EDITORIAL
Marijuana dispensaries in Washington DC will be required to set aside a percentage of their profits to help subsidize purchases of medical marijuana by poorer patients under a new regulation according to the Washington Times. This change in policy makes it very clear that the President owes many Americans a pardon.
As a lawyer I can't tell you how many times a year I get approached by a middle aged, responsible citizen, seeking my assistance to get his/her constitutional rights back after having plead guilty in their youth to some minor infraction which made them a convicted felon for life.
Kids who should have known better might have broken into an abandoned warehouse, been caught playing in someone's barn or were prosecuted for marijuana possession under laws which at the time made the crime a felony.
When the government gets to the point that it is subsidizing the purchase of marijuana for poorer people, regulating the sale and permitting use of the plant by anyone with a "medical marijuana card" then it is high time that those who cannot vote, own a gun for the protection of themselves and their families, find it difficult to obtain financing, to obtain jobs and sometimes even move between cities due to a marijuana conviction from years in their past, deserve to be relieved of those burdens.
And there is only one way for that to happen. They must receive a full pardon.
It is time for the President to pardon those citizens and to restore to them their civil rights. After all, if the government is helping people get marijuana now, why should otherwise responsible citizens continue to be stigmatized?
I agree with this column 100%.
Posted by: Bill King | August 22, 2013 at 07:26 AM