From: District and State residents and members of the global community…

We submit this legislative proposal and course of action for your consideration:

REGARDING:  Cannabis and Committee Sponsorship to place a Question on the 2012   General Election Ballot permitting it’s consumption, cultivation and use.

VIA: the procedure of a ‘Legislatively Referred Constitutional Amendment’              

We urge you to consider these points in your decision making:

The issue should be framed around job and market creation (and economic demand). The cannabis plant has over 40,000 applications.  One of them is therapeutic consumption, unjustly prohibited.

The wording of this Question put to you has brought into consideration the 39,999 other potential uses of Cannabis, long neglected in the drug policy conversation; but, as well, prohibited federally and in need of state action prior to removal of federal restrictions.

This matter receives majority popular support nationwide and locally, for ALL of its aspects. This is a vastly underrepresented constituency, consisting of individuals who are in many cases (relative to the size of the demographic) one-issue voters, who support the politicians who support their chief concern, political party aside.

People who make use of the cannabis plant are falsely portrayed as ‘criminals.’  This is a wholly inaccurate representation of perhaps your largest issue demographic.  It has long been established that these individuals are parents, physicians, politicians et al.  This issue should be characterized with honesty and respect to fact.

This Question will help instruct the Legislature as to a course of action to serve this constituency and codify their ‘innocence.’

A ‘YES’ vote to put the Question on the ballot is essentially a yes vote for an Official Poll, and should be conveyed as such to detractors of this policy (who will have every chance to vote ‘NO’ on it in the election).

Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana is plant.  Because of its industrial, medicinal, and therapeutic aspects have threatened corporate interests, there has been a continued lobby of lies to keep it criminalized.  This must end. Prohibition of Cannabis has stagnated the world economy… yet it is the most logical solution to a number of problems…

medicinal, industrial, chemical, agricultural, ecological, commercial…

“Shall the state constitution be amended to permit the growth, transfer and use of Cannabis?”

There has long been a concerted effort to undermine and prevent the use of the Cannabis plant, recreationally, medically, and industrially.  Criminalized for just a fraction of human history, the plant has proved itself versatile and valuable to humanity long before it’s prohibition, due to its medicinal and therapeutic attributes and, far greater so as a strong natural fiber.  Logic and science regularly refutes the prohibitionist argument, which is strong in fallacy and reflective of ignorance and propagandist repetition. However, the misinformed, within the public and legislature, do the legwork to promote a greed driven, corrupt and wasteful injustice.  Because Cannabis threatens the self-interest of old, powerful industries, the plant AND its two primary uses “Marijuana” and “Hemp” remain illegal in an open conspiracy.

We believe that science should represent policy regardless of anyone’s personal ‘opinion’ and that constituents, Ours and Yours, deserve to voice their opinion on the ballot, considering the ‘controversial’ nature of public discussion on this issue… yet it’s importance in our future.

Recreationally, Cannabis is SAFE and not the “gateway drug” it is purported to be by opponents.   Medically, it treats dozens of conditions; more recently, the plant is emerging as a having benefit to cancer patients and future research.  It is a therapeutic anti-oxidant (and interestingly, was used for dietary purposes as gruel for much of human history).  Industrially, Cannabis is an economic and environmental miracle in that it can produce every item within your proximity (*except for metal) with less of the toxicity, ecological damage and geopolitical strife associated with deforestation and petroleum based plastics.  In the matters of energy and economic potential, cannabis ‘Hemp’ has unlimited reach, in that new applications are being studied worldwide (save for the United States).

Sadly, its industrial capability IS the reason Cannabis is criminalized. This fact is EASILY researched via an internet or science/medical study search.  Since its Prohibition, the only danger in the plant is from its criminality.  We are asking for you and members of the committee you sit upon to:

Please place the above question on the ballot through the procedure of a joint resolution to amend the state constitution.

We are aware of the ‘controversy’ and ‘complication’ of this issue and approach.  We believe both to be a matter of political will.  We are aware of the timeline of such a process, and that a regulation scheme is still years away. We are aware that such a vote is non-binding to the legislature, we don’t ask you to support this issue, necessarily, but we do wish for it to be put to Question.  It provides an accurate sampling of public opinion to inform you in successive attempts at this process.   The reality is that Prohibition will end, and that until then, this Question will not go away.  Change must come first at the state level, as intention, and thirty-five of them united forces this matter federally.  Connecticut, her people and politicians must take the first step to TRUE “Green” Jobs.

Thank You for your time and favorable consideration of this matter:
Daniel Malo on behalf of my friends, family, and the State and Global Community at Free the Leaf