Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones: Marijuana Legalization May Be Unstoppable
On Tuesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder told America to expect a decision “soon” on how he’ll respond to the recent legalization of pot by Colorado and Washington state. To which the rest of the country has basically said, “Whatever, dude.”
Exactly.
It takes continued work on our part, but as the people we have the potential power to make any decision by functionaries in the federal government irrelevant.
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IMHO yes, unstoppable is an accurate description. I prefer “past the tipping point” but that’s just because when a garbage truck unloads at the landfill they call it tipping. Prohibition is a load of garbage so I think it’s slightly more accurate as well as a heckuva lot more amusing. I know, I know, I’m easily amused especially by myself. No need to remind me, my wife does that job very well.
ya know folks… when it’s 60º and getting sunny at 11 am on the first of March here in the People’s Republic of Eugene I can’t help but feel optimistic when articles like this keep rolling down the pike.
I mean my front door is open, I turned off the pellet stove and heaters, Steve Kimock Band (Eudemonic) is on the stereo, a flock of juncoes is splashing around in the puddles in the driveway… the dogs are chillin’ and I’ve got some Lemon Kush that seems was grown just for these kinda days. sigh…
If the feds are shell-shocked from WA and CO wait til another 1/2 dozen or so states join the wave.
As the old saying goes, nanner nanner!
oh…. and I sent a note to TMZ the other day telling them to lighten up on their pot attitudes. I said that prolly 1/2 their staff does or has smoked weed and that both Barack Obama and Michael Phelps, those 2 whacky potheads, reached the pinnacles in their fields and are/were pot consumers. I added that had they been busted for pot, that woulda never happened.
In yesterday’s show they showed James Gandolfino and a friend coming out of a Venice dispensary and there was nary a snarky comment in the segment. Don’t know if that’s co-incidents but there it is.
Odd you should mention Michael Phelps. I was just thinking about when the tipping point had been reached, courtesy of the ‘Whatever, dude.” comment.
For that was in no small part what got the ball rolling: that comment pretty much summed up the attitude of most of the 50-and-under crowd towards the Phelps incident, and was illustrative of the reaction of the vast majority of those under 30. I knew then the shift had taken place…and that cannabis prohibition was doomed.
I don’t normally do this, but I went back a googled some articles about the Phelps incident from DWR back then, and I can’t help but smile.
The past is truly prologue… You don’t need a freakin’ crystal ball, just a sense of History.
nice snip from brian… “they can’t sink to a new level simply because they have never risen to a level from which it is possible to fall.”
and to prove the point… give it up for our gal Calvina Fay!
Calvina in 2000:
Calvina in 2003:
Calvina in 2007:
and interestingly, this bit from a 2011 Calvina LTE is her last published piece in MAP’s DrugNews archive:
I have boycotted Kellogg’s ever since then, because of their hypocrisy. I have seen a huge increase in their products in Costco starting shortly after they cut him loose from his contract. I wonder whether others did the same and it had an effect.
Dude, someone needs to do a Saturday Night Live skit of M. Phelps, Carl Sagan, and Al Gore smoking cannabis together. Towards the end, BHO comes in the door (Secret Service in tow) and steals the joint and yells “Intercepted! Choom Gang in effect! What, you surprised?”
If you don’t get the reference, read David Marraniss’s biography of President Obama.
Send some of that nice weather up our way, eh, Allan?
I just set a fan out on the sidewalk, turned it on high (heh) and faced it north. Let me know if it helps. (now it’s Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills’ Super Session album, good shit I tell ya)
I have “Legalize it” book marked and play it at least twice a day.
Not sure if it’s working, but it’s 15c above here in the Palliser triangle, the street sweepers are working.
Pfui. He’s got legal pot, he doesn’t need good weather too!
i have ripe tomatoes in my back yard and at least one female that wants to flower. this year might be a bumper crop.
The tipping point ,IMO,was the memo,,the very first backing away by the Feds. It sent a message not to just us but the rest of the world that change was going to happen and it ain’t our fault the feds threw many millions more dollars trying to patch it up,,even ramping up enforcement against dispensaries backfired on them,,it convinced more that the drug enforcement arm of our government is out of control and they continue to prove it daily.
Nobody can prove the insanity of prohibition than the people charged with enforcing it. Corruptiomn of the agents souls put them on a path to self destruction.
I peg the tipping point to have occurred on November 7, 2012. Yes, I do mean the seventh.
I was watching some old videos from about a decade ago on the Drug Policy Alliances youtube channel. I was fascinated by how much the debate and the policy has changed since then. I think we are now on an exponential trajectory towards the rationalization of cannabis laws; it will happen and I think sooner than anyone can forecast.
