Political Quotes

“I am rising today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1227, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, which I have introduced with my Republican colleague, a fellow Army veteran and former prosecutor from the State of Virginia, Congressman Tom Garrett, where we are seeking to address our outdated and widely problematic marijuana laws by federally decriminalizing marijuana. FBI reports have shown that, in 2011 alone, an individual in the United States was arrested for marijuana use, sale, or possession every 42 seconds--every 42 seconds--mostly in poor and minority communities. Our current laws are turning everyday Americans into criminals, sending them to jail, ruining their lives, tearing apart families, and wasting huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate people for marijuana use, a drug that has been proven time and time again to be far less dangerous than alcohol both for individual consumers as well as for the people around them. Dr. Donald Abrams, who is chief of oncology at San Francisco General Hospital, has talked about how, in the 37 years that he has worked and served as a physician, the number of patients that he has admitted to his hospital with marijuana complications is zero. The number of patients that he has admitted due to alcohol use is ``profound.'' So, rather than actually helping people, our current laws are turning them into criminals, forever impacting their future and the future of their families.…”