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Richard Branson, World Leaders Call For Marijuana Legalization And End to War on Drugs

Categories: Marijuana

obama marijuana norml org.JPG
norml.org
Obama says no to marijuana, ironically.
The call for legalization has gone from the back of a VW van to the forefront of global politics in the span of two generations.

Tomorrow a report from a group of world leaders that includes former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former U.S. secretary of state George Shultz, and former U.S. Fed chairman Paul Volcker will call for an end to the war on drugs and for a move toward legalization and regulation.

The Weekly was told Virgin's Richard Branson, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, and former Columbian President César Gaviria would be on-hand in New York for the report's unveiling.

According to a statement from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) the report calls the war on drugs "a failure" and encourages "nations to pursue legalizing and regulating drugs as a way to put a stop the the violence inherent in the illegal drug market."

richard branson.JPG
Richard Branson is a high flyer.

Baltimore police official Neill Franklin, LEAP's executive director:

It's no longer a question of whether legalizing drugs is a serious topic of debate for serious people. These former presidents and other international leaders have placed drug legalization squarely on the table as an important solution that policymakers need to consider. As a narcotics cop on the streets, I saw how the prohibition approach not only doesn't reduce drug abuse but how it causes violence and crime that affect all citizens and taxpayers, whether they use drugs or not.

LEAP spokesman Tom Angell tells the Weekly the report's unveiling "should be pretty big."

It happens tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST at the storied Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Other endorsers of the pro-pot report include writer Carlos Fuentes, former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

We're going to assume the Waldorf is not a pot-friendly establishment. So if you go -- it's really for press, anyway -- try not to light 'em if you got 'em.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]


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12 comments
Jennifer
Jennifer

when science has proven marijuana compounds kill cancer cells (including the usa govenment testings done in the 70's which have resurfaced on the web) it clearly shows how the feds demonise and distort the truth in order to have their wars - Cancer was not thriving when marijuana compounds were the most perscribed tumor remedies - Safer and superior to chemo for sure!

Kent Mennem
Kent Mennem

Legalizing drugs like marijuana would take much power out of cartel hands. By making adults buy it from a secure store, instead of kids and all buying it on street corners.For more on Mexico cartel wars visit my blog atwww.HellonEarthBlog.com 

Sylvia
Sylvia

 Hi richard, i find you very interresting. 

Bradly
Bradly

The truly exciting thing about the possibility of legalisation of pot is that we as a race can finally be allowed to exploit the benefits of using hemp to make EVERYTHING in our society from paint to paper with a significantly lighter environmental impact. Apparently hemp was over 60% of the US crops before Dupont lobied the US Senate to have criminalised.

concernedparentandtaxpayer
concernedparentandtaxpayer

Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains. How about $100 for a permit to grow a dozen plants?  Also, check out  w w w . northpoint.org/  if you’d like to see some very positive material about Jesus at work in people’s lives

Brandt Hardin
Brandt Hardin

The War on Drugs failed Billions of dollars ago!  This money could have been used for outreachprograms to clean up the bad end of drug abuse by providing free HIV testing,free rehab, and clean needles.  Harmlessdrugs like marijuana could be legalized to help boost our damaged economy.  Cannabis can provide hemp for countless naturalrecourses and the tax revenue from sales alone would pull every state in ourcountry out of the red!  Vote Teapot,PASS IT, and legalize it.  Voice youopinion with the movement and download my FREE poster at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot...  

man
man

"light em if u got em" is an improper usage of the term "smoke em if u got em". The only time people would smoke em if they got em is at a concert or a public event where the likelyehood that people would have em is high.

malcolmkyle
malcolmkyle

If you are a Prohibitionist then you owe us answers to the following questions:

#1. Why do you rejoice at the fact that we have all been stripped of our 4th amendment rights and are now totally subordinate to a corporatized, despotic government with a heavily armed and corrupt, militarized police force whose often deadly intrusions into our homes and lives are condoned by an equally corrupt and spineless judiciary?

