The War on Marijuana must end

We all hear the horrifying stories of people who have been arrested for growing and using a dried plant. We probably all know somebody who uses that same plant whether for recreation or medicinal use. The Libertarian Party of Bucks County believes that the criminalization of the use of a natural plant, of marijuana is a waste of police resources and a detriment to the unfortunate people afflicted with cancer, AIDs and other diseases.

Millions of dollars are wasted by police to combat marijuana use while rapes, murders, domestic violence, and crimes against children all go unsolved. Our prisons are filled with people who have committed a victimless “crime.” The war on marijuana is flawed. The criminalization of marijuana allows criminals to continue to terrorize our neighborhoods. The criminalization of marijuana gives a monopoly of the production and distribution of marijuana to criminals. The legalization of marijuana would allow companies to grow and to sell marijuana instead of criminals and cartels. Legalization would allow marijuana users to grow their own marijuana for personal consumption. Legalization would take power from the criminals and give it to the people. In the end, legalization would make Pennsylvania a safer place.

Our children are demonized as criminals and sit in jail over a plant. Cancer patients are

demonized as criminals and forced off of their treatment of choice. The cycle of criminalizing 

victimless behavior must stop. Around 750,000 people in the past year have been made out to be criminals for their use of marijuana. It is time that we the people demand the government to stop  demonizing marijuana, to stop demonizing a plant. It has been far too long since we have been  able to "make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and plant it everywhere," as our Founding  Father, George Washington advised. It is time to fight to expand the scope of Federal policy to  allow States their right to access the cannabis plant. It starts with States standing up in opposition to outdated Federal policy. We the people want the government to allow people to make an uncoerced choice about how they will live their life.

Due to the current criminalization of marijuana, conducting medical studies is extremely difficult. But, nevertheless some have been conducted. In the past year, the California Pacific Medical Center proved as fact that Cannabidol (CBD), a derivative, nonpsychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant, has the ability to "turn off" the ID-1 gene in  clinical trials with animals. ID-1 is the gene responsible for the spread of cancer. Legalizing  marijuana in Pennsylvania would allow more studies to take place which, in turn, would find more medicinal uses for the plant. Even so, marijuana has shown to help with the treatment of 

cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other diseases.

Hundreds of people have been helped by a simple plant. Their lives have been improved, their 

symptoms abated. One AIDs and cancer patient recounts how with three “puffs” of marijuana, all  symptoms he was experiencing disappeared and he began to feel hungry, something no other  medication could do. Sadly, this man was arrested for possession of marijuana and died shortly  after by asphyxiation from aspirating vomit. There are thousands of stories of men, women and  children who have been helped by a plant, the marijuana plant.

It is the opinion of the Libertarian Party that an action preventing the legalization of a  source of CBD, cannabis, is directly equivalent to denying terminally ill cancer patients the best  treatment possible. As cancer is a universal threat to human beings globally, we have the responsibility to do everything in our power to increase access to the source of CBD for researchers, patients and the general public. We the Libertarians firmly believe that the criminalization of marijuana is a detriment to all people. 

Marijuana has been shown to have thousands of uses from industrial to recreational to medicinal, marijuana is an effective solution to many of the problems we face around the world. The legalization of marijuana will open up entire new industries, create thousands of jobs, and usher in a new era of American independence. The United States federal government has a responsibility to do what is right for the American people. But, they have failed to do so. The current two party system currently proclaims the criminalization of marijuana as right and just. The Libertarian Party is the only party dedicated to protecting the individual's rights. Conservatives are content with just throwing a person in jail for a personal choice. Liberals argue that perhaps drugs should be decriminalized, but then do nothing about it preferring the Conservative "solution." Only Libertarians recognize the value marijuana can have in the United States as a whole.

Marc Connuck

Libertarian Party of Bucks County