Listen carefully...
And you’ll hear the drug war breathing its last gasps. Following the historic passage of marijuana legalization laws in Colorado and Washington, our federal government is now under pressure to abandon its continued war on drugs – in particular its war on marijuana. Eighteen Members of Congress wrote a letter this week to the Department of Justice to allow states to be “laboratories of democracy” and create their own drug laws to address the “disproportionate impact that marijuana has on minorities.”
The letter defends the decision of voters in Colorado and Washington saying: “These states have chosen to move from a drug policy that spends millions of dollars turning ordinary Americans into criminals toward one that will tightly regulate the use of marijuana while raising tax revenue to support cash-strapped state and local governments.” Basically, lawmakers in Congress are telling the federal government to get out of the way when it comes to state drug laws.
Last Friday, two lawmakers in the House introduced legislation that would exempt states with their own marijuana laws from the Controlled Substances Act’s marijuana regulations. This isn’t about letting American get high when they want to. This is about ending a racist, ineffective, and costly drug war that has ruined the lives of millions of Americans. And we’re winning.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program Monday through Friday 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
