My only objection has to do with driving safety - we don't have enough traffic problems already, what with drunk drivers, cell phone users etc?? What will happen to auto insurance rates now? Also, if POC are as poor and underprivileged as claimed, how is it that they have money to buy drugs?
3
so many comments based upon fear and lack of historic and scientific knowledge. there has never been a death attributed to cannibis use....ever. it is one of the oldest and most widely ingestested plants on the planet. Any adult should be able to make their own choices about what to ingest and why, as long as they do not hurt others, for example do not drive when you ingest cannibis. By the way, the writer failed to mention that the primary reason the legalization was rejected in Ohio was that the law was written in the most corrupt way giving the merchandizing to a small handful of connected insiders. It is funny too, that so many who wish to have the freedom to drink what they want, own a gun, whatever, are more than ready to have the government keep this substance illegal. There will be a few who will abuse....such is human nature...people abuse alcohol and legal painkillers all the time...not to mention the big killer drug ...sugar (there is no nutrional value in sugar and it does, in fact later conciousness). let us be adults and make our own decisions please.
2
I recently talked with Dr. Doolittle. Dr. Doolittle believes legalized marijuana is good policy. He recommended rolling a dried marijuana plant into a paper cylinder, igniting the reefer, then inhaling the smoke deeply into the lungs. Moreover, he affirmed the highly charged narcotic effect would induce bliss, happiness, freedom from all things undesirable. One's consciousness and presence could be vacated from awful reality. Furthermore, Dr. Doolittle assured me this would make the chemical altered population more intelligent, ambitious, cognitive advanced than non stoned cultures. Best of all, the people would be peaceful, non aggressive, compliant to the all knowing ruling class. At last, people can be dead happy. Legal marijuana for all..
I've never understood why this is a big-ticket issue. Sure, legalizing marijuana can be helpful for medical purposes and punitive actions for possession should be taken down if they're disproportionately affecting minorities, but there are plenty of other issues that are just as important. How about gun violence? Or healthcare? Or education? Or the environment? Cities across the U.S. are giving up on recycling, children and even babies are being separated from parents at the border, Russia is influencing our elections, Amazon, Disney, Google and Verizon practically own us, reproductive and transgender rights are under attack, nothing is being done to stop domestic terrorism, and our country's policies are being dictated by Faux & Fiends. Does none of that merit discussion anymore?
1
It's all about bankruptcy.....our cities and states are broke -most jurisdictions in America have more debt that assets...way more debt.....
Where to find more money?
Pot.
It's all about tax revenues - here in New York, those revenues have already been spent 6 different ways.
The governments will worry about all the implications of legalization...after it's legalized.
..could you pass that joint....
Cannabis legalization will be a substantial litmus test in 2020 much like gun rights/control and abortion. But it is an enigma that the Times has all but endorsed Biden given his huge boatload of baggage. His ship will sink just as Clinton's did in 2016. The media generally underestimates the overwhelming bipartisan desire for change. Obviously, republicans changed for the worse so it is well past time for democrats to change for the better. There is no longer a fence to sit on.
2
Every alcoholic started on Milk. Many opioid addicts never touched marijuana. So unless we are going to outlaw the evil gateway drug named "milk", it's time to jettison the "gateway drug" argument into the dust bin of Reefer Madness, fluoride as a communist plot, and etc. history.
3
Until the records of thousands of minor drug convictions of minorities are completely expunged and their voting rights fully restored I vehemently protest anyone getting rich on the backs of others misspent youth. This is just another opportunity for the White Privileged male to be shielded by law.
1
Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, opioids, or handguns. In my 15 years as Medical Director of an Alcohol & Drug Detoxification Unit, not a single patient was admitted whose only drug of abuse was cannabis. A rational policy would treat marijuana the same as we treat alcohol & tobacco- legal, but regulated & taxed. Remove marijuana from Schedule 1, permit research, & move beyond the discredited myths of "Reefer Madness."
Laws against marijuana have been used as a thinly veiled tool of racial oppression for decades, & still are being used this way in many parts of the country, especially in Red America. So, yes, it is a social justice issue which is long overdue for a remedy. Any presidential aspirant must accept this reality or risk the consequences of denying the obvious.
4
I suggest that you evaluate all of the available research:
“Smoking super-strength cannabis can cause "significant" brain damage, research has suggested. The new study by researchers at King's College London found the strong "skunk" variant of the plant damaged the corpus callosum - the part of the brain which carries signals between the brain's left and right sides.”
2
@Andrew
That's the problem when one exaggerates or misstates. Makes the rest of the propaganda harder to believe. (Note you didn't provide a link to your statement.)
Let me help you with your own NHS response to the fabrication being spouted.
"A small study found some users of the high-strength skunk strain of cannabis had changes in nerve fibers in a specific part of the brain." "They found users of skunk – as well as those who used any type of cannabis on a daily basis – had different structural changes in the corpus callosum, compared with those who smoked less or lower-strength strains."
Here is the kicker...
"What this study doesn't tell us is whether these structural changes do any harm or cause any negative mental health effects."
"This lack of consistency muddies the picture somewhat and reduces our confidence in the findings a little." " The effects of cannabis use – both in the short and long term – are not firmly established."
https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/high-strength-skunk-cannabis-linked-to-brain-changes/
4
Query - what is the average length of the sentence of a black man convicted of selling marijuana?
More or less than 47 months?
2
Tobacco kill because cancer.
Alcohol kills because the liver.
Marihuana only kills the brain.
1
The Marijuana Movement is the only viable political movement in the Nation and will decide the elections of 2020. This is the for real grass roots movement that has won our power by direct democracy, by the Plebiscite. Our coalition crosses all lines from the KKK to Black Lives Matter, there has never been a broader focus of agreement and guess what all you pundits, we have an Agenda .....
2
If the Democrats go down this road, they will shine the spotlight on the marijuana debate … and they will lose. The marijuana of today is not the marijuana of the '60s, and there are growing concerns over the harmful effects. Pro-legalization forces, of course, gloss over the issue, and state legislators ever-eager to tap into new revenue streams for buying votes, don't want to hear about pot problems. See https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/marijuana-mental-illness-violence/? As for Hickenlooper, talk to any rational resident of Colorado (one of my daughters is among them) and they will tell you he's an absolute joke. The Democrats need to find their sea legs if they are going to defeat Trump. Right now, the Democrats are behaving like drunken sailors.
3
@GMoore,
Your link is to a former NYT writer hocking his Reefer Madness book. It has been panned as propaganda.
"Berenson’s book, with its sensationalist claims and shoddy analysis of the evidence, doesn’t genuinely address those concerns. Tell Your Children claims to inform its readers of the “truth” about marijuana, but it instead repeatedly misleads them."
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/14/18175446/alex-berenson-tell-your-children-marijuana-psychosis-violence
I recommend Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know by Caulkins, Kleiman, and Beau Kilmer, all of whom are actual drug policy researchers and scholars.
In 2013, the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, commissioned by the Office of National Drug Control Policy did a large study. It concluded that “marijuana use does not induce violent crime, and the links between marijuana use and property crime are thin.”
Or the Gov. own Shafer Commission Report
“ Marihuana is not generally viewed by participants in the criminal justice community as a major contributing influence in the commission of delinquent or criminal acts… Neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety…Marihuana’s relative potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.”
https://hiruhipoc.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/shafer-report-pdf.pdf
3
I appreciate the racial justice argument, and I am in favor of a mechanism by which non-violent offenses fall off the public record with time. However, legalization of recreational marijuana is a step too far, and it would push me toward a fiscally responsible, socially liberal Republican candidate.
3
@S Baldwin
LOL: " fiscally responsible, socially liberal Republican candidate." Let me know when you find one....
2
"Unites Democrats"? Not this one. We simply do not need more inebriation. People do harmful things when inebriated. It is not a necessary part of life, nor is it something that needs celebrating. The highly emotionally charged and delusional insistence that more is needed is reason enough to conclude that the obsession is an addiction.
Look, it's going to happen. The celebrants are highly motivated, but to keep insisting that everyone is overjoyed and looking forward to it is objectively delusional.
2
Legalizing drugs is one thing.
Deregulating things so much to create a huge pot mass market industry profiting from abuse setting up shops in our towns?
Quite a different thing.
The rush to mass market THC is nuts.
Might as well hand our country to the Chinese.
5
People who smoke marijuana lose their ambition. It doesn’t really matter to them whether they have a job or not. Their dreams become more important than having a productive life. The side effects of pot smoking are panic and paranoia. How do I know this? Because I smoked in college and for two non-productive years after college. I graduated in 1970 and began serious work in 1973. I was so happy to get a decent job and finally have my life under control. It is a dangerous drug. It should be controlled.
8
@John Murray Did you run this theory by Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Barak Obama, Mick Jagger, Steve Jobs?
Not a drop of ambition in those guys.
3
@keith
It’s impossible for me to ask since I don’t know any of these guys personally. Do you?
Also Steve Jobs is dead and President Obama stopped smoking weed at the beginning of his quest for the presidency. Maybe that’s why he succeeded.
Let’s go rogue and legalize all drugs. This will shut down the cartels and the violence they inflict on their countries and ours as well as provide a huge income source. But! No support for abusers. You overdose- your problem. No public monetary supply for users. Put the funds to use for those who don’t make ignorant choices.
Two arguments surface in any discussion of the legalization of marijuana: giving blacks a leg up in the sale of it and operating a vehicle. The first is quite silly and the second one is fairly lost in the discussion of distracted driving. There are stronger arguments for reparations of the negative impact of slavery and it has been found that there are many other sources of distraction that are equally likely to result in a car accident. There's no reason to single out marijuana on these issues.
@Glenn Thomas So let's have more distractions? You should know that outside of the influence of needing marijuana your argument is delusional and harmful.
Dishonest and largely insane article on legalization and it’s ramifications.
The article ignores the data, especially from CO: Where recreational pot is legal, the black market (read: the drug cartels) has thrived. Why should I spend $450 on an ounce of weed in a government-regulated storefront, when I can buy that very same ounce from my friendly neighborhood pot dealer for $100 cash?
5
@Cjmesq0 The dishonest/delusional aspects of the campaign are what should be tipping people off. This is being driven by a need. Concerns for the greater good is something that needs to be vilified and pushed out of the way.
Um, the black market thrives in prohibition so that argument makes no sense whatsoever.
1
@Cjmesq0
For that extra $350 your paying for a lawful, convenient and regulated transaction.
Do you even have a friendly neighborhood pot-dealer? Most people don't have access to that sort of criminal element.
I support legalization for medical use, but am not a fan of recreational use. That said, it's not a ditch I want to die in. I do think if it is legalized, that strict laws and strong punishment for driving while high are necessary. It is delusional to think that folks will smoke pot and get high (or laid back, chill or whatever) and not get behind the wheel.
I also wonder about the long term health concerns of smoking pot. Supporters always seem to think that there are none. However, taking a foreign substance whether cigarette smoke, air pollution, or smoke from pot into the lungs cannot be good for the lungs. The truth is that we also have no way of knowing whether or not there are long term adverse health effects of ingesting pot by other means.
2
@Anne-Marie Hislop
Legalization makes it easier to consume cannabis through edibles or tinctures.
1
All you anti-legalization people should go watch Ken Burns' wonderful documentary Prohibition *. Maybe that will wake you up. Here's a little news flash for you. people are doing it anyway. It's way past time this drug was legalized. Stop trying to regulate other adults lives. . And just a side note. While I am all for the states doing what they want as far as legalization. It has to be taken off the schedule one drug list and dealers have to be allowed to do bank transactions, & not have every thing done with cash. That has to be regulated at the federal level. .. One last thing. Joe Biden is not for pot legalization, or medicare for all, or cutting the military budget. He is Republican lite right down the line & always has been.
4
@Doctor Woo WHAT?
2
Those who doubt legalization and enjoy the idea of putting people in prison for pot should have been around when beer was illegal and gangs were running the liquor industry. Al Capone thought the Drug War was great. He was making millions.
1
John Monroe Let's get real here, some peoples release from the pressure cooker of life is pot. Mine is beer, while others are religion. This isn't that complicated if you are honest. We have an epidemic in drug death in our country. Don't you understand the root of that causation? People must be given HOPE. Not incarceration. The new LEFT will try to find the path to this HOPE. They may not succeed but at least they are trying. They are not stuck in cement like the Republicans. Yes, Charles & I could run this country with a fresh look at problems. Life is hard. Understand what we face & the pressure for release, pot, beer, drugs, religion. Why do you think people need this? It's not that hard to understand.
In addition to the very real social justice issues and the political sell-ability across the country noted by the article, opposition to harsh marijuana laws also helps innoculate Dems against the charge that they are "nanny staters."
It is the other party that is more likely to want to take your occasional enjoyment away, just as they want to monitor your bedroom and reproduction decisions. It may be politically advantageous to frame this issue as part of broader Repub hypocrisy when it comes to what "freedom" actually means.
1
Let's move forward. It's not a narcotic. There are scores of millions of users now.
Would not national legalization allow authorities to more effectively fight opioid distribution?
Mike Pence is not a joker,
Not a smoker,
Not a midnight toker.
This issue is one democrats could ride to move antebellum dopus Pence out of the way.
1
Eventually it will be legalized in the balance of the states that it's not currently, juts a matter of time.
1
Sure, why not let a few million teenagers and young people waste their lives as potheads? That's the cost of legalization, make no mistake. Some will use it responsibly, and the risk of legal punishment is far greater than the health risk. Others will fall off the tracks and wind up smoking pot every day and their lives will be ruined. We need a candid discussion of the tradeoffs, not blithe assurances that no harm will result from legalization.
5
‘If we legalize marijuana, teenagers will start smoking it!” NEWSFLASH: they already do. How is threatening to toss kids in jail and take away their future prospects by denying them education benefits ‘helping’ anybody. Hint: it’s not. The legal punishment is an order of magnitude more damaging than the ‘crime’ at present and it disproportionately impacts black youth.
1
We already have a problem, that not enough people who apply for jobs can pass drug tests. Do we really want more people who are driving on the roads, or as drivers for public transportation, such as buses, light rail, trains, subways, etc. being under the influence of any drug, be it alcohol, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, marijuana, meth, pain killers, etc.? Absolutely not, and there must be serious penalties, as otherwise, we are just going to have more dead, and injured. This idea that those who drive under the influence should get a little hand pat, and be allowed to commit the same behavior over, and over again is ridiculous. In the last 60 years, over 1 million people have been killed by drunk drivers, and 3-4 times that many injured. If the laws had been such that on the first offense of drunk driving, the person would lose their vehicle for one year, we wouldn't of had all of the dead people. Because legislators, were indifferent to what would work, as taking the drivers license away stops few from driving, we wouldn't of had so many dead, and continuing to die. I don't think for adults, marijuana in small amount is that dangerous, it is just that most who use it, drive, and the THC stays in the system for up to 13 days. The fact that the human animal is easily addicted to most substances, and in this day, and age, is not as responsible or as emotionally healthy, as they were decades ago, will be a society that pretty much fails at its core.
3
I live in Williams, Oregon, which has been big in marijuana production for decades. I don't use it; but I don't care if people do. It's a better intoxicant than alcohol.
HOWEVER; there are problems with it being legal at the state level, but illegal at the federal level.
Banking, or lack of normal banking. It's still a big cash industry. Where there is cash stashed, there are armed robbers. Where there are armed robbers and insufficient policing, there are lots of guns and do it yourself justice.
I would definitely prefer to see it legal and regulated.
No marketing, heavy taxes, growing regulations, and product inspection for safety.
1
Marijuana legalization is not a federal issue (Constitutionally) and should be handled state-by-state. No sane politician ought to oppose allowing the states to choose. Legalization will occur soon enough.
7
These comments saying “what’s the hurry to legalize I’ve smoked marijuana without negative legal consequences for years” shows how insulated one can become thanks to one’s wealth, class, and race. These are folks who have never had to suffer the humiliation of police using “the smell of marijuana” as an excuse to frisk you and toss through your car. Never been stuck in jail on possessing an ounce of marijuana because they couldn’t afford bail.
Sure, legalization is no big deal for you because you’ve always been able to shrug it off as a mild indiscretion. That’s not true for a lot of Americans.
7
This is nonsense. Stop the "cool parent" and get responsible to fix the nations serious needs.
5
@Thomas
Why was it outlawed in the first place? Did the reasons make any sense? When did the reasons ever make any sense?
1
Legalizing marijuana isn't going to make anything worse. We already have people with dependency issues, people who drive stoned, and kids who use marijuana. Criminalizing it hasn't made those problems go away, and it's arguably made some of them worse.
Even if all those things remain unchanged, legalization will still be better than it is now because we won't also be perpetuating vast black markets, experience gross distortions of our criminal justice system and waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a completely ineffective criminal enforcement system.
5
The reefer madness crowd will never give up. Here in Canada we fully legalized cannabis. We heard all the horror stories like gateway drug, driving while stoned and the best of the best - what about the children? The truth of the matter is that it turned out to be a non issue. Life goes on and tokers toke, drinkers drink, runners run and bikers bike.
8
The very, very, last thing that our country needs is more stoners. The blood of every single person who dies in an automobile accident caused by a stoned driver will be on the hands of every politician who supports legalized marijuana.
9
@Ron Wilson
Alcohol is the major danger on the road. Mj isn't even a blip on the radar by comparison. So where's your campaign to outlaw alcohol?
1
If the Democrats consider support for legalization of marijuana synonymous with a commitment to racial justice, they are in worse trouble than we think. Is there a stupid idea they don’t endorse? Meanwhile, the economy remains strong, unemployment is at an historic low and Isis is on the ropes. Anyone care to guess what that adds up to?
8
In reply to Larry NY
Republican victory in November 2020?
The whole war on drugs has been an unmitigated disaster. Drug use has gone up and the prisons are more crowded than ever. Giving this the nation the highest incarceration rate in the world. Addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. Law enforcement and the criminal justice system are part of the problem not the solution. Until treatment is emphasized over incarceration the drug problem will never be solved. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, the drug war is the epitomy of insanity.
4
At 72, I’ve never understood why it’s crime for a stationary adult to have a mellow state of mind. It’s only gateway leads to the munchies.
7
Legalizing recreational marijuana use is one of the dumbest ideas ever. Why would anyone want a society of people under the influence of drugs?
12
It's legal in Canada and it's not like they have become a nation of stoners.
