RELIEF FOR POSSESSION OF CANNABIS ACT COLORADO 2014

Dear Colorado Legislator:

I applaud your support of SB12-163 and and a common sense solution to the problem, socially and fiscally, of the mass incarceration of Colorado citizens, especially our black and brown people, whom, I was told in my UCD Master's in Education program, would be in the majority in our state by 2040.

As the author of Initiative #40, the Colorado Relief for Possession of Cannabis Act of 2012, I am gathering signatures around the state to prohibit the courts from fining and sentencing for possession of cannabis. Enough damage, enough money incarcerating and branding our citizens with the life-long scarlet letter of a possession of cannabis conviction!

Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, http/www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america attributes the aggressive, 40 year-old Federal Drug War with the creation of a new caste of mostly non-violent black and brown felons for which we all pay the cost, socially and fiscally, especially in Colorado.

The legislature increased the amount of cannabis in possession for a misdemeanor from 1 oz to 2 ozs as of August 2011 (and redefined possession as the use, cultivation and transportation of cannabis, CRS 18-18-406). Is it not time to put the nail in the coffin in our decriminalized state by prohibiting fines and sentences for possession of cannabis? Also, cannabis indica and sativa are NOT addictive and users need not be "saved" from this medicinal plant. As a biofuel, a cannabis hemp industry will save this state from financial ruin. I urge an amendment to SB-163 to reflect this discrepancy in the bill and recommend prohibiting fines and sentences for the possession of "the genus cannabis."

And, most importantly, ITS THE MONEY! The spending an average of $32,000 to imprison each Colorado convict for a year is 10 times more than we spend on educating one Colorado child per year! Where are our priorities??

Sincerely,

Michelle LaMay, Proponent #1

303-886-7998

http://www.relief4possession.webs.com/

relief4possession@groups.facebook.com