Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders to Keynote Cannabis Conference

[Ichingcarpenter]

Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders has been a pioneering and historic political figure in many regards. The first African American Surgeon General made many headlines during her tenure under the Bill Clinton Administration, as she was certainly one to speak her mind, even if the rest of the world wasn’t quite ready to hear it. While many political figures and policymakers play it safe, Elders was calling upon the United States government to rethink the Drug War back in 1993, three years before California had even passed the nation’s first medical cannabis law.

The momentum for cannabis law reform is so great today, with a strong majority of Americans supporting marijuana legalization and a supermajority supporting medical use, that sometimes it is hard for many advocates, especially those new to the movement, to remember a time before any state had passed a medical marijuana law. However, there was a time when we needed brave public figures to take courageous stands against the Drug War and one of those people was Joycelyn Elders. It would have been nice if President Clinton and his administration officials had offered more support for Elders during her tenure, but not every influential policymaker is as political courageous as Elders.

In 2010, when California was changing the marijuana debate once again, this time on legalization for all adults, Elders was a leader once again, proclaiming her support for the Golden State’s legalization proposal. “We need to lift the prohibition on marijuana,” Elders told The New York Times. “We have the highest number of people in the world being criminalized, many for non-violent crimes related to marijuana,” Elders told CNN. “We can use our resources so much better.”

Dr. Joycelyn Elders will be making yet another historic stand, this time as a keynote speaker at the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) in San Francisco on February 13-14th. The timing of Elders’ keynote address is crucial when the current Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has recently called for a review of our nation’s drug laws and California and several other states look to improve their marijuana laws on the 2016 ballot.

http://marijuanapolitics.com/former-surgeon-general-joycelyn-elders-to-keynote-cannabis-conference/

[LuvNewcastle]

1. She was definitely a trailblazer as Surgeon General.

Too bad America wasn't ready for her yet. America is hardly ever ready for what it needs at the right time.