SLUM CHILD FOUNDATION
President,
United States of America
Dear President
Obama,
My
name is George Ochieng Odalo, and I write you as a representative of Slum Child
Foundation (SCF), a Kenyan nonprofit organization
working with children and youth in the slums and streets of Nairobi.
The children I work with are among your greatest admirers – which is why your
recent remarks about marijuana and your relative silence about the drug’s
growing legalization in the United States are deeply troubling.
I already see how the talk about marijuana in the U.S. has hurt my work in the slums, where illicit drug use – including marijuana use – is the one of the biggest problems affecting the children I try to steer away from high school dropout, teenage pregnancy, criminality and risky behaviors that often result in HIV/AIDS.
These
children do not have strong parental supervision.
They
do not have fathers like you, who insisted to The New Yorker you would tell your own daughters not to use
marijuana.
Mr. President, I urge you to reconsider your words and lack of action and clarity.
Mr. President, I urge you to reconsider your words and lack of action and clarity.
Marijuana
legalization is not necessary to reform problematic laws in your country or
around the world.
Legalization
is not necessary to give people better addiction treatment.
It is
greedy, not innovative or admirable, for industry to sell this addictive drug –
which is many times more potent than the marijuana you admit using during your
youth -- with untruthful ads, false claims, colorful packaging and foods that
are popular with children.
Please consider the poor and vulnerable children in your country and mine – the land of your father -- and around the world.
Please consider the poor and vulnerable children in your country and mine – the land of your father -- and around the world.
They
cannot afford access to treatment, and they already have so many things going
against them in life.
We
should stand up to adults who fail to consider the needs of children,
especially poor children, in their own selfish pursuits of intoxication.
Sincerely,
George Ochieng Odalo
Executive DirectorSlum Child Foundation