1
We already have that. Why are deadly addictive opioids legal while marijuana is as illegal as possible? We can only have so much madness and insane policy not rooted in reality before people give up on the system. Today’s youth has lost faith in America because this country has become a complete joke and doesn’t even try to pretend otherwise anymore.
1
Wait a minute!
Does anyone really believe that if marijuana is legalized, then incarceration of African-Americans will magically abate? That is absurd. For years the Democratic Party has stood with Republicans in the overarching campaign to lock up more black people. Each time there has been an advance in civil rights, there has been a counter-reaction. some of the bluest states lock up black people by the tens of thousands. It has been a bipartisan Jim Crow festival.
In addition to that indisputable fact, Hickenlooper knows very well that Colorado's incarceration rate is 635 persons per 100,000. He also knows this is only slightly below the US average, which is 698. So whether you're white, black, or mentally ill Colorado has a cell for you. Just more for the latter two.
Democrats have candidates, and then they have candidates. Some have real accomplishments to cite. Some have made up ones. We need more of the former, and none of the latter.
You know what I'd offer the youth of America, instead of pot? Student loan relief! Of course, to do that the Dems would have to stop sucking up to the financial industry.
6
@Charles Coughlin
"Does anyone really believe that if marijuana is legalized, then incarceration of African-Americans will magically abate? "
Who, besides you, said that? What's the point of throwing anyone in jail for marijuana, white or black?
In case you were not aware, the explicit original purpose of the drug laws was to punish minorities and they have been used for that for decades. That's not my opinion, that's historical fact. See Historical Research on Drug Policy on the web, or see Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
"You know what I'd offer the youth of America, instead of pot? "
Why can't we do both? What's the good excuse for punishing people for marijuana even one more day? Why would you even want to spend the tax dollars for one more?
1
I think marijuana should be legalized but at the same time maybe we shouldn't let people smoke openly on city streets, sidewalks and parks.
Because if white CEOs and dentists are smoking as much as minorities (which I accept as likely) you sure don't see them smoking openly on the street as often.
I think any analysis of arrest rates would have to take this into account (along with about a dozen other factors--I know newspaper articles are not heavy on statistics but any policy analysis has to include some some acknowledgement of confounding variables).
And it would be easy enough to decriminalize home use but discourage open use in places where kids can see and smell it.
5
@Mmm
The same restrictions on tobacco smoke apply to mj smoke.
We have had thousands of stores openly selling it in California for twenty years. Clouds of mj smoke on the sidewalk are still not a problem.
The explicit original purpose of the drug laws was to punish minorities. That is well-established historical fact, beyond dispute. See Historical Research on Drug Policy or watch Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
1
In places where weed is legal many people use edibles or tinctures.
1
There is an unbelievable level of pearl-clutching in this comments section. The fact is that the US banned federally funded research on marijuana safety. Don't you think that if the research was consistently proving that marijuana was actually dangerous they would support that research and be shoving the fact-based argument down our throats? Of course marijuana is hugely less harmful than alcohol - hence all the decades hyped up propaganda substituting for scientific fact-based information. Enough with the "won't somebody please think of the children!" nonsense. The children are getting murdered by the dozens in schools by psychos with automatic rifles. Nobody in the history of the world ever OD'd on marijuana. MAYBE the anxiety of getting your school shot up is why so many young people are turning to vaping crazy amounts of nicotine.
8
This is a false narrative. In what world would anybody think that a nation wide conspiracy existed against people of color using drugs. Are all police racist? Really Pols are using the race card to justify the legalization of drugs. Sad state of affairs.
2
No it is not a false narrative. Statistics from many states and the federal level clearly demonstrate disparities in sentencing disfavoring minorities over the Las quarter century.
6
We need to think long and hard about the full implications of legalization before the genie is out of the bottle. The states that have legalized cannabis have encountered many problems that could have been predicted if people sat down and thought about it long enough.
How will cannabis be sold and marketed? Will we see billboards, TV, and radio advertising?
How will it be taxed and who decides how the receipts will be allocated? Will it be Federal, state, a combination of both?
Will there be funding directed at preventing underage use and helping those with problems?
Will Federal laws allow states to do things differently, or will there be consistency across the board? Will the FDA regulate the drug to ensure it is "safe and effective"?
Do we want the tobacco companies and their ilk getting into the business? Do we want government-run dispensaries?
There is big money just waiting to jump into the cannabis business if given the chance. Will we see corporate profits coming before public health like we did with opioids? I wonder.
I think there are good arguments to be made for legalization, but let's not pretend that it is not without potential problems if it is not implemented well.
30
@Tom Wanamaker sure but you can say that for nearly anything. Look what happened with food - in pursuit of profit it’s practically been weaponized to makes people sick.
9
@Tom Wanamaker Private prison industry is already making money off incarceration from prohibitiom of marijuana. Sure, legalization should be guided by prudent policy. But what act of government should be guided by prudent policy?
6
@Tom Wanamaker
It's simply not true that the re-legalized states have had significant problems. They haven't. Crime and teen marijuana use have both gone down in the Free States.
Right now, we are transitioning from medical marijuana programs, so we have dispensary models. But since marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, it's logical that it will end up being sold wherever those products are available. - There's no reason rules on advertising should be more restrictive than those for alcohol.
The extra taxes on alcohol and tobacco are justified. Because of their great harms, they create massive social costs. The extra taxes, at least partially, compensate for those costs.
Science and widespread experience have shown marijuana has no significant harms. - Hence, there is no justification for extra taxes. - But it will be taxed, simply because governments have the power to do so. - At any rate the taxing has no bearing on whether marijuana should be prohibited or not.
Teen marijuana consumption has gone down slightly in the states that have legalized. Marijuana is clearly, far down the list of the drugs that we need to educate youth about, but of course we will educate with the truth about marijuana, finally.
Even legal alcohol and tobacco are much more of a concern. NO ONE has ever died from consuming marijuana in all of recorded history.
6
I'm old enough to remember when the War on Drugs was lost half a century ago. A little late to begin figuring this out.
5
I accept the idea that marijuana will be legalized, but can’t stand the thought of it. Yes, the arguments for legalization are clear enough, but don’t tell me this isn’t going to produce people who turn their lives over to weed. It won’t be long before the big money behind legalization works to confuse, distort and counter any new science that points to risks, much like the tobacco industry. The marijuana industry will be no different.
8
@Patrick Those people already smoke weed. It's not hard to get at all! We just want it to be regulated by OUR government so we can know what exactly we are getting and remove the ridiculous risk of being arrested over something so trivial. Using marijuana is neither violent nor a crime against someone's property and therefore it has no place as a jailable offense in our society.
7
Use has not increased all that much in the states that have legalized it.
1
@Patrick
there have been thousands of stores selling it in California for the last twenty years. They are almost entirely unregulated, so it is a real Wild Wild West situation. Sorry, but none of the predicted calamities have happened. Nothing much has changed.
As for the money, marijuana has been a multi-billion dollar business for decades. Who do you want to get the profits -- regulated businesses, or organized crime?
2
I'm not convinced by the argument that just because blacks are 4 or 5 times more penalized for pot than whites, there is racial injustice. It bugs me that journalists at the Times aren't better than that argument. Cops make arrests for drugs in areas where 911 calls bring them. If that happens to be black neighborhoods, you get arrest and rearrest records, and then penalties follow. It isn't the job of cops to worry whether their arrests are racially balanced... "better arrests some white kids to balance out our drug busts today, Elroy!" Imagine.
I do get the desire of Democrats to exploit the black community's inclination toward believing that lie though. I get that loud and clear.
8
@RoadKilr
The original purpose of the laws was to discriminate against minorities. That was explicitly stated for decades. No question about it.
You haven't read the history. See Historical Research on Drug Policy for numerous histories of the subject, or watch Hooked; Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
2
@RoadKilr Are you convinced by John Ehrlichman's own statement in a 1994 interview:
"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html
2
It’s amusing watching smart conservatives invest and make money in cannabis while the cultists and drones fight a pointless culture war for free and get zip. And they wonder why they get left behind economically and conned by a casino/mailorder steak tout.
3
It's become a strange issue. In general, you are better off if you don't use cannabis. For specific groups of people with certain health or mental conditions, it can in fact be a very dangerous drug. There is weak evidence for its therapeutic use in particular cases, though there is plenty of anecdotal testimony about its benefits for specific people. So overall, a society would, if it had a choice, probably not want to actively promote the use of the drug. But criminalizing its use is also a bad idea. The criminal penalty for use is usually far, far worse than the use itself.
It's a strange issue because legalizing use seems to be an endorsement of the drug's safety or even benefit, which is not proven; in fact, there is better evidence of harm.
This puts us roughly in the same place as tobacco and alcohol. Put limitations on access and use, promote cannabis education in schools, and build moderate discouragements into the production and sale of of the drug. Let States make particular decisions here because the people in different States might want different forms of culture, different encouragements and discouragements, and there is no reason to force particular kinds of regulation of cannabis on States.
But criminalization is destructive and has very weak justification.
6
@Nathan
You need to do some homework and try again.
First, read the references you will find under Historical Research on Drug Policy. The laws were absolute lunacy from the very beginning. The US Official Expert on marijuana testified in court, under oath, that it would turn you into a bat.
Then read Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. Those are the largest and most comprehensive studies from around the world over the last 100 years.
Then see Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way, the History Channel special on Youtube.
There is a very interesting story about these laws that you don't know.
5
Agree about the weirdness of the history of drug laws. But in developing contemporary policies, shouldn't we be looking more at modern medical and scientific reports and analyses? Say: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/marijuana
1
@Nathan
"Agree about the weirdness of the history of drug laws. "
If you know the history, then tell me in what year the reasons for the law switched from "turns you into a bat" to something more sensible. When was it ever a good idea to punish people for smoking pot?
First, read the studies on policy. Just because something is dangerous doesn't mean that prohibition is the best approach. If any drug was to be outlawed because it has health hazards and other dangers then alcohol would head the list.
But we tried outlawing alcohol and it was a clear disaster. Among other things, it triggered the biggest homicide wave and the biggest teen drinking epidemic the US has ever seen. The problem with prohibition is that it enriches gangsters and drives the problem underground where it is harder to deal with. That's something you won't find on the NIH site because they don't cover the policy information you seek.
If you want to know what "policy" should be, then read the "policy" studies I have provided under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. They all concluded that marijuana prohibition does more harm than good, no matter what you assume about marijuana. Turns out that jail is not a recommended medical treatment for anything.
3
It seems that Democrats are assuming their primary will be a de facto final, thanks to Mr. Trump.
1
Cannabis prohibition was instrumental to the right wing coup d'etat that culminated in Trump. It systematically excluded liberals from academia, government, and industry.
3
@Steve Bolger: unfortunately for your theory...liberals utterly dominate academia, government and industry.
As a stoner from way back, but also as someone with a few miles on his clock and the benefit of watching how the world works, I ask this... why the rush? I see the benefit of a little bit of weed now and then and that's what it should be, a pleasure for adults to legally use occasionally. However, like cigarettes, alcohol and gambling, I recognize that too much of this good thing can be life altering. Cigarettes, alcohol and gambling are all things that are making corporations wildly wealthy and they're not doing this from an occasional drink or an occasional bet, they want these things to be front and center in your life; and once the kind of money that is being made by these corporations is made by a marijuana company you will never be able to go back. That genie will NEVER be put back in its bottle. Marijuana corporations will go public and then the shareholders will want growth and market share and they'll demand the right to market their product to you, and the idyll of the stoner from way back who just wanted to relax at home and listen to a bit of music whilst legally toking a spliff will be far far from the reality. So as an interested observer I say, slow down, take your time and keep this a cottage industry.
38
@Scott
I agree with you, but it’s never going to happen that way. This is America though. Everything needs to be 0-60 in 2.5 seconds.
3
@Scott
How many more people need to be arrested, lose their jobs or their freedom to meet your preferred pace? Honestly this sounds like a genteel Southerner arguing that civil rights should be taken slowly to avoid the chaos of integration.
The good news is that state level legalization without Federal legalization has actually prevented national scale corporate marijuana for the most part and enforced a kind of cottage industry, but whatever this value it’s still a huge civil rights issue.
12
@Scott
So you think we ought to go on with the original idea that marijuana will turn you into a bat? That was stated by the US Official Expert on marijuana. You think that sort of thing is worth continuing?
Just FYI, this has been going on for 80 years. It never made sense.
What good purpose is served by punishing anyone who harmed no one but themselves? What good purpose would be served by punishing even one more person for smoking a joint.
As for the marijuana corporations, marijuana has been a multi-billion-dollar business for decades. You have two choices for who will control the market, make all the rules for production and distribution, and collect all the profits. The choices are:
1) Private industry with appropriate regulations and taxes
2) Organized crime, with no regulations or taxes.
Take your pick. Al Capone would love your opinion.
12
John Ehrlichman, Nixon domestic policy chief: "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people...You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities."
It's so tragic that such a large segment of the population, like those voters in Ohio, still buy into the Nixon thugs' criminal war against innocent people.
3
@Javafutter
You misunderstand the Ohio situation.
The voters there refused the bill as written.
IE. for a monopoly from certain connected crony's and corp.. 58% of Ohio voters wish to pass the law allowing adults to possess and use the drug.
https://thinkprogress.org/why-ohio-voters-voted-down-marijuana-legalization-even-though-they-support-marijuana-legalization-56916cda29d8/
2
I agree with medical marijuana use, and at best (or worst), leave the issue of recreational marijuana use to the states, & leave out the U.S. Govt, which can be an overarching, negative initiative, as much as a potential benefit. Finally, 1). I'm dismayed by social experts like John Hudak at Brookings chiding Biden's conservative centrist views as "almost offensive", or NYU professor/director Vincent Southerland indicating "DEMs not on board with marijuana legalization ... will have a tough time convincing voters they're serious about racial justice" - a too self-assured view of this complex issue being encapsulated only (or overwhelmingly) in political ideology. 2). As to social dynamics & "social justice", espoused by many including Cory Booker and his "Marijuana Justice Act", and the seeming imperative based on "African-Americans 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession vs whites", I seriously ask: if minorities are more likely to be arrested for dealing & possession of opioids including cocaine & heroin, should these latter "hard" drugs be legalized for recreational use? 3). The citing of the NIH on Drug Abuse (6/2018) re: marijuana as a "gateway" to other licit & illicit substances, and "the Majority of people using marijuana do not go on to use other "harder" substances" is misleading, as the corollary is that the Minority % of users DO go on to worse drugs - maybe not at all if no use of marijuana. Other studies DO indicate marijuana problems.
3
@RichQuips
See "History of the Marijuana Gateway Myth". If you tried that idea in any college logic class, it would be an immediate fail.
2
Oh what a wonderful thing to boost your self indulgence.
2
@Fred Vaslow
What is the good purpose in punishing people who have harmed no one but themselves?
1
The so called "war on drugs" has been a complete and utter failure by any measure you care to use. Worldwide it funds drug cartels and terrorist. In the US it has lead to misery and loss for many minority communities for generations. A rational society would look at the facts and decide that managing addicts and their addictions with treatment would be far far better, and even much cheaper. And yet we don't. Follow the money and you will know why.
8
As a resident of Colorado, the bias of your article is appalling. Why have you failed to mention that all of the increased tax revenue and more generated by marijuana sales has been spent on increased policing, first responders and uninsured emergencies? In researching your article, I would strongly suggest you talk to more than the potent marijuana lobby and branch out to those in law enforcement, first medical responders and physicians. We have had several deaths in children less than 4 years old who ingested their parents edibles. Traffic accidents involving those that are "high" have spiked significantly. We are also seeing substantial increases in bladder and head and neck cancers in 30 something year old non tobacco smoking chronic marijuana users. This is entirely related to the high concentrations of benzanthracene and benzpyrene in marijuana smoke. The liberal bias of this article is offensive.
19
@Joe
Interesting.
Could you post some links?
I'll do the same if I find any.
Here are few I found:
This one reports 8 kids last year 'n 9 this year went for medical help. Sedation or agitation were the issues, and one with breathing problems. No deaths noted for the 2yrs. https://www.denverpost.com/2014/05/21/childrens-hospital-sees-surge-in-kids-accidentally-eating-marijuana/
This one says from '09-'15 they looked at 244 children. Avg. length of stay approx. 11 hrs. 0 deaths noted. and no symptoms stated. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27454910
As I only have one link left I tried for the head 'n neck cancers. This one states "No significantly increased risk of head and neck cancer from cannabis use was found in young adults".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2277494/
It would be enlightening if you could post some links to your statements.
Thnx.
5
@Joe
Obvious baloney, without references.
We have had thousands of stores selling it in California for the last twenty years. We have more stores in Los Angeles alone than the entire state of Colorado.
So where are the signs of the Great Marijuana Calamity in California? Colorado is nothing by comparison.
3
Reality Check why does congress need to think about why .Canada has given usa all right reasons to move forward to legalize this an stop crime. Tabacco been legal for how long an still we cant legalize this.Maybe time to vote out stupid an make manditory to vote in usa .
2
Those seeking social justice in legalizing cannabis are seriously misguided. There are no randomized, placebo controlled studies ever published demonstrating real medical benefits to cannabis.
Cannabis and its association with precipitating mental illness is still being worked out but it appears that there is an enormous risk from high THC potency cannabis in precipitating psychotic breaks and schizophrenia in those susceptible.
We are in the midst of an epidemic of addiction. Cannabis is harmful to the developing mind of the adolescent. Up to 30% of those under 18 who use recreational marijuana develop a marijuana use disorder and there is a more than 6 fold increase in later opioid addiction in those who begin in adolescence as "wake and bake stoners" and then go on to chase that next high. In addition, States which have legalized cannabis use have been reporting increased hospitalization for acute psychosis from cannabis in all age groups and pediatricians have noted a surge in hospitalizations for cannabis toxicity in young children who have consumed edibles.
In addition, law enforcement has reported an increased burden in dealing with regulation and enforcement related to black market cannabis sales. These black market cannabis sales have of course not gone into the state coffers, as promised. The money has gone to organized crime. Police have also noted increased traffic fatalities related to driving under the influence of cannabis.
13
sources please.
