According to recent statistics provided by the federal government, nearly 77 million Americans admit having smoked marijuana. Of these, twenty million Americans smoked marijuana during the past year.

Many successful business and professional leaders — including many state and elected federal officials such as former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and others — admit they have smoked marijuana. We must reflect this reality in our state and federal laws, and put to rest the myth that marijuana smoking is a fringe or deviant activity engaged in only by the margins of American society. Marijuana smokers are no different from their non-smoking peers, except for their marijuana use.