Marijuana Legalization May Be Unstoppable

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AlphaMethylPhenyl

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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." The same day, legislative committees in New Mexico and Hawaii approved bills to decriminalize marijuana possession and Oregon lawmakers introduced a legalization bill. Yesterday, Rhode Island legislators held a hearing on a bill to—surprise!—legalize and tax marijuana.

In California, where Holder's Justice Department has spent months trying to shut down respected medical-pot dispensaries, a Field Poll (PDF) released yesterday showed that 67 percent of state voters oppose the move. A 54 to 43 percent majority now backs fully legalizing the sale of cannabis and regulating and taxing it like alcohol.

Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson predicts that California, Oregon, and five other states will soon follow Washington and Colorado's lead and embrace the right to smoke up. And most American voters believe that the feds should let them. Even in the relatively conservative states of Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky, polls released in the past week have shown majority support for recently proposed medical-marijuana laws.

What's more, national polls are increasingly showing most Americans supporting legalization on the federal scale. So maybe Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) weren't just pipe dreaming earlier this month when they introduced bills to remove cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and impose a federal excise tax on pot sales.

All of which is to say, pity poor Eric Holder. If he caves, the GOP will call for his hide. But if he cracks down, he'll face the wrath of the mellow masses.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/201...es-suggest-marijuana-legalization-unstoppable
 
I hope more and more places over in the US follow, and then I hope more and more places around the world follow that.
 
It's promising that it's already legal, on a state level in some states at least, and shows that the public as a majority aren't entirely opposed to legalization...it's just a matter of time!! Especially if the whole taxation thing works well; it will be a safety net against those opposed to legalization as the government will look bad cutting out a great source of revenue, and it will also act as a positive model for other countries to follow.
 
I hope to live long enough to be able to grow a room full of weed in my house without the army busting in through my doors and windows and throwing me into prison for the rest of my adult life.

Hopefully the UK follows with this decriminalization of cannabis. In the majority of Europe it's completely tolerated even in public, and in Spain as far as I know you can grow something like 25 plants as long as it's on your property.
 
Depends where you live, in parts of the USA maybe, I don't see it happening over here for along time, it's hardly even talked about in politics here in Aus. I used to hear my dad and his mates say the same kind of thing like 15 odd years ago when I was growing up, and nothing much has changed, you can still get in a fair bit of trouble, arrested, criminal record for growing a few plants or having an ounce.
 
I knew these days would come, that our persecution would eventually be lifted and that we would be freed of injustice and punishment for our choices regarding cannabis-use. I always knew it.

What I didn't expect was that the U.S. would do it before us (Canada). Canada almost did this quite a long time ago, and probably would have, had the Liberal party had its way. One of the things that held us back from doing this was U.S. attitude toward it. We were told that if we legalized cannabis, there would be penalties in our ability to trade freely with the U.S.. We were even told that they might cut off trade altogether. That combined with certain other political events happening at once made us fail to achieve the goal of legalization.

Once upon a time, it was the U.S. who was the FIRST nation in the history of ever to BAN cannabis. It was Harry J. Anslinger, the first Drug Czar, who pushed for the UN to impose upon all nations their Unified Narcotics Act, which made our legal position worldwide what it is today. No one can legally legalize cannabis, not if they've signed this Act internationally - they'd be in direct contravention of international law that they'd agreed to themselves. So we generally see nations like the Netherlands, or Portugal, who have legalized it, for the most part, simply by legalizing possession/use and by never arresting/criminalizing simple users. But they still technically haven't legalized it, and they still criminalize the sale of it, especially in large amounts. It's a very quasi-legalization. And it is this way because of international law, largely the UNA, which was pushed for by the U.S.!

It's kind of ironic to see that they went from banning it at home and forcing the rest of the world to act similarly, only roughly a century ago, to legalizing it outright in two states at present. But, isn't it true that they are in contravention of at least one Act in the UN, one they not only signed but championed?
 
crimsonjunk said:
Fuck going to prison for pot. Beggers cant be choosers ans all that jazz
Click to expand...

I have been to jail for cannabis and spent thousands as a result. I'd much rather spend a little money on federal tax than continuing to send people to prison. Baby steps is the best way initially imo, totally agree Crimson.

The War on Drugs didn't get to where it is overnight, turning it around won't happen overnight either.
 
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If it's a choice between taxation or sending people to jail then the choice is obvious, but we have to be careful that it doesn't become like alcohol and tobacco which are illegal to produce and sell on your own. Taxation still means it's a controlled substance. Once the government gets involved via taxation then it can introduce all kinds of legislation on quality control, the kinds of facilities where it can be produced, which strains are permissible, etc. People would then need licenses to grow it, which means more hoops to jump through. If they raise the bar high enough it could be as good as illegal anyway. Instead of sending people to jail for possession they could make people bankrupt through large fines for business non-compliance. Hemp is great example of this problem. While not illegal, the hemp industry is artificially oppressed through special licensing and regulatory procedures which are EXPENSIVE.

The ultimate goal should be total legalization so people can grow it in their backyards without fear of reprisals. IMO giving the government control over its production in any way would be a failure of the movement. The government will just switch from criminalization to a restricted business model. "You want it decriminalized? Ok, here you go! $500 for a production license per 10 plants please!" You just know that even if the DEA relents on this issue, the Fed will find some other way to make this plant unobtainable or less effective.
 
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