Nearly everyone at this year’s Hempfest, regardless of their political persuasion, will agree that our country’s draconian drug laws should be dramatically liberalized.

The Libertarian Party believes that you own your body, and the fruits of your labor. The activists of the Libertarian Party have always been at the forefront of true legalization and/or decriminalization (Libertarians usually say re-legalization) efforts all over the country.

We don’t advocate these re-legalization activities because we are pot smokers (although many of us may be).And it is not necessarily because of the many practical reasons that you are surely aware of: the relative harmlessness of marijuana, the high cost of court trials and incarceration, or the possible medicinal and industrial uses of hemp, etc.

The Higher Education Act was passed into law over three decades ago by Lyndon Johnson and it authorized federal dollars to be spent on Pell grants, Perkins Loans and Work-Study Programs. Every four years Congress is asked to review the Act and make adjustments as needed. A recent amendment has many students, as well as professors and other academics, questioning the intentions of Congress and their attempts to look tough on drugs.

Passed into law during a late night, closed-door session of the House Education & Work Force Committee, the 1998 Higher Education Act drug provision denies federal aid to any student that has been convicted of a drug-related offense.

Drafted by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), the provision has resulted in over 150,000 students losing or being denied their federal financial aid. The controversial law was the catalyst for founding members of the growing student movement, Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

Today I listen to more news of homicides in the USA... And I look again at the enormous budget of ‘The War on Drugs.’ I look at the re-burgeoning federal deficits under military spending now to ‘fight the war on terrorism.’ And I see again and again that medically ill people (many of them in wheelchairs) continue to be arrested - and their lives, or very health, seriously disrupted forsmoking cannabis (‘marijuana’). And I see children buying drugs - very dangerous drugs- on the street after having been exposed, directly or indirectly, to marijuana smoking and learning that, contrary to the government’s warnings, those people have not typically been caught in the grips of a values-compromising and a life-compromising trap. ‘If it’s not true that marijuana is so bad, it’s probably also not true about heroin or cocaine or oxycontin!’ [-Infamous last words of too many, I am afraid!]

There are at least four flies in the ‘public health ointment’ offered by the federal government, despite increasingly Herculean budgets and even willingness to resort to terrorist activities against American citizens, to unsuccessfully address ‘the drug problem’ in this country.

Smoking marijuana has led me to many of my favorite out-of-doors places. My first hiking and smoking experiences were necessary to avoid parental supervision. The folks were far more likely to encourage me and my friends to get outside and play in the woods, than they were to encourage us to smoke a fatty. So we did a little of both, heading out to the woods, parks, nearby streams and rivers. Walking and talking with friends, smoking out, we couldn’t help but interact, notice and be overwhelmed by the natural surroundings. We had escaped to the woods to avoid detection, but ended up staying for long periods simply because there was so much to check out and it really was a worthwhile trip. I’ve spent, what seemed like, lifetimes starring into the canopy of windblown trees, searching for fish in the clear holes of a stream, stoned, struck still and silent, listening to the mad beating of my heart and the rushes of wind in the branches, leaves and grasses. I’ve had moments of revelation, marveled at the immensity of my surroundings feeling variously out of place and other times enveloped by nature.

Year after year, for decades, supporters of marijuana law reform have been ignored by our government. It’s time to change that. There’s an old saying ‘If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em’, and that’s just what the Ohio Marijuana Party (http://ohio.usmjparty.com) intends to do.