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

[Caryn Ann Harlos]

As urged by Sam, I did a quick survey to ascertain member support and it
was overwhelming in support of this resolution and opposed to the idea that
such resolutions are a waste of our time.  I maintain that as a body we are
sometimes out of touch with the membership.  The survey is only of a 100
people (the free limit on survey monkey) and not only region 1 though the
mass email was targeted to region 1.

Out of 100 responses, 93 urged me to support this resolution.  5 said no.
 2 were undecided.
Out of 100 responses, 84 said it was not a waste of time for the LNC to
consider resolutions such as this.  6 said yes it was.  8 were undecided.

This is a popular resolution and the support is not "meh, yes" but "hell,
yes" in the personal interactions I have had.

I urge you to vote yes.

- Caryn Ann

On Sat, Feb 25, 2017 at 1:38 PM, Joshua Katz <planning4liberty at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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>> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>>
>>
>
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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 <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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