I have watched with bemusement the brouhaha unfolding in the pages of the Globe over the issue of lessening the penalties for cannabis (marijuana) in Joplin.
It’s funny to me the reactionary opposition such a common-sense idea invokes. If one seriously researches the issue, it is obvious that all current laws dealing with this plant are absurd. These laws are all founded on lies, xenophobic hysteria and perjured testimony before the Congress of the United States.
If we are to be a nation of law, a nation where civility is paramount in behavior and discussion, then should we also not have laws based on truth with a view toward actual justice in our legal system?
If we follow bad laws, laws whose very foundations are rotten and corrupted with no truth to them, how do we differ from petty dictatorships?
I would also ask, where are those among us who remember that we were once known as “the Land of the Free”? A nation that leads the world in incarceration (both per capita and in total numbers) has traveled far from such a grand notion.
Finally, I would ask those who oppose this idea of decriminalization: “Where are the successes of this New Prohibition that warrants our following it one day longer?”
Prohibition failed once and we ended it. It is time to do so again.
Allan Erickson,
Drug Policy Forum of Oregon
Eugene, Ore.
Opinion
Voices: Where are successes?
- Opinion
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Our View: Are school loans next 'debt bomb'?
The late American middle class struggled for decades to keep pace with an American dream slipping from its grasp.
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Our View: A better way of limit terms
A Missouri House committee on Tuesday endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to serve 16 years in the state Legislature, either the House or the Senate.
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Your View: Is it our fault?
When did coveting things and money take over character? What happened?
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Your View: No way to run a school
All throughout the state of Missouri, you’ll hear much discussion about teacher tenure and the indefinite contracts that go along with that. Most — if not nearly all — jobs in the private and public sectors have no such career protection.
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Your View: Prime suspects
If it’s too cool in the house, you can turn up the heat if you think you can afford it.
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Our View: Worldwide concern
There is growing concern worldwide that Israel might launch an attack on Iranian nuclear plants.
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Other Views: FAA deal up in air five years
The Federal Aviation Administration bill was delayed 23 times, but the agency finally has a law giving it $63 billion and full operating authority for the next four years.
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Don Ray, columnist: Obama's pipeline excuse an election-year cop-out
On Jan. 18, President Barack Obama announced he was rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline project — a project that had its beginnings some 40 months ago (September 2008).
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James Whitford, guest columnist: Broken people or broken system?
Are the people broken or is the system broken? If you walk into Watered Gardens, our rescue mission, it may seem the people are broken. But it’s a rescue mission. It just feels that way. And sometimes, it just looks that way.
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Our View: Meaningless in Missouri
Missourians have an opinion about who should be the Republican candidate to run against Barack Obama in November. Too bad it won’t matter.
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