Tuesday night, they stopped at the Bend Community Center on their two-week speaking tour of Oregon. Their message was simple: Criminalizing marijuana isn't working.
Howard Wooldrige, a retired law enforcement officer from Texas, is one of the speakers.
"It's been my experience that the war on drugs has been the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow." Wooldridge said. "It is time to end it, as soon as possible."
Wooldridge and other speakers shared their stories to raise awareness for an issue they say is surrounded by many stigmas.
That's why MAMA is trying to teach people how to understand Oregon's medical marijuana law, how to use it effectively, and fighting for changes in the law.
Alice Ivany, a medical marijuana user for nine years, says like many others, she originally felt demoralized and humiliated by having to use marijuana to control her pain - and now wants to remove the stigma.
"I don't tolerate (traditional prescribed pain medications) well at all," Ivany said.
"So it is a stigma, and as I educated myself about the medical benefits and experienced the medical benefits of this substance, I became frustrated at how the system was working not so well and friendly for patients."
Ivany and Wooldridge say our country has wasted more than $1 trillion over the last 40 years, fighting to get marijuana off the streets - money that could be used elsewhere.
"I would prefer to have our law enforcement out actually searching for people who are trying to hurt us," Ivany said. "I don't think it's reasonable to be out seeking cannabis consumers. It's not cost-effective. It's fiscally irresponsible, in my humble opinion."
Wooldridge had this advice: "Tell your state and federal officials how you feel. Because they need to hear from you. They need to know it's okay to talk about this policy, to discuss it and to find alternatives to locking everybody up."
Ivany and Wooldrige will be touring across the state with MAMA over the next couple weeks. Their next stop is in Klamath Falls Wednesday night. You can read more about their views on the issue at their Website, http://www.mamas.org/
Source: KTVZ-Central Oregon's News Leader Online
Posts
