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

[Joshua Katz]

I vote no.

I had drafted an explanation of my vote, but having caught up with the
email back and forth, I think it suffices to say that any point I would
have wished to make has been made.

Joshua A. Katz


On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 4:10 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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>
>
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