Marijuana legalization in 3 states

From NORML:

I hope you'll agree that the momentum in the United States to end cannabis prohibition is now genuinely palpable.

Citizens' votes in Colorado and Washington in 2012 to end their state's cannabis prohibition laws and replace them with 'tax-n-regulate' laws arguably has forever broken the back of the federal government's nearly eighty-year old failed and expensive prohibition.

We can lay more bricks of permanent reforms to this foundation when voters in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia decide on ballot questions in favor of legally controlling (and benefiting from) cannabis commerce.

Many national polls today indicate nearly 60% support for legalizing the cultivation, sale and use of cannabis. Objective media and think tanks continue to praise the nascent stages of Colorado and Washington's cannabis commerce and taxation.

Both of these factors bode strongly for all three ballot measures this November.

NORML's board of directors endorses these cannabis legalization measures. All three support basic tenets of reform. They differ slightly in scope and implementation based on local considerations of law, customs and polled public sentiment.

The legalization measures in Alaska and Oregon could end cannabis prohibition, allow cultivation for personal use, permit commercial growing for sale in licensed stores, and provide adults with plenty of plants. In the federal city of Washington, D.C., voters could reduce cannabis penalties to zero for possession and personal cultivation--but retail sales must wait.

I hope you'll agree with NORML's board that the passage of these three voter initiatives will greatly advance cannabis law reform in our country.

What can NORML's large network of members and supporters do to help pass these three crucially important cannabis law reforms this fall?

Please make a tax-deductible donation to The NORML Foundation to support a specific state's legalization initiative.

Contact, communicate with and join your local NORML chapter (there are over 150 NORML chapters in the United States)

Organize among your family, friends and co-workers to be supportive of these three initiatives and help spread the word and excitement of citizens in America now taking the opportunity to end a long-failed public policy and replacing it with a new one that is constitutionally-friendly, free- market oriented, fair and rational.

If you're reading this note and reside in Alaska, Oregon or Washington, D.C., your time for participation has arrived. Focus your time, energy and to pass these major reforms. For more information about what residents can do to help pass these initiatives, please contact the national NORML office in Washington, D.C. or your local chapters in these states.

Those of us who live elsewhere can still help. As the repeal of alcohol prohibition taught us, each state that falls makes the next ones topple easier.

Please join my family and me this fall in supporting these cannabis legalization ballot initiatives.

Thanks in advance and warm regards,
Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D
Chair, NORML Board of Directors
Albany, NY