3
@me
Here are just a few references. Those who wish to dig deeper can check local news releases from CO and CA regarding law enforcement issues. Below are references to studies on later opioid use, damage to the developing adolescent brain, etc
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28946762?fbclid=IwAR3AFQyfv0AQkF7AsNcXIIZyrBEiDJpu-lmKziVhUKsFuXWAWX3xWnac0dk
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/news-releases/2017/09/marijuana-use-associated-increased-risk-prescription-opioid-misuse-use-disorders?fbclid=IwAR2-NMbuPrODVyck9AGrRwX18Z4dadtc1QKEzKEo47PPMcabL2lMcJa4IPI
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6700547/Smoking-cannabis-teens-linked-depression-later-life-damages-brain.html
3
Here is a link to the recently published McGill study demonstrating increased serious psychiatric disorders and suicide in young people who use cannabis
https://publications.mcgill.ca/medenews/2019/02/13/increased-depression-and-suicidal-behaviour-risk-for-young-cannabis-users/
5
Oh, just legalize it already! The Cancer/Cannabis class I took showed me that the biggest boon to treatment would be cannabis based medicine. There are dozens of other conditions that respond to cannabis as well. Our endocannabinoid system is helpful in so many ways, our bodies respond positively to the many compounds pot provides. Cannabis has been around for thousands of years, let's spend our money on something useful instead of arresting every brown person out there.
5
The only reason Dems want to make this drug legal is to tax it. Smoking pot is only going to hurt Dem constituents in the long run, and legalization sends the wrong message. Who has hours of their day to waste smoking reefer anyway? Dems need some real issues to focus on.
9
@Mark
In decades, no one has documented any harms of marijuana. - On the contrary, it is the monstrous, fraudulently-enacted, marijuana prohibition that sends a horrific message.
In all it's 80 miserable years, marijuana prohibition has never accomplished one positive thing. It has ONLY caused vast amounts of crime, violence, corruption, death and the severe diminishing of everyone's freedom!
Marijuana is not addictive, extremely harmful to the body nor a significant cause of auto accidents as is alcohol.
Hence, if you are a beer or wine drinker, you waste more time - and health - and safety - than do consumers of near harmless marijuana.
6
You could not be more wrong. The high concentrations of both benzanthracene and benzpyrene in marijuana smoke have resulted in very real, clinically significant increases in 30 something year old non tobacco smoking, chronic marijuana users (defined as using 4 or more times per week). The tone of your statement is consistent with that of most legalization supporters in that you may be wrong, but you are never in doubt. I suggest you do some research.
8
@Joe
John Thomas is a friend of mine. Whenever I see someone tell him to "do some research" it has always proven true that the speaker had no clue what they were talking about. I have no doubt that he is far better educated on the topic than you are -- no doubt.
Start your reading with Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is the largest and most comprehensive studies of the subject from around the world over the last 100 years. Take a few months to read them all (JT has) and get back to us when you think you can answer questions on the contents.
Not that anything you said would be an excuse for punishing anyone, even it if was correct.
3
It is a monstrous scandal it has taken us this long to stop the insane witch-hunt of marijuana prohibition!
We've known the truth about the near harmless plant since, at least, 1972, when President Nixon's Shafer Commission on marijuana concluded it was less harmful than alcohol and should be regulated as is alcohol. Nixon buried the Commission's work when it didn't conclude serious harms like he wanted.
Later, in the 70's, President Jimmy Carter said: - "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.”
Unfortunately, the reactionary right, with election of Ronald Reagan, stifled justice again! - It is only the massive, grass roots, reform movement and the arrival of the Internet that have been able to get the truth out to all Americans. Now, 68 percent of the citizens support completely re-legalizing marijuana.
It is the understatement of the century that it is WAY past time to end what future historians may call the "American Inquisition!"
10
Speaking of the "social justice" angle on marijuana legalization, lets recall that it was racism - pure and simple - that drove the initial legal prohibitions against pot some hundred years ago.
Back at the turn of the 20th century, marijuana use was associated with blacks (particularly jazz musicians) and Hispanics. As the century progressed, the "pot stigma" shifted to "bohemians", "Beatniks" and finally those "dirty hippies".
In short, marijuana laws were enacted to keep already-marginalized Americans "in their place". As has been noted for most of the last hundred years, alcohol and tobacco are several orders of magnitude more deleterious to public health than marijuana.
But alcohol and tobacco are the "drugs of choice" for the Oligarchy (say the word "tycoon" - and the image is always of an overweight and over-dressed white male with a cocktail glass in one hand and a cigar in the other).
Marijuana prohibition has always been a "Culture War" cudgel used to further oppress the lives of millions of the poor and marginalized - the better to terrorize these entire segments of society into keeping a low profile and being fearful to speak out.
When John Boehner is pro-legalization - it's time to follow Canada's example and just treat marijuana like the weed that it is - natural, innocuous and nobody's business except as a free choice for individuals living in a so-called "free county".
7
You must be kiddin' but you aren't: "Marijuana, With a Focus on Social Justice."
No, it's ultimately about securing votes, especially of Millennials; attracting donations from cannabis investors like Altria; and access to insider stock deals.
And to think, it was originally positioned as legalized medicine for poor folks in need, plus those without access to healthcare who seek to self-medicate. Rebranding, at its best.
I do agree that fewer POC will be swept up in the old WOD.
6
@Stone Plinth
"And to think, it was originally positioned as legalized medicine for poor folks in need, plus those without access to healthcare who seek to self-medicate. Rebranding, at its best."
No, just making the point that it is stupid to punish sick people who have harmed no one but themselves, even if you disagree with their choice of medicine. It illustrates the idea that their personal medical care is none of your business.
2
I've been there. The big problem with weed, is when teens smoke it, or E-cigarette it, it stops them from moving forward. Their motivation drops off. Their focus gets hazy. For every person I know that seems to thrive on weed, there's probably 10 or 15 that are just standing still, myself included. Yeah, I know, anecdotal, but that's just my experience with it. I'm sure most of the other former users have had close to the same experience. And COPD is starting to appear, smoke anything for 35 years and things are bound to get damaged.
13
@BorisRoberts
" myself included."
So this is really a description of a personal problem and the people you hang around with. Guess what? I have never seen anyone roped and tied and forced to smoke a joint by a bag of weed. If you smoked a joint, it is because you voluntarily went out and bought a bag of weed and rolled a joint and lit it and put it to your lips and inhaled.
If only there was some way to control this.
As for COPD, there have been tens of millions of people smoking tens of millions of pounds of pot in the US for the last fifty years. When do you suppose the huge Marijuana COPD Calamity is going to happen?
2
PBR was my gateway drug. I like Haze.
4
This article keeps using the word "drug."
Erm, folks - that's spelled "P. L. A. N. T."
7
"Erm, Debbie," always the name-game player, as many dangerous but useful drugs are derived from a plant: Opium poppy (heroin, morphine, codeine).
A drug by any other name, Debbie. Like plant-based alcohol. Think: Rice, grain, potatoes, cactus, then we move on to tobacco . . . like, plants are sacred?
2
Marijuana isn’t ‘derived’ from a plant like your examples, it IS the plant. Cut the buds off, let it dry out, smoke. No processing whatsoever and as natural as it gets.
5
I see the effects of pot on the eyes of my college students. Nothing good comes out of it. If god must smoke, let them smoke cigarettes. Pot is worse than tobacco.
11
@Rose, 480,000 people die in the US from tobacco related illnesses and disease . 70,000 died from Opioid use. That's nearly a 7 times as any deaths from something that is LEGAL to sell to anyone over 18. How can you say you'd prefer that the students smoked cigarettes? I don't think they should be smoking weed at school age either, but cigarettes and tobacco use are about the hardest to quit addictions that there are.
2
@Rose M
What good comes from punishing people who have harmed no one but themselves?
1
I want to see research into the medical benefits, so that we can better guide its use. I am encouraged to see preliminary evidence that MJ can reduce the reliance on opioids, benzos, and alcohol.
3
@FloLady
Start with Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is a collection of the largest and most comprehensive studies from around the world over the last 100 years.
1
"Legalization is most popular with young adults under 35."
Legalization is also very popular with old adults over 70.
14
I'm in my mid 50's & totally support it. I don't know that age is a factor....
3
I didn't realise that Joe Biden was involved in the racist war on drugs; just another reason to dislike him. Go Bernie!
1
Gross mistake for Democrats to get wrapped up in this. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The stench of the smoke will remind a huge majority of the country every time they smell it who was responsible for the smell. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
11
It smells far more pleasant than tobacco smoke in my opinion and doesn’t linger like tobacco smoke does. Anyways, many people these days are turning to vaping (less harsh on the lungs) and there is no scent whatsoever with that.
3
@Djt
Looks like you are living in 1990, when only 15 percent of the public supported it. Polls now show two-thirds in favor of legalization. You already lost this argument.
1
Please don’t insert social justice ideology into to the debate for common sense pot legislation. Adding social justice ideology is unnecessarily polarizing. And it’s stupid to boot.
14
Are you denying that marijuana policy has been used as a useful tool in the mass incarceration of minorities? One of the biggest issues with the unconstitutional ‘stop and frisk’ policy ordering blacks to turn out their pockets and then arrest them for ‘possessing marijuana in plain view’ because possession alone was not a crime in NY. My friend is a public defender in Queens and this is how they get you ‘walking while black’ and send you to Rikers for months before even standing trial. Wake up!!
4
@Michael
The original explicitly stated purpose of the drug laws was to punish minorities. See Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
1
Marijuana is just as bad for the lungs as smoking and even if not smoked there is evidence it has negative effects on the brain. We have too many young people who are not motivated to do much of anything. Marijuana will only contribute to their problems.
9
@Jonathan
1) See the research of Donald Tashkin. You are flat wrong.
2) You have no clue what it does to the brain.
3) How does punishing people who harmed no one but themselves improve motivation?
1
Yet another micro-issue that democrats are so blinded by. They need to focus on the big stuff, the issues most people care about. Their constant pandering to micro-identities is not only strategically misguided but off-putting for a lot of mainstream voters. At the national level, the will pick up a few votes, from people who will vote for democrats anyway. The rest of them need a lot more substance to convince them to elect a democrat as president. The democrats are running a high risk strategy.
14
Decriminalize private use? Sure. Counterproductive and harmful to put especially young people -- often minorities i- in jail for possession or smoking of small quantities.
Conduct more research on whether the anecdotal evidence of the medicinal benefits of smoked marijuana (as distinct from THC in forms like marinol, which has long been legal) are real? Long overdue. Let's determine, by scientifically valid studies as we do for other medications, whether marijuana is safe and effective. This is a job for the FDA, not politicians.
Add one more psychoactive, habituating substance to those already monetized by large corporations, like alcohol and tobacco? Inhale more heavy particulates into the lungs of Americans? Not brilliant public health policy.
And finally, people do get high on marijuana, which is why they like. Feels cool, right? So how do you feel about driving down the Interstate (like the truck-choked I-81, in my part of the country) knowing that the semi drivers in front of you, behind you, and next to you are getting that cool sensation from what they are now legally authorized to smoke?
4
I believe that a Federal law prohibits long haul truckers from smoking weed.
2
Fear mongering rhetoric alert! Nobody is advocating impaired driving, try staying within the genearal area code of logic.
2
@rungus
Alcohol is the major problem on the road. MJ isn't even a blip on the radar by comparison. There have been thousands of stores selling it in California for the last twenty years. The Great Marijuana Road Calamity never happened. No change at all.
1
People who want to smoke pot, have been smoking it FOR EVER!
Legalize or don’t legalize doesn’t much matter. It’s that simple.
Mostly it depends on who will make a profit from delivering pot to the public.
It’s not like uranium, people grow pot in their back yards,in their closets, in their garages.
It’s a weed, and it grows like a weed. Right on!!
6
Absolutely marijuana reform needs to happen at the federal level.
Without federal action there will be no change in corporate "drug-free workplace" policies which essentially mean sanctioned discrimination against current and past marijuana users. These polices prevent millions of people (mostly black and Latino men) from entering the workforce at a time when the United States has far more job openings than workers able to fill them.
We need to have workplace drug policies oriented toward safety and not just superstitious animus against marijuana and people who use it.
A great example of the stupidity of drug-free workplace is the NFL, which will ban a player for life for using cannabis, but allows unlimited use of a wide range of prescription pain-killers that are dangerous and highly addictive.
42
Back in the 80s, I was offered a job as a machinist, for Lockheed in Sunnyvale, CA. By any definition, it was a plumb job, very good, top-of-the-pay-scale compensation, the best medical benefits, retirements, and working in the Aviation/Aerospace/Defense Industry was, and is, a lifetime job. I never went back. I went to work in another shop, for less money, lesser benefits. Why? Because I couldn't pass a drug test. I knew this, I smoked a lot of weed at the time, and I didn't want to quit, not even for a month, to get what probably was the best job offer of my life. Much like myself at the time, the only thing holding back those guys you speak of, is themselves. It isn't the fact that there is a Federal law about marijuana turning up in your system. It's the fact that they aren't willing to quit to get the job. Not even for a short period of time. I know my priorities were not quite right back in the 80s, actually, they were quite screwed up, but it's the same deal with the guys you were referring to in your response. Nobody but themselves.
6
@BorisRoberts I can understand your perspective. But I still think it's in our country's interest to have as many people as possible employed and paying taxes rather than imprisoned and/or permanently banned from the work force for smoking a joint.
4
Liberal, creative minds develop remarkable new ideas at first ostensibly beneficial to society - then stretch, warp and pervert them beyond recognition. Think about that.
2
@Andy Logar
LOL what?
9
@Andy Logar
You talking about Facebook?
1
More misguided nonsense from seemingly drug impaired democrats.
Focus on transforming underused or abandoned urban brick warehouses or delapidated factories into leafy green vertical farms and tilapia aquaculture centers.
Face climate change heading, create sustainable industries, Feed people, and still collect tax revenues without the ill affects demonstrated so far by smoking your own supply.
Oh yeah. And make it profitable for the entrepreneurs who start such initiatives,
since well we are a capitalist economy.
5
@Told you so
So what's the good purpose in jailing people who have harmed no one but themselves?
I don't see being for the legalization of Marijuana carrying much weight for The Democrats! I think it might backfire in some circles! There are many more crucial issues to rally behind!!!
8
@Counter Measures
I doubt this issue will adversely affect the Democrats to a large degree considering that recent polls have shown around two-thirds of Americans support legalization.
8
“In the black market, they do not ID — they do not care — as long as they can make that sale.”
That's why "legal" weed -- highly taxed and regulated and overpriced -- will not supplant the black market. Take $50 of marijuana and tax it up to $200, with the bonus of maybe being busted by the feds if you sell it "legally," and you've given the cartels and street dealers no incentive to look for different work.
4
As a doctor I am adamantly opposed to anything that helps create a marijuana industry, which like the alcohol industry, only cares about profit and does not pay for the medical, legal, and social costs of the enterprise -at-large. I’m supportive of decriminalization but universal legalization will encourage corporate profit at the expense of society.
The last thing we need is more intoxicated people- particularly ones who drive cars. It’s common for me to be riding my bike at night in Washington State and notice cars passing with marijuana smoke flowing out the window. This is disturbing to say the least.
As an independent centrist, this issue is one of many reasons I feel politically homeless. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s extremely unlikely for any candidate to win the Democratic nomination without supporting federal marijuana legalization. I’m resigned to this but still hope to be mistaken!
58
@Doug M Obviously you know little of the industry you comment on & this common thread of those opposed to a marijuana industry leaves many asking, why?
Why do people refuse to study the compounds contained in marijuana? You assume it's effects are similar to alcohol & yet nothing could be further from the truth.
On a side note, how many prescriptions did you write last week Doctor?
24
Do you prescribe opioids for pain and other controlled substances for anxiety? Because that’s the real drug problem in America. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s good. All in moderation.
23
@Doug M
Dr., It’ll be alright. Have a beer.
13
I am a white, female senior citizen with "social anxiety," and various other limitations because of long-term effects from early childhood sexual abuse by my father. Since medical marijuana was legalized in my state, I began using it for arthritis pain. As it turns out, it has greatly improved my life in general--I can enjoy long walks, evenings out with friends, and calm afternoons, which previously had been impossible. And I don't get "high." It's a wonderful medicine and should be universally accessible at least as such.
20
@sRh
Now you’re rockin’ grandma !
4
@sRh
A doctor friend of mine did extensive research on medical mj patients in California. He found that your basic story was found in lots of med mj patients, particularly those who had hard drug abuse problems.
He concluded that lots of medical mj use is actually for anxiety-related disorders stemming from bad childhoods. His research found a high incidence of absent natural fathers, early diagnoses with things like ADD, ADHD, and PTSD, various problems in school, and early use of multiple drugs.
For those who had a hard drug abuse problem, 90 percent greatly reduced their use of hard drugs and ten percent quit completely when they took up the regular use of med mj. It gave them the anxiety relief they were seeking without messing them up so badly that they could not function.
You are not alone.
@Wolf Man, THANK GOD, hard drugs never got a hold of me. But the medical mj has greatly increased my ability to breathe. I don't have the reference, but I was recently told of a study on mice using THC : the mice were divided into 3 groups based on age (young, middle, old) and tested after a dose of THC. The younger mice did worse on the test, the middle aged did the same, but the older mice did better. I'm not a mouse, but it seems to fit.
Regarding Sen. Kamala Harris and marijuana: It was hardly reported, but unequivocally a fact, that as attorney general of the state of California Kamala Harris allowed her deputies to threaten the medical licenses of practicing physicians who discussed the medical uses of cannabis. I know this only because it happened to a friend of mine--an 80-something-year-old physician who was a past president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. Desperately needing to work, because he was an internist who'd never been in medicine for the money and had suffered financial reversals, he was working part-time in a (legal) medical cannabis dispensary. He was asked by its owners to appear in a video discussing the medical--not recreational--uses of cannabis and did so. For this "crime," in the eyes of the office of the attorney general, my friend's medical license was threatened. I know this for a fact because I sat and read the paperwork my friend received. Eventually the problem went away, but not before causing my friend much anguish. It's not funny, Sen. Harris, not funny at all, the way you joke about cannabis now.
11
Democrats need more candidates and more voters to realize that the key to the next election is to win! Single-issue candidates and single-issue voters must open their eyes and minds to this plain fact or our power will become so diluted that we will hand the government over to Trump and the Republicans. I understand that some of the issues that these people want to address are worthy aspirations, but not at the cost of losing control of our government. Please, please, please. Don't go down this path!
