[Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-04: Cannabis Resolution

[Daniel Hayes]

I abstain.

Just last night it was "driven" home to me just how little this is needed from the LNC.  I drive Lyft occasionally. Its Mardi Gras, and I was driving Lyft last night. 

 
This one passenger that made me wait a while and was kind of "triggering" me said to me while driving, "You look like a Trump man."
I looked at him sideways and grabbed my phone and showed him the LP site. He saw LP and said "Oh! you are a LIbertarian, I voted for Gary Johnson."
I then showed him the LNC, and he saw my picture and said, "Oh! you are on the National Committee. Can you sell me some weed?"

Now I don't smoke, use, or sell weed so I couldn't help him though I fully support the reform of cannabis laws.  I didn't really like him so I probably wouldn't have sold him any even if I had some and even if it were not illegal to do so.

The point of this story is everybody knows where we stand on cannabis. I was already thinking that before this incident last night.

It's still kinda long and preachy and we have been proselytizing  this since 1971.  When a random dude in a Lyft automatically thinks it's ok to ask his driver to buy some weed BECAUSE he is on the Libertarian National Committee, I think this motion is redundant.

Hence my abstention.


Daniel Hayes
LNC At Large Member

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 24, 2017, at 4:21 PM, David Demarest <dpdemarest at centurylink.net> wrote:
> 
> Yes
>  
> Thoughts?
>  
> ~David
>   
> 2017 Omaha Libertarian Strategy Un-Convention
>  
> Celebrate Life, Set the Bar High and LIVE FREE
>  
> ~David Pratt Demarest
> LNC Region 6 Representative
> Secretary, LPNE State Central Committee
> Cell:      402-981-6469
> Home: 402-493-0873
>  
> From: Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] On Behalf Of Caryn Ann Harlos
> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 4:18 PM
> To: Libertarian National Committee list <lnc-business at hq.lp.org>
> Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-04: Cannabis Resolution
>  
> Yes
>  
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 3:10 PM, Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com> wrote:
> We have an electronic mail ballot.
> 
> Votes are due to the LNC-Business list by March 6, 2017 at 11:59:59pm Pacific time.
>  
> Co-Sponsors:  Harlos, Demarest, Starchild, Redpath
> 
> Motion: 
> 
> WHEREAS the current federal classification of cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug having no medicinal value is an inaccurate classification at odds with the findings of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and those of many other researchers; and
> 
> WHEREAS this dishonest classification is an impediment both to useful academic research, and to realizing the economic benefits that legalization offers; and
> 
> WHEREAS cannabis is a drug with few harmful effects and zero documented fatalities which is even safer when not forced into the black market, where labeling, testing, and quality control are less prevalent; and
> 
> WHEREAS drug prohibition in the United States has been an unmitigated failure, with a third of Americans self-reporting having used cannabis despite strict penalties against its sale, manufacture and use, and over $1 trillion of taxpayer money in a futile effort to enforce drug laws, including those pertaining to cannabis; and
> 
> WHEREAS the black markets created by these unconstitutional statutes have led to increased violence both in the United States and in other countries such as Mexico where cannabis and other drugs are produced for the U.S. market; and
> 
> WHEREAS millions and millions of peaceful Americans have been arrested, imprisoned, fined, or otherwise needlessly criminalized and stigmatized, potentially for life, because of their use of cannabis, and the 2 million Drug War prisoners currently behind bars in the United States have given this country the highest documented incarceration rate of any nation on Earth, accounting for a reported 25% the world’s prisoners; and
> 
> WHEREAS drug prohibition has been the major driver of the practice of asset forfeiture, in which over $13 billion has been seized by law enforcement across the country, often from people who have not been convicted of, or sometimes even charged with, any crime; and
> 
> WHEREAS this gross violation of legal due process, has incentivized the arbitrary and often discriminatory arrest of U.S. residents in what has come to be known as "policing for profit" ; and
> 
> WHEREAS unconstitutional statutes attempting to control what people choose to put into their own bodies constitute a vast and dangerous government intervention into people's personal lives violating the cherished American values of individual freedom and choice; and
> 
> WHEREAS polls now show that most Americans support legalizing cannabis for both medical and recreational use, and voters in multiple states have voted accordingly;
> 
> NOW THEREFORE be it resolved that the Libertarian National Committee supports the immediate full legalization and federal de-scheduling of cannabis and industrial hemp products, as a much-needed first step toward ending the destructive "War on Drugs" entirely, in accord with the Libertarian Party's platform.
> 
> 
> -Alicia
> 
>  
> 
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> 
> 
> 
>  
> --
> In Liberty,
> Caryn Ann Harlos
> Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - Caryn.Ann. Harlos at LP.org
> Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado
> Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
>  
>  
>  
>  
> <Untitled attachment 00624.txt>
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