Toward a workable drug policy in the USA

We the undersigned, citizens of the United States of America, and eligible to vote therein, having seen the societal and ecological damage being afflicted at home and abroad by the so-called War On Drugs, specifically: * That the prisons are overcrowded with small-time drug offenders. * That the judicial system is unnecessarily clogged with drug prohibition offense cases. * That the violence and gangs generally associated with drugs are often an outcome of drug prohibition. * That the insidious nature of prohibition itself can destroy families and corrupt authority. * That the War on Marijuana is really a war on people, by the governments who are supposed to protect and nurture us. * That much heartache, death, misery and blood spilt on foreign soil are engendered by US Military operations in drug-producing countries; Do hereby solemnly ask of officeholders and other civil servants, particularly those who make and enforce the laws: * That the herb known as Marijuana or Cannabis be timely removed from the schedule of controlled substances. * That the possession, cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase and/or use of Marijuana or any of its derivatives, not be in violation of any federal or State law. * That all legislative bodies undertake the decriminalization of Marijuana. * That there be no more controls placed on the open cultivation of Hemp than there are on any other agricultural commodity. * That all non-violent drug offenders imprisoned for minor offenses, be immediately released from incarceration. * That a medical, social, economic study of illicit substances (drugs) be undertaken by the Federal Government, not to exclude or prohibit similar research by colleges, universities or other institutions or individuals, with the intent of determining the feasibility of bringing these substances to legitimacy.