What better way to advocate the legalization of marijuana than by selling brownies? Or at least brownies and bright red, yellow and green posters may draw some interest.
College Libertarians teamed up with the Columbia chapter of the National Organization on the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to host a demonstration Monday morning on Greene St. in front of Russell House in support of the legalization of marijuana.
With first glance at the protest, the Rastafarian colored posters, weed leaves and brownies might cause passersby to discredit the display as insincere. Even some of the slogans emblazoned across the posters may bring on a smirk, because reading “Puff, Puff, Pass” does not communicate a substantial argument. The protesters however, were voicing a more considerable rationale than
On behalf of the federal bill HR 499, these two organizations had many reasons backing the legalization of marijuana, from an economic standpoint to medical benefits and social ameliorations.
Ross Abbott, second-year business economics and business finance student, is president of the College Libertarian group and an adamant supporter of states’ rights and personal choices.
Repeating a speech as curious walkers stop by the table and smile at the signs, Abbott announces the mission of the Libertarians and why they support the legalization of marijuana. With the slogan Individual Liberty, Personal Responsibility, this organization denounces large government, are staunch supporters of the Constitution and all about people making their own decisions. Abbott repeated numerous times to passersby the importance of making your own choices and being an educated member of society.
The group makes it clear with their signage and their pronouncements that whether or not you partake in weed is your choice. “We are spending money and trying to stop something that hurts no one. Why are we doing that?” Abbott says, “If we are gonna have it, we might as well do it right. Marijuana isn’t going anywhere.” Citing the failure of prohibition and engaging passersby in discussions of the marijuana market as pertaining to supply and price ceilings, Abbott gave exhaustive reasons to support legal marijuana markets. And he readily admitted that he neither smokes nor drinks, but is purely advocating this injunction in defense of personal liberties.
Wayne Borders, president and activist of Columbia NORML, had much to say regarding the benefits to legalization pertaining to crime and gang involvement in the cannabis trade. He argues that the government wastes trillions of dollars fighting a drug war that both strengthens gang control of the market and is a hindrance to the medical benefits of the plant. Borders maintains that if gangs were removed from the equation with legalization, regulation and standards of distribution and use of cannabis, the market would be safer, in turn decreasing criminality surrounding the unregulated market and taking away the monopoly from gangs, feeding more money into the national economy. “In South Carolina, weed is the third largest cash crop,” Borders said, “If you take one person from the drug market [by arresting them] you’re not diminishing the market. You’re adding another person, because the market does not get smaller.” Borders hopes for support at the local level, because only county or city level petitioning can provide a basis for legislation on the state level.
Introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year and now being reviewed by a congressional committee, HR 499 is an attempt to terminate the Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, removing any form of marijuana as a controlled substance and in turn amending its regulation. This redress would eliminate regulation from the DEA and transfer jurisdiction to the FDA, much in the way alcohol and tobacco are controlled currently. By decriminalizing marijuana on a federal level, the decision to allow marijuana for recreational or medical use is left up to the states.
So their argument is about much more than brownies and a legal cannabis market. It is about safety, health restoration and the decline of gang violence.
Editor’s note: Ross Abbot is a Viewpoints columnist for The Daily Gamecock