Steve Kubby: Wake Up And Smell The Ganja

[User]

Last Tuesday voters delivered historic landslides in support of medical marijuana and decriminalization, despite heavy opposition by local and federal officials. Michigan voters made their state the 13th to allow the medical use of marijuana by a whopping 63 percent to 37 percent, the largest margin ever for a medical marijuana initiative.

In Massachusetts, voters delivered a landslide of 65 percent to 35 percent, decriminalized the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, replacing arrests with a $100 fine, much like a traffic ticket.

These historic landslide votes come during the most extreme anti-marijuana campaign by federal officials in American history. Marijuana arrests have been setting all-time records year after year and one American is arrested on marijuana charges every 36 seconds. More Americans are arrested each year for simple marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. Given such breathtaking and historic results, one might ask, “Where was the Libertarian Party?” The answer is that we were nowhere to be found.

Unless you can name any other issue in American politics that delivers 65% of the vote, this is THE biggest issue on the political landscape. While some may argue that the economy is a far bigger issue, there is little consensus, nor is there any constituency that can consistently deliver 65% of the vote. How is it then, that the LP has largely turned its back on such a popular issue? The answer may surprise you — The Libertarian Party has bought into “Reefer Madness.”

Of course the LP leadership will tell you otherwise and spin your wheels with empty ideological rhetoric. Bottom line, nearly every decision maker in our party believes that marijuana is a “fringe issue,” and that our party “won’t be taken seriously if we put too much emphasis on medical marijuana or decrim.”

Unless you want the LP to follow you and the rest of the aging LP population to the grave, it’s time to get with the program. The Greens and Ron Paul folks have tables and booths at hempfests and legalization events around the country. Sadly, I rarely see a LP table or speaker, confirming my suspicion that many Libertarians have bought into the fringe issue nonsense. Perhaps it was this kind of thinking that was behind the Barr campaign’s decision to politely deny my offer to introduce Bob Barr to over 50,000 libertarian-leaning young people at the Seattle Hempfest.

The war on cannabis is an obsolete holdover of the Spanish Inquisition and the Witch Hunts. As it has no basis in evidence, science or public health it is therefore a religious belief imposed upon the people - an act that is forbidden in most Western democracies. Indeed, Puritanism has become the new state religion.

These issues are all essentially Libertarian issues, because they define our rights as individuals and our humanity as a society. The world desperately needs the guidance and leadership of Libertarians who are willing to stand up for liberty and actually do something to protect and defend their fellow citizens.

The world is waiting, while the LP continues to slumber.

Wake up and smell the ganja. It’s the smell of freedom and it is calling for all Libertarians to report for duty.


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Independent Political Report
Author: Steve Kubby
Copyright: 2008 Independent Political Report
Contact: Independent Political Report
Website: Steve Kubby: Wake up and smell the ganja