Posted on 10/22/2017 9:47:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
The war on drugs has been going on since 1971, and we have a winner: marijuana. Back then, possession of pot carried heavy penalties in many states -- even life imprisonment. Today, 29 states sanction medical use of cannabis, and eight allow recreational use. Legal weed has become about as controversial as Powerball.
One sign of the shift came in Wednesday's debate among the Democrats running for governor of Illinois. The state didn't get its first medical marijuana dispensary until 2015, and it decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot only last year. But most of the candidates endorsed legalization of recreational weed, and one supported "full decriminalization."
Those positions are not politically risky, in Illinois or most places. They're mainstream.
In 2016, Gallup Poll found that 60 percent of Americans supported full legalization -- up from 36 percent in 2005. Given the choice, voters generally favor it. Nine states had cannabis initiatives on the ballot last year. Medical marijuana won in four states, and recreational pot won in another four. Only Arizona's recreational pot measure failed.
Next year should further erode pot prohibition. "Campaigns are underway in at least five states to legalize either medical or recreational cannabis," reports Marijuana Business Daily. It also notes that New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont could get recreational cannabis through legislative action.
All this progress has occurred even though federal law bars possession and use -- impeding normal commerce in states that permit dispensaries. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department chose to defer to states that allowed cannabis. But banks generally are leery of doing business with pot dispensaries, forcing many to operate on cash alone.
s a candidate, Donald Trump indicated he would follow more or less the same course as Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, however, has been an implacable opponent of liberalization. He once joked -- well, I assume he was joking -- that he had no problem with the Ku Klux Klan until he "found out they smoked pot."
He appointed a task force on crime, hoping it would confirm his preposterous claim that Obama's laissez-faire policy was to blame for rising violence. But the panel report, which has not been made public, recommended sticking with that approach.
The case for full legalization becomes stronger all the time. One reason is that the disproportionate impact on African-Americans has gained more attention. Blacks are nearly four times likelier to be arrested for pot possession than whites even though there is no racial difference in usage.
Drug enforcement has been a major motive for stop-and-frisk tactics that have fostered resentment of cops among black men. Treating cannabis like beer or cigarettes would greatly curtail such encounters.
For years, opponents said legalization would lead to disaster. But as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. noted, "A page of history is worth a volume of logic." We no longer have to rely on ominous forecasts. We now have actual experience in states that have taken the leap, and the results refute the fears.
Studies show that after Colorado permitted recreational pot, there was no increase in adolescent use or traffic fatalities. In Washington, which voted for legalization in 2012, crime rates proceeded to decline. California found that when medical dispensaries closed, neighborhood crime didn't fall; it rose.
This year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found "substantial evidence that cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain in adults." That helps explain why states that allow cannabis have far lower rates of opioid overdoses. The simple reality is that marijuana eases suffering and saves lives.
States with fiscal problems -- Illinois being a prominent example -- also stand to gain from allowing recreational pot. First, they don't have to spend so much money arresting, trying and incarcerating users and sellers. Second, they get a windfall from taxing a product that previously sold only on the black market. Washington's cannabis taxes bring in about $250 million a year.
State governments can also expect savings in Medicaid and other health care programs as some patients opt for inexpensive cannabis over pricey prescription drugs. There are also financial savings for ambulances, hospitals and morgues when fewer people overdose with opioids -- not to mention a lower toll in human misery and heartache.
It's too late to undo all the harm produced by the war on drugs. But Americans are realizing it's never too late to enjoy the benefits of peace.
Yet AG Sessions would rather focus on pot than the prosecution of the crimes of the Obama admin officials, past and present.
What a dimwit.
AG Sessions is just playing to what he believes to be his constituency.
Oddly, though, the constituency has morphed a great deal in the past few months.
I fully expect pot to be legal at the federal level within 10 years.
Yeah. That's great. Oh, and also slavery, sex trafficking and chemicals harmful to humans and wildlife.
You potheads have much to be proud of.
Just be carefull you don't accidentally stray onto a marijuana grove. Because you won't stray back out.
Wait a minute. Why am I warning you? I ought to give you a map of all the groves here in Northern California and encourage you to visit them. Unannounced.
No. Forget the map. Just go for a drive here in the Yuba Foothills or up in Siskiyou County. If you come across a road that's been chained off, don't worry about it. Just go around it or get out your bolt cutters and open it back up.
Congrats again on your wonderful victory.
I know there is a strong contingent here, who take the “libertarian” view of marijuana and other drugs. And that view is based on responsible personal use of the drug. Such a view does not take into account abuse of the drug, or abuse of drugs in general. That view seems to be that not only marijuana but all drugs should be legal. That view is that we don’t care that marijuana seems to have bad effects especially on young people, whose minds and bodies are still developing and maturing.
