California Council of Churches IMPACT endorses legalization of cannabis

[RainDog]

...The California Council of Churches IMPACT, which represents 21 different denominations and over 1.5 million members within the mainstream and progressive Protestant communities of faith, endorsed Proposition 19, the initiative to control and tax cannabis in California.

“Proposition 19 is the moral choice for California,” said Rev. Dr. Rick Schlosser, Executive Director of the California Council of Churches IMPACT. “The prohibition of marijuana has failed. It’s created a culture of criminality around a substance that is less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal, controlled, and taxed. Let’s control marijuana like alcohol by passing Proposition 19 in November.”

http://yeson19.com/node/141

The Council's endorsement joins a growing list of medical, religious, political, civic, law enforcement, labor, and academic voices who have spoken out in support of Proposition 19.

A list of endorsements is available here: http://yeson19.com/endorsements

Former (Republican) Governor of New Mexico, Gary E. Johnson has also joined former Mexican Foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, speaking out in favor of Prop. 19.

Johnson: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/68970

Castaneda: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302205.html

A growing number of distinguished Mexicans from all walks of life have recently come out in favor of some form of drug legalization. Former presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox, novelists Carlos Fuentes and Angeles Mastretta, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Mario Molina, and movie star Gael García Bernal have all expressed support for this idea, and polls show that ordinary Mexicans are increasingly willing to contemplate the notion.


(via Raw Story - http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/prop19-end-mexican-drug-war/)

[RainDog]

1. kick for the evening crew n/t