Look how far we’ve come

My very first post as a blogger, back on July 27, 2003, was about an amendment to get the federal government out of states’ medical marijuana laws, sponsored by Maurice Hinchey.
Back then, I marveled at such nonsense as this from John Mica:

“We also heard here that the medical use of marijuana will relieve pain. Well, I can say also from chairing that subcommittee that that is not the case. In fact, anything that we do to encourage use, whether for this purpose or other purposes, will not relieve pain, it will cause pain. Certainly, I am sure if someone smoked enough marijuana or took enough crack or enough heroin or methamphetamines, they would not have any pain.”

and this gem from sado-moralist Mark Souder:

“This is about when Congress passed a law under the Constitution that said in interstate commerce, which narcotics move across interstate commerce, which was not a liberal interpretation of that clause but a strict interpretation of that clause from a conservative perspective, all except the more anarcho-libertarians, as we used to call them, believe that in drug laws the Federal Government historically has had the right to enforce a Federal law.”

The amendment, of course, lost. And now I have covered the Hinchey amendment 5 times. During that time, we have written countless letters to Representatives, done extensive lobbying, and changed the leadership party in the House.
Just look how far we’ve come in those 5 votes…

At this rate, the Hinchey amendment will pass sometime around mid-July in the year 2027, and I’ll have a party in the retirement home.
Congress. What a bunch of spineless, hopeless, un-American nitwits.
Tomorrow, however, I’m planning on celebrating anyway. It’ll be my 4 year blogiversary. And there’s a lot we have accomplished in that time.