Last month Pat Robertson, televangelist and long-time icon of the religious right, announced that it's time to legalize marijuana. The firestorm of shock and indignation from all sides ... never materialized. Not a whimper.
Who still supports our prohibition strategy in the War on Drugs?
You won't find a single major political figure willing to discuss a serious, well-considered plan to advance beyond absolute federal prohibition. At the same time, you have to look long and hard to find anyone who genuinely thinks prohibition is a good idea.
In the absence of a real plan to evaluate the public is left in the lurch. Prohibition is feeding monsters. Our insatiable appetite for illegal drugs is funneling billions of dollars into the hands of extremely dangerous people all over the world.
Though prohibition is increasingly unpopular, the public feels that we have a tiger by the tail. We've come to accept that marijuana is probably not as dangerous as we once worried, but we don't know what the cultural and public health impact of liberalization would be. That uncertainty makes politicians and the public very nervous.
Could it be that politicians are missing the opportunity of a lifetime? The public is itching for someone to champion a sensible proposal that would take us past blind prohibition. A solid plan could earn support nearly everywhere on the political spectrum.
If someone could devise a scheme that imposed regulations on marijuana similar to what we impose on alcohol or tobacco, the narco-gangs would see billions of dollars of revenues disappear almost overnight. Such a plan could be a template for new regulations for more dangerous drugs.
The cost of our inertia is growing. Our fears of broader marijuana use under looser regulation should be tempered by the escalating damage from our current policy. It's time to find a sensible alternative to prohibition.
Greg Campbell: 8 Myths About Marijuana
I thought we would see the answers, here.
For example, automobile manufacturers (except Ford) that don't want to retool and hire more people to make the cannabis fiber bodies that are lightweight and more durable than steel.
The steel industries that don't want to lose profit
Petroleum industries that will lose profit because lightweight vehicles can be made into FAST hybrid vehicles without using but a fraction of gas
Road construction companies that make more money because heavy cars and trucks ruin roads faster.
Like that..."who still supports marijuana laws"
It's hard to believe that some states still BRAG about life sentences for marijuana smokers.
(Mary Fallin, the state’s first-ever female governor, signed the measure into law in April; it takes effect on November 1, 2011.) But longtime Oklahoma observers were hardly surprised at lawmakers’ latest “life for pot” plan. After all, state law already allows judges to hand out life sentences for those convicted of cannabis cultivation or for the sale of a single dime-bag.
The effort to legalize in California needs your help. Find out what you can do to support the movement for real change!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/cchhi2012/
The only people who don't know are those who refuse to look. The Netherlands has had legal marijuana sales since 1975, yet the Netherlands does not suffer from higher rates of substance abuse than its neighbors (or the USA). The Dutch have one of the strongest economies in the world and their children score near the top in global standardized tests of math, science, and language. This has been true for decades, yet rather than learn from the Dutch example, American officials spread lies about rampant addiction among the Dutch, safe in the knowledge that few Americans would ever see for themselves and realize that they had been lied to.
Closer to home, California and Colorado have thriving retail marijuana industries, selling pot to any adult willing to invest $50 to obtain a physician's recommendation. Yet again, the drug warriors' predictions of doom have failed to materialize. There has been no increase in the frequency of industrial or traffic accidents. On the contrary, both states are better than the national average by both metrics. What else hasn't happened? Oh, let's see. There's been no marijuana-fuelled crime wave; there's been no drop in test scores or graduation rates among high school students; and rates of substance abuse have not increased.
Legalize, tax, regulate already!
That's the bad news
The good news is Spain. It is legal.
Portugal legalized ALL drugs, and watched as hard drug use dwindled quickly.
Same old news. People in this country refusing to admit to the fact that marijuana consumption can mean a life imprisonment. They refuse to admit it, possibly as climate deniers refuse to admit the global warming, to accentuate the even handed approach to illegal use.
Which is wrong, of course.
“(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that –
(A) is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
(B) has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;”
It was Joe Biden (yes our current Democrat VP) who authored this act, who wrote those words, and then pushed this abhorrent law through congress. This also created the ONDCP, the position of “drug czar” - and the mandate to lie with impunity to the citizens of the United States.
Its time to find a sensible politician that can do it too. Its not Obama or Romney.
He is lying. Here is his response to the question from Rolling Stone:
"I can't nullify congressional law. I can't ask the Justice Department to say, 'Ignore completely a federal law that's on the books.'
What can a president do? What he can do is continue to fill our corporate owned prisons with young men, and that is his economic stimulus program. Change you can believe in.
Seems he is doing this with immigration. It's good to be the king I guess...
"The Controlled Substances Act also provides for a rulemaking process by which the United States Attorney General can reschedule cannabis administratively. These proceedings represent the only means of legalizing medical cannabis without an act of Congress. Rescheduling supporters have often cited the lengthy petition review process as a reason why cannabis is still illegal.[3] The first petition took 22 years to review, and the second took 7 years. In 2002, the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis filed a third petition. "