Legalizing Marijuana

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in June the Global Conference on Drug Policy, a 19-member group that included former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Schultz and Paul Volcker said that the drug war was a failure, that it needed to be readdressed with new priorities, and suggested that this country get out of the Federal marijuana possession business.

It is for that reason and others that I will be joining today with Congresspeople Ron Paul, John Conyers, Barney Frank, Jared Polis and others to introduce a bill to get the Federal Government out of possession of marijuana and into interstate and international shipments of marijuana and allowing the States to decide, like they do with alcohol, how they should deal with marijuana. Better they should deal with it as a health policy and not a criminal policy and not stigmatize young people for life with marks on their record that might deny them employment and taking police officers' work away from violent crimes, where they should be better be used.

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