When I started this blog back in 2003, I would have been shocked to see an article titled Legal Recreational Marijuana: Not So Far Out in Time Magazine.
I also would not have expected to see regular, smart columns about drugs and drug policy by someone like Maia Szalavitz in Time.
But time moves on and so does our discourse. My mom loves to clip positive articles about drug policy reform that she finds in her local paper and save them for me. Even she gets excited about the increased awareness.
Speaking of Time…
I was reminded today of this powerful and outstanding OpEd by the creators of The Wire which ran in Time Magazine in 2008: The Wire’s War on the Drug War
Worth a re-read.
If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.
you are a lucky dude, Pete. my mother, and her gin swilling republican women’s club, may they rest in peace, would never imagine that there was anything positive about any drug not approved by the police state. mitt recently uttered the words liberty and prosperity. i doubt he knows anything about liberty except the liberty to fire people. it’s a long way off but we should put our minds to post drug war retribution for crimes against the constitution. just because the police state has stopped oppressing the people is no excuse to let it pass. police pension reform comes to mind. maybe we should use some of our redundant prisons for police offenders so they won;t be raped or offed by the non-police criminal element. in cases where innocents die as a result of policemen seeing nonextant guns or “threats” life at hard labor would be my choice. no easy out through execution. just the discussion of punishing police for their misdeeds will speed up dispelling the national dementia.
I have posted,others here also,the need for Nuremburg war criminals trials as soon as we end this 40 years of war crimes,,but alas,,the prisons are already overflowing and if we empty out the weed criminals there may not be enough room for all the war on drugs criminals.
After a few years of hemp production maybe we can afford to build more prisons.
gingrich, bill clinton and nancy reagan would be my first 3 to answer for their drug war crimes, followed by a long list of tsars and other wosd henchmen
nancy probably doesn’t have enough brain cells left to even know she’s being punished. lifetime of booze you know. i think we have enough prisons, but we are lacking a judiciary that can judge the war criminals according to the law, since they are part of the police state. the only reason bernie maddoff went to prison is he was stealing from the rich. our judges hate the poor, rich folks like rush get special treatment, because they contribute so much to the general welfare and the common defence. i would like to see little joe arpaio get a taste of his own medicine. trouble is there are so many deserving thugs.
went to the va hospital to prove how poor i am, and i wore my “just say now” shirt. didn’t get much stink eye this time. one guy looked like he wanted to burn a hole in me with his x-ray vision. now i get to ride my bicycle in the sun. it rained yesterday, but not today, 68 and sunny.
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High Society: Washington’s Love Affair With Marijuana
Medical marijuana is set to arrive in DC this summer. But the drug is already a much bigger part of upper-middle-class life here than you might think.
/snip/
Washingtonian February 2012 cover
You just gotta love a well manicured hedge, no?
My view on the progress of drug policy reform is pretty skewed, being that I started looking at it (and this site specifically) in early 2009. It really seems like legalization in a state is going to come very soon, if not this year. Doubtful for Michigan, but medicinal weed is everywhere already.
From the Time piece:
You hear that, guys? There’s a chance we could go “mainstream” this November! Some of you probably thought cannabis re-legalization went “mainstream” a while ago, presumably sometime before it became favored by a MAJORITY of Americans, but apparently majority support isn’t even enough to stop being “fringe.”
I’m not trying to pick on the author too much. He cites the polls, and it’s pretty clear he uses the language he does because he thinks that’s the widely-shared public perception. But it certainly illustrates the lag between changing realities and perception. That lag isn’t surprising given that it’s hard to overstate just how fast public opinion is shifting on this issue. But it’ll be nice when the media coverage finally catches up.
looks like the whiskey soaked journalism industry is finally getting the drift. time marches on and old lies lose their truthiness. like a dried up piece of leather, there is no beef to it. the dream of the shining drug free city on the hill has turned into the reality of a dusty prison camp in maricopa county. the ‘arbeit macht frei’ mentality still follows orders. this time the fraud is bought by ever fewer numbers of the credulous. hunger and homelessnes lend themselves to sharp eyesight. prison guard once again becomes a detested occupation. a few of the most corrupt are prosecuted, the poorer victims of the drug war are given the back of the judicial hand. the DEA lies for its cartel masters until the bitter end. even with re-legalization people still have to continue with life, but now they have the help of hemp and a shot at not destroying the biosphere. rejecting booze artist ‘leadership’ saves the world. yea! (some of that could happen).