This April, we’re doing a deep dive on the past, present, and future of cannabis policy. Check out our recent posts highlighting some of the major historical milestones in cannabis policy reform and the current landscape of cannabis policy in the United States.
Arianna Huffington, author, syndicated columnist, and businesswoman
"It's not just the over $8 billion that we would be saving in law enforcement; it's also the over $8 billion that we would be making by taxing marijuana... We are filling our jails with nonviolent drug offenders ⎯ predominantly young, predominantly African American... It's a great beyond left and right issue. It has support across the political spectrum and also the support of the majority of the American people."
Carl Sagan, astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, and author
"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."
Illinois State Senator Heather Steans
"MPP is the most effective and influential cannabis policy driver in the U.S."
Milton Friedman, economist
"There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
"Our federal marijuana laws perpetuate our broken criminal justice system, impede research, restrict veterans’ access, and hinder economic development."
David Irving, former NFL player
"I want to change the bias toward marijuana. I want to educate America that it’s not a drug, it’s medicine. The real reason I’m not in the NFL is that I’d rather be out here saving lives."
Andrew Sullivan, author
"The sole tangible way in which pot is a gateway to other illegal drugs is that it is illegal. The best way to end this easy path to worse narcotics is to legalize it and take it out of the hands of criminals and gangs."
William F. Buckley, Jr., public intellectual and author
"The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy."