Some recent developments make me somewhat hopeful:
Many recent studies have shown the relative harmlesness of Weed, compared to Alcohol or Cigarettes, but the DEA will hear nothing of it.
Of course, this is not to say that Weed is harmless, but I think keeping it Illegal causes more harm than legalizing it.
Anyone care to guess what might happen in the future in terms of Marijuana Laws?
I think it starts with medical marijuana, state by state. Just like gay marriage will be fought state by state.
The DEA admits marijuana is a battle they will never win. Ever. Ever. Ever. “The more you tighten your grip, the more planets will slip through your fingers” as Princess Leia would say.
It’s a great way to make billions of dollars and pay lots of LEOs in the meantime though.
Eventually. It’ll start by states (probably California, then maybe Oregon, Washington, and New York) passing the buck entirely to the Feds for enforcement by legalizing it themselves. It’s not that anyone cares that much about weed right now, it’s just that it’s political suicide to suggest the process in a legislature.
It’s also possible that it could pass by referendum; that would allow lawmakers to avoid having to take a real stand on it.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Justice_Department_will_stop_medical_marijuana_0226.html Here’s the first step.
Still, I’m afraid as soon as a Republican gets back in Office, they will reverse all these progressive policies.
The thing is legalizing weed will never be on the top of the agenda, but it is also an issue that is a “no brainer” in my humble opinion.
Treat it simialar to alcohol.
It just got decriminalized for all intents and purposes in Massachusetts a few months ago. It just results in a $100 fine for possession under an ounce which I am told is a lot of marijuana for an individual. The law is poorly written too and in many ways more lax than some forms of alcohol consumption. Bring a $100 to Massachusetts and 30 joints or so and you are all set in the unlikely event anyone even bothers you about it.
it starts with decriminalization. State by state people simply stop caring about enforcing marijuana laws and tell the feds “if you wanna enforce it, you enforce it. We’re not doing shit.” Which is already happening in many places (I knew of a few towns in California that don’t enforce any marijuana laws, and some already have it as “lowest priority” like Oakland and Santa Cruz).
then it comes to, as they’re trying to do in California (though it won’t pass) legalization to the point of taxation and regulation, like LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) want. This is definitely the way to go.
Given the (supposed) fact (that I got from LEAP) that 100 million americans have smoked weed (a little over 1/3) and that the last 3 presidents as well as several governors, etc, have admitted to doing it, it’s not really a question of “if” so much as “when.” It’ll happen, it’s more about when people will wake up and realize how much money we’re wasting for busting non-violent crime commited by pretty much everyone around us and overcrowding our jails which should be reserved for people who actually deserve to be seperated from society (violent offenders). Our jails are overcrowded, our police force is stretched too thin and doesn’t have enough money, and our government has no money. All of these problems could be helped out a lot by simply legalizing and taxing an herb that grows naturally on the ground, was smoked by most of our fore fathers and many of our past presidents (including Lincoln) and is a lot less harmful than tobacco or alcohol (yes, less harmful. Anyone who tells you it’s harmless is a moron, but it’s certainly not as bad as most legal drugs, including prescription or OTC meds)
Sure it will, right after we can show tits on network TV and say fuck on the radio without fear of reprisal. Some repressions run deep, right to the puritanical core of our society. I hope that one day it will be because the potential tax angle will become too great to ignore, but I’m not holding my breath.
Do you perhaps have a cite that Honest Abe hit the cheeba?
The obstacles are political, not medical. It doesn’t mean a thing that pot is harmless. Everybody already knows pot is harmless. They’ve pretty much always known it. The FDA knows it, politicans know it, the DEA knows it. Even the propaganda commercials are getting more and more half-assed amd listless about it. They can’t tell you it will kill you or turn you into a lunatic rapist anymore, so they’re reduced to making feeble pleas that it will make you lazy or “be someone else.”
The problem is that most politicians just don’t have the guts to advocate legalization. I think on a state by state level, we’ll see more and more decriminalization over the next decade or two, but I’ve just about given up any hope that I’ll ever be able to go down to the SuperAmerica and pick up a pack of Marlborough Highs (hard pack).
Of course, I never thought I’d see a black President either, so who knows?
Don’t quote me on this, but I remember reading about an opinion survey of teenagers and young adults, and 50% of them believe that smoking marijuana in the privacy of one’s own home should not be a crime.
Once these kids are old enough to be leaders and trend-setters, and once the older generations (who still believe the Reefer Madness-type propaganda) die off in sufficient numbers, it’s only a matter of time before we see decriminalization and legalization.
I’m not holding my breath though. I’d be surprised if we see anything like national decriminalization within the next 20 years.
