# When will marijuana be legalized in the U.S? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 12, 2006, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406 "2006-08-12T05:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/21 "2006-08-12T21:18:44Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] No more ridiculous than any other drug that is illegal for general consumption but legal for use for medical purposes. [/QUOTE] Except that marijuana is about as dangerous as Tylenol. In fact, it’s less dangerous, since you can overdose on Tylenol. There are many things over the counter that are much more dangerous than marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/22 "2006-08-12T23:08:57Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I don’t think time is the factor that’s holding it up. When I was a wee, pot-tot, my contemporaries thought that when our wise and wonderful generation grew up and seized the reins of power, things would be different and logic would prevail. Of course, we were under the influence at the time. [/QUOTE] How old are you? It’s probably not YOUR generation that’s holding us back, but your parents generation is still kicking around to block marijuana legalization. I read (and I can’t find the source for right now) that when an alaskan decriminalization initiative was voted on (and defeated) a slight majority of voters under 30 years old were in favor, but voters 65 and older were overwhelmingly against it (75%+ voting no) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/23 "2006-08-13T00:06:06Z")
[QUOTE=Caffeine Cat] Are there even any medical benefits from smoking marijuana? I mean as opposed to taking synthetic drugs like [nabilone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabilone)? I always thought that actually inhaling any kind of smoke is hardly good for anybody, and certainly not a prefered way of getting medicaments. [/QUOTE] There are practical problems in taking an _oral_ drug for extreme nausea. My personal answer to the OP; not in the foreseeable future. America is becoming more intolerant, more right wing all the time, and the claim that the “pendulum will swing back” is more a statement of faith than anything else. America has always been a puritan, anti-happiness, anti-hope culture that is more concerned with supressing “sin” and “vice” than practicality or compassion. I think that the sixties were an aberration, and America is sliding back into it’s basicially dark-age, right wing culture. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/24 "2006-08-13T00:15:34Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] There are practical problems in taking an _oral_ drug for extreme nausea. My personal answer to the OP; not in the foreseeable future. America is becoming more intolerant, more right wing all the time, and the claim that the “pendulum will swing back” is more a statement of faith than anything else. America has always been a puritan, anti-happiness, anti-hope culture that is more concerned with supressing “sin” and “vice” than practicality or compassion. I think that the sixties were an aberration, and America is sliding back into it’s basicially dark-age, right wing culture. [/QUOTE] I think in some ways it is, and in some ways it isn’t. The overwhelming impression I get from American government right now is that it is indeed pursuing an “anti-sin” agenda, and pushing policies that oppose homosexuality, abortion, stem cells, and the like. But the American people themselves are becoming more liberal in _some_ ways. For instance, kids are definitely more sexually active than they had been in the past. Look at how the standards have gone down in Hollywood, in terms of movies being sleazier now than they ever have been in the past. Television programming is packed with swearing, and kids are listening to extremely raunchy music. But mixed together with all of this is that same insane puritanical attitude that you’re talking about. Look at the fuss over Janet Jackson’s breast. Or the “Hot Coffee” GTA bullshit and the huge controversy it created (regarding a video game which is easily one of the most violent ones ever made.) The baby-boom generation of parents is struggling in vain to impose puritan morals, and the youth are rejecting them wholesale. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/25 "2006-08-13T00:24:17Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] America is becoming more intolerant, more right wing all the time, and the claim that the “pendulum will swing back” is more a statement of faith than anything else. [/QUOTE] It always has before. If you look down through history, periods of conservatism were followed by periods of liberalism. I don’t know what would make us immune to this pattern now. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/26 "2006-08-13T00:27:28Z")
I think as long as Republicans and conservatives are in power in either House of Congress or the White House, marijuana will remain illegal. It’ll take a Democrat trifecta and a matching cultural change to make it happen. Could take two years, could take 200, could never happen. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/27 "2006-08-13T01:01:51Z")
