cannabisnews.com: ACLU has Opposed Marijuana Prohibition Since 1968!





ACLU has Opposed Marijuana Prohibition Since 1968!
Posted by FoM on May 02, 1999 at 20:01:54 PT
Source: ACLU
The ACLU has opposed marijuana prohibition since 1968. Since then, some things have changed, but too much has remained the same. In the past 30 years, 10 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses in the U.S., the vast majority of them for possession and use. Indeed, in 1996, the most recent year for which figures are available, there were 641,600 marijuana arrests in this country, 85% of them for possession -- more than in any previous year!
Why should you care about this issue? First and foremost, because it is wrong in principle for the government to criminalize such personal behavior. A government that cannot make it a crime for an individual to drink a martini should for the same reasons not be permitted to make it a crime to smoke marijauna. John Stuart Mill said it perfectly back in 1857 in his famous essay, On Liberty: "Over himself," he wrote, "over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign." And Americans certainly behave as if they believe that: marijuana is the third most popular drug in America after alcohol and nicotine (approximately 18 million adults used it in 1997, and ten million are regular smokers).The criminal prohibition of marijuana thus represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion into the private, personal lives of those adults who choose to use it. Moreover, marijuana users are not the only victims of such a policy because a government that crosses easily over into this zone of personal behavior will cross over into others. The right to personal automony -- what Mill called individual sovereignty -- in matters of religion, political opinion, sexuality, reproductive decisions, and other private, consensual activities is at risk so long as the state thinks it can legitimately punish people for choosing a marijuana joint over a martini.Second, marijuana prohibition is the cause of a host of other very serious civil liberties violations, including the drug testing of millions of innocent employees, and the civil forfeiture of people's homes, cars and other assets on the grounds they were "used in the commission of " a marijuana offense.Click the above link for the full article!
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: