Supporters of Legalization of Marijuana (unless otherwise stated)

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US Legislators

Jared Polis– Colorado, house, democrat – 2011 bill filed to legalize marijuana, US House, HR 5843 – cosigned the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 [descheduling of both the cannabis plant and of THC]

Steve Cohen – Tennessee, house, democrat, treatment instead of prison for nonviolent drug offenders, took drug czar to task for his opposition to this, original cosponsor of a bill to “legalize, regulate, tax and control” – cosigned the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

Barney Frank – Massachusetts, house, democrat – 2008 and 2009 filed Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act – sponsored the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

Ron Paul – Texas, house, republican – sponsored the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

John Conyers – Michigan, house, democrat – cosigned the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

Barbara Lee – California, house, democrat – cosigned the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

Dennis Kucinich – Ohio, house, democrat

Maurice Hinchey – New York, house, democrat – 2009 bill for state sovereignty in legalization

Jerrold Nadler – New York, house, democrat

Chellie Pingree – Maine, house, democrat

Pete Stark – California, house, democrat

Dana Rohrabacher – California, house, republican

George Miller – California, house, democrat

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State Legislators

Diane Russell – Maine rep., Portland – 2011 bill filed in House to legalize and tax

Richard Cebra – Maine rep, Naples – 2011 cosponsor of bill to legalize and tax

Aaron Libby – Maine rep, Waterboro – 2011 cosponsor of bill to legalize and tax

Wayne T. Mitchell – Maine rep, Penobscot Nation – 2011 cosponsor of bill to legalize and tax

Andrew R. O’Brien – Maine rep, Lincolnville – 2011 cosponsor of bill to legalize and tax

Frederick L. Wintle – Maine rep, Garland – 2011 cosponsor of bill to legalize and tax

Ellen Story – Massachusetts rep., democrat – 2011 bill to legalize and tax, says, Reps “come up to me and say thank you so much for doing this Ellen. I support you, but I can’t be public about it. Legislators are afraid of being seen as soft on drugs.”

Ruth B Balser – Massachusetts rep – cosponsor 2011 bill to legalize and tax

Lori A Ehrlich – Massachusetts rep – cosponsor 2011 bill to legalize and tax

Anne M. Gobi – Massachusetts rep – cosponsor 2011 bill to legalize and tax

Roger Goodman – Washington rep, democrat – 2006 cosponsored legalization bill; supports drug policy reform, has worked to reform sentencing within state since the late 90s, 2011 cosponsored legalization bill

Mary Lou Dickerson – Washington rep, 36th – 2011 bill to sell marijuana at alcohol stores to those over 21, allow licensing of commercial growers through Liquor Control Board

Dave Upthegrove – Washington rep, 33rd – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Jamie Pedersen – Washington rep, 43rd – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Sherry Appleton – Washington rep, 23rd – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Mary Helen Roberts – Washington rep, 21st – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Eileen Cody – Washington rep, 34th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Luis Moscoso – Washington rep, 1st – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Deb Eddy – Washington rep, 48th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Tami Green – Washington rep, 28th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Jeannie Darneille – Washington rep, 27th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Joe Fitzgibbon – Washington rep, 34th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Phyllis Kenney – Washington rep, 46th – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Andy Billig – Washington rep, 3rd – 2011 bill to legalize and regulate

Tom Ammiano – California, San Francisco

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Other People

Jorge Batlle – former Uruguay president, “Why don’t we just legalize drugs? . . . The day that it is legalized in the United States, it will lose value. And if it loses value, there will be no profit. But as long as the US citizenry doesn’t rise up to do something, they will pass this life fighting and fighting.”

Vicente Fox – former Mexico president – the violence in Mexico is “even worse than Chicago during the Prohibition era.”

Ernesto Zedillo – former Mexico president

Cesar Gaviria – former Colombia president

Fernando Henrique Cardoso – former Brazil president

John McKay – former federal prosecutor – supports legalization and taxation in WA state

Chakib El-Khayari – Morocco, in prison for “offending the Moroccan state,” started national debate on legalization by questioning police, army, and government involvement in hash trade

Joe Miller – Arizona, deputy probation officer until fired for signing his support for legalization, taxation and regulation

Mark Emery – currently in prison in US for selling marijuana seeds to Americans through the mail, from Canada

Tommy Chong – California, actor, musician and activist, sentenced to 9 months in federal prison for selling glass pieces across state lines, although an undercover agent was the employee who did the transaction

Thomas Ravenel – South Carolina, former state treasurer, prohibition repeal, says it is “our government’s most destructive policy since slavery.”

Lester Grinspoon, MD – Massachusetts, author of Cannabis Reconsidered, almost had license revoked by state medical board for admitting, publicly, to smoking marijuana (at any time in his life), they dropped it when he decided to fight back with science, says “Marijuana is here to stay. . . . When cannabis regains its rightful place in the American pharmacopeia it will be seen as one of the safest substances in that compendium, if not the safest. . . Moreover it will be hailed as a wonderdrug, just like penicillin in the 1940s. . . . Cannabis is exceptionally safe.”



Gary E. Johnson – New Mexico, former governor, believes marijuana is “a lot” safer than alcohol, “Make drugs a controlled substance like alcohol. Legalize it, control it, regulate it, tax it. If you legalize it, we might actually have a healthier society.” And, “When it comes to all other drugs, I advocate harm reduction.”

Mario Vargas Llosa – Peru, Nobel prize winner, general drug legalization, “money . . . should be put into treatment, prevention and education, as has been doing for example in the case of tobacco, with great success.”

George Schultz – Secretary of State under Reagan, part of a lifelong career in civil service, “We need to at least consider and examine forms of controlled legalization of drugs.”

Jocelyn Elders – U.S. Surgeon General under Clinton, end to drug war

George Papandreou – Greek foreign minister, “I can officially state that my government and myself believe that all over Europe we need to open a debate on the ‘drug question’ in order to create more coherent and human policies with better perspectives. . . . The policy of criminalizing consumers has failed, creating many problems to our society.”

Montel Williams – outspoken medical supporter

Roseanne Barr – former star of tv show Roseanne

Seth Williams – Pennsylvania, District Attorney in Philadelphia, supports decriminalization, “about 7500 cases a year in which the most serious charges is possession of marijuana. And we’re spending thousands and thousands a year trying to prosecute these cases in which the defendant possess ten or fifteen dollars worth of weed. So it made more sense get these cases out of misdemeanor court, have the defendant pay a fine of 200 dollars, save everybody money, save everybody time and the defendant has a more certain punishment.”

Ben Cayetano – former Hawaii governor, regarding medical cannabis, “I just think it’s a matter of time that Congress finally gets around to understanding that the states should be allowed to provide this kind of relief to the people. Congress is way, way behind in their thinking.”

Pat Robertson – televangelist, “I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot – that kind of thing – it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people.” And, “. . .this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”

Kofi Annan – former UN Secretary General, at a minimum, decriminalization

Paul Volcker – former Federal Reserve Chair, decriminalization

Bob Ainsworth – Britain, former Home Office drug minister, former Defense Minister, calls for legalization of all drugs, “Prohibition has failed to protect us. Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harm to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit. We spend billions of pounds without preventing the wide availability of drugs. It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children. We must take the trade away from organized criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.”

Paul Flynn – Britain, Labor MP

Peter Lilley – Britain, former deputy Conservative leader, legalization of soft drugs

Willie Nelson – “I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is a flower. God put it here . . . ”

Ziggy Marley – Jamaica, musician

Richard Branson – Britain, owner of Virgin

George Zimmer – owner of Men’s Warehouse

Peter Lewis – United States, chairperson of Progressive Insurance

Woody Harrelson – California, actor

Arnold Schwarzenegger – California, former governor, “That is not a drug. It’s a leaf.”

George Soros – California, has invested millions in drug policy reform campaigns

“Dr. Drew” Pinsky – “I”m actually moderately for the legalization of marijuana. I wish we’d just get over it. It’s no worse than alcohol or cigarettes or anything else. . . .”

Jennifer Aniston – actress, “I enjoy smoking cannabis and see no harm in it.”

Charlie Sheen – “It grows everywhere. . . . Tax the sh*t out of it.”

Stephen King – Maine, author, “I think that marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry. It would be wonderful for the state of Maine. There’s some pretty good homegrown dope. I’m sure it would be even better if you could grow it with fertilizers and have greenhouses.”

Kurt Schmoke – Maryland, Dean at Howard University, former mayor of Baltimore, “Decriminalization would take the profit out of drugs and greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the drug-related violence that is currently plaguing our streets.”

Dan Quayle – Arizona, “Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing the possession of marijuana . . . we should focus on the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society.”

Jimmy Carter – Georgia, former president, “Penalties against possession should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed.”

Francis L. Young – former admin. law judge in the DEA, “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. It is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

John Curtin – New York, US district judge, “Education, counseling, less use of criminal sanctions, partial legalization and legalization are all alternatives. It is a hard road, but the present course has failed.”

Frank Jordan – California, former San Francisco mayor, “I have no problem whatsoever with the use of marijuana for medical purposes. I am sensitive and compassionate to people who have legitimate needs. We should bed the law and do what’s right.”

Stephen Downing – California, former LAPD officer during Nixon and afterward, now supporter of LEAP, “During my career, I not only saw the ineffectiveness of our marijuana laws up close but also witnessed the harm our prohibition approach inflicts on public safety. By keeping marijuana illegal, we aren’t preventing anyone from using it. The only results are billions of tax-free dollars being funneled into the pockets of bloodthirsty drug cartels and gangs who control the illegal market.”

William J. Cox – California, former police sergeant and deputy district attorney, Los Angeles, legalization would “flip the equation and put drug cartels out of business, while restoring public respect for the criminal laws.”

Neil Franklin – LEAP executive director, 34 year law enforcement career, it would, “increase safety on our streets and highways, get officers out of drug law enforcement and back on patrol.” And, “does anyone think making the dangerous drug alcohol illegal actually decreased the harm associated with its use, abuse and distribution?”

Joseph McNamara – California, former NYPD officer, San Jose and Kansas City police chief, “We learned pretty quickly in New York that the people we were arresting were low-level offenders. All the arrests weren’t doing any good. As cops, we felt the community would be better off if we were arresting robbers, burglars, and rapists. Enforcing prohibition took us away from protecting people on our beat . . . What do we have with this costly war against marijuana? Widespread violence, more use than if it were manufactured legally, and tremendous disrespect for the law.”

Jim Gray – California, former supreme court judge and federal prosecutor, “I was basically a drug warrior until I saw that the tougher we get with regard to nonviolent drug offenses, the softer we get with everything else because we only have so many resources in the criminal justice system . . . We are corrupting our children, not because of marijuana, but because of marijuana prohibition . . . We are putting our children in harm’s way. Ask our young people what’s harder to get, beer or marijuana, and they will tell you it’s easier to get marijuana, because alcohol is regulated and controlled by the government, and illegal marijuana dealers don’t ask for ID.”

Jack Cole – former undercover narcotics officer, now part of LEAP and working to legalize in Maine, “Since 1970, we’ve spent more than a trillion dollars on this war and all we have to show for it each year is we arrest another 1.6 million people in this country for nonviolent drug offenses. Fully half are marijuana arrests.”

Vince Cain – British Columbia, former Royal Canadian Mounted Police chief superintendent, “In B.C., organized crime is reaping billions from the illegal marijuana industry and increasingly consolidating its hold through violence. Stiffer sanctions will not reverse these trends, but legally regulating marijuana in B.C. would eliminate a primary source of revenue for these criminal groups, reduce gang violence, and generate tax income.”

Isaiah “Ike” McKinnon (Dr.) – Michigan, retired career police officer and Chief of Police in Detroit, “Too much law enforcement money and resources are being used on this. There are better things to spend our money on. . . . these [marijuana users] were professional people and they were normal people and it didn’t drive them crazy as people say. Which is just the opposite of people who use heavier drugs like heroin and cocaine, you can see a major difference in them.”

