The Liberated Centrist

Last night, all 3 political student organizations, UNH College Dems, UNH College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty at UNH hosted a State of the Union watch party for UNH students and members of the community. The event was in the spirit of No Labels , a new group promoting civility and compromise in Congress. No Labels is here to promote a new attitude of governing, one that recognizes that we're all in this together and its time to solve America's looming problems in a complete, bi-partisan way. We had about 25-30 people show up, which is not bad for 9pm on the first day of classes... Got great press out of it too, thanks to Adam Sexton of WMUR:  http://www.wmur.com/politics/26617354/detail.html

In the spirit of the State of the Union last night, I decided to submit one of my own questions for the President to conveniently ignore in tomorrow's town hall. My video is only one of thousands calling for the end to cannabis prohibition for recreational, medicinal and industrial uses. Last year the President laughed off this suggestion despite the huge amount of online submissions, hopefully this year he'll give it more thought (he laughs like there's no money in it!). Check it out, comment, let me know what you think. Mr. President, Over the past 40-odd years, over $1 Trillion of US taxpayer funds has been spent to prop up the federal government's failed drug policies, policies that have only served to incarcerate millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens and fuel the profits of gangs, cartels and street-level dealers who target our nation's children. Eliminating the counter-productive prohibition of cannabis would help our nation two-fold: saving billi...

Today, I saw a facebook notification that someone had commented on the Crushing Bastards post that relayed my previous blog post concerning the YouCut submission to end cannabis prohibition. This was their comment: "I have to disagree here. Those fields of poppies in Afghanistan sending the world 90% of it's opium and the fields of Colombia need to be napalmed. Cannabis may not cause instant death but it sure does numb the clarity of the mind, I spoke   to a ex-con once who had stopped smoking weed due to it making him paranoid. It was the drugged up troops that caused the massive cruelty in Vietnam. I'm all for growing hemp and stuff for medicinal use for people with chronic pain but I don't want my kids being mowed down by Captain Crazy on his Bob Marley tour." My response: "Of course we don't want our children to smoke cannabis, it is a right of responsible adults. Its normal for us in society to distinguish certain behaviors between adults an...

This is my entry for YouCut , a project of Majority Leader Eric Cantor where online users can submit entries to cut the federal budget and vote for a different plan each week. No delusions here, the chances are slim that my submission will make it on a ballot but I firmly believe that cutting the bloated federal drug war bureaucracy should be debated fully. Is there any guarantee the Republicans will take any of these "winning" suggestions to heart and actually implement them in the next budget? Not at all, but at least they're testing the waters. I figured a solid critique of cannabis prohibition would fit nicely next to t erminating tax-payer funds for NPR  and   prohibiting sleeper car subsidies on Amtrak . End Cannabis Prohibition.  Since 1970, the war on drugs has wasted over $1 trillion and failed to stem the supply or demand for drugs in the US. Prohibition-related gang violence claims thousands of lives every year in the US and Mexico that cannabis coul...