Letter: End Failed Pot Prohibition
Charles Hubbard
April 17, 2009
The Burlington Free Press (VT)
"[A] marijuana grower can land in prison for life without parole while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian nightmare and it exists only because politicians fled in the face of danger."
— Garrison Keillor
Vermont has a long tradition of personal freedom; imprisoning and tainting folks with a criminal record for a substance less harmful than alcohol goes against our core values as a community. It's time to call your legislator in support of S.71 and H.150, which stipulate a $100 fine for possession of less than an ounce, instead of six months in the slammer and a destroyed life via a criminal record.
A recent Mason Dixon poll in Vermont shows 63 percent support this legislation. Unfortunately, our legislators in Montpelier are way behind the curve on this one. Currently, the bill is stalled in the House Judiciary Committee where the chairman, Bill Lippert of Hinesburg, will let it die if we don't tell him and his fellow legislators how we feel. Think about prohibition of alcohol and what it did for organized crime in America. Isn't it time to stop our long-failed experiment in prohibition? | 
