of another reason to legalize cannabis

The federal government should treat cannabis like it does alcohol and tobacco because every family in America is at risk. Parents may have never used cannabis, may have been against it all their lives, but somewhere in every family tree is a kid or adult who has or will try it. And they may get arrested that one time they try it. And everyone knows it is not as deadly in its affects as alcohol or tobacco.
I know Republican parents of a pot lover who were appalled at what happened when their son was busted for a pot pipe in the back seat of his car. He got a criminal record and they paid heavy fines or else he would have done jail time. They said, "The government uses it as a way to extort money." Right you are.
The ones in jail for simple possession of pot or paraphernalia are poor kids, mostly non-white kids. Free them! No Gore, no Bush, no Obama child will EVER do time for pot. Nor will a Hilton or a Trump. We all know it.
Forbidding states like Colorado and Washington from legalizing cannabis will be a blatant move to prop up the "private" prison system, to lock up and disenfranchise minorities, to continue the arming of foreign militaries in the name of the "war on drugs." It will fly in the face of logic. It will cost a fortune (already has). And it WILL NOT stop the weed!
It will open the door for the Republicans to use the issue and earn the votes of millions who know that smoking pot is less harmful to self and society than alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. 

of one opportunity the sequester offers

Dear President Obama,
You have bigger fish to fry, I know, but I wish to offer political advise to you and the Vice-President. As I understand it, the sequester requires that 9% be cut from federal programs across the board. So, I propose that you use your power of the pardon to free ALL federal prisoners whose only crime was possession of two or less ounces of cannabis, and that you do all within your powers to restore federal voting rights to all these wronged Americans. Do whatever is within your power to deter further federal money from being spent on cannabis policing and prosecutions both here and abroad. Leave cannabis control to our great laboratory of democracy, the states.
You have the keenest political mind of your generation so I won't go on and on about the plus side or the negative side of doing this. Let me just be a voice for all of us who have broken this law and ask you - How can you ask any family or any individual to be among the last victims of an antiquated and vicious, utterly failed, "drug war?" Of all those who benefited from the lavish funding the "War on Drugs" has provided, no one group reaps more than the Republican Party as a whole, so what a shame it would be to pass by an opportunity to do a moral and just thing only to open a wide door for Republicans to do it.
Sincerely, Larry Burl Dunn