David Bratzer – British Columbia, current constable, member of LEAP, “Lots of officers speak up after they retire, but it was really important to me to call for a change to this failed policy. I didn’t want to work for 25 or 30 years and then wish I had spoken up.”

Bryan Gonzales – former Border Patrol agent, fired after suggesting to a colleague that legalization would end the violence in Mexico

Joe Miller – Arizona, former probation officer, fired after signing a letter for LEAP that supported decriminalization

Jonathan Wender – Washington, police sergent, fired for supportig decriminalization, had to sue to get his job back

Nicholas Cowdery – Australia, former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales, causes social and health problems, as well as a “proliferation of crime . . . and an increase in the corruption of law enforcement.” Favors legalization and regulation of all drugs.

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Organizations

NAACP – end to drug war

California Medical Association – “It is an open question whether cannabis is useful or not. That question can only be answered once it is legalized and more research is done. Then, and only then, can we know what it is useful for.”

Seattle Times – legalization by state

South African Medical Journal – various drug legalization

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Those who are gone

Gatewood Galbraith – lawyer, “I want the government to stay out of my life unless I represent a threat to somebody else or their property.”

Carl Sagan – physicist, “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

Ben Masel – Lifelong activist and organizer

Jack Herer – author and activist, The Emperor Wears No Clothes

Milton Friedman – Nobel prize for economics, “Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and raise the quality of law enforcement. Can you conceive of any other measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order?” And, “When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn’t this exactly what’s been happening with drugs?”

Louis Armstrong – jazz legend, “It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics . . . dope and all that crap. It’s a thousand times better than whiskey – it’s an assistant – a friend.”

Abraham Lincoln – former president, “Prohibition . . . goes beyond the bound of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded”

Thomas Jefferson – former president, “If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”

Fiorello La Guardia – former New York City mayor, actively fought against Anslinger’s marijuana prohibition

Terence McKenna – philosopher, “If the words ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on.”

Bill Hicks – comedian, “Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit unnatural?”

William F. Buckley Jr. – author, “Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”

Decriminalization

Chaka Fattah – Pennsylvania, US Congressperson, “I think it should be leg..decriminalized, for all the reasons that we know. First of all, the notion that we have been incarcerating people in this age for the use of marijuana doesn’t make any sense. We already incarcerate more people per capita than any other place in the world.”

Mark Leno – California, state assemblyman, “If we haven’t learned anything over the past century, it’s that prohibition does not work.”

Mark Grisanti – New York, 60th – cosponsor 2011 bill to reduce publicly visual marijuana (misdemeanor) to a violation, like concealed pot is, sees how blacks end up with far more misdemeanor charges than any other group

John Fillmore – Arizona, rep, republican – 2011 filed bill to decrim. less than two ounces, $100 fine, says it isn’t a gateway drug and that the money could be spent elsewhere within law enforcement, said bill was met, with “a lot of smiles and laughs” by his republican colleagues

LaShawn K. Ford – Illinois rep – 2011 bill to amend Cannabis Control Act allowing one ounce or less to be a misdemeanor punished by a fine ($500 first, $750 second, $1000 third and subsequent), and directs 50% of fines to go to agency doing the paperwork, HB 100

Donald E .Williams – Connecticut sen, 29th – 2011 bill to reduce penalties for possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction, GB 1014

Martin M. Looney – Connecticut sen, 11th – 2011 bill to reduce penalties for possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction, GB 1014

Christopher G. Donovan – Connecticut rep, 84th – 2011 bill to reduce penalties for possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction, GB 1014

Brendan Sharkey – Connecticut rep, 88th – 2011 bill to reduce penalties for possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction, GB 1014

Bob Barr – Georgia, former Marijuana Policy Project lobbyist, former prosecutor, former US representative, “I, over the years, have taken a very strong stand on drug issues; but in light of the tremendous growth of government power since 9/11, it has forced me and other conservatives to go back to take a renewed look at how big and powerful we want the government to be in people’s lives.”

UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs – “For people found to be in possession of [any] drug for personal use, they should not be processed through the criminal justice system but instead be diverted into drug education/awareness courses.”

