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Chris Wright      Closing Statement

Throughout the election I have advanced the principle of public safety
through an end to prohibition.

Government is entrusted by the people, in whom all power is inherent,
to protect the public safety. The people ceded police power and rights
to the state for this purpose but we preserved the rights of the
individual to prevent the tyranny of the majority. Therefore, it is
illegitimate to exercise police power to destroy public safety.

For the state to increase its police power and its political power it
must justify the use of authority against a social menace and seek the
permission of the people to cede their inherent freedom and power to
the government. If the state and demagogues can convince us that
witches cast harmful spells then we can burn them. Prohibition is a
witch-hunt because it kills more than the drugs themselves.

There isn't a single cannabis induced fatality in all of human
history, acknowledged by the DEA's own chief judge, but prohibition of
marijuana has often killed in Minnesota and America.

>From the effect of the drugs alone, including overdose, 5,200 people
die annually from all the illegal drugs combined. However, the Office
of National Drug Control Policy acknowledges that 20,000 people die
each year from illicit drugs. That means that three times more people
die from prohibition than die from the drugs themselves.

Prohibition reduces supply and has failed to reduce demand for drugs.
Low supply and high demand causes prices for narcotics to skyrocket.
This is how prohibitionists have subsidized criminals, destroyed
public safety, endangered our children, created a law that is racist
in practice and in origin, destroyed law observance, nullified the
Bill of Rights, overburdened the courts, overcrowded the prisons and
created a law enforcement/prison welfare system. The law is
unenforceable in prison and could not be enforced within society
without absolute tyranny worse than prison itself. Anyone who would
vote for someone, such as Skip Humphrey or Norm Coleman, who supports
such a law is ignorant, evil and un-American.

If the schoolyard drug dealer is ripped off or threatened he won't
protect his investment by calling the principal or the police. Dealers
arm themselves and join in gangs for safety in numbers. This is why we
have metal detectors at the doors of our schools. This is how
prohibitionists endanger our children. It's easy to say no to drugs
but its hard to dodge a bullet.

I propose we regulate drugs just like liquor and repeal the state
controlled substances act. We should allow the municipalities and
counties to regulate these substances as they presently do with
liquor. Areas with a big gang problem may want to have a controlled
substances outlet, other areas may only want legal marijuana and many
may want to continue prohibition of all substances but we should allow
local option on this issue.

You can't cure drug addiction through law enforcement but we can
target taxes raised on substances for the purpose of harm reduction.

If people are interested in legalizing marijuana and repealing
prohibition they can contact the Grassroots Party and Chris Wright at:

Grassroots Party
P.O. Box 6197
Minneapolis, MN 55406
612-722-4GRP