By Roger Caldwell
For 20 years, I have not touched or smoked weed or herb, because I felt I did not need it. As a young man in high school I tried it, but I preferred drinking beer. Once I got in college, I enjoyed marijuana tremendously. I went to Howard University, and it was during 1969 to 1973, and women took birth control pills, and they wore no bras.
It was a time of freedom, and everyone was experimenting with everything. Marijuana enhanced everything and after smoking weed the food tasted better, and you appeared to have a deeper understanding on learning and education.
Many will say that they did not experiment with drugs, but health professionals experimented with eastern medicines, because it was a time of mind expansion. I found marijuana fun and enjoyable, and it gave me a sense of peace and euphoria. Depending on your aggressiveness level, it also determined whether you tried harder drugs that you could get addicted to.
What a time it was to be alive, because of the new music, civil rights, and all around the world, countries were fighting for their freedom. The hair, the clothes, the jewelry, mind expanding drugs, and a belief that our generation was going to change the world. Everything was being questioned and educators were being challenged to not confirm.
Marijuana has always been classified as a Schedule 1 drug on the same level of heroin, but it never felt that this was an accurate assessment of the drug. It has never made sense why some drugs are legal and other drugs are illegal. It has never made sense that all drugs come from mother earth, and why people are put in jail for selling drugs.
Marijuana is a plant. It grows almost anywhere. Why is America and countries around the world stopping the growth of this plant? The plant has medicinal properties, and it heals people.
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has destroyed too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” says President Biden.
On Thursday October 6, 2022, President Joe Biden granted a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to every American who has been convicted under federal law for simple possession of marijuana. This is a historic policy, which will change tens of thousands of lives, and begin to bring justice to America.
So many Blacks and people of color lives have been devastated by small amounts of marijuana for many years, and none of it made sense. President Biden is making sense in America, and the Republicans refuse to support policies that people in their party support.
As the Republicans attack President Biden, 81% of Democrats, 69% of Independents, and 57% of Republicans support the legalization of marijuana. Again, I have not smoked weed in over 20 years, but I support the legalization of marijuana.
The president is urging governors to follow his lead and pardon the prisoners in their state who have just a marijuana conviction. “And while White and Black and Brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and Brown people have been arrested, and convicted at disproportionate rates,” says President Biden.
So much in America is common sense that more of our problems are easy to correct. Integrity and treating yourself the way you want to be treated will solve so much of our problems.
Legalizing marijuana will happen when our leaders and our politicians get out of the way.
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