On a side note, why when guns violence is discussed does no-one suggest the easiest way to eliminate a vast amount of the gun violence. Have regulated sale of all drugs…eliminate the black markets and gun deaths will be reduced dramatically. And in the process the only people that will be put out of work will be jailers, and money launderers.
Plus, many people don’t have the ready cash to lay out for a firearm unless it’s needed for ‘business.’ Fewer guns on the street equals fewer gun homicides, more peace in the ‘hood, fewer dads taken away, more good role models etc. etc. etc. It’s all good.
Because reducing gun violence isn’t the goal; achieving a police state is.
And there it is, short and to-the-point. Been arguing that for years. And the Officer Jack Boots of the world are still in danger of pulling that off. Which is why re-legalization is so important; knock out the cornerstone of the foundation (namely, cannabis) and the whole rotten edifice cannot stand.
aye… for decades under federal grants and ‘gifts’ local police have gone from being police to armored military.
Just like in poker eventually the players have to play their cards and they’re gonna either have to show or fold. (weird how they’re playing w/ our money… *crosses eyes*)
I just can’t see how they can do anything but fold. If they play their cards somebodies are going to ask what’s w/ all the jokers. That the deck is stacked isn’t an issue any longer… their next step will tell us a lot. The alternative to their folding is ugly. Ugly indeed.
Japanese Americans would advise against any premature “what are they going to do, round us up and put us in camps?” rhetorical utterings… ditto w/ the indigenous Americanos…
spot on, chris. the crimes of one person do not justify the punishment of everybody, but that’s what they are trying to sell.
The best explanation of why prohibition leads to violence I have read is in this chapter: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0hs-8dPDlyEC&lpg=PA307&dq=drug%20prohibition%20corruption&pg=PA316#v=onepage&q&f=false
And many U.S. Soldiers and Marines as well will be out of work . . . it takes a world full of illegal drugs to fund insurgents, terrorists and to train airplanes to crash into their own buildings. The best way to downsize the DoD budget would be to legalize drugs too . . . The NY Times and Brown University reported that America had spent $3 trillion dollars in one decade for the so called ‘War on Terror’ –all because the DoD was spending $2billion a week to fight drug money, fix or stop drug money funded attacks (like 9/11) and restructure government and civic institutions constantly being corrupted from the inside by drug money. Many CIA agents will be out of work as well . . . a handful of DynCorp pilots will be without work . . . many KBR, Xe and Halliburton folk will be out of work as well if drugs were legalized.
I am more cautiously optimistic. Too many times I thought surely it will change now – only to be sadly disappointed in the reality of a failed policy that so many seem to make money from.
I am older, crankier and have NO PATIENCE for BS any more. I suspect many of us fit that profile. Such as we are the prohibitionists’ nightmare; we are articulate, intelligent and cranky. No wonder they hesitate. Every time they open their traps we shoot their heads off. Our turn to play whack-a-mole.
any Iowanians?
Official to speak on issues related to legalization of marijuana
The last paragraph says it all,,he is in charge of administering the federal grant money for marijuana arrests,,,
Alan…. Garner is way up north central Iowa, population 3100. Big time red counties up that way. House district 8 representative sits on public safety committee that killed the house medical bill. “marijuana advocates are also to be considered” yup…. enemies of the state.
Here is what the Governors office really thinks…. Posted on KWWL.com by Shelley Russell
snip/
But critics in the Governor’s office say debating the issue sends mixed messages to people, particularly teens.
“We spend a lot of time trying to educate our youth that drugs are harmful, and they’re not healthy life choices, and they can have some real long-term consequences,” said Steven Lukan, Director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control.
“When policy makers and people of authority start talking about legalization, it really sends a mixed message to them,” he said.
snip/
All I can say is wow….
Because only telling children one side of the story isn’t already sending them mixed messages.
The problem with the unbalanced approach is that, well, once it gets tested in the real world and these youths realize that they’ve been lied to wholesale, they will believe that everything you say is suspect. So ardently opposing legalization and insisting upon such one-sided thinking actually diminishes your ability to wage a successful anti-drug campaign — because a good number of people and especially the experimentation-age youths are going to have nothing but contempt for you.
Funny how, at the end of the day, the best possible approach to discouraging drug use is a regulatory framework and truthful education. Hey, it worked for tobacco, didn’t it? Age restrictions and taxation have actually worked when combined with proper education: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_tobacco_consumption#United_States
…and tobacco is practically indefensible when compared to cannabis. Funny how this shit works. We have a model that actually serves its purpose and yet a minority of pols have the moxie to just bloody bring it up. We’re talking about a framework with proven efficacy.
Here is the link to the video you mentioned.
And here is a good tutorial as to how to use HTML to make links to the articles you want people to view. It’s where I learned to do it, and it’s quite good, if a bit verbose.