2
When did Colorado move to the coast to be a "leader in legalization?"
All this talk of pot has made me think that I'll go have a bit. Brought back from Colorado two years ago.
3
As a transgender queer woman who made over a quarter million dollars just as a cannabis consultant and equipment maker last year, I can say that the cannabis industry is very accepting of diverse people, as long as they have knowledge about the industry.
I've been in the legal cannabis industry since 2012. I worked for 7 years to get to the position I'm in now. I've won multiple awards and been in several documentaries (Including Mary Jane's, the Women of Weed). Ive put my entire life into this industry, and I deserve the place I've earned.
Creating some sort of mandatory social justice program in cannabis business ownership is just going to end a meritocracy that allowed people like me to succeed on the merits of our intelligence.
I met last week with a whole group of people who ran multimillion dollar cannabis businesses that were interested in the equipment company that I build myself. How many 30 year old transgender women own multimillion dollar companies that they started themselves? Probably very few. Only in cannabis could someone like me succeed.
I earned my place in this industry. If someone is given a place like mine just because they are POC or even LGBT I would be very sad. American capitalism rewards hard work and merit. It should stay that way.
Cannabis should he legalized on it's own merit, not as a pathway to social justice. I'm all for expunging records, but I know some want to have mandatory ownership quotas, and I'm not for that.
6
@Jacqueline, I’m sticking to beer, thanks just the same. But you go . . . .
1
In the racial debate over marijuana legalization, everyone should keep in mind that driving under the influence is a crime for everybody. White and black, there are a good number who smoke in their cars. Heck, i’ve even seen smokers at my local car wash.
4
@michjas
And we have had stores openly selling it in California for the last twenty years and there has been no Great Marijuana Calamity on the roads.
Turns out it just isn't much of a real-world problem. Worry about alcohol, instead.
1
Why would people who don't smoke marijuana, imbibe "edibles," or don't want to start a marijuana business be interested in legalizing this drug for social use? I just don't see the benefit. We should instead be using health initiatives to wean people off drugs, use alcohol responsibly and stop smoking tobacco altogether.
"Ms Harris, a former attorney general of California, who is black..."
Please stop with the lies. i know she is pushing that narrative but a news article should at least be accurate. A person with an Asian mother and a mixed race father is not black.
4
@Lynn in DC
I know. The 18th Amendment worked so well. Let's try it again.
4
How do you test for stoned driving when it can be only testing urine? And how do you test women ?
It’s in your system for 30 days. And it impacts memory.
3
@Harvey Jones
If you’re a regular smoker, it may impact your memory but it does not impact your driving.
And some people think it makes sex better.
3
@Harvey Jones
Ordinary roadside sobriety tests work for everything. If you can't walk a straight line, it doesn't matter whether it was alcohol, weed, or cold pills.
Yes, it impacts memory, but not enough to show up in any demographic differences in profession or income. And even so, do you propose jailing people to improve their memory?
Re: "...Marijuana buds being stripped from stalks in Denver. Public opinion has changed swiftly in support of legalization since Colorado became the first state with legal recreational cannabis..."
it's kind of difficult to take the (so, called), 'drug war' seriously!
In my 22 years as an EMT-1St. Responder / 17 years as a Paramedic, A.C.L.S.-1St. Responder, the 'problem' drugs of choice were nicotine, (addiction; slow, agonizingly, torturous death), alcohol, (addition potential; similar slow agonizing death), and prescription narcotics;
So why do we have all this utter, nonsense, re marijuana??
18
@R.G. Frano
Marijuana was outlawed for two major reasons. The first was because "All Mexicans are crazy and marijuana is what makes them crazy." The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana -- exactly the opposite of the modern gateway idea.
The US Official Expert on marijuana testified in court, under oath, that marijuana will turn you into a bat.
See Historical Research on Drug Policy on the net, or see Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
In two of the biggest cities in the US, (at least) the majority of the people who work in police are not white, mirroring the demographics of those cities. So the ideas that a non-white police let white pot smokers go and jail the blacks is ludicrous, and pure propaganda to hide other realities. We would like a more accurate reporting on this. While I am against sending people to jail for smoking pot, I against legalizing it.
4
@Alexgri
Precisely. The two officers who responded to an emergency in my aunt's apartment were black and Pakistani.
When young black men go to jail for possession of marijuana, it is likely that there was something else happening that caused them to be stopped. And it's not because they were walking while black.
4
@Alexgri
The original purpose and use of the drug laws was to punish minorities. The very first laws made it illegal for Chinese to deal in these drugs, but white children could still buy them in stores. The racial origins of the law are just a fact. See Historical Research on Drug Policy for numerous histories on the subject, along with lots of original historical documents.
For modern stats, see the Sourcebook on Criminal Justice Statistics, US DOJ. In particular, look at the last thirty years of reports.
" While I am against sending people to jail for smoking pot, I against legalizing it."
So leave the entire consumer market intact for a multi-billion-dollar industry but guarantee that all the production, distribution, and profits are controlled by organized crime.
That was the same basic plan as alcohol prohibition. Al Capone loved it. Other people, not so much.
"In 2015, Ohio voters overwhelmingly defeated a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana."
A little context would be nice here. Voters "overwhelmingly defeated" a sleazy referendum that would have divided Ohio's entire marijuana industry among six well-placed and connected individuals, already rich (obviously). Voters in Ohio wisely saw through the cynical referendum for what it was – yet another way for the rich to enrich themselves. So they didn't vote against marijuana, they voted against oligarchs being oligarchs.
I expect more context and less lazy writing from The New York Times.
6
Joe please no! Amy and Sherrod get a grip or go home! President Trump is an existential crisis he must be defeated or Red Dawn 3 will not be a movie.
No Democrat will win the election without the Urban vote. Winning the Suburbs will not matter if you don't turn out the Cities. How do you turn out the Urban Vote, you say "I will End the Racist War on Drugs and pardon all nonviolent drug offenders." Biden & Hillary will never win the Presidency because Urban voters are not stupid they will never vote for someone who has tried to lock them up, esp Biden whose own kids are drug users but he was a leader of the "War on Drugs."
1
How is it that the same groups who are concerned about GMOs, air pollution, environmental toxins, Prop 16 warnings for pretty much anything, etc, are lobbying for MJ acceptance? The components of the plants are not standardized, and there are little or no consistent data regarding, by example, the impact of MJ components on fetal development, mutagenicity, lung function with chronic use, or the potential to alter neural development in adolescents. Science ought to drive policy, not opinions.
39
@LTJ
You don't have a choice when it comes to internalizing environmental toxins and the other things you mentioned. People should be able to choose. Legal Mj allows choice. Choice is freedom. Conservatives need to embrace patriotic American freedom.
10
@Badger,
But it's not a personal choice that affects only the user. There are the same (or worse) concerns as with tobacco sidestream smoke. The same concerns as with alcohol and drunk driving. And unknown but conceivable medical implications for others, as with fetal alcohol syndrome. The fallout is not like ited to the consumer.
2
@LTJ The data you seek does exist in the more than 25,000 studies we have on cannabis. Please do a little research.
1
Every state has gone about legalization the wrong way. Not one state has made a vetting process to screen-out unhealthy and poisonous weed. There are dangerous chemicals used to grow Marijuana that should never be ingested or smoked. Before a state legalizes or decriminalizes marijuana it should be tasked with creating an agency that sets strict standards, setting scheduled processing rules and then inspects and “test” all strains of marijuana before they can be sold or given to the public.
I will predict that if no state standards are set and enforced then people will get harmed, fatally or injured, and the dispensary and the county and state will be held accountable and sued in court. I would also be for state governments to run CoOps that set-up outlets that sell only approved products.... much like the beer and alcohol is sold in Canada. This keeps out organized crime. As such Organic/sustainable Marijuana is the only way to go together with State sanctioned outlets. But anyone can be a grower and be a member of the CoOp who meets these safe growing and manufacturing standards.
25
@SenDan
You obviously know nothing about how Colorado monitors its grow houses. The pot that winds up in the dispensaries has been tracked since it germinated. Batch numbers, RFID chips in the stalks, security measures of every kind. Organized crime? Not. At. All.
And why in the world would a grower poison his customers??????
You really need to learn of what you speak about before you do.
24
@Jus' Me, NYT And why would cigarette manufacturers kill their customers?
2
@Chris Oh, please, Chris, pay attention. Tobacco users are harmed by the chemicals already in tobacco, not by what's added.
3
Missouri voters passed a constitutional amendment that makes legal the sale of medical cannabis but the Republican General Assembly is doing nothing to advance the will of the people. Anheuser-Busch is no longer a US company but still hold great sway in the MO legislature. They see legal - even medical - cannabis as a threat to their alcohol sales. Until someone arrives with more money for the grifters in Jefferson City, NO WEED FOR YOU!
3
It is a big mistake and should not be seen as as social progress. Marijuana is not the same as alcohol. It’s liable to lead to regular smoking and stinks in a large radius around the user. Been to Amsterdam lately?
Moreover, white entrepreneurs are now rightly or wrongly taking over a source of income, there’s a racial component to it too that few are willing to address.
2
There is one thing the liberals and conservatives should agree on; that in order to cope, a person should be able to use coping mechanisms such as pot. We are living in a horror show called America, and one needs to have a release. It's about time we grow up and stop ruining people's lives, while costing millions for incarceration. Marijuana is a class A drug? Give me a break. Let's use the tax money from pot to fix things.
41
I'm saddened to think this is a so called social justice issue when there is so much evidence from medical and behavioral health care professionals that legalization will promote an increase in social problems. Read the literature on legalization and its impact on vulnerable children now at risk in high numbers for vehicular injury or mistaken use of edibles. Talk to the counselors who attempt to help life long pot heads decrease use. Address the consequences of smoking unfiltered pot daily and its impact on lungs. Sit in on a Pot Anon meeting and listen to the psychologic dependents who can't quit daily use. Talk to coop owners in cities who now must vacate and sell - due to the skunk like scent permeating the halls and apartments, not to mention the public streets. I imagine the numbers of democrats who will grow weary of political correctness and rethink shifting to a a conservative republican mindset. Legislation and careful research before legalization. I think our nation's youth deserve prudent research to think through use in a mature fashion.
34
@Mike Frank
Yawn. Been argued, done argued.
Downsides? No doubt. Some minor, some not so much, but NONE like alcohol.
If adults choose to use pot - especially instead of drinking - it's an adult decision. Everything done in life has negative consequences.
And it's not like pot prohibition was worked so well, has it?
16
@Mike Frank
We have had thousands of stores openly selling it in California to any adult who wants it for the last twenty years. When do you expect the Great Marijuana Calamity to finally hit?
If you want research, see Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is a collection of the largest and most comprehensive studies of the subject from around the world over the last 100 years.
It is obvious that you have never read any of them, so let me give you the summary: The marijuana laws were based on racism, ignorance, and nonsense, and the laws do more harm than good, no matter what you think of marijuana.
3
@Mike Frank
Sure, but fix the prescription/opioid problem first. It’s a far larger demon.
1
Marijuana can lead to alcohol abuse? No, lack of marijuana can lead to alcohol abuse.
I have never hid the fact that I am a person who uses substances -- in my case, I was introduced to marijuana at age 18, and remained an avid consumer my entire adult life.
Until I hit my 50s. My connections dried up and suddenly I was unable to score. A cohort quips that he didn't give up pot, pot gave up him.
And so it is. Call me unresourceful ... but to fill the void, I began experimenting with alcohol on a more or less full-time basis. You can guess the rest.
Still, I maintain that I am not at heart a problem drinker. I am a stoner. If and when weed is legalized, you just watch how fast I'll throw the bottle down.
I recently turned 60 and would like nothing better than to see the NORML dreams of my youth come true. Can we put on some speed, please?
25
@Brian
Totally agree. Weed is a healthier addiction than alcohol. Let's afford our fellow stressed-out citizens a non-liquid release.
2
Cannabis is the most useful, versatile plant humans have discovered.
As a medicine, it has unique symptomatic and even curative benefits, and virtually zero lethal dose toxicity, making it more effective and safer than the Big Pharma drugs and alcohol it competes with.
As a recreational and entheogenic drugs, it offers far more diversity, enjoyment, spiritual benefits and lack of toxic effects compared to alcohol and other competing drugs.
People who say it should be strictly controlled so kids can't get at it are conveniently blind to the fact that kids can get at jet skis, guns, over the counter drugs, Roundup, ATVs, junk food and many other things that a free society allows.
Klobuchar and others who refuse to support federal decriminalization are out of touch with reality and the founding fathers.
Jefferson and Washington grew "hemp" that had THC. Today, they'd be considered federal felons.
32
To add to the social justice debate, drug testing. Drug screens test for metabolites left from THC. Many days can go by after actual impairment, and you may cross the positive threshold for THC. Workman Compensation insurance wants post injury or accident drug screens as a tool to deny a claim. Transportation workers are held to a moral standard, not an actual no impairment standard on the job. Considering most other drugs, including alcohol, are not detectable after 24 hours, I'd say there is a double standard for THC.
3
Harris and Biden are going to embarrass themselves trying to get on the right side of history. Harris has already called herself a “cop,” so idk why any self-respecting liberal would trust her with criminal justice reform. Likewise, Biden will have to answer for his mid-90s racism. I don’t think either one can make the pivot. I think Biden is avoiding entering the race because he knows that as soon as he does, his poll numbers will plummet.
2
Marijuana takes away good and bad stress alike, and that effect lasts many days.
A bigger layer of non self-reflective zombies without mental strength is not what we need.
3
@Liz
You're sooo right!
We need a bigger layer of self-reflective, stressed out non-zombies with mental strength!
Makes total sense.
So is/was that the effect cannabis had on you?
What was being a non-reflective zombie like? Did you eat brains? No mental strength must have been tough. You didn't write comments during that time...right?! At least you weren't stressed out though.
It lasted several days? Dang, my weed only gets me off for a couple of hours. Unless I eat some. Then...oh boy! BRAINS!!!! I go crazy with the reflectors, let me tell you. Scares the crud out of my neighbors.
1
Mock all you like. I’ve lived for decades in Belgium and the Netherlands where I have seen what long term use does to some people.
People here are rushing this through and have no idea what the effect on society will be when the industry starts to promote and market these products like alcohol.
4
Yes there are some people who really should not use weed. However, many of us can use it in moderation with no problem. there is a very large portion of the population who really should not drink alcohol at all but we all acknowledge at this point that alcohol prohibition was a mistake.
1
A critical component of the case for legalizing marijuana lies in a discussion of the human drive to self-medicate and the appeal of altering consciousness. In the context of our "opioid crisis", it seems clear that marijuana offers a benign alternative for treating chronic pain, along with showing promise for a range of difficult psychiatric maladies. The real problem lies in the difficulty (impossibility?) of securing patent protection for its pharmaceutical iterations, combined with the fact that a motivated gardener can "manufacture" good quality pot in a closet with a small investment. The human attraction for altered consciousness lies at the foundation of many social customs, not to mention a wide range of primitive superstitions. The rituals surrounding the use of psychoactive substances date back throughout human history. Those customs & traditions that we accept in the context of our dominant culture are perpetuated as religious belief conveying truth and moral superiority. We dismiss near identical practices grounded in less familiar cultures as superstitions, indications of ignorance & evil, justifying repression through punishment. An understanding of the deep hostility that some individuals harbor for marijuana lies far outside objective fact. Demanding a reexamination of the spiritual foundation of their values is beyond the intellectual reach of most American voters. Hopefully they will acquiesce to the obvious justice of legalization in any event.
2
Vaping has increased exponentially during the past year in our local middle and high schools. Teachers tell me they are hard to detect, even when infused with THC. Society is now sending a message to young people telling them yet another mind altering substance is acceptable. "Recreational" marijuana?. In an already dysfunctional educational system? What could possibly go wrong?
21
@Steve
What good purpose is served by punishing anyone who harmed no one but themselves?
You don't know the subject. Read Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy and come back in a few months when you can answer questions on the contents.
6
@Wolf Man smoking pot while raising children is like drunks raising children. It's wrong and it harms someone. Why the denial?
The policy on legalization of cannabis should not be determined by social justice advocates nor pandering politicians but rather by scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Why not start the discussion with studies of how THC affects the developing brain? On the capacity of pot addicts to join the productive society?
Voters who trust scientists on climate change should also trust them when it comes to people who study personal and social repercussions of chronic pot abuse.
37
@Kai,
Many such reports have been done for decades. Here is a well known on done 50yrs ago by our gov.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafer_Commission
It concluded that cannabis did not cause widespread danger to society. It recommended using social measures other than criminalization to discourage use. It compared the situation of cannabis to that of alcohol.
No one is saying adolescents or children should have access to cannabis. It would also be silly to think they don't already have availability to said product if they wanted to partake.
The most dangerous aspect of Cannabis use is interaction with our law enforcement and the judicial system.
While we continue to wait for incremental advancement millions are being penalized, stigmatized, harmed and killed.
We've been waiting. This isn't something new.
18
@Kai
"Start the discussion?" That horse left the barn many years and many research projects ago. Where ya been?
13
@Kai
How about you start by coming up to date with the research that has already been done?
First, read all the references under Historical Research on Drug Policy so you understand why the laws were passed. It didn't have anything to do with any of your concerns at all.
Second, read Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is the full text of every major commission report on the subject from around the world over the last 100 years. They all say the marijuana laws were based on racism, ignorance, and nonsense and marijuana prohibition does more harm than good, no matter what you think of marijuana.
It is obvious that you have never read any of the basic research. Start by watching "Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way", the four-hour History Channel special on Youtube.
The only people who post your kind of comment are those who have never seen or read any of that.
11
As a democrat I am turned off by the talking point of marijuana legalization as social justice without considering the effects of widespread normalization of marijuana use. We have an addiction epidemic killing 72k last year and yet the candidates are more interested in marijuana possession arrests (which rarely get jail time). It is really about rich white men getting richer from marketing what Carnegie Mellon researcher Jonathan Caulkins calls a "performance degrading drug" in the form of youth attracting gummy bears and vape products and parents bearing the costs when their kids drop out of college due to low motivation. The National Academy of Sciences 2017 report concluded " Cannabis use during adolescence is related to impairments in subsequent academic achievement and education, employment and income, and social relationships and social roles." This is not a recipe for social justice for our children and most of all marginalized groups. An arrest is not a good thing, but a marijuana habit does not help a person reach his/her full potential. But I have not heard 1 candidate say there is a downside to marijuana use.
49
Why are you so preoccupied with this when alcohol is literally neuro-toxic and a cornerstone of representations of high school social experiences?
Marijuana was not criminalized because of the plant itself. It was criminalized as a means of social control. Trying to frame this as a health debate and not a social justice issue is disingenuous. But feel free to keep clutching your pearls.
23
@lynn
States that have legalized have actually seen a decline in adolescent use.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/colorado-s-teen-marijuana-usage-dips-after-legalization/
That "rarely" is the kicker isn't it. People still do time.
They are also denied many programs for a simple conviction. Such as student loans, housing, career employment etc.
“Among reasons the legislature voted to remove the criminal penalty for possession of a small amount of marijuana and make possession a civil penalty was the long-term negative impact a criminal record has upon individuals and their families, including loss of housing, loss of employment, denial of student loans and other barriers to social well-being,”
The funny thing about this performance degrading label is that it is often a banned substance because it is seen as performance enhancing drug.
https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/wada_anti-doping_code_2009_en_0.pdf
No one is pushing cannabis use towards our children. Sure, some makers in a Capitalistic economy will do so. Thus regulations and laws.
Still the most dangerous aspect of cannabis use is interactions with our law enforcement and the judicial system.
13
@lynn
In short, you don't know the subject.
First, read the references you will find under Historical Research on Drug Policy. You will find that the laws were the result of absolute lunacy. Do you believe that marijuana will turn you into a bat? The US Official Expert on marijuana said so. That's how much lunacy.
Read Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is a collection of all the major studies of the subject from around the world over the last 100 years, including the largest ever done by the US Govt. Bottom line -- marijuana is not a serious threat to health or public safety and the laws do more harm than good.
11
I can't support legalization without stringent, enforceable laws that ensure that 12 and 13 year olds won't have easy access to pot- as someone who used pot recreationally through my teenage and college years in the 60s and 70s, I believe the difficulty of getting it kept me developmentally safer and more productive than would have been the case otherwise....I don't support jail time for pot users, but this isn't just a social justice issue..
8
@Dennis Holland
First, the biggest single cause of drug epidemics among US children over history has been anti-drug campaigns. The first example was the huge teen drinking epidemic during Prohibition. Prohibition was passed with a campaign of "Save the Children from Alcohol." It was repealed with a campaign of "Save the Children from Prohibition." There are numerous other examples.
Federal surveys consistently show that kids report that it is easier to get illegal drugs than the legal ones - exactly what was experienced during alcohol prohibition.
Second, California passed Prop. 215 in 1996. That law actually allows anyone of any age to get medical marijuana if they can convince any doctor to give them a letter for it. In addition, there have been thousands of stores openly selling marijuana in California for the last twenty years. Nearly all of these stores have been completely unregulated and the only person making the rules for entry and purchase is the store manager.
It is as "Wild Wild West" in terms of marijuana as you can get. As one funny example, they busted a 55-acre marijuana farm in plain sight right near major Hiway 99. It's totally out of control. So much so that the cops gave up trying to enforce it twenty years ago.
Despite the free availability of completely unregulated weed being sold in store fronts with big neon marijuana leaves in the window, use by teens has dropped.
1
So you’re happy you didn’t have easier access during college etc... doesn’t that speak volumes for the need to keep it illegal?
What is the age of consent to pollute your brain? Just because a voter wants something doesn’t mean it should happen...
2
Make no mistake, democrats are pushing for two reasons: tax revenue and votes. The first is obvious as well as very regressive. The second is more subtle. They want a new generation of drug users who will be unemployable and thus hooked on government welfare programs and become voters for the party which promises them the most government handouts. Without a welfare dependent class of voters they have no base. I just wish someone would ask Cuomo "What would you tell your children if you found them smoking marijuana?" These politicians are the definition of hypocrisy.
14
More proof that right-wing opposition to legalized cannabis is not motivated by policy or legitimate disagreement. It is a near-religious obsession that requires an elaborate conspiracy theory to prop it up.
9
@peversma
Wow, a blind and delusional statement on so many levels.
First of all, I started using cannabis after being run over by a car and hooked on opiates, and it's a fantastic medicine.
As an athlete, I can use specific types of cannabis meant for exercise and bicycle 50 miles, swim two miles, do hours of yoga, box, etc.
I work full time and use the strongest, most potent cannabis on a daily basis. And there are hundreds of thousands of productive, healthy, cannabis users like me.
Your archaic reefer madness slagging of cannabis users is just as pathetic as when Jeff Sessions said "good people don't use marijuana."
Get a clue!
5
@peversma
So tell us why marijuana was outlawed in the first place. Got any clue at all?
Before you say something silly, read all the references you will find under Historical Research on Drug Policy and watch the four-hour History Channel special "Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way" on Youtube. At the moment, people are laughing at the old nonsense you posted.
5
Millions of deaths per year due to tobacco and alcohol. Zero deaths per year from cannabis. Biden's war on drugs didn't work, it's time for change and legalization.
30
Zero deaths from ? Last i checked it’s a tobacco just like cigarettes. And at the very least a cause of demotivating and stunting ones abilities to function normally.
2
@Jacquie. How convenient that you ignore the increase in automobile accidents and crime rates. Looks like Dems are out to create a nation of Zombies.
1
@Jackson How many car accidents are caused by alcohol per year and how many killed?
4
Some one should make sure that Joe Biden sees this article. It may be an issue that he could use to secure the primary by swaying young voters from Bernie Sanders and other nominees.
3
"African-Americans are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though rates of use are similar."
This is a statement that often appears in the press without challenge. It's used to imply, or openly state, that the police across the country selectively enforce marijuana laws against black people while if the offender is white they look the other way. Is it even true? How do we know? If it's from a public survey, how valid is it and has it been replicated? If rates of use by race really are similar, could it be that African-Americans are more likely to smoke in public, while whites more often do it behind closed doors and so are not observed?
If the social justice argument is to be used to justify the legalization of a psychoactive drug there needs to be mare substance behind the assertion that it's a remedy for endemic police bias.
9
@PWR
The original purpose of the drug laws was to discriminate against minorities. That is plain historical fact. You can read lots of references under Historical Research on Drug Policy, or see Hooked; Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way, the four-hour History Channel special on Youtube.
As for your question on the stats, the major source is the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics.
For research on whether legalization of marijuana is a good idea, see Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is a collection of the full text of every major study of the subject from around the world over the last 100 years, including the largest study ever done by the US Government.
They all say the same thing -- the marijuana laws were based on the worst kind of racism, ignorance, and nonsense and they should have been repealed long ago because the laws do more harm than good, no matter what you think of marijuana.
It is obvious that you have never read any of that. Can you tell why?
6
@PWR
C'mon.
A search brings up answers in less than 2 sec.
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/aclu-thewaronmarijuana-rel2.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/10/12/every-25-seconds/human-toll-criminalizing-drug-use-united-states#
3
@PWR
Agree, never believe any numbers these guys come up with. I personally would be surprised if anyone in the last few years has been arrested for possessing small quantities of pot.
A whole bunch of people can't follow the laws, so let's just get rid of the laws. That's what seems to be the message with "social justice."
Here in Missouri, we were told that black people were "disproportionately" racking up tickets for things like driving without a license or driving without insurance. So what did our legislature do? Essentially neuter the laws that require people to be safe, responsible drivers and remove any threat of jail time. It's now cheaper to pay the fine for no insurance than to actually have insurance, and there are basically no consequences for an uninsured driver if they hit you.
To be clear, I am 100% in favor of nationwide legalization. And I don't think anyone should be in prison for marijuana. But Democrats should be very careful using "social justice" as their core message on this issue. For many Americans who are more moderate in their views, that term is just another word for lawlessness.
22
@shstl
"A whole bunch of people can't follow the laws, so let's just get rid of the laws. "
If more than half the US population is committing some crime, then you are going to have to look for Plan B, just because you can't jail that many people.
There has been an active campaign to educate people on the issue for about thirty years now. It was the very first political campaign to use the Internet. You can educate yourself by going to the primary resource and seeing what the arguments actually are. See Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy, and Historical Research on Drug Policy. You should have been here in 1993. At that time, there was some real opposition to legalization and only 15 percent of the public supported it. So the arguments have been winning.
6
@Wolf Man - Clearly you didn't read my entire post. I AM educated and I support full legalization. I just don't think trying to push it though under the banner of "social justice" is a good idea.
4
Let's compare the devastation caused by legal opiods vs. MJ. The evidence is clear. MJ is not addictive and you cannot overdose on it. the tens of thousands of deaths and the huge expense to cities by opiods make it clear where the danger lies. Despite clear evidence that legalization does not result in increased underage usage (see Netherlands stats), in fact it goes down, the government has continued to drag its feet. Perhaps it is because there are no lobby groups to pay the pols. Our politicians are feckless and lack leadership.
21
A hugh lobby exists pushing the story line that opiods were never addictive, nor dangerous, and they never knew they (opiods) coud be.... WHo told us that and when? and where are we now? No! it is not the cigarette industry...., sorry they did also but.....no it was not the alcohol industry.... sorry they did too but... alcohol and cigarettes were not a national health crisis when they told us.... oh, sorry ......yes they were but we beleived them too when they told us, until it was really, i mean really a national health crisis......and opioids..... no they are a national health crisis which we should have known about!!!! It is yet another example of big business protected by government and those science deniers/climate change deniers who think there was reasonable doubt!
Oh, one more thing..... 4 out of 5 dentists surveys think sugarless gum is important------ and we truly beleive them too!! i guess gum does not have the same addictive return on investment as alcohol, cigarettes, opiods worth fighting against. Lets tax weeds, regulate it, study it and the NIH level and learn as much as possible! It cn not ever be as dangerous as all of the opiods on the street.....today! Today being on Sunday March 17, 2019. How many people will die directly from opiods today, from cigarettes today (and related health issues), and this country's absolute biggest national health crisis.......alcohol. How many people will die TODAY (St. Patty's Day) from alcohol related deaths?
1
You’re article wrongfully describes Ohio’s rejection of legalization as a characteristic of the “less progressive” nature of the Midwest, when in fact the bill was rejected because it called for a few specific corporations to control the industry (guess who wrote the bill?!). One of these companies has John Bohener in the board. Even the legalization backers rejected the bill. The midwestern states want to see marijuana legalized just legalized in the right way.
13
If it’s stays illegal, you continue with a black market, with organized crime and gangs involved. Just because marijuana use is against the law does not mean no one can get it.
With legalization you still have use, but you remove a huge cash flow from the gangs and organized crime. You get lower court costs, lower police costs and lower prison costs. You move abusers from the criminal justice system which taxes pay for, to the medical system, and get insurance companies to pay the costs.
It is easier and cheaper to legalize and regulate and tax.
6
Efforts to legalize cannabis on the federal level in the US creates an opportunity to shape the way cannabis will be produced through policy. Establishing guidelines for nutrient management, responsible pesticide and fertilizer use, as well as organic certification details should be established along with legalization efforts. Fair labor practices including overtime, a living wage, and healthcare should be provided for workers growing, harvesting, and processing cannabis. If legalized this will provide an interesting opportunity to reshape an agricultural system through federal policy as legitimate cannabis production has not existed for very long in the US. By working towards a just, profitable, and low impact agriculture system for cannabis a model for the entire food production system to follow could be created. Most food is grown in a way that is dependent on inputs such as synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in addition to fossil fuels and exploitative labor practices. Addressing flaws in agricultural production first with the legal cannabis system, viability could be perfected before applying it to the entire whole food system.
7
The most important part of legalizing weed will be to legalize growing it for personal and communal use.
This will allow people to truly know what they're actually consuming, to grow a product they can enjoy at their leisure while avoiding the overly potent strands that have developed over the years, and to get the product they want without contributing to the drug trade.
Free and easy should be the way forward for all garden produce.
14
@D.A.Oh
^^^THIS~!^^^
Spot on.
2
Another policy that will come back and bit the DEM's ... I'm all for decriminalizing. Not full legalizing ... no problem with medical use.
I remember too many kids from my youth affected by pot (1970's) .. and pot alone. One of my closest friends was never the same after he started smoking ... it's a drug with the ability to affect young minds. No thanks ,,,, Plus, pot is much stronger today.
Nope ... bad idea.
5
@GT
"Not full legalizing"
So you want to leave the consumer market intact but guarantee that all the production, distribution, and profits are in the hands of organized crime. That's the same plan we had with alcohol prohibition. Al Capone loved it.
" ... no problem with medical use."
I have heard lots of people say this. I have never heard even one of them who actually knew what the difference between "medical use" and "recreational use" is.
Suppose we have two people sitting on the couch smoking pot. They both claim they are "medical" but we know one is not. How do you tell the difference?
1
While no drug is completely safe (you can die overdosing on aspirin), marijuana is far safer than either alcohol or tobacco. Both legal (taxed!!!) drugs are lethal & physically addicting. Alcohol has the added disadvantage of being behind much of the spousal abuse, traffic deaths, & bar fights. Nobody high on marijuana is going to commit a mugging to get drug money or beat their spouse. Maybe they might argue over the last spring roll at the Chinese restaurant or who should go out for pizza, but that's about it. Is marijuana safe? No - virtually all drugs, legal or otherwise - have at least some deleterious effects. But, think about this. Before Nixon & the DEA shut down funding & access to marijuana for study to anybody not claiming they were trying to prove the dangers of the drug, the University of Washington did some interesting studies. Getting non-drinkers drunk & testing them in driving simulators produced disastrous results. Taking long-time drinkers, confident they could drive under the influence ended up producing the same results. Taking non-pot-smokers showed deleterious effects on the simulator (though not nearly as bad as drinkers). But, to the researchers' surprise, experienced pot smokers did very well. They had learned to compensate for the two major effects of pot on driving - estimating distance & speed. They had developed of glancing at their speedometers every 30 seconds or so & learned to allow more space when passing or turning out of a driveway.
7
I'm a liberal Democrat. I'm against legalizing it except for medical purposes. I'd also raise the drinking age to 25. There are so many people driving and crossing streets in front of cars who are totally distracted already. I don't believe that everyone who would use pot buys it now illegally. There are just people who are clueless on how to find things, or afraid of dealing with criminals, who'd be enabled by these laws. If you're going to make it totally legal, make the DUI laws much tougher and enforce them seriously. I don't want to make people who are doing something that in itself isn't a serious crime into criminals. I just don't want to spend the rest of my life on the roads with them being high. If you think states are going to strictly regulate the sellers and inspect them, LOL, similarly with preventing criminals from controlling them or laundering money through them. I worked in federal regulatory agencies and "partnered" with state regulators on a lot of things. The state regulators tended to be smart, dedicated people who were grossly underfunded and understaffed. All they [don't] need is a massive new industry to cover.
3
@Carl
They've been with you on the road your whole life.
Just as they are your neighbors, your grocer, your plumber and your president.
The studies are in. The great experiment in the states is conclusive. The sky didn't fall, the world didn't get over run with stoned zombies.
It will be ok. You'll be fine.
3
@Carl
" I'm against legalizing it except for medical purposes."
LOL. I have been seeing people say that for years. I have never met even one of them who could accurately define the difference between "medical use" and "recreational use". Let's try you.
Suppose we have two pot smokers sitting on the couch smoking pot. They both say they are "medical" but we know for certain that one of them is not. How do we tell the difference?
Let's assume this is California where all that is required to be legally "medical" is a letter from a doctor that costs fifty bucks, takes fifteen minutes to get, and is never refused. How do we tell the difference?
Get some perspective. First, find out why the laws were passed in the first place. You assumed there was some good purpose. There never was. See Historical Research on Drug Policy or watch the History Channel special "Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way" on Youtube.
If you are worried about the roads, all the stats and research show that alcohol is the major danger and marijuana isn't even a blip on the radar by comparison. Do we arrest all the alcohol drinkers just to deal with those who are stupid enough to drive drunk? Why not?
2
It's time for Pres. Trump to listen to his friend Roger Stone and how legalizing marijuana (not its sell) could help with securing our borders.
3
Uh, no. In most of the country it's about doing what the voters want. In New York its about directing money to large campaign contributors. See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/nyregion/marijuana-legalization-african-americans.html. Its sad how since Cuomo Jr. took office, getting anything done in New York requires a payoff.
7
Legalization (at least as implemented in Mass) is to cannabis as internet porn is to sex - it takes the magic away. No more secret alchemical knowledge, just another commodity. Florida tomatoes.
Bigfoot has been captured, dissected, and forced to pay income taxes.
9
Social justice here in New York we stopped suspending students, arresting fare beaters, locking up people who urinate drink or commit other acts all in the name of social justice give me a break how about demanding people just act civilized. According to the FBI date over 89 percent of violent crimes were committed by minorities in NYC perhaps as matter of social justice we should stop arresting people for those crimes also. By the way I am african American and I want people locked up to protect me and my family and my quality of life
19
@EAH
And you think marijuana has something to do with violent crime? I have news for you. Even the DEA gave up that argument thirty years ago.
See Historical Research on Drug Policy. The marijuana laws were passed specifically for the purpose of discriminating against minorities. That's just a historic fact, not my opinion. Or see, Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way, the four-hour History Channel special on Youtube.
The laws never had anything to do with protecting public health and safety.
2
@EAH
And it was okay for James Blake to get jumped on and beat up by a plain clothes cop as he was waiting in front of his hotel to go to work as an announcer at the US Open a couple of years ago? Because that protects you and your way of life?
2
@EAH
You might be black or you might be saying that you're black; but I do think that the responses to your post are unfair. The fact is that we have indeed stopped enforcing certain laws that tend to be broken by a subset of black people.
I do not see middle-aged, middle-class or poor looking black people going through subway gates and skipping paying the fare; I do see (some) young, laughing black men doing so.
As I say, a subset. But they will lead this city into chaos if their bad habits are not controlled. They are not evading fares or behaving badly in public or breaking laws because they are poor, or because they are black, for that matter; it's because they've been badly trained by parents who had them and then abandoned their upbringing to overworked grandmothers, school teachers, social workers, and the police.
1
Oh, bravo. More drugs in the black community.
Why not a concerted effort to get young people to stay in school, study like crazy, and become engineers and doctors?
Social justice my foot.