Or to look at another way, that view is that we aren’t supposed to talk about whether marijuana or other drugs have any dangers, just supposed to say that libertarian or state’s rights arguments are the arguments which should prevail.
I’m not sure where I stand, I’m just noting some arguments made. I don’t want people thrown in prison if their only crime is possession of a drug. But also not sure about full blown legalization.
Just be carefull you don't accidentally stray onto a marijuana grove. Because you won't stray back out.
Funny, that doesn't happen with legal grows, only black market ones made possible by the very war on (some) drugs that you support.
Congrats again on your wonderful victory.
Almost forty years of a failed effort from your side. Over a plant that is less harmful than booze.
I have correlated rise in 18-30yos weed smoking with the loss/desire of cooking skills. And driving cars. And dulled, boring brains. It’d be different if society were realizing another renaissance out of the ‘freed’ minds, but we’re harvesting flabby, skilless bumps-on-logs couch potatoes.
I was going to say that that grtove there in the photo looks like up the road from us. There are a lot of grows around here in Butte County...ilegal grows I might add as the county does allow personal grows! Five acres and you can have a 5 foot by 10 foot plot. Reasonable for personal use. I always joke with the Mrs. that I am going to grow the Devil Weed....but never get around to it. Don’t know where to find the seeds!
I think we will see the legalization for a few years, until we relearn the lessons of why marijuana and other mind-altering drugs were made illegal in the first place.
There are components in marijuana that permanently alter the brain. One particularly worrisome effect is that marijuana triggers psychosis; this can make a person violent. This effect is particularly pronounced in young people who use marijuana before their brains are fully developed, at about age 25. Another effect is the well-known lack of motivation. Marijuana users are infamous for not being able to do anything, for being content to sit around and contemplate the world.
In other words, marijuana has qualities that turn citizens into burdens on society.
Despite the propaganda that claims that marijuana is completely safe, the evidence is otherwise. As marijuana is legalized, and there is more interest in conducting research on it, I think the evidence will keep growing within the medical literature on the deleterious effects of marijuana.
The claims that marijuana is some miracle drug that has been suppressed (insert some vague conspiratorial claims about profit here) are not supported by evidence in the medical literature. There is some interest in the potential of cannabidiol as an anti-seizure medication—in fact, one of my researchers has gone through the effort of getting the licenses necessary to research it for that purpose. I am not certain whether that will pan out.
The argument that what drug abusers do to their own bodies does not affect society at large also does not hold water. We end up spending a lot of taxpayer money to try to rehabilitate them, and there is no way our society is going to turn our backs on drug addicts. And that isn’t even counting the criminal acts they commit in order to keep up their habits.
Those "legal grows" are for show. The real money is in the illegal grows the cartels are spreading all through the Great State of Jefferson.
I expect use will permitted in the Navy the day after I retire.
That is due to marijuana's effects on the brain. They lose motivation and initiative due to physical changes in the brain. It does not take much use to achieve this effect, and the effect is very long lasting. One study found that people were still affected with that lack of initiative several months after not using, and no indication of whether those qualities would ever return. If the area of the brain responsible for motivation is permanently damaged, then they are going to remain that way. And these were not heavy users, either--I think they used maybe once a week.
I do not think this experiment with legalization is going to end well, I really don't. The only positive I see here is that these people are going to lose any motivation for voting--which will almost certainly harm the Dems much more than the Republicans.
Sorry, I do not believe that statistic. Anecdotally of course, since most blacks in my church group do not toke.
But among blacks I meet in the course of my work, usage seems to be way above 2/3 of the population. Among whites, only that high among college students and recent grads.
Is resuming being the norm.
I stopped debating with potheads long ago. Momma always said don’t fight with the retards.
I looked it up.
I’m 55. The high school lot heads I knew then, who are still around and have enjoyed their dope since then are the most messed up folks I’ve ever known.
It’s impossible to have a rational, coherent conversation with them. They’re all over the map.
It’s the same with their lives. Incoherent, irrational, all over the map. They’ve lost all sense of etiquette.
It’s sad that this is the kind of society we are turning into.
We are losing our drive for excellence.
What is surprising is not that weed has won, but that it took 50 years. (Disclaimer: I am 63 and have never used it, ever.)
No kidding. Durango, CO, used to be my favorite vacation spot. Ever since CO legalized drugs, it (along with the entire state) has become inundated with addicts, homeless, aggressive panhandlers......
They even go into motels/hotels and knock on room doors asking for a place to spend the night.
And these idiot stoners on FR think that's a good thing.
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