For many years in Ann Arbor mMchigan it has been a $25 fine for possession. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/28 "2006-08-13T01:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] It always has before. If you look down through history, periods of conservatism were followed by periods of liberalism. I don’t know what would make us immune to this pattern now. [/QUOTE] The increasing strength of Christian fundamentalism. Look at the history of Islamic culture; long ago, they were _more_ tolerant than the West; now, they’ve basically let religion eat their culture until it’s about nothing else, and reduced to stagnation. To me, that looks like the direction America is heading; towards a religiously imposed culture of stagnation, ignorance and hatred. I think America is already past it’s high water mark and sinking into the quicksand of religious mania. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/29 "2006-08-13T01:22:26Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Look at the fuss over Janet Jackson’s breast. Or the “Hot Coffee” GTA bullshit and the huge controversy it created (regarding a video game which is easily one of the most violent ones ever made.) [/QUOTE] Not that it matters to your main point, but GTA is pretty tame. There are way more violent games out there…I don’t know what the most violent/grotesque would be, probably a FPS…I mean, GTA doesn’t even have you chainsawing demonic babies, ya know? Besides, AFAIK it was all about the sex. Americans seem to fly off the handle in regards to sex vs. violence. It’s OK that you can decapitate all the zombies with this lawnmower…but show a nipple and there will be a serious outcry! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/30 "2006-08-13T01:30:22Z")
Like a great many other gridlocked reforms in the U.S., it depends more than anything else on [how soon we can get rid of the two-party system and replace it with a multiparty system.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=269169) ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/31 "2006-08-13T04:13:41Z")
[QUOTE=Caffeine Cat] Are there even any medical benefits from smoking marijuana? I mean as opposed to taking synthetic drugs like [nabilone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabilone)? I always thought that actually inhaling any kind of smoke is hardly good for anybody, and certainly not a prefered way of getting medicaments. [/QUOTE] Inhalation is a great delivery method for treating nausea, because if you can’t keep food down, chances are you can’t keep pills down either. The harmful effects of inhaling smoke can mostly be negated by using a vaporizer, which uses a heating element to release the THC but doesn’t get hot enough to burn the plant matter. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/32 "2006-08-13T04:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] To me, that looks like the direction America is heading; towards a religiously imposed culture of stagnation, ignorance and hatred. I think America is already past it’s high water mark and sinking into the quicksand of religious mania. [/QUOTE] Gee, there is a shocker. You think the US is evil and you hate religion…so its no great surprise when you put them together like peanut butter and chocolate. Two great tastes that go great together! (in the mind of Der Trihs that is). Avoiding a pitward leaning though, I think that there is a fundamental sea change in the air, and that a shift toward ‘liberalism’ in the US is probably right around the corner. We’ll see such a change IMHO before the decade is out. -XT ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/33 "2006-08-13T05:01:26Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Avoiding a pitward leaning though, I think that there is a fundamental sea change in the air, and that a shift toward ‘liberalism’ in the US is probably right around the corner. We’ll see such a change IMHO before the decade is out. [/QUOTE] Which particular version of “liberalism”? There are several mutually incompatible versions, you know. Social liberalism is much friendlier to pot decrim than economic libertarianism (even though there are well-established corporations that could make huge profits by getting into the weed biz). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/34 "2006-08-13T05:17:30Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Which particular version of “liberalism”? There are several mutually incompatible versions, you know. Social liberalism is much friendlier to pot decrim than economic libertarianism (even though there are well-established corporations that could make huge profits by getting into the weed biz). [/QUOTE] Well, I wasn’t actually talking toward the OP when I said that. I just sense that the country is nearing one of those pendulum swings. What will it entail? Gods know…something in the opposite direction to what we have had for the last few decades is my only guess. BTW, I don’t see Social Liberalism being (always) mutually exclusive to Economic Liberalism. Why do you feel that is the case? Just curious. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/35 "2006-08-13T05:23:00Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] BTW, I don’t see Social Liberalism being (always) mutually exclusive to Economic Liberalism. Why do you feel that is the case? Just curious. [/QUOTE] Isn’t it obvious ? Too much economic liberalism, and you have companies hiring and firing people according to their personal lives or religion or ethnic background. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/36 "2006-08-13T05:32:36Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] BTW, I don’t see Social Liberalism being (always) mutually exclusive to Economic Liberalism. Why do you feel that is the case? Just curious. [/QUOTE] Not **always.** But “economic liberalism” legitimizes union-busting, and government handouts/protections/no-bid contracts to big business, and everything else that serves the agenda of established business interests; all of which is antithetical to social liberalism. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/37 "2006-08-13T18:32:36Z")
