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

[Tim Hagan]

I abstain.
Tim Hagan

      From: Alicia Mattson <agmattson at gmail.com>
 To: lnc-business at hq.lp.org 
 Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 2:10 PM
 Subject: [Lnc-business] Email Ballot 2017-04: Cannabis Resolution
   
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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