25
@B.- I went to an elite prep school in the early 60's and an Ivy League university in the late 60s. I smoked pot steadily that entire time & experimented on occasion with other illicit drugs. Yet I maintained an Honor Roll A average in Prep School, got a perfect 1600 on my SAT English & Math tests, & maintained a top 4.0 GPA through college.
Before the Nixon government stopped funding and access to marijuana for studies to any group that was not dedicated to "proving" the dangers of marijuana, extensive testing was done at the University of Washington. I still have a number of the studies in my files. Perhaps, counterintuitively, one experiment gave Stanford-Binet IQ tests to students when they were straight & then repeated the tests the next day when they were high on a measured dose of THC. The students actually did better on average on the tests when high. Who'da thought it?
Be careful not to mistake correlation with causation. Drugs (at least pot) are not necessarily the cause for failed children in poor neighborhoods. They are, part of the culture of the streets & gang-bangers, not the cause of it. Crack & heroin are different stories, but don't blame marijuana. On the New Jersey Turnpike cops are much less likely to stop white drivers for drug checks. But the percentage of whites found to have drugs is pretty much the same as the percentage of blacks & hispanics. The cops are merely selectively stopping more of them.
7
@B.
President Obama, like Nobel winner Bob Dylan, smoked pot. Didn't exactly torpedo their careers. Steve Jobs? Later than you think B.
6
@B.
The drug laws were passed specifically to punish minorities. If you can read, see Historical Research on Drug Policy. If you can't, see Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way on Youtube.
3
Though I do not support Beto O’Rourke for president, he makes a trenchant observation in suggesting that legalized recreational marijuana might actually DECREASE the frequency of use among minors, insofar as a legal market may well help to dry up the black market minors depend upon for their supply.
20
@Dennis Smith
There have been thousands of stores openly selling it in California for the last twenty years. Use by teens has dropped since that happened.
1
1) I hope it will become legal at the federal level. It's smart policy. It corrects a racial and class inequity. But mostly I hope when the government controls the marijuana trade, they develop and sell strains that do not smell like puke mixed with fermented garbage.
2) Stop going after candidates for old policy positions. People can change their minds. Evidence and studies help policymakers change their minds. Many of us who are pro-legalization now, were probably against such a move 20-30 years ago. Not because we were evil. Not because we were cruel. Not because we hate people of color. Because we erroneously thought given the evidence at the time that that was good policy. Democrats need to stop eating their own in this manner.
12
Democrats own this one. In 20 years, people will remember it largely as a Democrat supported push to legalize.
4
Ohio voters, by and large, voted against the Marijuana bill due to the law's infrastructure, not the outcome of legalizing marijuana. It was a ridiculous bill giving the power to grow and distribute to a few wealthy individuals.
12
I have already voted with my feet on this issue and I think so have many other people. I bet that all the people here are condemning legalized marijuana, 95% of them drink alcohol and would freak out over any kind of suggestion that alcohol use should be illegal. total hypocrisy as these people jealously guard their Vice wow trying to keep yours illegal. I spent five days in jail in Idaho after the police obtained a search warrant, searched my house with a dog, and found five grams of marijuana. I plead guilty to the charge so that the prosecutor would not charge my wife. A few months later, I moved to Oregon. best decision I ever made. And not because of just the weed.
35
@Paul
Your story is unfortunate and you are correct that prohibition of marijuana is no different than that of alcohol.
Where I differ from marijuana enthusiasts though, is their potrayal if it as a panacea for social, medical, political, and financial problems. Alcohol comes with many warnings as do tobacco products. Although legal they are widely perceived as vices.
There is however, a political element to the marijuana legalization movement that will make future warnings (if any), invisible.
2
@Paul
In certain areas of Idaho there is lots of pot but the ones arrested are usually blue collar or Hispanic. Not the wealthy main users. And when I read the reports of drunk driving arrests in the Wood River Valley, usually not the a-listers! And the people there I knew of who ODed on drugs were trust fund "kids."
5
@Pantagruel
Just FYI, it was the "legalizers" who first published all the major research on the hazards of marijuana. See Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy.
Huge progress in a short time. Remember Bill Clinton - "I didn't inhale"?
Still a long way to go. I was watching a documentary on TV about some Mexican indian tribe, a long time ago. They showed childrens bones from being sacraficed for false gods, etc.
In the future, more enlightened people will look back on out era the same way. Throwing our people into jails and subjecting them to a myriad of hassles because of lies and stupidity about pot, an actually life enhancing substance.
15
Not to rain on this legalization parade--but at several gatherings where I have bumped into psychiatrists---who politically were liberals---voiced concerns about their experiences treating patients who used marijuana---especially at a younger age. They see a distinction between the effects of alcohol and pot---with pot leading to a variety of psychotic disorders. Although I have never used marijuana, I believed it was much like alcohol and so why prohibit its use. I wish the media would give more attention to what specialists are saying---again, based on my limited survey---this issue deserves a closer look.
20
@Amanda Jones
We have had thousands of stores openly selling marijuana to any adult who wants it in California for the last twenty years. There are about 1,000 stores in Los Angeles alone.
Actually, teen use is down since the law passed.
When do you suppose we will finally see some evidence for the Great Marijuana Calamity?
And, supposing you were correct, how does jailing anyone help with psychosis?
6
@Amanda Jones
This is my concern ... don't care what an adult does as long as they keep it away from me. My concern is the long term affects on young brains. This is not a new medical concern -- also wonder why it's not widely reported.
4
@Amanda Jones
Maybe it was the other way around. Psychotic disorders lead to excessive use. And how large of a percentage of the population uses antidepressants or sleeping pills? I think the drug companies are afraid of losing customers if they can "grow their own" and smoke a joint or eat a brownie!
9
Just some facts:
1300 people die per day using tobacco.
From the CDC, 88,000 die per year from alcohol usage.
Marijuana deaths are close to if not zero per year.
Why are the feds against full legalization? Looking around, we see the prison-industrial complex feeds off these antiquated laws. Funding for the DEA could decrease, police must arrest, attorneys must prosecute and defend, for-profit prisons must imprison, and big tobacco and alcohol would have competition. Just think of all the jobs and profits that would be lost. All this goes away with legalization.
Nixon launched the 'war on drugs' for political reasons. Tragically, he used the criminal justice system for this 'war' instead of our public health system. It's way past time we corrected this error and removed these antiquated, racist, and unjust laws from the books.
51
@Cal Page Worldwide, the death toll from alcohol, directly and indirectly, is three million people each year.
3
Either legalize weed, or go back to banning alcohol, which is far more damaging a nd dangerous. No half measures.
27
The moral panic around pot is ridiculous. Compared to alcohol, the stuff is a walk in the park from a health and safety perspective. We've had legal pot here in Canada for some time now, and society hasn't fallen apart.
Anyone who thinks pot should be illegal should check their own vices; do you like a drink or two? Or a cigar? If so, you really don't have the moral authority to talk about pot prohibition.
39
I know from personal experience that people do get addicted to marijuana. I also know from personal experience that prohibition does nothing to deal with this issue. I do not have to love pot to think that legalization is the only way forward.
10
I don’t understand how a state like New Jersey can consider the legalization of marijuana and put such a socio-economic wrench into their legislation. With $42/ounce tax on weed, who thinks those in lower income brackets are not going to shop black market marijuana. It’s another white mindset in state congress.
9
“In the black market, they do not ID — they do not care — as long as they can make that sale.”
On the black market, your word is all that you’re worth. Repeat business is about reliability, and a sale doesn’t matter if the perceived risk is too high.
In our regulated, capitalist markets, the compulsion to produce ever-increasing quarterly earnings result in an almost inexorable corruption, and the customer tends to bear the brunt of it.
Regardless, any politician claiming to support legalization should be expected to elucidate why it matters. From wrongful incarceration, to patients’ rights and medical treatment, to individual, civil liberty concerns.
The continued prohibition of Cannabis has no rational justification. Whether it’s legal or not, it will be cultivated, sold, and used. That much should be clear to even the staunchest of human Paraquats.
9
This is half the story. The other half is the need to shift from treating addictions as criminal justice issues to treating then as public health matters.
A public health approach will require that we shift resources from law enforcement, like the DEA, to public health.
We also don't want a market free for all for drugs that can and do cause serious harm. But there are models to build from, Portugal for one.
Marijuana and other drugs have become like alcohol was during prohibition. Alcoholism didn't really diminish but crime associated with bootlegging skyrocketed. The same has happened with marijuana. It's time for a change.
7
Yes. Companies are going to make money and governments are going to get lots of revenue. Neither is a reason against. Legalize it and regulate it.
12
Don't forget Illinois in discussions of Midwest legalization initiatives. We have a new governor who campaigned in favor of ending prohibition, largely on the basis of what's discussed in this article. No one is counting votes yet, but everyone - including the deadender opponents of legalization - all agree it's inevitable soon.
Yes, the usual crowd is wringing their hands over this, arguing that legalization will set off a tidal wave of bad outcomes, from kiddie access to deranged driving (as was front page and considerably misleading news in the Sunday local fishwrap today.) The problem with such theories is that they rest on the belief that prohibition is currently keeping people from getting cannabis.
And that is nothing but nonsense.
Anyone who wants cannabis can get it, regardless of age. What legalization will do is severely restrict such underage access.
As for driving, I've been using cannabis for medical reasons for decades. I'll put my safe and unblemished driving record up against those of the handwringers fearing the worst. Mine is most likely better than theirs is driving stone cold sober.
They did change IL law so you now have a numeric threshold that must be passed to be legally guilty vs the old standard where any trace would get you a DUI. However, that is an entirely arbitrary number and not supported by science. Studies have shown there is no such consistent measure of impairment associated with cannabis, so that needs sorted out to be just, too.
8
"In 2015, Ohio voters overwhelmingly defeated a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana."
If you're going to refer to that vote, then you should provide the context for it.
A small group of investors wrote and backed that referendum. It would have amended the state constitution to give those investors a monopoly on marijuana cultivation in the state. Important pro-legalization groups declined to endorse the referendum, and the vote became just as much about special interests trying to give themselves monopolies via the state constitution as about marijuana legalization.
12
I’m all for decriminalizing marijuana in most instances, but it’s far from clear how it should be managed from a public health perspective. Given a long history of stringent federal restrictions, there’s limited scientific study of the various cannabinoids, their effects on brain development in adolescents and young adults, long term health effects, appropriate medical uses and precautions, and the proper measurement of levels in impaired drivers.
There may be great promise, but let’s not let folks, especially those with a monetary stake, oversell the available science.
The racial justice angle deserves full support. Non violent marijuana offenses should be expunged and full civil rights including voting and access to federal and state programs restored.
Most national and many regional Democratic politicians in the era of the war on drugs, an effective wedge initiative begun under Nixon, were forced to the right on drug policy. There was a very limited constituency for decriminalization or any ‘soft on crime’ stance. We’ve come to know better, but mostly blame Republicans for the harshness of earlier years.
4
@Michael Tyndall
"I’m all for decriminalizing marijuana in most instances, but it’s far from clear how it should be managed from a public health perspective. "
Actually, no. See Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. That is a collection of the full text of every major study of the subject in the last 100 years from around the world. It includes the largest studies ever done by the US Government, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
Also see Historical Research on Drug Policy for numerous references on how we got to this point.
If you read it all, it will become clear that we could simply eliminate all mention of marijuana and cannabis in the laws and we wouldn't have any real problems that could not be handled by other, more general, laws already in place. We could repeal every law with no replacement and society would go on much as it has.
1
@Wolf Man
I think most of the studies mentioned in your references concerned themselves with the legality of marijuana and the prudence of aggressive anti-drug policies. With those I'm probably in agreement.
But we've never had widespread legal use in this country, particularly with the potential for misleading advertising and massive profits. We already have numerous health claims that various herbs and supplements 'promote' health with no scientific substantiation.
I'm mostly arguing for caution and study as to the societal and public health consequences as we enter an unprecedented era of highly potent marijuana use.
1
@Michael Tyndall,
Actually, cannabis use was noted in the US before the 1700's. Some historians believe the Jamestown settlers brought cannabis to the United States in 1611.
It has been in the medical books since...forever. The oldest known written record on cannabis use comes from the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C
Weed historian and legalization advocate Dale Gieringer pinpoints the key date to Aug. 10, 1913, when a new regulation quietly took effect from the state Board of Pharmacy that added “locoweed” to the state Poison Act.
So...some 300+ yrs. of widespread legal use in this country.
The most harmful aspect of cannabis use, is the interaction with our law enforcement and the judicial system.
1
The Democrats jostling for the 2020 nomination are pandering for votes at the behest of small voting blocks and not the bigger picture of the country.
Oddly the tax revenue states think the will collect may diminish as neighboring states legalize recreational use. Which brings up another question if states will impose new laws to circumvent the loss of revenue if people purchase weed from another state?
3
@MDCooks8
The money saved taking cannabis criminalization out of the judicial system and law enforcement will save states billion$ of dollars.
Legalizing make sense even without the tax revenue.
1
"Cannabis unites the Democrats?" The issues of social justice are legitimate, and one could easily argue that regulations surrounding cannabis should be similar to those for alcohol, yet one hopes the Democrats can find more important issues to unite them. The nation needs leadership and direction, not better highs at less risk with fairer consequences. Although we need to help the many people, mostly of color, who were cruelly, unreasonably prosecuted, Americans waste a lot of time on largely symbolic politics.
4
@Ima Palled
An estimated 55 million Americans currently partake of cannabis. Over half of 'merica has tried it.
That is an awful lot of voters, if not just constituents. Legal jeopardy for them and or their family or co-workers etc. is a big concern.
Symbolic?
Seems to represent our current Republic to a tee.
And such and easy fix too.
So...no not so symbolic for many it would seem.
1
Just as it's apparently not only possible but not all that difficult to get opioids other than through a physician, prohibition primarily diverted billions of dollars to criminal enterprises domestically and internationally. That's the case with cannabis. Every youngster whether they participate or not is aware of how and where to score. As is the case with guns, in the inverse, the legality of ownership is principally a politically protected financially lucrative boondoggle. Social justice would seem to something that's easy and right to embrace. It hasn't been. Institutions have been built on the assumption that some people will be victimized and trampled, not so collateral damage, in order to survive. Enshrined protection and the extension of rights to women, racial and religious minorities, non-binaries and the disabled and abused had to litigated for decades to emerge. This country is evolving, Cannabis legalization appears to be having it's American moment. There are a lot of formerly oppressed people, whether they intend to indulge or not, that should embrace the extinction of cannabis prohibition. If white men did not support them, their oppression would not have ended. Pay it forward. Besides, who doesn't enjoy relaxing after work with his intoxicant of choice.
4
The immediate step should be to remove cannabis from the DEA's list of Schedule 1 drugs, a category which includes heroin. Schedule 1 identifies substances deemed "The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical treatment use in the U.S.". However 33 states, plus D.C and four US territories, permit medical use of cannabis. Therefore, this criterion for Schedule 1 can no longer be applied to marijuana.
26
Oregon has many times higher numbers of homeless people than the national average. You have to be blind not to see how bad it is traveling Oregon streets and highways.
I think Oregon's cannabis sales should include an additional tax for helping the state's huge homeless population. What say you Oregon legislators. If you can be the first to help the environment by taxes on container sales, try saving humans with a tax on cannabis sales.
4
I've long favored legalizing recreational marijuana. Beyond the liberty dimension of the issue, as a matter of equality, the law should not come down harder on one race than another.
That said, it is unfortunate that this article uses the term "social justice." In decades of college teaching, I've found no one who can give me a clear definition, criterion, or principle by which I can distinguish acts that partake of "social justice" from those that don't. For many, it seems to come down to Justice Potter Stewart's famous definition of obscenity in the 1960's: "I know it when I see it."
I've thus concluded that the social justice mentality is a religion, a cult, which philosophy cannot penetrate. If I ask for the kind of definition referenced above, the typical answer is "that question is inconsistent with the social justice agenda." This is smoke and mirrors used to cover up the fact that we insist on the protection of the civil rights laws (which command nondiscrimination against "any person") when the interests of the races, ethnicities and gender we favor are at stake, but toss them aside when other tribes' interests are at stake.
I'm a lifelong liberal democrat, and hope the Dems in 2020 can hold the House and gain the Senate and White House. Yet when I reflect on how dishonestly the social justice establishment operates, I understand how so many people could have been so put off by the left in 2016 that they either voted for Trump or stayed home on election day.
11
@John
The political use of the term "social justice" is like the term "fairness". It means different things to different people and therefore produces circular arguments.
1
This democrat is against legalized marijuana. Marijuana is quickly becoming the nuisance smell on sidewalks in California that cigarettes once were. Politicians who support legalized marijuana are showing their true values — which are not mine. I’ve admired Cory Booker for many years, and Kamala Harris in more recent years, but their blind support of the Green New Deal (good intentions but far from perfect) and legalized marijuana have removed them from my list of contenders. Legalized marijuana is a money grab. At a big farming event here in Sacramento several years before marijuana became legal, many of the sponsors and displays were companies positioned to make a ton of money if it became legal.
61
@Mom 500
"At a big farming event here in Sacramento several years before marijuana became legal, many of the sponsors and displays were companies positioned to make a ton of money if it became legal."
Most of us refer to that as capitalism, and we prefer that drug sales and profits are legal, licensed and taxed, rather than controlled by illegal drug cartels whose second largest profits are the human misery they traffic in.
68
@Mom 500. Making money from new business opportunities in agriculture! The horror!
16
@Mom 500 With respect, sensitivity to odors is quite personal. I myself despise and hate auto and lawnmower fumes. I like the smell of good cannabis. If you stop mowing and driving in my air, I'll stop exhaling reefer smoke in yours. Also. if you are against a 'money grab', what do think of the entire modern medical profession? And our so called 'president' and his cronies? What are your 'true values' that you espouse?
44
Living in state with legal cannabis (California), and in one of the top cannabis producing regions in the nation, in my opinion, federal legalization can’t come soon enough. This prohibition has a huge impact on business.
Because cannabis is illegal federally, cannabis farms and businesses can’t have bank accounts, leaving them vulnerable to theft and other crime due to large amounts of cash changing hands. And there is always the fear that despite playing by our state’s rules, the feds may come and tear it all down.
