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

Fri Feb 24 21:46:48 EST 2017

I am all for getting a wide variety of LP projects done as opposed to just talking about getting project done. So, what projects are we working on that trivialize such endeavors as rolling back prohibition, ending the war on drugs and standing up for dissidents? Is our scope of projects limited to just getting Libertarians elected who do not understand the importance of repealing prohibition and defending dissidents? I strongly supported Gary Johnson and I like and trust Gary. However, if Gary had a better understanding of the principles behind the repeal of prohibition, perhaps he would have better handled his major consensus-driven faux pas by speaking his conscience on prohibition in his first post-nomination town hall.

Consensus is an important ingredient in collaboration provided it is not at the expense of principles and conscience. Our broken two-party system exemplifies the evils of consensus over principles. Do we want the LP to become the third leg in a broken three-party system?

I am obligated to report the wishes of Region 6 affiliates. However, that does not relieve me of the responsibility of voicing my conscience regardless of any consensus. John Moore of Nevada took a poll of his constituents and voted the constituent poll consensus instead of his conscience. Look where it got him – dismal defeat on top of leaving a legacy of egregious stadium and tax bill votes in his wake. Moore would have been far better off if he had voted his conscience and would have better served his constituents if he had valued conscience over consensus.

Voters respect candidates who speak their conscience even if they disagree with the candidates. Voters intuitively know when a candidate is misrepresenting their conscience. Nevertheless, I would agree that many and perhaps most politicians misrepresent their conscience in their drive to get elected and get authority over others and the perks that go along with it. That is the primary culprit behind the continuing cronyism-paved acceleration of our economy and society in the wrong direction that will come home to roost sooner or later. Are we Libertarians better than that? For the sake of our society, I would hope that we Libertarians value conscience over consensus.

This motion might be redundant if we had already eliminated the evil of prohibition. However, we are just scratching the surface on prohibition with this motion on Cannabis. Should just roll over and play dead on prohibition and dissident defense and focus instead on just getting more Libertarians elected who, in turn, will also roll over and play dead on principles and conscience?

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 Sam Goldstein
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 6:24 PM
To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org
Subject: Re: [Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-04: Cannabis Resolution

I abstain on this motion.

And to further Alicia's discussion, I would ask consideration of those who would put forward 

resolutions that take up valuable time and energy that could be better used for a very wide

variety of LP projects.  If you are a Regional Rep, at least get consensus from a majority of

your states chairs before floating a motion/resolution.

Sam Goldstein

Libertarian National Committee

Member at Large

8925 N Meridian St, Ste 101

Indianapolis IN 46260

317-850-0726 Phone

317-582-1773 Fax

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 7:16 PM, Starchild <sfdreamer at earthlink.net <mailto:sfdreamer at earthlink.net> > wrote:

Dan,

LOL at your story!   :-)  But I see a different lesson to be drawn here.

First of all, it IS okay for "a random dude in a Lyft" to ask his driver to sell him some marijuana!  Asking is free speech. It is not insulting or offensive. As Libertarians, we believe everyone should have the right to request such a transaction, and that if buyer and seller are in agreement, it should be allowed to take place without any interference from government. 

Selling it to him is not technically illegal, either, regardless of what the U.S. federal government or Louisiana state government may say. The U.S. Constitution does not authorize Congress to make any laws banning or regulating the sale of substances such as cannabis, and the 9th and 10th Amendments makes clear that the people possess rights not listed in the Constitution, and that powers not listed in the Constitution are reserved to the state governments or to the people. The 14th Amendment further establishes that not just the federal government, but the state governments as well, are forbidden from infringing on these rights: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." So unless a seller of marijuana is not a U.S. citizen, any Louisiana statutes criminalizing that sale are also unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

Quite possibly the reason the gentleman asked you about Trump is because he wouldn't have wanted to ask an anti-cannabis conservative who might take an offer to buy cannabis badly. The fact that you being a Libertarian made your passenger feel safe enough with you to trust you in making a request which could get him in trouble with government authorities is a victory for us! It is the reward we've reaped from our history of being outspoken opponents of the "War on Drugs". If members of the public trust Libertarian Party leaders, that's a good thing (to the extent we are trustworthy and they aren't being misled, but that's a separate matter; in this case, I don't think the trust was misplaced, as whether you liked the guy or not, I'm sure you didn't go and report him to the authorities). If they trust us, they are more likely to vote for our candidates, donate money to our party, etc.

Hypothetically speaking, say that your passenger had just happened to read in some media outlet somewhere that the LNC had just rejected a resolution in favor of legalizing and de-scheduling marijuana. Do you think he would have felt as trusting of you, and as safe in asking you to sell him some weed? Do you think he would have been as likely to vote for the next Libertarian candidates he might see on his ballot? 

Passing this resolution is an opportunity to keep our opposition to the modern Prohibition fresh in the public's consciousness, and to continue to earn their trust. Rejecting it risks sending a mixed message and undermining that trust. I encourage you to reconsider your abstention and vote yes.

Love & Liberty,

                                   ((( starchild )))

At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee

                                (415) 625-FREE

                                  @StarchildSF

On Feb 24, 2017, at 2:57 PM, Daniel Hayes wrote:

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 <mailto: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 <tel:(402)%20981-6469> 

Home: 402-493-0873 <tel:(402)%20493-0873> 

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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org> 

Communications Director, Libertarian Party of Colorado <http://www.lpcolorado.org/> 

Colorado State Coordinator, Libertarian Party Radical Caucus <http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org/> 

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