#2. Why do you wish to continue to spend $50 billion a year to prosecute and cage your fellow citizens for choosing drugs which are not more dangerous than those of which you yourself use and approve of such as alcohol and tobacco?

#3. Do you honestly expect the rest of us to look on passively while you waste another trillion dollars on this garbage policy?

#4. Why are your waging war on your own family, friends and neighbors?

#5. Why are you so complacent with the fact that our once 'free & proud' nation now has the largest percentage of it's citizenry incarcerated than any other on the entire planet?

#6. Why are you helping to fuel a budget crisis to the point of closing hospitals, schools and libraries?

#7. Why do you rejoice at wasting precious resources on prohibition related undercover work while rapists and murderers walk free, while additionally, many cases involving murder and rape do not even get taken to trial because law enforcement priorities are subverted by your beloved failed and dangerous policy?

#8. Why are you such a supporter of the 'prison industrial complex' to the extent of endangering our own children?

#9. Will you graciously applaud, when due to your own incipient and authoritarian approach, even your own child is caged and raped?

* It is estimated that there are over 300,000 instances of prison rape a year.* 196,000 are estimated to happen to men in prison.* 123,000 are estimated to happen to men in county jail.* 40,000 are estimated to be committed against boys in either adult prisons or while in juvenile facilities or lock ups.* 5000 women are estimated to be raped in prison. 

#10. And will you also applaud when your own child, due to an unnecessary and counter productive felony conviction, can no longer find employment?

According to Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and former assistant secretary to the treasury under Ronald Reagan, "Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public."

"Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with ‘scientific support’, fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others. The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents."  – William F. Buckley, Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither.William Ramsey Clark (1927--)

malcolmkyle
malcolmkyle

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If you are a Prohibitionist then you owe us answers to the following questions:

#1. Why do you rejoice at the fact that we have all been stripped of our 4th amendment rights and are now totally subordinate to a corporatized, despotic government with a heavily armed and corrupt, militarized police force whose often deadly intrusions into our homes and lives are condoned by an equally corrupt and spineless judiciary?

#2. Why do you wish to continue to spend $50 billion a year to prosecute and cage your fellow citizens for choosing drugs which are not more dangerous than those of which you yourself use and approve of such as alcohol and tobacco?

#3. Do you honestly expect the rest of us to look on passively while you waste another trillion dollars on this garbage policy?

#4. Why are your waging war on your own family, friends and neighbors?

#5. Why are you so complacent with the fact that our once 'free & proud' nation now has the largest percentage of it's citizenry incarcerated than any other on the entire planet?

#6. Why are you helping to fuel a budget crisis to the point of closing hospitals, schools and libraries?

#7. Why do you rejoice at wasting precious resources on prohibition related undercover work while rapists and murderers walk free, while additionally, many cases involving murder and rape do not even get taken to trial because law enforcement priorities are subverted by your beloved failed and dangerous policy?

#8. Why are you such a supporter of the 'prison industrial complex' to the extent of endangering our own children?

#9. Will you graciously applaud, when due to your own incipient and authoritarian approach, even your own child is caged and raped?

* It is estimated that there are over 300,000 instances of prison rape a year.* 196,000 are estimated to happen to men in prison.* 123,000 are estimated to happen to men in county jail.* 40,000 are estimated to be committed against boys in either adult prisons or while in juvenile facilities or lock ups.* 5000 women are estimated to be raped in prison. 

http://www.loompanics.com/Arti...

#10. And will you also applaud when your own child, due to an unnecessary and counter productive felony conviction, can no longer find employment?

Private prisons are publicly traded and their stock value is tied to the number of inmates. Here's what the UK Economist Magazine thinks of the situation: "Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little" http://www.economist.com/node/...

According to Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and former assistant secretary to the treasury under Ronald Reagan, "Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public."

"Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with ‘scientific support’, fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others. The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents."  – William F. Buckley, Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither.William Ramsey Clark (1927--)

Jacob
Jacob

Way to make this article seem like a joke with all your 'original' comedy writing

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