But the biggest issue that national politicians should have their eyes on is the inability of individual state markets to participate in the global cannabis economy at this time. Cannabis is a huge economic opportunity for not only our individual communities, but our nation as well. Each year we don’t legalize, we are left further and further behind nations like Canada, who are fully legal. Tax money from cannabis sales can revitalize our crumbling infrastructure and economies.
Let’s not be left behind! Follow public opinion, legalize it, allow American businesses to participate on the world stage, and correct the generations of injustice in the criminal justice system while we’re at it.
111
Legalized marijuana is a microcosm of the conversation to be had.
As Senator Harris pointed out, the war on drugs is a failure. But like most politicians, Senator Harris failed to elaborate and stuck to the politically opportunistic subject that is Marijuana. But the conversation should not just be about Marijuana but the entire realm of prohibited vices.
Take the recent prostitution scandal that has put people like Robert Kraft in the spotlight. For me, I don’t care that Kraft went to get a rub and tuck. What I do care about are the human beings that are tricked into coming to the States in hopes of living a better future all but forced to live under horrendous conditions and become sex slaves.
This is a humanitarian issue that needs to be talked about. And the root cause of this issue is the prohibitory laws that create an environment ripe for the black market. A black market that will never end by means of war.
29
@Kyle
As you state it is our unrelenting warrior approach to most issues that is problematic.
Mother Theresa said when asked about the "war" on drugs campaign responded by saying, she wanted nothing to do with any kind of war.
2
Canada legalized pot less than a year ago and already its become a non issue. I personally have not witnessed any spike in usage, nor have I read a single complaint from citizens about the impact of legalization on their communities. We made pot boring.
152
While I'm a proponent of legalizing marijuana, I don't believe this is enough to galvanize voters who the Democrats desperately need to vote this time around. Talk to me about pivotal issues like predatory healthcare or our crumbling education system. You know, things that we need at a physiological/safety levels. But what do I know? I'm 28, so as NYT pointed out, I will be voting for Beto because he's around much age group and that's apparently very important to me, for some reason...
12
We are setting up a health crisis that will take effect in about 20 years. We didn't learn our lesson from tobacco and now we are legalizing another drug to be smoked. Look at the American Lung Association and the Centers for Disease Control for the effects of smoking anything. This is a dumb idea and huge mistake.
20
@Bruce1253
Unlike cigarettes, marijuana can be consumed as a drink, a pill, a tincture, in edibles, tea, and more. And these products are regulated and provide common dosage information.
The trend is not in smoking. This is because of the few funded research programs focusing on the wide variety of medical benefits of marijuana.
I invite you to do your own research . There is no parallel to cigarettes in the modern world of marijuana especially medical marijuana.
14
@Bruce1253
We have already had thousands of stores openly selling the stuff to any adult who wants it in California for the last twenty years. Nothing much has changed. Where are the signs of the Great Marijuana Calamity? Do you expect it to hit in maybe ANOTHER twenty years?
But let's assume you are right. How does jailing someone protect their lungs?
13
@Bruce1253
All the data at the CDC is based on tobacco, not smoking "anything". Given that the US Govt has, and still does, surpressed research on cannabis smoking , hysteria isn't going to win the day on this issue. Driving on cannabis also seems to be a non-issue and a comparison to alcohol impairment isn't yet possible.
5
"Spokesmen for Mr. Biden, who has told aides he is 95 percent committed to getting into the presidential race, did not respond to requests for comment."
Joe, as a Democrat, I'm hoping that the 5 percent convinces the 95 percent that you should stay home. Let someone with a younger and more progressive mentality, like Bernie, lead the way!
9
@Barry
How is Bernie going to compete with Trump if he can’t compete with Biden?
I'm a Democrat who completely understands the reasons to legalize marijuana, but I find the movement to be very sad nonetheless.
People are salivating over their get-rich-quick schemes. I remember the Times doing a story last year - or has it been two or three years? - over two how-rich-and professional- and- attractive-can-I-look young women partnering to give "exclusive," luxurious marijuana tours of Colorado. It was sickening.
It is appalling to see John Boehner, former Speaker of the House, advertising his marijuana investment group.
Yes, I smoked when I was younger, and I stopped because I didn't like what marijuana, hash, or whatever did to me or my friends. It made us stupid and lazy; it greatly affected our ability to drive a motor vehicle; it warped our judgment about what was important and what was petty; it interfered with our ability to have relationships. And it's so easy to go from smoking a little to smoking every day - every time you feel kind of bored, uneasy, in a funk, or unmotivated. Somewhat like the person who needs to drink every day, but the marijuana today is definitely a lot stronger
than it used to be.
It sends the laziest, most superficial message on earth to our kids.
56
@SCZ
It boggles my mind when someone says something like (your words): "every time you feel kind of bored, uneasy, in a funk, or unmotivated."
This is what drugs, recreational or therapeutic, are for. Altering consciousness and mood. The reason we use them is they are useful. I drink coffee and I view cannabis, even the new stuff, the same way.
26
@SCZ
We have had thousands of stores openly selling it in California for the last twenty years. Some have big neon marijuana leaves in the windows so you can't miss them.
Sorry, but none of the calamities you fear has happened. If it made you and your friends lazy, that's your personal problem. I seriously doubt that the marijuana made you go another bag and lay on your couch without a lot of voluntary action from you.
Did you think that throwing people in jail for smoking pot would give them more motivation?
20
This is what the Democratic candidates want is to dumb down voters.
Personally I think Senator Kamala Harris should be drug tested because she is still smoking since laughs a lot at inappropriate times.
3
As an investor in the sector I believe it is essential to reverse the racial inequalities perpetrated by the useless 40 year war on drugs. And racially proactive laws and regulations need to be right up front in that process.
7
All well and fine, until the moment they suggest that minorities should be awarded preferential access to marijuana business licenses. Equality should always be the goal. The sort of equity spouted by social justice warriors is anything but.
3
" “In the black market, they do not ID — they do not care — as long as they can make that sale.” ` Beto
Beto doesn't understand how the black market works. Neither do, it appears, any politician. There is a gold-rush mentality that will not be supported by consumers.
Once legalized, we expect a massive price drop across the board, rendering states' money projections laughable. If not we will persist in the black market and home-grown resources.
After all these years of being ripped off by criminals we will not countenance being ripped off by our political criminal class.
4
Some problems with the article are as such,if it sounds too good to be true. The governor of Colorado has always held his convictions in great reserve.The facts are ,yes Middle school age youth ,teens in general are the largest growing user group ,parents take notice.Statistics reveal there are driving problems associated with use. Low level crime ,especially theft is becoming astronomical in city environs,simply click on any realty sites and go to crime area percentages.Where Black youth are ,reading and writing has become nearly non existent in schools and those that haven't closed yet. Making it legal ,will never make it free,in fact ,prices are continuing to rise because there is a tendency for users to progress to higher grades of potency and therefore cost once they develope a tolerance.This becomes a very ,expensive habit quickly. Since users often cannot get hired ,the money has come from somewhere.This process also leaves the job market open to more immigrants who perceive druggies as stupid ,in a nation where it's easy to make a living by playing it straight,
@Alan Einstoss
I'm still looking for the snark tag?
Did I miss it? (sigh...facepalm...headshake...)
C'mon, somebody else's turn to correct.
Bueller? Bueller?
Here, I'll start: The fastest growing user group is the aged. https://www.newswise.com/articles/view/665869/?sc=dwhn
Teen use is down in states that have legalized.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-02-14/teen-pot-use-fell-in-states-that-legalized-medical-marijuana-study
Next?!
1
@Dobbys sockDon't believe every thing you read. Clinton had a 95% lead the day before the election.
@Alan Einstoss
Agreed.
Thus the reason I looked up studies to rebut your screed. One that was lacking any proofs to back up your assortations by the way.
While we are here, I'll rebut another: Prices are dropping in legalized states.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/05/05/wholesale-marijuana-prices-are-plunging-in-the-us.aspx
https://www.coloradopotguide.com/colorado-marijuana-blog/article/marijuana-prices-in-denver-and-colorado-spring-2017-update/
By the by...I was out spoken that HRC wasn't a shoo-in. I repeatedly wrote here in the NYT Sanders polled better against trump.
But then again, Individual #1 is a crook and a grifter. We all knew he would cheat. Just like his wives know. He is what he is.
1
Prohibition of alcohol ended in 1933, but that did not lead to the release
of Al Capone from Alcatraz. Doing something you know is illegal and frequently involves violence and weapons should not get you out of prison when the law changes.
During my miss-spent youth, the illegal trade in marijuana flourished in Oakland. In the Black parts of town you could fairly easily buy some dope on certain streets. I never saw or heard of a white dealer who sold outdoors. I’m sure it happened, but it was relatively rare. You don’t need a warrant to bust some one on the street. It’s much easier to get arrested if you’re selling on the corner.
It was also relatively rare to see white kids smoking dope on the street. My friends and I tended to go smoke in the regional parks in the hills. Pretty much impossible to sneak up in you there. We were much harder to catch, we were much more worried about getting busted. I don’t know why that was so.
Were there racist cops in Oakland? Sure l, but they had no love for dope smoking hippies either. Different behavior leads to different outcomes. This is true for selling dope and for getting an education. Different outcomes alone are not certain evidence of racism.
From a very limited sample, more Black parents than white parents oppose legalization. Seal records of nonviolent offenders with a marijuana possession conviction. Possession for sale of large amounts? Arrests involving a weapon? Not so much.
4
@Michael Haddon
" Possession for sale of large amounts? Arrests involving a weapon? Not so much."
So leave the consumer market intact but guarantee that all the profits go to organized crime -- the kind of criminals who carry guns?
Remember Al Capone? Same idea.
@Wolf Man
I was referring to sealing the records for prior convictions. I'd favor that for those convicted of possession of small amounts. One or two ounces, back in the day.
I recently moved into a room in a shared house. The man renting next door smokes pot. It gives me a headache. As a "liberal" who otherwise supports social justice causes, what protections would i have against this exposure to a substance that makes me sick? I can't imagine living in a world where every other fourth person is smoking pot, where i get constant migraines.
32
@Frea
Cigarette smoke makes me sick. It is also accompanied with far more health complications than marijuana. However, I have no protection that would prevent me from smelling the smoke other than no smoke zones that they have in public places. Get over it.
9
@Frea
It's no different from tobacco smoking. This is dealt with here, in Canada, by prohibition of smoking any substance within 30 feet of a doorway, be it cigarettes or pot. Common sense should prevail.
15
@Frea You could befriend your neighbor, explain the situation, and ask if they would be willing to try more vapor or edible products. They are just as, or more, effective and do not cause odors or headaches for those nearby.
As a past recreational, and current medicinal user, I would have zero problem with this request-- and be happy to meet a friendly neighborhood who came to me with their issue, and an easy compromise, instead of holding me in contempt and complaining to the landlord.
Also, you will not be getting a world where more people use marijuana, just one where they are using it, legally.
In fact, legalization has caused less young people to use it. The thrill is gone.
4
Correction - Washington was the first state to legalize cannabis. Both CO and WA voted to legalize on the same day but the law took effect in WA before it did in CO.
@James
Actually, California did it in 1996. Prop. 215 said it was legal for medical purposes. The only requirement for medical purposes was a fifty dollar letter from a doctor. California has had more stores openly operating for longer than any of the other states. There have been roughly a thousand stores in Los Angeles since about 2000.
1
Did I miss any mention of Tulsi Gabbard, who came out early for national legalization?
3
A majority of voters in Utah passed a well crafted Medicinal Cannabis ballot initiative. Our Utah legislature ignored the will of the people, rescinded the initiative and passed their own incomprehensible version.
2
Yes! As our ship of conditions of human life on planet Earth goes down, from gaping growing holes in the hull from climate change and collapsing biodiversity -- by all means, candidates of D for Diversion to Deck chairs, reposition the marijuana Deck chair as our ship goes down.
On the tombstone of human civilization and life on Earth, the biggest D will be for terminal Dumbness.
4
... and yet all of them favor a prohibition on firearms
... a "War on Guns".
Hypocrisy anyone?
2
@Ray
Exactly how does marijuana corellate as a mass murder tool?
1
@Marshall
> Exactly how does marijuana corellate as a mass murder tool?
They don't.
Marijuana could be potentially harmful (that is debatable).
Firearms are, as you stated: a tool.
That a relative handful of people use that tool to commit murder and mayhem is not the fault of the millions that own them without incident.
As you read through the opinions of those that advocate the legalization of marijuana, you should ask yourself if the points being made could just as easily be applied to the liberty to own firearms.
Not only does prohibition fail to solve the problem that it was intended to solve, but it creates new ones in the process.
It is really sad that in the “land of the free” founded in ideas of a right to liberty and pursuit of happiness, people have to conjure up sloppy mostly mythical scientific claims about medical benefits and post-modern intellectual “social justice” ideologies to just let people do what they want with their own mind and body. Isn’t freedom even an argument with the American left? Is “liberty” a dirty word?
2
@KBronson
WE had this argument in the movement about thirty years ago. The fact is that, while you may be perfectly correct, and I may agree with you, the issue of control of your own body is not really an issue at any point.
In the first place, even if everyone agreed with you and changed the law to match, it would not make any difference with drug arrests. You see, the legal offense occurs when you acquire the illegal drugs, not when you take them. It is irrelevant to the law and the arrest whether you actually take them.
In the second place, "I have a right to smoke dope" does not convince anyone. In fact, it is often interpreted as meaning that you think you have a right to do whatever, even if it hurts someone else. That's not what you said, but that's what they hear.
Therefore, even most of the Libertarians abandoned that argument many years ago. It should work, but it doesn't.
1
@Wolf Man
I don’t use marijuana and never have, but it’s prohibition does in fact affect me. I can’t carry much cash because the police may steal it as “drug money”. I am sniffed over by dogs and may get searched on a dogs behavior. It affect my other freedom. What other people do always has some effects beyond them and might logically be used as a reason to deny pretty much any freedom. Denying other people liberty also affects everyone else.
The most critical issue we face at this moment is the brutal way immigrants are being treated at OUR southern border. It's inhumane and unacceptable. Why has the media dropped the ball on this?
The television show "For The People" had a show about it last week. An immigrant came to court to testify for the prosecution and was arrested by ICE at the courthouse and separated from his little boy. Socially Conscious women and men in the judicial system stepped up and used brilliant new ways to get the man out of custody and reunite him with his son.
WE THE PEOPLE must demand an end to the hateful actions being taken by the Robber Barons who have taken over OUR government and are trying to destroy everything decent about OUR United States of America.
We must not let there be another "Schindler's List" about the few people saved from this inhumane treatement. WE must end it now. Staying "high" is not the answer.
1
@njglea, nor is constantly trying to bear the weight of the world. Everything in moderation.
1
The racist implication of this story and the social justice implications is that we need to legalize recreational marijuana use (a hedonistic activity engaged in for pleasure only) because otherwise too many African Americans will be fined and jailed. Really?
5
@ehillesum
Hedonistic? Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of cancer patients and other patients who have benefited from MMJ
1
@Marshall. As you can see, I specifically referenced only recreational use, not medical.
Having been a closet Democrat all my life it makes me proud that Democrats are finally United. I am grateful to the marihuana lobby for being so successful. It is unfortunate that unimportant issues like health care , foreign policy and sundry other issues have never been this unifying.
9
"Democratic gains in state government are pushing several toward legalization this year, including New York and New Jersey."
And Connecticut . . . as long as the Times is listing states in the greater New York Metropolitan area. Connecticut has the votes in the State House and Senate, and newly elected Gov. Lamont is eager to sign a recreational marijuana bill into law.
8
Marijuana is no miracle drug, that's for sure and for certain. Plus we don't know what legalization will bring long term. It's just too soon. There are definitely some benefits from medical marijuana use, but to claim that "it's just no big deal" is such a cop out. If its not a big deal then why do the leftists support it with such zeal? Because it is a big deal to them. The young have had it very easy in comparison to their elders in many instances. They can't live without AC in their schools, they need "safe places", if they are bullied they commit suicide or turn into a turnip. Of course they need their marijuana by golly. And I say let them have it, who cares. Let them be placated and eat.
3
@Dixon Duval
We have had thousands of stores openly selling it in California for the last twenty years. Nothing much has changed. When do you expect the Great Marijuana Calamity to finally hit?
2
Up here in the frozen north, we legalised recreational use of cannabis last fall. Since it happened in remote Canada, most Americans are probably not yet aware. It has, of course, been an unmitigated disaster. One only need recall carnage of the infamous Doritos riots. Horrifying. Please, Republicans, come save us from this tax-generating, giggle-inducing scourge.
56
Cannabis use for recreational purposes should be legalized, but not necessarily for the purposes of aiding racial equality. It should be legalized because allowing the individual states to decide on the issue makes enforcement of drug laws too confusing. Remember the gay marriage issue? Prior to 2015, gay couples were marrying in one state, visiting another state, then they were supposedly not married there, which raised all sorts of unnecessary legal and ethical issues. There is little or no evidence that legalizing recreational marijuana use has any detrimental effect on society. It's already legal in many medical applications and for recreational purposes in a few states. Legalizing recreational marijuana use on the federal level makes sense.
15
@Kristin
The original purpose of the laws was to punish minorities. The laws have been used explicitly to punish minorities ever since. That's well-documented historical fact. See Historical Research on Drug Policy for lots of references on the subject.
As the State of NJ is in the process of legalizing recreational marijuana many townships are preemptively banning the sale within their towns. So with the state tax already being set at $42 an ounce plus the state allowing local authorities to add a tax that do not ban the sale, there may still be an illegal sale that will not go away, so will people buying and selling untaxed marijuana still be prosecuted?
Older voters are likely to forgive Biden for having the same positions they did 25 years ago. Millennials may be less forgiving and more myopic, certainly on Twitter, but at the end of they day they are also less likely to vote. That would require putting their phones down for a few minutes.
The article notes that in 2015 Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative to legalize recreation marijuana. This was in no small part because it created monopolies for a small number of backers of the petition. This was a big reason it failed. And by the way, some of the backers of this initiative came from deep pockets out of Cincinnati - ie, Republicans.
