GET UP, STAND UP!
Get Up, Stand Up! On Nov. 6th, vote for your rights!
What do California, Colorado, and seven other states have, that Minnesota ain't got?
Legal marijuana, that's what!
How did that happen?
The people in those states made it happen, by using their right to vote.
You might think it doesn't matter if you do vote or don't vote, because one vote won't make any difference. But when enough people vote, it adds up to victory!
Never voted? It really isn't tricky or hard to do.
How to vote: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/
Where to vote: https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/
If you aren't registered to vote, or if you moved since 2016, you can register at www.mnvotes.org, no later than Tuesday, Oct. 16th. (Or on Election Day.)
Who: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/whats-on-my-ballot
IMPORTANT:
Minnesota doesn't have a "Yes" or "No" Legalization question on the ballot.
Instead of that, we will be voting for people who are candidates for Governor, Senator, and so forth. This is Step One in the step-by-step path to legalization in Minnesota.
In Colorado and the other legal states, citizens can petition and vote directly for a new law. About half the states let you do that. But in Minnesota, all of our state laws must originate in the state legislature at the Capitol in St. Paul.
SO WHO DO WE VOTE FOR?
On the ballot, each candidate has their name and political party. You could vote for Democratic-Farmer-Labor or for Republican names---but do you know if they support legal cannabis or not?
Or in several places, you could vote for someone with "Legal Marijuana Now" under their name, or "Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis."
U.S. Senator: Dennis Schuller Legal Marijuana Now
U.S. Senator special election: Sarah Wellington Legal Marijuana Now
U.S. Representative, Dist. 4: Susan Pendergast Sindt Legal Marijuana Now
[Dist. 4 includes Ramsey County and part of Washington County from Stillwater to Woodbury.]
Governor/Lt. Gov.: Chris Wright & Judith Schwartzbacker Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis
Attorney General: Noah M. Johnson Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis
State Auditor: Michael Ford Legal Marijuana Now
Every vote will be counted, and each vote for a legalization candidate counts just as much as a vote for a DFL or Republican. Remember that 20 years ago, Jesse Ventura was elected Governor much to the surprise of the professional politicians and the news media!
For offices not listed here, please go to www.legalizeitmn.com
Have you traveled to one of the free states that has legalized cannabis?
If you're over 21, you can walk into a dispensary and look over a menu of products including top-grade buds of American-grown ganja, or "baked" goods and other edible confections, or carefully labeled concentrates and oils.
It's the greatest feeling.
Freedom.
Until the very moment you walked through that dispensary door, you had always lived in a nightmare-like twilight zone of narco-tyranny, where prohibition laws canceled out your human right to enjoy personal choices about food, medicine, and spiritual inspiration.
And when you did discover that cannabis is a useful, enjoyable, and often a medicinal plant, you also learned that the laws in Minnesota brand you as a criminal if you grow, sell, possess, or partake of the herb . . . unless you're a licensed law enforcement officer who is allowed to do all those things, but only for the purpose of entrapping and arresting less privileged citizens.
The politicians who put those laws on the books boasted they were going to make America "drug-free."
What they actually did was make America unfree.
Back in 1984, the late newspaper columnist Sydney Harris wrote that:
". . . our so-called war on dope [is] the biggest government scam ever perpetrated on the American people."
He was correct. And the people are beginning to figure it out, at last.
On November 6th, voters in Michigan will vote "yes" or "no" for legalization. So will voters in North Dakota.
It won't be that simple in Minnesota, because we are forced to go indirectly, step-by-step, but let's use our votes to send a message that all of our lawmakers will hear loud and clear: "LET OUR PEOPLE GROW!"
Oliver Steinberg, St. Paul, Oct. 11, 2018