<div dir="ltr">As put on the agenda, and in the interest of hashing out any issues ahead of time that can be, this is a resolution brought to me by the Chair of the Libertarian Party of Alaska, and on behalf of that affiliate, I submit for our consideration - the LPAK appreciates our thoughtful consideration:<div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, cannabis is less harmful than
alcohol and tobacco; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, existing cannabis laws
represent vast government over‐reach into the personal lives of American
citizens and violate principles of personal liberty and choice; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, existing cannabis laws have not
had a significant impact on cannabis availability; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, millions of peaceful Americans
have been arrested, imprisoned, fined, or otherwise needlessly criminalized and
stigmatized, potentially for life, because of their use of cannabis; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, over $1 trillion have been
spent nationally enforcing drug laws, including those pertaining to cannabis,
since the War on Drugs was politically initiated by President Richard Nixon in
the 1970s; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, because of drug laws, including
cannabis laws, the United States has become a nation of mass incarceration –
imprisoning 2 million American citizens which represents the highest
imprisonment rate of any nation on Earth and 25% the world’s
prisoners; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, the enforcement of cannabis and
other drugs laws has been racist and represents the new Jim Crow,
disproportionately targeting and impacting people of color and minorities; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, the Drug War’s “asset seizure”
program has raised over $13 billion for local police forces across the country,
encouraging more cannabis and other drug arrests while funding the purchase of high
tech military equipment for police, further militarizing their operations; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, there is a long history of Drug
War abusive police tactics including the murdering of unarmed, non‐violent,
misidentified, and innocent people; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, those arrested and accused of
drug offenses, including cannabis offenses, are often compelled by police and
prosecutors to serve as informants for investigations of potentially dangerous
drug dealers or else face additional charges; this is a disrespectful and
dangerous practice that can have lethal consequences for the accused and their
families; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, existing drug laws, including
those criminalizing cannabis, have created an illegal market for drugs
contributing to crime and violence‐ridden American neighborhoods while funding
drug cartels operating in the U.S. and in other countries such as Mexico where
their operations have thoroughly undermined civil society and inflicted
unimaginable violence and corruption; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, there is a widespread and
accurate belief that the War on Drugs, including the war on cannabis, has been
an abysmal failure, producing much more harm than good; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, existing drug laws, including
those criminalizing cannabis, and their unjust enforcement have caused many
Americans to lose respect for law enforcement on all levels including
prosecutors, judges, lawmakers, <a href="http://et.al">et.al</a>.; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, drug courts for cannabis offenders
are no solution because they are fundamentally punitive in nature, assume cannabis
users are drug abusers and criminals, and compel those accused of cannabis offenses
to give up their rights as a condition of entering drug court in order to
escape potentially worse sanctions; drug courts leave the accused at the mercy
of court‐appointed coercive drug “counselors,” who serve the court first and
their “clients” second, and judges who can order them to jail without recourse;
<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, decriminalization of cannabis is
no solution because it fails to resolve the problems described above and
because it continues to maintain two fundamental and indefensible fictions,
namely, that cannabis is more harmful than alcohol and tobacco and that cannabis
users are more of a threat to society and themselves than those who use alcohol
and tobacco; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, seven states, Colorado,
Washington, Alaska, California, Nevada, Maine, and <span style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">Massachusetts </span>have voted to fully legalize cannabis, and
more states are likely to follow, over 20 states have enacted medical cannabis laws;
<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, the vast majority of Americans
want prohibition to end as demonstrated by the fact that only five states in
America still have full prohibition, all others have some form of legality or decriminalization;
<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, an April 2, 2014, Pew Research
Center poll found that 75% of Americans believe the use and sale of cannabis will
eventually be legal in the United States nationwide; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Whereas, legalizing cannabis is an
important social issue, and a genuinely peaceful approach to cannabis and other
currently illegal drugs must be based on freedom, harm reduction, and, in the
case of actual drug abuse, free and readily available voluntary treatment – and
not criminalization, criminal enforcement, or criminal punishment; And,
whereas, cannabis for use by adults
should never have been criminalized and we should act now to correct this wrong
and all the many wrongs which have followed from it; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">* * * * * * Now, therefore, be it
resolved that the </span>
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%">Libertarian Party National
Committee </span><span style="font-size:12pt"> supports the full legalization of cannabis;<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Be it further resolved that the </span>
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%">Libertarian Party National
Committee </span><span style="font-size:12pt"> supports and endorses the concurrent economic benefits
arising from a fully legal market which would alleviate many of the problems
described above while raising hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues which
could be used to support needed programs, close budget gaps, or finance tax
cuts; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Be it further resolved that the </span>
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%">Libertarian Party National
Committee </span><span style="font-size:12pt"> calls on police, prosecutors, and judges to focus on real
crime and, until cannabis is legalized, use their discretion to stop arresting,
prosecuting, and punishing non‐violent cannabis users and minor drug sellers; <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Be it further resolved that the </span>
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%">Libertarian Party National
Committee </span><span style="font-size:12pt"> calls on our President, Congress, Governors, State
Legislators, Federal and State Attorneys General, and other officials to undo
the damage that has been done by federal and state cannabis and other drug laws
by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, releasing from prison and jail
those convicted of non‐violent cannabis and other minor drug offenses, and
expunging their criminal records. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12pt">And, finally, be it resolved that the </span>
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%">Libertarian Party National
Committee </span><span style="font-size:12pt"> supports the legalization of industrial hemp which can be
grown containing minimal amounts of psycho‐active ingredients like THC and used
to produce renewable food, oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, paper and fuel in
support of a sustainable full‐employment society; and furthermore, calls on
federal and state legislators to develop new programs to encourage a
decentralized family farm and community‐oriented approach to industrial hemp
development as a means to a sustainable full‐employment society.</span><span style="font-size:12pt"><br>
<br>
</span><span style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><span></span></span></p>
<div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666"><b>In Liberty,</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#666666"><b>Caryn Ann Harlos</b></font></div><div><font size="1">Region 1 Representative, Libertarian National Committee </font><span style="font-size:x-small">(Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Washington) - <a href="mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos@LP.org" target="_blank">Caryn.Ann. Harlos@LP.org</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Communications Director, <a href="http://www.lpcolorado.org" target="_blank">Libertarian Party of Colorado</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Colorado State Coordinator, <a href="http://www.lpradicalcaucus.org" target="_blank">Libertarian Party Radical Caucus</a></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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