I am a chronic pain patient who requires narcotic medication to help me survive the crushing weight of unending pain. My pain doctor knows me and trusts me because of his extensive medical training and the long term professional relationship we've built fighting the war on pain together. Drug laws perhaps intended to protect children make it tougher for us and so many others to fight this battle and that doesn't even count the unintended consequences affecting even more people.

Griffon Pond Animal Shelter's Humane Officer Jessica Best refused to take immediate action to remove 4 malnourished and sickly Weimaraners from their owner in Moosic, PA that has had prior animal abuse charges in the past. Tracey's Hope Animal Rights Activists went to the District Attorneys Office to get the dogs removed - Together with the federal prosecutor and Moosic Police Dept. the dogs were removed. This humane officer did not do her job. Other people had to do it for her. We want this shelter and ALL shelters to know that we won't tolerate "heads turned" on any form of animal abuse or neglect. Least of all from a Humane Officer that is PAID to do this job. Its taxpayer dollars paying her salary and she doesn't deserve to hold this position. We are outraged! We want Jessica Best F I R E D! And Griffon Pond Animal Shelter held accountable!!!!

This is to make cases of emotional distress liable to minor to severe criminal charges depending on each case brought before the court. This would also mean the inclusion of emotional distress in protection orders and family court. I am deeply concerned that courts are overlooking a silent and possibly fatal issue.

In 2009 Texas changed the mandatory blood draw laws on fatality accidents. Leaving it up to the discretion of the investigating officer to decide. On November 11, 2010 my daughter Samantha Jill Rogers 17, and her best friend Delaney Rhea Mancil 15 were killed in an auto accident by a driver on the wrong side of the road. Our lives are forever changed. Because of an inexperienced Texas Trooper no blood was drawn. For which he was reprimanded for his handling of the investigation. To this day this person has gone on to cause numerous more accidents while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Hit and run, failure to stop and render aide causing severe injury to the woman he hit at 94 miles an hour while under the influence. He was charged with 2 counts of criminally negligent homicide in my daughters case and was no billed twice. He was just reissued his drivers license in September of 2011. This man took the life of our daughters, graduation, college, weddings, grandchildren yet to come because of one change in the law. Samantha was going to be a flight nurse, a strait A student and talented athlete. Her friend Delaney chose a career to become a pediatric oncologist. She also a straight A student and due to graduate early. We are calling on our Texas Lawmakers to make mandatory blood draws without a warrant on all drivers involved in accidents causing serious injury or death. I am calling on our lawmakers to give the victims back their rights to justice. I do not believe their rights are being violated by giving blood. If they have nothing to hide they would not worry about it.

A friend's son was convicted Nov. 1, 2012 on a first offense possession and conspiracy to distribute LSD and MDMA charge. The mandatory minimum sentence for this crime is 10 yr.in prison! He could be sentenced to as much as LIFE in prison. He is a sweet, young, community-oriented, spiritually engaged man. He is non-violent and has never hurt anyone. He did not name names and so he is being sent to prison. He will be sentenced in Jan 2013. HELP please. http://www.famm.org/ Mandatory minimum sentencing laws require harsh, automatic prison terms for those convicted of certain crimes, most often drug offenses. Congress enacted mandatory minimums for drugs in 1986 and toughened them in 1988 to apply to drug conspiracies. The sentence is determined solely by the weight and type of drug.

Restricting sales of guns and handguns.

The people of Colorado and Washington recently voted to allow marijuana use for adults in the state. This was a crucial victory for civil liberty and a defeat for wasteful government spending. The federal government has told Colorado and Washington they will still be prosecuting its residents for violating federal laws. Tell President Obama to respect these states and stop enforcing federal laws there.

1. The government has no right to enforce marijuana laws. There are always reasons why laws exist. While some advocates for the status quo claim that marijuana laws prevent people from harming themselves, the most common rationale is that they prevent people from harming themselves and from causing harm to the larger culture. But laws against self-harm always stand on shaky ground—predicated, as they are, on the idea that the government knows what's good for you better than you do—and no good ever comes from making governments the guardians of culture. 2. Enforcement of marijuana laws is racially discriminatory. The burden of proof for marijuana-prohibition advocates would be high enough if marijuana laws were enforced in a racially neutral manner, but—this should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with our country's long history of racial profiling—they are most definitely not. 3. Enforcement of marijuana laws is prohibitively expensive. Six years ago, Milton Friedman and a group of over 500 economists advocated for marijuana legalization on the basis that prohibition directly costs more than $7.7 billion per year. 4. Enforcement of marijuana laws is unnecessarily cruel. You don't have to look very hard to find examples of lives needlessly destroyed by marijuana prohibition laws. The government arrests over 700,000 Americans, more than the population of Wyoming, for marijuana possession every year. These new "convicts" are driven from their jobs and families, and pushed into a prison system that turns first-time offenders into hardened criminals. 5. Marijuana laws impede legitimate criminal justice goals. Just as alcohol prohibition essentially created the American Mafia, marijuana prohibition has created an underground economy where crimes unrelated to marijuana, but connected to people who sell and use it, go unreported. End result: real crimes become harder to solve. 6. Marijuana laws cannot be consistently enforced. Every year, an estimated 2.4 million people use marijuana for the first time. Most will never be arrested for it; a small percentage, usually low-income people of color, arbitrarily will. If the objective of marijuana prohibition laws is to actually prevent marijuana use rather than driving it underground, then the policy is, despite its astronomical cost, an utter failure from a pure law enforcement point of view. 7. Taxing marijuana can be profitable. A recent Fraser Institute study found that legalizing and taxing marijuana could produce considerable revenue. 8. Alcohol and tobacco, though legal, are far more harmful than marijuana. I have written in the past that the case for tobacco prohibition is actually much stronger than the case for marijuana prohibition. Alcohol prohibition has, of course, already been tried - and, judging by the history of the War on Drugs, legislators have apparently learned nothing from this failed experiment.

The people of the State of California have been blatantly lied to with false advertisements created by the corporations (Monsanto, DuPont, Dow and others) that largely funded the NO on Prop 37 Campaign. The research provided in these false advertisements is not verifiable, and the facts are not facts. The collapse of support, and failure to pass Proposition 37, is an obvious and direct result of the funding of the negative campaign that confused and jaded voters.

We need to have stronger penalties for animal abuse and neglect in the state of Iowa more than a slap on the wrist for animal abuse or neglect !!!! We need some of the Texas laws !!

The war on drugs is slowly paralyzing our economy. The money being spent on the drug war and enforcing drug restrictions could be used in more productive ways, such as community improvement. Rehab is the solution for the financial and emotional scarring that the drug war has created. Rehab costs the government less money than incarcerating people that have an addiction they can't control, and rehab is more effective in reducing drug abuse.

Our intentions are to strongly encourage the White House to address an issue that seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. Having to constantly read stories and watch videos concerning Police Brutality and general reckless behavior on behalf of some OFCs, is disheartening, to say the least. What concerns me more, is that the OFCs in question, never truly are held responsible for their actions. A 3-day unpaid suspension is not a punishment when a 10 year-old boy is tased by a reckless OFC. All govt. officials seem unwilling to address this serious problem that has such a negative. effect on many communities. Baron Pikes, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., Robert Leone, Victor Steen, are just a few stories that represent horrific crimes committed by OFCs, whose actions went unpunished. Please help.