I posted this to another forum and got really "bad" comments. I'm not sure why. I guess it's out of paranoia. I'll say this before I go any further, if we don't stand up for what we believe in and just stay in the "shadows" I don't think cannabis will ever get legalized. If we're too scared, then they automatically win. Anyways, I'm not trying too preach, I'm just saying if we're serious we need to stand up and try to do something about it. I found this comment by a guy named "Greg Williams" on this article titled "10 Years Ago: U.S. Government Admits Marijuana Is Medicine. You can read the article here: http://blog.norml.org/2009/03/17/10-years-ago-today-us-government-admits-marijuana-is-medicine/ Anyways, I was looking through comments and I came across a post that really made sense This is the full comment and original post: (I'm not Greg Williams and don't even claim to know him, but I thought it would interest you guys: 11. Greg Williams Says: March 17th, 2009 at 4:36 pm Having been involved in getting 215 passed in California, I can only hope that this administration and the 111th Congress have the cajones to do the right thing, for once. As I spent the winter in then woods in Florida I watched with incredulity the President ignore the people's will and dismissed the idea of legalizing cannabis with a simple 12 word comment by his staff in answer to his own website‘s poll! While it appears to be easy to dismiss figures in the thousands on a computer monitor, as they come across as abstract numbers and cold data, it wouldn't be nearly as easy to dismiss a sack full of letter asking the subject to be addressed. For that reason I composed the below letter and will be sending them on April 20th to the following recipients and urge you to do the same; President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 Speaker Nancy Pelosi Office of the Speaker H-232, US Capitol Washington, DC 20515 Senate Leader Harry Reid 522 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 Gil Kerlikowske O.N.D.C.P. Clearing House PO Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849-6000 Attorney General Holder U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 The following links will get you the mailing addresses for both Congress and Senate https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm Find your (2) State Legislators and Governor of your home state and include them in your mail campaign. Remember to insert the proper name and title in your letters. I urge you to do the same and please feel free to cut and paste the below letter or compose your own. Print them now and mail them on Monday, April 20th No other day please, to maximize the impact of the letters showing up on the same day they need to be mailed on April 20th. Continue to do the same thing every year on April 20th until cannabis is discussed openly and fairly and the war on drugs gets overhauled as the current approach is a sorry and no longer affordable failure. A one page, business sized letter weighs roughly one third of an ounce. That means that roughly for every 48 letters sent we'll add one pound to their incoming correspondence. To increase the load by one hundred pounds requires about 4800 letters only. With the help of the internet we ought to be able to come up with a lot more than that! At 42 cents per letter and ten people to contact, this endeavor costs the modest sum of $4.20 in postage plus the paper and envelopes, which is a small price to pay for this cause. Think of it as our way of giving the US Postal Service their economic stimulus by supporting this letter writing campaign. (You may need to set the type size at 10 pt to fit the letter on one page. One page letters have a better chance of being read than multi page letters) Please help out and contact your friends who support the end of cannabis prohibition with a link to this page and ask them to pass this along, add it to your website, just help and make this happen. Lets make the mail bags heavy and start making some noise. As the letter states, the money spent on incarceration of those locked up for non-violent possession alone would go a long way in education by freeing up enough revenues nation wide to employ over 400,000 new teachers, to mention just one better way to spend the 25 billion plus dollars spent on locking up stoners! And don't forget. Just because many people now are starting to support the idea of legalization does not mean that every supporter wishes to smoke. This is about truth about the subject, freedom of individuals in a free nation, fiscal responsibility, a new revenue source from cannabis and its associated jobs. Headily yours, BusGreg Cut and paste this letter or compose your own Dear (legislator's title, name here) I am writing this letter to urge you to open the debate on whether to legalize, tax and control the adult use and medical use of cannabis. On both the President's former website Change.gov as well as the non-governmental group Change.org the overwhelming support for the legalization of both medical and recreational pot use demand that an open and fact based dialogue be started on the viability of continuing to persecute those who use cannabis with no end in sight, or to finally allow cannabis to be used by those who do so responsibly. Cannabis is non addictive and not the gateway as it is often described, but in fact less harmful and never fatal when compared to the legal varieties of drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco. Those who currently serve time for non violent possession charges cost the taxpayers around 25 billion tax dollars every year and that number is rising due to outdated laws and misleading propaganda to pacify special interests! The annual salary of teachers in this country runs around $60,000 (including employer matching taxes and other related costs) The 25 billion dollars saved from not incarcerating those who serve time for non violent possession alone could put the astounding number of over 417,000 new teachers into our schools. That is over 8300 new teachers per State! This may sound radical, but these are radical times with the welfare of our Nation at stake. Alcohol prohibition was overturned in December of 1933 after the country had decided that prohibition creates more crime than it solves and cost a struggling nation too much. After legalizing alcohol and putting a fair tax on it, the country benefited from the additional tax revenues and the world did not come to an end as predicted by certain segments of the population. We as a Nation can no longer afford the systematic incarceration of our people for lifestyle choices such as smoking cannabis. Here is one way to reduce the need for more mostly privately owned and taxpayer supported prisons. This has nothing to do with being soft on crime. It is no longer