While Americans view Mother's Day as one of rest for the nation's moms, I'm excited to be part of a new coalition that will utilize this holiday to call on our fellow mothers to take action.
Over the last several years, I've been an active voice in the pro-legalization movement. Initially, I was greeted with skepticism by the movement's left-leaning activists, tokenized as the pro-pot Republican mom. Over the years, I've devoted too many column inches to lamenting the fact that more conservative women wouldn't join me in this cause. Just last July, in a column I wrote for the Colorado Daily, my lead read: "As a Republican mother committed to legalizing marijuana, political life can be lonely. But while many in my party whisper about the Drug War's insanity, we should shout it from the rooftop: the time to legalize is now."
But on this Mother's Day, I'm anything but alone. While the national media frequently highlights polls showing that nearly half of all Americans now support ending the federal war against marijuana -- nearly double the support demonstrated just two decades ago -- reporters too often miss the larger story.
Women have been the key to this jump. Within hours of the above column's publication, I was inundated with supportive emails and calls-and not just from liberals. Republican moms and dads from across the nation sent supportive messages. After the Washington Post's Kathleen Parker, a fellow Republican mom, penned an October column highlighting Colorado's pro-pot mom movement, supportive moms overwhelmed my inbox. And after a series of national news appearances where I made the case for legalization late last year, the emails grew into the thousands.
The tide has turned.
This Thursday, I will have my daughters by my side as I help launch a new organization called the Women's Marijuana Movement (details at
Women's Marijuana Movement). With a multitude of national polls showing public support for legalization at nearly 50 percent, we'll be speaking to our fellow moms in the hope that if we can just convince one in 10 of them, we will succeed.
After spending too long blindly accepting government talking points espousing the alleged harms posed by marijuana use, we're taking a second look.
For younger moms, we reflect on our college days, comparing the impact of pot versus alcohol on our lives as students. Even the most impartial analysis reveals that alcohol had a far more harmful impact on our bodies, our relationships and our safety than pot ever could. While every year brings the tragic story of a college kid dying from an alcohol overdose, marijuana has never independently caused an overdose in this country. In a perfect world, my kids will never experiment with marijuana or alcohol, but as a realist, I also fear the pain alcohol could cause in their later lives far more than I fear any detrimental consequences of marijuana use.
As organizers, we question aloud how we could ever defend to our children the fact that America spends $30,000 a year on each non-violent drug offender we put behind bars at the same time we issue a $45,000 bill to each baby born today as his or her share of the national debt. As one of several small business owners who take part in the event, I'm downright angry that this insane tax burden will inevitably mean more hours spent away from my children.
In 2010, we must rethink every budget line item. Anything less is generational child abuse. Across ideologies, we resent government bureaucrats insisting on parenting our children. We need to reclaim responsibility. Just as pot prohibition failed to stop past generations from using marijuana, it is failing to stop today's students too, with an estimated half of all high school seniors admitting to past or current marijuana use.
While our opponents will inevitably slander us as bad moms or pot-smoking hippies, we will remain undeterred. Our stance isn't just about endorsing the behavior of 95 million Americans who have used pot, and it's not even about endorsing the medicinal use of marijuana by Colorado's estimated 130,000 medical marijuana patients. This is about something so much greater.
We are coming together to reclaim our country. For our children. For our pocketbooks. And for the long forgotten American ideal that in the absence of harm to others, government should not interfere in our personal lives.
While we face challenges ahead, we also have some pretty amazing role models-the thousands of women who organized to end alcohol prohibition. As I wrote in 2009: "In 1929, it was the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform successfully leading the charge to end America's decade-long experiment with alcohol prohibition. While many of these same activists fought just years earlier to forbid booze, they quickly witnessed prohibition's devastating consequences, including increased violence. ... Just four years into the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform's repeal efforts, prohibition was over."
California voters will be asked to support legalization on this November's ballot. Polling promises a close contest, with supporters appearing to hold a slight edge. Depending on the outcome, other states, including Colorado, may join the cause in 2012. In 2006, when Colorado voters were asked to support legalization for adult recreational use, more than 40 percent said yes -- a total greater than that received by the GOP's gubernatorial candidate.
The bottom line: We need only convince one more person in every 10 to make legalization a reality. Over the chaos of kids running around and cell phones ringing with urgent client messages, we'll spend Thursday speaking to these people.
And here is what we'll say. Prohibition has failed. Our nation is beyond broke. Let's choose a better future for our kids. Join us.
Jessica P. Corry is a Denver attorney who represents dozens of medical marijuana caregivers and patients. In March 2010, she was named High Times' "Freedom Fight of the Month" and in 2006, she served as a co-founder of Guarding Our Children Against Marijuana Prohibition.
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