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[Sea Mac]

The #1 Idea - which Obama will ignore again: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/legalize_the_medicinal_and_recreational_use_of_marijuana


http://www.change.org/ideas

Ideas for Change in America is a crowd-sourcing competition that empowers citizens to identify and build momentum around a diverse range of ideas for addressing the challenges our country faces.

After 2505 ideas and 209,950 votes were submitted, the 2010 competition concluded on March 12. The 10 most popular ideas are listed above, and will be presented to relevant members of the Obama Administration and form the basis of national campaigns dedicated to advancing each idea.

This was the #1 Idea:

    * Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana

          The war on drugs has been waged long enough, and more lives have been destroyed and families torn apart by the prison system than by marijuana itself. With more than 25% of the world's prison population in the United States, we can't afford to incarcerate citizens for choosing a particular non-toxic substance to use medicinally or recreationally any longer.

          The medical use of marijuana is already quite well established and legal in 15 states and the District of Columbia. In January 2010, the American Medical Association got on board and requested that marijuana be rescheduled to so the efficacy of the plant can be lawfully studied in this country.

          Full legalization of marijuana would save huge amounts of time and money from being wasted by law enforcement and by our courts. It would save national and state governments an estimated $7.7 billion on law enforcement and generate an additional $2.2 billion in tax revenue, according to a report by Professor Jeffrey A. Miron and endorsed by 500 economists.

          Drugs should be a public health issue, not a criminal justice issue. Regardless of whether or not you use marijuana, please take a common sense approach and send our administration a message, "Americans do not want to be incarcerated for their choice of natural substance any longer. Americans demand the government legalize the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana."

          *Note: this idea is a fusion of two related ideas that were both voted into the top 3 Criminal Justice ideas during the first round of the competition. These two ideas were combined with the explicit consent of original creators Spencer Pearson and Larry Talley, and the description above retains language from both original ideas.
          - Spencer Pearson and Larry Talley Mar 01 @ 12:51AM PST