affordable or acceptable to incarcerate this many human beings for transgressions many if not most Americans believe shouldn‘t be a crime for which prison is the answer. Lets use our jails and prisons for those convicted of violent crimes and those leaving victims behind, not for those seeking pleasure or relief from pain. The “War on Cannabis†can be traced back as far as 1914 when “marijuana' was used to harass and persecute mostly Mexican migrant workers in the South West and “negro“ jazz musicians. The “war†got it's start in earnest with the “Marijuana Tax Act†of 1937 and every effort to open the debate and let the truth dictate the direction we take has been sidelined ever since. This is no longer acceptable governance, as we the taxpayers demand that at least our wishes be heard and given an open and fair chance to be heard. Since the sad event of the “Marijuana Tax Act†lies and falsehoods have set the agenda for private prison operators to enrich themselves at our expense. The Nation is crumbling and our financial future is at stake. Do not burden generations not yet born with the debt of imprisoning those who opt to smoke cannabis. Allow us to pay a fair tax and the country to reap the benefits from both, Industrial hemp and smokable cannabis as well as the medical use and full scale research into how a natural plant can provide the same or better benefits than often unaffordable and sometimes toxic pharmaceuticals. Last but not least: Just because many people now are starting to support the idea of legalization does not mean that every supporter wishes to smoke. This is about truth about the subject, freedom of individuals in a free nation, fiscal responsibility, a new revenue source from cannabis and its associated jobs in a failing economy. Respectfully submitted, Your name here your address, city, state and zip here Remember! Get your letters done now and mail them on APRIL 20th After reading his comment I was actually inspired to do this, but was a bit scared because of the laws. It's kind of like openly admitting you use Marijuana illegally. I think maybe if enough people did it, it would actually get looked at. I'm still on the fence about whether doing it or not. (We still have a couple of weeks until April 20th.) So, I was just wondering what you guys thoughts were on this and if you have the means would you do it?
Consider it done. I was watching the news all night tonight while blazed off my last eighth of kush and it looks like Obama is getting a lot of negative attention for not taking legalizing marijuana seriously. We need to keep the pressure on them. I think I'll mail this letter tomorrow and again on 4/20
I probably will do it. You don't really have to worry about getting in trouble. Cops don't set out to hunt cannabis users. They usually just go after dealers. They can't get a warrant off of your letter either so you don't have to worry about it either way.
I'm glad to see you guys are in favor of this! It makes me feel a bit better not going in on my own. I don't know how many people will do it. I do know though, that if enough people do it then this issue will definitely get addressed. Thanks for the positive vibes.
In addition to this I am calling Obama's comment line everyday, signing every petition I could, and hitting up all the big news networks with comments/poll answers. As long as you are not threatening you can not get in trouble for putting in your .02
Its easy and scary free! The White House has been known to get over 2000 calls a day on average about medical marijuana(this does not include general anti-prohibition) Not hard to believe that in a country with 307,212,123 (July 2009 est.)people, \t\t\t a couple thousand take 5 minutes out of there lunch break to leave a concerned message with an intern about DEA raids/Policy. Its fun and easy and the interns are always supportive! Once you do it a few times and see how easy and safe it is you may just find yourself voicing some opinions more often about all kind of stuff.
i sent emails to some minnesota reps/senators a while back even got a reply! if EVERYONE would just do this...
I absolutly agree. We all have to start somewhere, why not here. Thank you for putting this up, consider it one more letter to go out.
I sent e-mails to my congressman Robert Wexler, a Democrat and Obama supporter, and got a response that was very typical politician. He thanked me for taking the time to write him, blah-blah-blah, and then told me flat out that he couldn't support "illegal drug use". I wrote back saying that I wasn't asking him to BREAK the law, I was asking him to CHANGE the law. Politicians can be infuriating. I've written my Senators, with no response. And even the President through Change.org, but what I saw of Obama on Thursday, was "four more years of the same". Politicians are banking that you'll vote red or blue, and don't fear dissing a bunch of "stoners". Now if I could only figure out why my moniker has that red thing saying "Fcat has a little shameless behaviour in the past". Any idea ReformMaryJaneLaws? I would love to know so I could rehabilitate myself.
F the politicians and F Obama. He is a politician, liar, and bureaucrat just like the rest of them. All they are good at doing is wasting time and and taxpayer money.
Face it. THEY will not do it. We will have to do it ourselves. Check out the 2 steps needed to legalize marijuana in America: http://forum.grasscity.com/legalization-activism/364494-2-steps-marijuana-freedom-u-s.html
Face it, if we don't speak it won't ever get looked at or even considered. They figure we're a bunch of "stoners" who wouldn't dare speak out about a cause we're far because we're too scared. Then, they don't have to deal with it and it just keeps getting pushed under the rug. I'd rather write thousands of letters for a long period time and get no responses, knowing I tried; then to not write any letters knowing that I could of atleast tried. I'm not forcing anyone to do anything and from the positive posts this thread has gotten, I'm assuming most of you will. It's all about researching, providing facts, and agruements about why the legalization would be in their favor to do.
This is a great idea. I've been thinking about writing and emailing the president. I emailed some of my state senators and assemblymen today. You all must remember. You are voters! If you voted, you helped elect our current president. All our elected officials must be made to understand that we helped get them or their opponents elected. Ignoring or disrespecting us could mean that the vote they would have gotten from us will go to their opposition. Most of these career politicians have forgotten what "WE THE PEOPLE" means. If we remind them of who we really are instead of who they think we are, then we may have a chance at getting some change.