Avid backpacker & former national security analyst and USAID worker. "It is time for Congress to end the federal prohibition on marijuana. Marijuana should be creating tax revenue for better schools, cleaner environments, and safer roads, not filling our prisons at an enormous cost to the public. Yet even as California and other legalized states work to bring the cannabis trade into the economy, federal prohibition makes it difficult to properly regulate issues from environmental impacts to product safety. It also creates public safety risks, as entrepreneurs are forced to operate in a cash economy because of restrictions on banking. It is in California’s interest to carefully manage the growth of this industry, something that’s not fully possible as long as we operate with uncertain threat of federal prosecution. Ultimately, we cannot lose sight of the human cost of the “war on drugs” as enforcement disproportionately negatively impacts our communities of color."