4
This article was very informative and did not seem to be biased in any way, shape, or form. Both parties were included in the discussion which I found to be very good for discussion. I identity as being a Moderate Republican and I do agree with each statement addressed in this article. My hope one day, is for marijuana to be legalized at the federal level. We as a nation need to get over the negative stigma that comes with the thought of marijuana. The point int the article that really struck my attention was that of how African Americans are 4 times more likely of being incarcerated than of whites for possession of marijuana, even though the rates are the same, which I found to be very eye-opening. The younger voters of America are very strong in their opinions, especially on this issue, so I believe that whoever can make legalization a top priority for their campaign run in 2020, then I think they'll have no problem getting the younger vote. A disclaimer, I myself have never used marijuana in any way but ultimately, I do agree with everything that was stated and addressed.
2
Marijuana use is too widespread to justify making it illegal. Face reality. However, it does pose long term risks for heavy users and especially for young users. Governments, state and federal, should devote a substantial part of any tax revenues that come from marijuana sales to research on its long-term health effects and to a publicity campaign to its discourage use. Eventually it should be treated like tobacco -- legal but heavily discouraged through negative advertising.
4
@john640
" However, it does pose long term risks for heavy users and especially for young users. "
Just for laughs, such as?
1
National decriminalization and allowing individual states to decide legalization may be the most equitable way forward ...
1
When legalization advocates talk about revenue to states and the benefits of a regulated industry, I worry. Marijuana should be legal because no government agency should use police powers to control the personal decisions of citizens that threaten no other citizen. Period.
Marijuana has been widely available and widely used for many years in this country. Its use has not caused violent or other criminal behavior, even without regulation. The regulatory schemes are designed to put revenues into the pockets of corporations and governments, none of whom will improve the product or reduce its cost.
The federal government should not only end the senseless and destructive laws against marijuana, it should keep its hands off the production, sales and use of the plant.
8
Here in New Mexico, medical mj has been legal for 12 years and recreational came very close in our just-concluded legislative session. Most of my acquaintances are pro-pot all the way, but a few of my very conservative pals are ardently against legalization and find the "justice" angle counter-persuasive,"lock 'em up" being one of their favorite expressions. Then again, two of these rock-ribbed types have their medical "cards" and swear by the benefits... although not usually in front of their conservative peers.
14
In Ohio, the republicans have gerrymandered the state to a such a degree that they almost have a super majority in the house and do so in the senate. Ohio's population overall is becoming older and whiter, while the urban areas have followed nations trends becoming multi-ethnic.
Pew just published polling on independent voters and their stance on marijuana and same sex marriage, as well as overall attitudes by Republicans and Democrats on both.
The numbers are telling - overwhelming support from everyone except Republicans, and those 35 and under support legalization by 85%.
The old, conservative Republicans have captured Ohio - it is the oppression of a minority of a minority on everyone else.
6
There is a hierarchy of addictiveness when it comes to drugs. Some drugs are more addictive and more destructive than other drugs. Heroin and methamphetamine are are far more addictive and dangerous than marijuana. Doesn't mean that some people don't become addicted to marijuana. But it is less addictive than alcohol and nicotine which are both legal. Most people with a bit of common sense know there is a big difference between a heroin junkie and a person strung out on meth when compared to a pot smoker who leads a responsible productive life.
Back in the eighties the "just say no campaign" was an authoritarian attempt to lump all drugs into the same category and scare the public into compliance but it ended up causing confusion among some of the public which has contributed to the rise in meth and heroin we see today.
In 1976 Jimmy Carter ran on the issue of decriminalizing pot. If we had done it then we wouldn't be having this discussion now.
4
Americans don't have to like cannabis, but they should hate its prohibition. This prohibition law strikes at the very foundation of our society. It is a tool of tyrants, used to violate core American beliefs and nearly every aspect of the Bill of Rights.
A populace that accepts and becomes accustom to overreaching government policies, such as the prohibition of relatively safe, popular substances, becomes more accepting of overreaching, powerful government in general. This devastates America, not a plant that has been used by mankind since the beginning of recorded history.
3
I certainly hope this issue has legs, it is long overdue. I remember finding out in the eighties that being caught with an gram of cocaine brought one sentence, while a gram of crack cocaine brought a far harsher one. The difference, of course, being that stock brokers, celebrities and sports figures bought powdered cocaine while minorities bought the cheaper rock version, even though the substances were identical. Law enforcement has been using this dichotomy to selectively punish the poor while coddling the rich. Like that old song states "The rich get high/ while the poor get prison/ in the meantime/ in between time/ ain't we got fun.
7
"A study last year in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that after states legalized marijuana for medical use, prescriptions for opioids dropped nearly 15 percent."
Most of us now know what opioids manufacturers/sellers/Dealers were willing to do to make their opioids market grow: at ANY cost to the Citizenry.
Why (on Earth) would they also not see any drop in sales as an Attack on their beloved (deadly) marketshare, and fight it, tooth and nail, including their use propaganda, misinformation and manipulation to keep their Massive profits rolling in.
If pot can replace highly-addictive opioids, we need to Legalize it ASAP; and perhaps re-think our need for those highly-addictive pain-killers with their massive Costs. And Profiteers.
Oh, and it's also a far better/more benign intoxicant than alcohol, which Kills tens of thousands every year and wrecks lives like there's no tomorrow.
If we're going to have Prohibition, let us, at least, be Pragmatic.
6
Once again Joe Biden is shown to be way out of step with the concerns of the country, with a record of bad decisions going back decades.
As much as he seems to be a likable guy, I have not forgiven him for his vote to invade Iraq (a decision he defended as the right one - it was the implementation that was wrong). His treatment of Anita Hill is another.
He can't keep postponing his decision to run forever. As much as he thinks it's his time, it is pretty clear it has passed. Better to stand in the wings as a senior statesman rather than enter the arena and fall flat on his face.
5
@avrds, I think Americans are in favor of the newer candidate models. The old models are inclined to break down, and their past reliability records aren’t that great.
1
Being in the rehabilitation medical field, I am appalled at my party’s viewpoint that the legalization of marijuana is a racial issue. I can’t condone something that is addictive, contributes to memory loss and also has the capacity to do lung damage from the heat of the smoke inhaled. I am not saying that medicinal marijuana isn’t effective. However, particularly for recreational marijuana, I think misdemeanors are appropriate at least as a deterrent. What is most obvious is the corporate greed that is creating this huge bandwagon for the ill-informed to jump on.
3
@Tom LaCamera
Because you never read any of the history.
Marijuana was outlawed for two major reasons. The first was because "All Mexicans are crazy and marijuana is what makes them crazy." The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana - exactly the opposite of the modern "gateway" nonsense.
Only one MD testified at the hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. The representative of the American Medical Association said there was no evidence that marijuana was a dangerous drug and no reason for the law. He pointed out that it was used in hundreds of common medicines at the time, with no significant problems. In response, the committee told him that, if he wasn't going to cooperate, he should shut up and leave.
The only other "expert" to testify was James C. Munch, a pharmacologist. His sole claim to fame was that he had injected marijuana directly into the brains of 300 dogs and two of them died. When they asked him what he concluded from this, he said he didn't know what to conclude because he wasn't a dog psychologist. Mr. Munch also testified in court, under oath, that marijuana could make your fangs grow six inches long and drip with blood. He also said that, when he tried it, it turned him into a bat. He then described how he flew around the room for two hours.
Mr. Munch was the only "expert" in the US who thought marijuana should be illegal, so he was appointed US Official Expert on marijuana, where he guided policy for 25 years.
1
Legalization is highly popular, especially among young voters. Politicians are finally catching up to the people. This is a no brainer.
9
I voted against legalized marijuana for one reason - and would vote against it again for the same reason: There is no consistent way to determine when one is impaired.
And, yes, when my sister and my son were dying of cancer I was the first to beg them to tote up.
But there is a huge gap between medicinal use and the general populace getting behind the wheel of a car.
This needs to be fixed - now.
7
@rosa
" There is no consistent way to determine when one is impaired."
Sure there is. Ordinary roadside sobriety tests work for any form of impairment. If you can't walk a straight line it doesn't matter whether it was booze, marijuana, or cold pills that did it.
The issue is that marijuana simply does not impair like alcohol does. In fact, the only reliable way to tell if an experienced smoker is "stoned" is to ask them. They can pass any test, even while smoking.
For an interesting read, see Puff, the Dangerous Driver, the article by Road and Track magazine. They tested drinkers against pot smokers on the road. The drinkers were quickly too dangerous to drive. The pot smokers just got better at the course every time they drove it. They gave up trying to find a dose that would impair them enough to negatively affect their driving.
But, even if you were correct, alcohol is still by far the bigger problem on the road. Do you think it would be a good idea to arrest everyone who drinks alcohol just to try to control the small minority who stupidly drive drunk? Why not?
2
@rosa
People are going to use it whether it is legal or not so why let organized crime make the money for fifty more years.
1
Imagine how many people were arrested for smoking and or taking part in the trade of marijuana over the last fifty years. Now it will be legal and tax revenues will be collected and there will be less crime . Maybe with hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine an addict should have legal access to a medical treatment center to get their fix so that the illegal drug trade is crippled. Maybe the entire society should end all cash transactions and only use debit and credit cards to also weaken the illegal drug trade. By stating the obvious it can lead to progressive change. Alcohol , gambling , and marijuana were illegal. Open your mind and realize that if these drug addicts are treated through a legal medical center we will have a grasp of the problem , and the money they spend on illegal drug gangs in the billions will be ended . Take cash out of society and crime will fall dramatically.
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Legalized marijuana is probably not the binding issue across constitutes the Democrats think it is. They would have better luck and a much broader base of consensus if they went after robo-callers and telemarketers instead.
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@JeffB. Why look at these as alternatives? Can't we do both?
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No mention of environmental justice? The business tends towards land exploitation.
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@Brynie
It is being grown illegally for sixty years. So if there are legal regulations it will improve the environmental effect.
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@Brynie. Illegal growers show no respect for the environment. They use pesticides improperly, divert streams, cut natural vegetation. This needs to be regulated. I prefer pot that is not tainted by pesticides.
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Weed will become an essential tool of social control. It means the end of bars and taverns where people meet and talk about their lot in life and compare notes. Occasionally, people get angry and hit the streets. They express their anger. Sometimes, change occurs.
A stoned population is self-pacified. They stay home, play video games , hang out on the internet and gobble Little Debbies and deep dish pizzas. America will become placid as the World burns.
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@Mark Dobias
"Weed will become an essential tool of social control."
LOL! Where can we get some of this weed that allows you to control people? I know a lot of pot smokers who have been wondering where they can find some of that stuff.
Just FYI, you made it apparent that you don't really know anything about the subject -- including the effects of marijuana.
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@Mark Dobius
Alcohol does promote violence.
Agree!?
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In Ct. my home state, lifelong ,as usual our Puritan history pervades ,invades all discussion of substances that offer an altered consciousness to an individual for whatever reason.
Alcohol becomes dangerous if your liver cannot keep up with metabolizing as you ingest. Hence danger to self and others.
Same with abuse of big Pharma drugs.
Cannabis has a long history of use as a natural medicinal.
The prohibition of this plant began around the 11th century. And the people set upon to condemn were conquered peoples or populations seen as “the other”like tribal healers and female midwives .
The term Marijuana was introduced and encouraged vernacular after prohibition of alcohol was ended and our drug enforcement czar in the 1920’s/ 30’s needed to keep his job and his boss ... the president needed propaganda against Mexico. Long sordid story but the usual for government overreach and hateful rhetoric.
Boomers still smoke in every state.
Those that do realize cannabis is a green plant like others that offers natural relief for anxiety and pain from a host of chronic conditions.
Fear of the unknown or correlating Canna with addictive drugs and alcohol poisoning is holding down our citizens and destroying lives . Thanks to Big Pharma and Drug Cartels in bed with worldwide governments.
Eventually the debate must end for social and ethical reasons .
Government and Corporations are dragging their feet on full legalization because once again there is BIG Money in this budding !
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Not legalizing will definitely NOT stop the easy availability or access to cannabis products at this point and will only keep putting folks in jail unnecessarily. And if you're no longer going to arrest for possession of certain amounts and toking in public then what's the point of keeping it illegal?
Interesting how Bill Clinton's Crime Bill and its negative effects are not mentioned. The man who supposedly did not inhale.
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Marijuana growers in CA were long advocates for keeping the herb illegal- they feared corporate powers would destroy their ability to compete in the market. No bootleggers today are creating Kennedy level wealth with their hidden stills- they likely can't even escape poverty selling their white lightening.
I'm not sure the industry can be controlled to protect those in need, deserved of not, although this seems to be the best chance around to actually enforce reparations to our descendants of slaves.
If most of the revenue generated can go to those most in need, that would be great, but I'm not sure how much power government has to regulate business in ways required to make this possible.
I also don't think working class whites without great tech skills will be very pleased to have access to employment based on race if it isn't their own.
This could actually be a great source of political strength for the GOP if it is handled clumsily by dems because it falls right into the narrative that dems don't care about struggling whites.
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In 2017, legal cannabis companies paid roughly *$4.7 billion* in taxes in the US! It's way past time to legitimize this industry.
Over the decades the 'reefer madness' myths have been proven to be false, despite the many government anti-cannabis propaganda campaigns. Remember nancy reagan's famous quote "A joint at a party is the moral equivalent of a needle in the arm in a back alley"?
Ignorance like this will finally be defeated with legalization.
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#2 on the list is freeing all and any behind bars for possession, and the issue of pardon for any trapped up in this unholy mess.
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Federal law is supreme yet states laws are obstructing and conflicting with Federal Law whilst the Feds are looking the other way. DA's are not prosecuting weed in cities like New York, Philly, and Baltimore. DC, the Federal capital, has some of the most liberal pot laws in the country. Republicans need to wake up as well. This will cost them moderate votes if they wage war on pot. It is fraught with race due to the ruination of the lives of young African-Americans. Remove weed from the Schedule 1 list. It costs nothing to save lives.
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The gateway drugs have always been cigarettes and alcohol and they are legal and promoted. They kill and cause more damage and suffering to the lives of Americans without any possible medical value. Marijuana only destroys lives by putting people in prisons who are charged with nonviolent possession wasting vast sums of money in the process.
I hope the time has come to legalize at the federal level and stop this puritanical thinking that wastes lives and recourses. Marijuana is helping people today and should be studied for the further benefits it may bring.
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Here in Vermont recreational use is legal. However, it is not legal where I live - in Federally-subsidized housing. When I enter the building, I leave VT and its laws behind. All residents received a note before July 1st (the date it became legal in VT) saying, "Nothing is becoming legal on July 1st. You live on Federal land. Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug." So in my opinion, it cannot be left to the States, because it is simply not being left to the States.
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@ Charlie Messing Burlington, VT
I deeply admire Vermont's adherence to the Constitutional open-carry law of weapons, but I suspect that legalization of recreational use of cannabis is the work of the leftist, radical, Sandesite wing of the Democrats.
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@Charlie Messing
Statistically, since public opinion is so meaningless when it comes to the laws passed by Congress, the only real way that federal law changes have come about is through states. Once enough states have legalized something (same-sex marriage, for instance), it becomes enough to push federal laws in that direction.
So it's still a hill, but we're on the way up. Don't discount the importance of state laws.
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I live in a state that legalized recreational cannabis a few years ago and, guess what? The sky did not fall. In fact, teenage use is down considerably, traffic accidents are down as well, and so is a lot of crime. Somehow people are managing to use cannabis and still function...we work, we play, we live our lives. And the cost of smoking marijuana is way less than smoking tobacco and much safer health-wise. People are getting off of opioids because CBDs and THCs are even better pain managers than opioids. And the state is fixing all sorts of things like our infrastructure thanks to the tax money. So, it's worked well here, and will also work well nation-wide. It's way safer than alcohol which is legal everywhere.
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@lynchburglady
We have had thousands of stores openly selling it to any adult who wants it in California for the last twenty years. Same story as you tell. The sky did not fall. The Great Marijuana Calamity simply didn't happen. In fact, if you didn't know what a green cross means (sign of a marijuana dispensary) you would not know anything has changed.
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@lynchburglady. You are spreading gossip and not facts (except the tax money part). You make claims and predictions based on erroneous presumptions...and what is worse is how many others are doing the same. In Colorado, rates of motor vehicle accidents related to marijuana intoxication are rising rapidly. Addiction rates in both adults and teenagers are huge in those who use regularly. Smoking ANYTHING is bad for your lungs. There is NO SCIENTIFIC evidence that marijuana derivatives are better for pain than opioids. There is little evidence (note that I did not say none) that any derivative of marijuana is useful for much. There are lots of anecdotes, people saying "it works for me". Things that any self-serving person could say without having to give evidence.
There may well turn out to be good use for CBD or other derivative of marijuana, but the evidence at present only supports a few limited uses, but mostly that states are becoming addicted to the revenue generated by taxing the sales of marijuana. The politicians, of course, see an opportunity to raise revenue while looking like they care about a popular cause. The cart has been placed miles before the horse.
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@Wolf Man
And the sky hasn't fallen here, either. The moral panic around pot is just ridiculous.
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Why isn't anyone talking about how legalize Marijuana is a 'Miracle Waiting' for people who have Chronic Pain, PTSD, Cancer, Parkinson's, MS, fibromyalia - many illness that have seizures - and on and on.
Only States that Legalize Recreational Marijuana will have access to the high level THC found in Recreational Marijuana.
The big Pharmacy companies obviously do not want any state to legalize marijuana for people with chronic illnesses who pay lots of money for prescribed medications - instead of buying high levels of CBD oil which is alot cheaper and more curative than pharmacy medications.
The smartest action and practice would be to combine both - High level CBD oil and prescribed medication treatment to help patients restore their personal health and well being.
Only the states that Legalize Marijuana will be allowed to help their citizens to higher organic - less expensive - more curative health - of - the high level of THC which is only in the legalized strains of marijuana.
Legalizing marijuana would also bring government FDA regulations on the product from seeds to growing - packaging to labeling - distribution to selling.
Not to mention legalized marijuana is a huge jobs and State revenue builder.
Look at how the legalization of alcohol has provided high standards for distilling - sales and revenue of these products.
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The State of NJ is projecting only $60 million in tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana, which will do how much for the state, fix a few roads?
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@MDCooks8
It is not just about the revenue to the states. It is about jobs and the savings to the states by not ruining people's lives for non-violent crimes, as well as the health benefits plus research jobs scientifically studying the benefits of CBD and THC.
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@Karen
Big Pharma kept its finger in the dike for many, many years - including making sure research into marijuana wasn't done. But now, everyone I know is learning, healing, passing on tips as to how to use it for all sorts of health reasons.
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