NORML PAC has endorsed Senator Cory Booker (NJ) for re-election the the United States Senate representing New Jersey.
“We endorsed Cory Booker during his election campaign in 2013 and we are honored to do so again,” stated NORML PAC manager Erik Altieri, “Senator Booker kept the promises he made to champion crucial criminal justice and marijuana reform issues in his first term. If re-elected for a full six year term this fall, he will be a strong crusader for rolling back our failed war on cannabis at the federal level. We encourage New Jersey voters to support him in his campaign.”
In an previous interview with Huffington Post, Booker laid out his view on marijuana policy and the drug war:
“Medical marijuana, heck yes. I do not understand that there are drugs that are more toxic, more dangerous and more challenging, in drugs stores around my state, yet we single out this one drug and we say you can’t even have it in a medical fashion, at a time when I see prescription drugs from Adderall to you name it being used widely across our nation…
The reason I said I want to go beyond that…is because of the drug war.
We have seen so much of our national treasure being spent in the national drug war and in my opinion have turned human life into incarceration, trapping into poverty…
What I’ve seen in Newark is a massive trap in this drug war, and its not just a trap for the individuals being arrested, it’s a trap for taxpayers, communities and towns. We’re not making our nation safer with this assault on this drug war, we are not making our state less addicted to substances. We need to change, radically change, the conversation and begin to talk about drugs, especially drugs like pot, in a different way.
This is a conversation that no matter what I do, Mayor, Governor, Senator, I want to be one of the people, hopefully, trying to lead the national conversation away from this insanity that we have now.”
During his first year in office, Sen. Booker joined forces with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to introduce an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prohibited the federal government from spending taxpayer money to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. The measure ultimately did not come up for a vote, due to political maneuvering unrelated to the marijuana issue, but it marks the first time in recent history the issue was brought up in a positive way in the upper chamber of the US Congress. We fully expect, if re-elected, that Senator Booker will continue to be one of the most prominent and effective champions for federal reform in the Senate.
You can learn more about Senator Booker’s campaign, including how to donate and volunteer, by visiting his website or Facebook page.
Cannabis is not evil. The drug war has not failed, it is just not right and therefore should be abandoned.
During his first year in office, Sen. Booker joined forces with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to introduce an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prohibited the federal government from spending taxpayer money to interfere with state medical marijuana laws.
This guy worked WITH Senator Paul. Their amendment didn’t pass, but being able to work with a conservative on this issue is a rare ability.
Ok.
Now I want to know who is going to take Chris Christie’s place? That Austin Powers Michael Myers character has simply got to go. Goodbye, Christie.
Then, Governor Douchebag of New York is the only prohibitionist governor in the midatlantic state region.
I fully expect Tom Wolf to win in Pennsylvania, and he is pro-MMJ.
I’ll second that, Galileo. Watching Booker and Paul defend their bill on Capitol Hill was magic.
Galileo, what is surprising about that? Both Paul and Booker have very similar outlooks on the function of government. If our politics weren’t so unreal in America, they probably would be in the same party as neither of them fit in with the Rebubs or Demoncrates. They are more of just normal Americans. Not like what see from the idiot parties (lead by goons like Neocon Bush and Let Me Blow Smoke up Your Ass Clinton).
We need more normal people in our government.
This is only right because the only reason any of us has ever tried marijuana was because we were ill.
Cory Booker is The Man! This guy is a politician with actual talent, not a boat load of hubris like most of his previous opponents have been.
I can hardly wait for Nov 4th there is a lot riding on this election on several levels. It galls me everytime I hear someone say that they don’t vote when there is so much at stake this time.
In Minnesota, Legalization is on the ballot. We cannot place initiatives on by petition, so we nominate candidates. For Governor and Lt. Governor, you can vote for Chris Wright and David Daniels of the Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party; and also for Judith Schwartzbacker for State Auditor on the same ticket; and for Dan Vacek for Attorney General who will have the slogan LEGAL MARIJUANA NOW printed right on the ballot with his name. No question what his votes will signify! Minnesota NORML members have been running candidates for office on the Grassroots ticket since 1986–we twice nominated Jeck Herer for President and had Dennis Peron on for President in 1996, the same year as Proposition 215–inspired by Peron–passed in California to show that voting power is the tool with which we can potentially overthrow prohibition.
Did you know about the Minnesota campaign this year? Has this heroic effort been mentioned anywhere? To put these candidates on the ballot, volunteers collected about 9,000 petition signatures and addresses in two weeks time. Journalists and pundits are yawning in print about how boring this year’s election is in Minnesota. They ignore the presence of 17 statewide candidates who support cannabis legalization–our four freedom fighters, and also candidates of the Libertarian, Independence, and Green parties.
But why shouldn’t the press ignore these voices of the voiceless? National NORML won’t bother to even answer letters we write to them; Erik Altieri doesn’t return phone calls; the state NORML chapter’s leadership studiedly ignored the opportunities this election offered to place cannabis reform front and center in the election—“WE’D have made it interesting!”
Anyone who wants to learn more should go to Facebook and check out Wright/Daniels 2014, or go to http://www.votewright.org. “Let’s Get Growing!”