Last week Brett Montague, our CEO, and I spent several days in Washington, D.C. Wemet with lawmakers on behalf of End It For Good as well as the Cannabis Freedom Alliance, a national coalition in which EFG is a participating member. The first thing one Republican Congressman said when I explained EFG’s mission was, “Well, we don’t need to be locking people up for weed. It’s violent offenders who should be in there.”

We’ve found more and more people who feel this way. Whether or not they proactively want people using marijuana, polling shows even among Republicans, 85% believe marijuana should be legal for either medical, recreational, or both uses. Thirty-seven states now have marijuana legalized either for medical or recreational purposes, yet it remains criminalized at the federal level.

One of the members of the Cannabis Freedom Alliance is a former sheriff from the midwest who worked narcotics for a number of years. Another is a former undercover narcotics agent. Both are advocating for ending marijuana prohibition and freeing law enforcement to focus more on policing violent crime and improving public safety. Something the Congressman would like to see too.

The person who touched me the most on this trip, though, is a veteran who is able to control the mental health challenges from his service in the Middle East through using medical marijuana. It has allowed him to get off 16 different medications. He’s a husband, a new father, runs two businesses and does advocacy work for veterans like himself. His story is just another reminder of all the people we harm through prohibition.

There is a growing chorus of voices, passionate for a variety of different reasons, supporting reform. Will you join us?