Isn’t it already legal in Alaska?
Personally, I think I see where some of the other, higher-order arguments against marijuana and other drugs come from. Ie, those that don’t try to claim it’s bad for you, but those that maintain that it’s bad for society or that altering the mind is immoral in itself. But from that angle, the proliferation of prescription drugs is much more the real problem. It’s too bad that doesn’t get much attention. In any case, it was always a mistake to put up the firewall at marijuana. If it was put up past it, a lot more kids would maintain the “drugs are bad” meme. Marijuana is the leak in the dam. It’s been made a gateway because of the law. So criminalizing marijuana is rather counterproductive even if you’re anti-drugs.
Absolutely, and a lot sooner than you think.
We’re seeing the trends now. Massachusetts joined a dozen other states when it decriminalized marijuana in November, and several states have passed measures to relax their marijuana laws, particularly regarding medical marijuana, since then. And whether or not the bill to legalize marijuana in CA passes, the fact that it was introduced at all is a sign of change to come. Believe me, in a dire economic situation the idea of creating a billion dollar industry is becoming more and more attractive. That’s essentially what ended alcohol prohibition.
The media coverage regarding marijuana legalization since November has really been quite astounding. The reaction to the photo of Phelps taking a bong hit was big news, and though he lost his Kellogg’s sponsorship and was suspended for three months and was vilified by some, the fact is that the public’s reaction was mostly supportive of Phelps. NBC aired an hour-long special on the marijuana industry in Mendocino, and CBS news ran this article. Keep in mind that public opinion is critical to shaping policy, and public opinion is changing palpably. It’s on Americans’ minds.
I agree with those who say it will be legalized state-by-state first. Marijuana may well remain illegal under Federal law for a long time, but the Attorney General said today that the Justice Department will no longer be circumventing state laws to arrest medical marijuana growers. That sets a serious precedent for how the federal government will handle drug enforcement should marijuana be legalized on the state level.
My prediction is that marijuana will be essentially legal throughout United States within the next decade.
It should be legal but fuck tax. I’m not paying a penny of tax to the goddamn government for weed. If I want to grow plants in my backyard, it is none of anybody’s business. Does the government make you pay tax on a pear tree or a tomato vine?
you can find this quote all over the internet. It’s a pretty famous one
They don’t tax you if you brew your own beer either. I don’t think anyone is proposing any taxes on anything you grow yourself.
The potential for tax revenue is one of the most robust arguments in favor of legalization, though, especially during a recession.
But where would the tax revenue come from? Wouldn’t everyone just grow it themselves? Or buy it from a friend who does?
I doubt people would take to a commercialized, prepackaged version of marijuana. Stoners tend to have a DIY ethos and any commercialized weed would be shunned in favor of homegrown. A few really lazy and socially unconnected people might buy corporate herb, but I doubt most would.
ETA - I take that back, the hip-hop market would totally be cornered by corporate weed marketed like Hypnotiq and various other novelty liquors are. But hippies, indie rockers and punks wouldn’t go for it.
I’m not going to grow my own. Most stoners don’t. I think the market for commercial weed would be much bigger than you think. People can brew their own beer too, but most people don’t, and that actually takes less time than cultivating weed. Growing dope is not all that easy to do if you don’t know what you’re doing, and especially if you’re in a bad climate for it. It’s work. Growlights are expensive. Stuff goes wrong. You need a lot of space to keep a perpetual supply going.
I think most stoners would be perfectly happy to go buy bags of commercially grown weed (especially given the respources commercial growers would have to engineer maximum THC content, smokability and taste. Homegrown quality can be variable, to say the least), rather than devote the time, money and energy and space it takes to maintaining a private crop. Sure, a lot of hobbysts would still do it, but I think the average baker would just as soon go buy an ounce at the liquor store when they go to get beer.
There would also be a market of non-habitual users too. Not everybody who likes a little chronic once in a while does it often enough that they’d want to grow it.
The prices would also be a lot lower too, it’s not like you’d be paying 50 clams for an eighth anymore. It would be more like 10 or 15 bucks for an ounce.
^:dubious:
I’m pretty sure your average stoner would happily walk to the 7-11 down the street for a sack of weed whenever he wants it rather than make a call to his flaky dealer buddy who takes an hour when he says 15 minutes and shorts him a gram every time.
I’m guessing you don’t buy a lot of weed.
Edit: Directed at Argent Towers
The feds could leave it to the individual states and tax all interstate commerce in the substance. But it won’t happen. The reefer causes madness.
Oh, and the DEA has no power to change the War on Weed, that has to come from Congress, the opposite of progress.