Legalize Cannabis Already!!!

With nearly 70% (by numerous accounts) of Americans supporting legalization of marijuana, it would be hard to believe we are still having this discussion. Except for the obstruction of drug companies, alcohol companies and for-profit prison systems.

Make no mistake, all US prison systems make profits in some way. Someone is always getting paid and you are always the one paying in numerous ways. You pay for police, you pay for trials, you pay to keep people locked up because they cannot afford cash bail money, you pay for a public defender if they cannot afford a lawyer, you pay the six figure incomes of many thousands of judges. You pay when a person is convicted and imprisoned for years for non-violent drug possession charges.

You also pay by loss of your own civil rights. You pay in the form of increased social tensions, division, resentment and anger when specific minorities are accused and convicted at a rate 2.5–4 times higher than all other races.

You pay when a family must receive public assistance because the primary income earner is jailed or imprisoned for an offense less dangerous than your weekend beer binge.

You pay when children lack performance in school because they are distraught because their parent is absent from the home. More so if that parent is victimized while incarcerated with more violent offenders. Or when the parent is released, changed, unable to find adequate employment because of their prison record.