DECRIMINALIZATION

WHEREAS in a pluralistic society people must have considerable freedom to choose their own risks; and

WHEREAS the main victim of some petty crimes is the society that decides to call something a crime in the first place; and

WHEREAS Laws which are extremely difficult to enforce lead to injust, selective enforcement; and

WHEREAS offenses against the average community standards, when treated as crimes, flood the lower courts and over-crowd jails and prisons; and

WHEREAS many organizations such as the American Bar Association, National Council of Churches, National Education Association and others have recommended the decriminalization of marijuana; and

WHEREAS the American Lutheran Church statement toward Reform of Correctional Systems recommends that "problems such as drunkenness, gambling, prostitution, homosexuality, and drug addiction should be removed from criminal codes" and regulated instead through other community service agencies and regulatory controls and fines-- and already in 1955 the American Law Institute took the position that the United States should eliminate laws which attempt to regulate the private consensual behavior of adults--and the Lutheran Church in America social statement, "Sex, Marriage, and Family" (adopted June25-July 2, ¹970) says that "persons who engage in homosexual behavior are sinners only as are all other persons. (and) are often the special and undeserving victims of prejudice and discrimination by law...(and) the sexual behavior of freely consenting adults in private is not an appropriate subject for legislation or police action" ;and

WHEREAS some states and municipalities have already moved in this direction (for example, Oregon with marijuana, Wisconsin with drunkenness and Illinois with consenting adult sexual behavior in private) and further action by individual states and municipalities could lead to great confusion;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: that the National Conference of LSM go on record as favoring the decriminalization of marijuana, drug addiction, consensual adult sexual behavior (including non-sexual semi-private homosexual behavior of adults), and drunkenness through federal legislation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:  that the National LSM staff convey copies of this resolution to every US Senator and Congress-man, the White House and Supreme Court Justices.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Decriminalization is not the same as "Legalization": Some regulatory controls would still be needed in all these areas.

ACTION TAKEN: No Action Taken on the National Level

Editorial Note: No action Taken on the National Level means that this piece of legislation was not passed by the assembly