Evan Wood (Dr.) – British Columbia, “From a scientific and public health perspective, we know that making marijuana illegal has not achieved its stated objectives of limiting marijuana supply or rates of use . . . We must discuss alternatives to today’s failed laws with a focus on how to decrease violence, remove the illicit industry’s profit motive and improve public health and safety.”

Bob Carr – Australia, Senator, Foreign Affairs Minister, ”An issue that worried me while I was in NSW politics was the police hitting railway stations with sniffer dogs. It was marijuana that was the focus.” Since it’s a victimless crime, he’d rather police ”do things like make public transport safe and clean up Cabramatta.”

Michael Wooldridge (Dr.) – Australia, “The key message is that we have 40 years of experience of a law and order approach to drugs and it has failed.”

Paul Barratt – Australia, former Defense Department secretary

Peter Baume – Australia, former federal health minister

Geoff Gallop – Australia, former West Australian premier

Mick Palmer – Australia, former federal police chief

Alex Wodak – Australia, drug addiction expert

Looser Marijuana Sentencing

Karen Tallian – Indiana, sen, democrat – 2011 bill to reassess sentencing and criminal laws, SB 192

Harold Dutton – Texas rep – 2011 bill to reduce possession penalties to Class C misdemeanor for less than one ounce, and Class B misdemeanor for between one and two ounces, with current laws remaining in place for other quantities, reduces repeat offender punishments for small quantities





Wall of Shame – Supporters and Hypocrites of the “drug war”

Lamar Smith – Texas, republican senator, 21st district, Blocks all bills concerning positive action in Marijuana from reaching the floor. He is a one man blockade as he schedules action on the floor of Congress.

Mitch McConnell – Kentucky, Senate minority leader

John Lovell – California, police union lobbyist

Barack Obama – District of Columbia, previously supported state run medical programs, now executive branch harasses states and their residents legally using cannabis, “Politics should no longer trump science.”

Robert Watson – Rhode Island House minority leader, caught with marijuana and wooden pipe after stating that decriminalization was a good idea “if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.”

David Schubert – Nevada, former Vegas deputy district attorney, caught with crack cocaine after famously prosecuting Paris Hilton for similar charges

Mary Fallin – Oklahoma, current governor, signed into law bill making hash production a potential life sentence, minimum 2 year mandatory sentence on first offense

Gil Kerlikowske – District of Columbia, drug czar under Obama, says that marijuana should remain Schedule I because it is addictive, leads to lower academic achievement and fatal drugged driving accidents [all can be disproven], and 376,000 emergency room visits in one year (2009) directly due to marijuana consumption. Also says that a marijuana conviction can lead to “unnecessary hardships,” and that “we will never arrest our way out of our drug problem.”

Carly Fiorina – California, US Senator

Mary Bono – California, US Representative, Palm Springs, says “It’s no surprise that an out of touch elected official like [Palm Springs mayor] Steve Pougnet would vote for more pot shops.”

Clel Baudler – Iowa, state rep. – went to California and illegally obtained a medical marijuana recommendation in order to prove why medical was a bad idea for the state

John B. Brown – former DEA administrator, “People selling drug paraphernalia are in essence no different from drug dealers. They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide.”

Laura Duffy – U.S. Attorney, southern California – threatening radio, TV, and newspapers who accept dispensary ads, “Not only is it inappropriate – one has to wonder what kind of message we’re sending to our children – it’s against the law.” (although, in California, medical marijuana is not against the law)

Richard Nixon – deceased, former president, signed into law the Controlled Substances Act banning all forms of cannabis (including hemp), said marijuana smokers do it “to get high” while “a person drinks to have fun.” and, “At least with liquor I don’t lose motivation.”

Ronald Reagan – deceased, former president, began the official War on Drugs, “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”

Harry Anslinger – deceased, first drug czar, testimony to Congress supporting Marihuana Tax Act, “There are 100,000 total marihuana smokers in the US, and most are negros, hispanics, filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marihuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with negros, entertainers and any others.” Along with, “the primary reason to outlaw marihuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

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More Information

Global Commission on Drug Policy – promotes ending the drug war