Criminalizing Marijuana has made it impossible to get. We have through the police efforts eliminated it as a problem. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/38 "2006-08-13T18:59:51Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I don’t think time is the factor that’s holding it up. When I was a wee, pot-tot, my contemporaries thought that when our wise and wonderful generation grew up and seized the reins of power, things would be different and logic would prevail. [/QUOTE] IMHO, time is a major factor. Ever tried marijuana, as of 2004 18-29: 53.1% 30-49: 55.6% 50-64: 36.9% 65+: 5.8% In Nov 2004, estimated voters by age groups (different partitions) 18-24: 11.6m 25-34: 18.3m 35-44: 25.6m 45-54: 26.8m 55+: 44.4m So, in 15-20, there will be a real change in voting patterns (IMHO). [QUOTE=Blalron] I read (and I can’t find the source for right now) that when an alaskan decriminalization initiative was voted on (and defeated) a slight majority of voters under 30 years old were in favor, but voters 65 and older were overwhelmingly against it (75%+ voting no) [/QUOTE] As per CNN exit polling [data](http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004//pages/results/states/AK/I/01/epolls.0.html) for Alaska, which failed 44 to 56. (Saying ‘Yes’) 18-29: 56% 30-44: 41% 45-59: 37% 60+: 32% But ideological affiliation seems to be a major component as well (Saying ‘Yes’) Liberal: 74% Conservative: 25% Moderate: 44% BTW, there’s a similar initiative in Nevada this November. And somewhat similar one in Colorado, as well. Denver legalized it (52-48) within city limits last year (or was it this year? :)). A similar proposal in Nevada in 2002 failed 39 to 61. [QUOTE=Der Trihs] America is becoming more intolerant, more right wing all the time, and the claim that the “pendulum will swing back” is more a statement of faith than anything else. America has always been a puritan, anti-happiness, anti-hope culture that is more concerned with supressing “sin” and “vice” than practicality or compassion. I think that the sixties were an aberration, and America is sliding back into it’s basicially dark-age, right wing culture. [/QUOTE] Scientific American had an article in 1996 on Alcohol control in the US - > [@Scientific American](#): > > At its peak in 1855, 13 of 40 states and territories had adopted legal prohibition. By the 1870s, public opinion had turned back, and liquor was flowing freely again; then, around the turn of the century, a movement for abstinence gained steam, culminating in the 13-year experiment of Prohibition that began in 1920. > > Over the history of the U.S., popular attitudes and legal responses to the consumption of alcohol and other moodaltering substances have oscillated from toleration to a peak of disapproval and back again in cycles roughly 70 years long. Although other nations appear to have embraced the virtues of moderation, the U.S. continues to swing slowly back and forth between extremes. The length of these trends may explain why most people are unaware of our repetitive history. > > It now appears that a third era of temperance is under way in the U.S. Alcohol consumption peaked around 1980 and has since fallen by about 15 percent. The biggest drop has been in distilled spirits, but wine use has also waned. Beer sales have fallen less, but nonalcoholic brews—replicas of Prohibition’s “near beer”—have been rising in popularity. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/39 "2006-08-13T19:03:10Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] The increasing strength of Christian fundamentalism. [/QUOTE] To mix a couple of Biblical metaphors, there is nothing new under the sun, and this, too, shall pass. We’ve gone through rigidly thocratic periods in human history. They’re unpleasant while they’re occuring, but the great thing about humanity is that it has a relatively short attention span. Religious conservatism takes an upswing during times of uncertainty and economic turmoil. Once prosperity comes back, people get bored and impatient with the same “values” they fiercely embraced during the bad times. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406/40 "2006-08-13T19:13:36Z")
[QUOTE=II Gyan II] IMHO, time is a major factor. Ever tried marijuana, as of 2004 18-29: 53.1% 30-49: 55.6% 50-64: 36.9% 65+: 5.8% In Nov 2004, estimated voters by age groups (different partitions) 18-24: 11.6m 25-34: 18.3m 35-44: 25.6m 45-54: 26.8m 55+: 44.4m So, in 15-20, there will be a real change in voting patterns (IMHO). [/QUOTE] Also in the recreational activities in retirement communities. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-marijuana-be-legalized-in-the-u-s/368406.md?page=3)