Drug Policy Reform

The fear of cannabis continues to outweigh the respect for individual rights and choices in our state. As a result, Hawaii’s most valuable cash crop remains illegal. Considering the number of voters concerned with keeping agricultural land from being developed you’d think this situation would change. Looking at the economics Hawaii has gone from a net exporter of cannabis products in the 1980s to a net importer today. Our known brands such as “Maui Wowie” and “Kona Gold” still have fans outside our state. All we need to do is remove the legal barriers to kick start our economy. We need to have a dispassionate and open-minded approach to this and all other issues. America and Hawaii suffer many problems related to the use of highly addictive and unhealthy drugs. These include high levels of theft that make many of us, who have no connection to drugs, victims. High levels of expensive incarceration, policing, and the taxes we pay for them have added costs. The long term decline in law enforcement’s ability to focus on and solve all other crimes is also well documented. We have high levels of addiction that do not seem to have changed much over many years of fighting a war on drugs. The health problems of addicts are worsened by the use of illegal and often impure street drugs. If we compare the problems of today with those in 1900, when heroin and cocaine were legal, the overall negative effect of the criminal model becomes obvious. So we ask for you to consider this question: “What is your priority; keeping addicts from getting their hands on drugs, or keeping addicts from getting their hands on your property?