the battlefield. 46% of all efforts are spent on arresting cannabis users, this is the equivalent of just going out and killing off medics in the battlefield. It doesn’t have much to do with winning a war so much as collecting casualties. The war on drugs isn’t about promoting public health and safety, it’s about persecuting particular citizens, and it’s clear when we begin to hear what the statistics are saying: that blacks, latinos, and young men are the ones most affected by prohibition, and their persecution under current legislation serves not to protect this nation’s health, but to oppress “undesirables” and continue to perpetrate heinous acts of racism.

We can change that though. Start by letting your family members know, and from there let your friends, classmates, fellow worshippers, and coworkers know, and then start letting your community know. As a community this is an oppression that we can put an end to. Keep checking back because we will continue to update the site with relevant info, but most importantly keep spreading the facts. Below is a flier (front and back) that you can print out, fold up, and distribute in your area. Fill in the relevant info for your local Congressional Representative, read over the facts, and just do whatever you can to share that information. We don’t have to wait for politicians if we all dedicate ourselves. Let’s end the prohibition of cannabis, and make it a little more difficult for our law enforcement, and judicial systems to be out of balance with us.

You can visit NORML’s site to find and contact your local representative. But please, print out the flier below, and distribute it in your area. Spreading the facts and the truth is the only way that we can end this. We just want peace, and an end to a racist institution. Come tread with us.