MatthewMolyett

Initially, Congress needs to definitely open up marijuana as almost half the states have already done so in some manner. They need to loosen the restrictions on general testing and studying of all kinds of drugs to be able to come up with a good, quantitative manner for determining "safe."

The current blanket prohibition doesn't work and gets in the way of robust scientifically valid studies to be able to determine what is safe. I don't have a list, but most of the current drugs approaches tend to be fairly gut based, especially when dealing with brand new synthetics.

17 U.S. Code § 1201, Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems makes most instances of reverse engineering and other advanced software analysis illegal. As such, our higher education industry doesn't extensively teach it or software exploitation. Until most (nearly all) of our software is being written and QA tested by software analysts and exploiters then the critical bugs will continue be discovered by the cybercriminals.

We need to have a legal system that encourages the training and use of high end security researchers and allows them to publicly shame companies for their weaknesses. When a company can use DMCA to silence a researchers briefing, that means a vulnerability stays open. Criminals don't try to present their bug finding, they just exploit for profit.

Trying out a few different ways to reach out to people at once.

Never done an AMA before, never used a public Google Hangout, and trying to coordinate it all through Twitter and Facebook.

Should be interesting.

It is most absurdly shaped and gerrymandered. Meeting the district has been difficult because so many locations have folks in a different district than their neighbor or even the next block. Districts should be as compact as possible to better facilitate meetings which allow the members to get behind the same ideas. Congressmen that can get a unified message from their district can better represent that message.

I can't get to your linked page, but anything would be better than Maryland 3rd!

Because people are already doing it and there is evidence that suggests potential benefits.

Money flows through the drug markets, and will continue. Under prohibition that money flows through criminals and cartels with violence traveling alongside. This is just like it did with alcohol in the 20s and early 30s. Just like with alcohol, we won't be able to get it under control unless local jurisdictions are able to manage it. The creation, the distribution, and the use. If prohibition was working we wouldn't even be having this conversation, because it would be off everyone's radar since it wasn't being grown, sold, or used.

Robust, repeatable scientific studies cannot reliably occur as long as the procurement of the study material, distribution to participants, and use by participants is a federal felony. The requisite documentation becomes potential evidence against all involved. Legalization allows for studies which allows for solid fact-based advertising which has been shown to reduce demand for tobacco.