Why marijuana's moment has arrived

CNN ^ | August 11, 2014 | Julian Zelizer

[ConservingFreedom]

A few decades ago, marijuana was a topic that relatively few people, mostly counterculture musicians and comedians, spoke about in public. The comedy team of Cheech and Chong made films such as "Up in Smoke" that extolled the pleasures of smoking pot at a time the subject was still taboo.

"When trouble times begin to bother me," they sang, "I take a toke and all my cares go up in smoke." On the fringes of American society, it was usually possible to find activists who wanted to legalize it, as the reggae artist Peter Tosh famously sang. Efforts to legalize the substance in the mid-1970s failed.

Now marijuana has gone mainstream. Twenty three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington have legalized pot for recreational use. The media has featured lively debate over the issue.

Joining other media outlets that have run articles supporting this cause, The New York Times editorial page published a number of high-profile pieces that call for making pot legal at the national level and outline specific steps that should be taken to ensure that the industry evolves in a safe manner.

How did we reach this point? How have we come to the brink of ending the national prohibition against a drug that has been roundly condemned for years as a grave danger to health and a gateway to drugs that can be devastating over time?

Here are eight reasons: [...]

[3Fingas]

Pot heads are very annoying. I know. I was surrounded by burn-outs when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.

[Resolute Conservative]

Sadly there is just no other place to go to when this country craters.

[Ken H]

National marijuana prohibition is dead and it's not coming back.

Intrastate mj regulation is now under the control of states, as it used to be and should have been all along per the Tenth Amendment.

[EQAndyBuzz]

One word. Taxes.

[Jewbacca]

Yes, they are.

But we lost the drug war.

So tax the heck out of it and use the power of Phillip Morris to crush the cartels.

[GeronL]

States should ban it

[woodbutcher1963]

I was at the dentists office yesterday. I pick up a copy of People magazine. There is an article about 4 different people in Colorado involved in the recently legal distribution of marijuana/THC products. They are making millions of dollars. Next is Washington state with more to come after that. IF you can get a license to operate a pot store, you are basically printing money.

My dentist went on to say that two of the licenses issued in Mass to distribute marijuana to people who have a doctor issued prescription happen to be state Senators. Talk about crony capitalism.

[ConservingFreedom]

States should ban it

Some probably will - others have already legalized it. That's our great laboratory of democracy in action.

[areukiddingme1]

“Why marijuana’s moment has arrived”

Because the insanely stupid, lazy, ignorant, pathetic outnumber the sensible American patriots — We are doomed.

Why can’t Patriotism’s moment arrive, like back in 1961 before the hippies took over and F’ed up an entire decade...”And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. —John F.Kennedy, inauguration address, January 1961”

Hell...hand basket...you get the idea.

[ConservingFreedom]

My dentist went on to say that two of the licenses issued in Mass to distribute marijuana to people who have a doctor issued prescription happen to be state Senators. Talk about crony capitalism.

Limiting the number of licenses invites such. Licenses should be available to any and all parties that can demonstrate their ability to comply with reasonable safety and product security regulations.

[Reeses]

Smoked bees don't sting. From wiki on the 1931 book Brave New World:

Soma is an allusion to a ritualistic drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run "religious" organisations; social clubs. The hypnopaedically inculcated affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State; the book describes it as having "all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, none of their defects."

[ConservingFreedom]

Because the insanely stupid, lazy, ignorant, pathetic outnumber the sensible American patriots — We are doomed.

How is individual liberty not sensible and patriotic?

[EricT.]

National marijuana prohibition is dead and it's not coming back.

Intrastate mj regulation is now under the control of states, as it used to be and should have been all along per the Tenth Amendment.

Prohibition does not work. This is good news for a free people, in spite of the hysterical claims of those that learned everything they know about marijuana from an old episode of Dragnet.

[GeronL]

Drugs is all they care about. Give them Cuba with legal pot and they will proclaim how they have “individual liberty”, it is their Soma. “Brave New World” has arrived.

The new sign over the concentration camp “Drugs Shall Set You Free”

[ConservingFreedom]

I don't see how the defects of alcohol disqualify it as "a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort."

[Red Badger]

Whut?...................

[EricT.]

How is individual liberty not sensible and patriotic?

Because some people think it's their duty to stop others from enjoying something they disagree with.

You know, like the goons in the Middle East that enforce Sharia.

[gdani]

Efforts to legalize the substance in the mid-1970s failed.

I think the article means - efforts to RE-legalize it.

It was once legal. Until people started getting the vapors about the possibilities of negro jazz musicians having relations with white women under the influence of the demon weed.

[ConservingFreedom]

Drugs is all they care about. Give them Cuba with legal pot and they will proclaim how they have “individual liberty”

Who are "they"?