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You know things are shifting in America when Fortune magazine, the bible for business journalism, runs a cover story titled “Is pot already legal?”. You also know it when Barack Obama’s Department of Justice publishes a long-expected memo signalling that the federal government will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries if they are legal under state law. That happened formally this month.
It was not, moreover, a symbolic gesture. Marijuana for medical reasons — to tackle chemotherapy-induced nausea or Aids-related wasting or glaucoma, among other conditions — is now legal in 13 states, including the biggest, California. Next year, 13 more states are planning referendums or new laws following suit. Last week a California legislative committee held the first hearings not simply on whether medical marijuana should remain legal, but on whether all marijuana should be decriminalised, full stop. The incentive? The vast amounts of money the bankrupt state could raise by taxing cannabis.
Now look at the polling on the question. In 1970, 84% of Americans supported keeping marijuana illegal. Today, that number has collapsed to 54%. The proportion believing that marijuana should be legal has gone from 18% at the end of the 1960s to 44% today. On current trends, a majority of Americans will favour legalisation by the end of Obama’s first term. In the western states, 53% already favour legalising and taxing the stuff. Support for legalisation is strongest among the young — the Obama generation — but has climbed among self-described Republicans as well.
But the reality is already ahead of the polls. Take a trip, so to speak, to Los Angeles today, where one would be forgiven for thinking that marijuana was already legal. There are more than 800 marijuana dispensaries in the city — and an estimated 7,000 in the state of California as a whole (many times more than in Holland).
_________________ "don't hate the media, become the media" ~ Jello Biafra
If my usually reliable inside source of close to the US Federal Drug coal face is still reliable we are about to see Barack Obama’s Department of Justice put out other directives , one will be to take pressure off prisons and save money by releasing low level cannabis inmates from both Federal and State Penitentiaries ..The spin merchants are crunching the numbers so they can sell it to the great unwashed .. Also the ways and means experts are looking for a strategy that will encourage the individual States to back off simple cannabis grow and possession and consider ways of taxing and control .. in other words legalese the stuff .
It was intended to happen more slowly , but the current economic strife and the potential savings as well as tax take has given them some ideal opportunities to speed things up..It is rumored some of the State votes on cannabis matters are being positively manipulated by the Federal Political entities driving this change..
It could well be the tide has turned in the US , I wonder how long it will be before some Kiwi politician wakes and see;s the potential in leading the charge here in New Zealand . They would get sooo much publicity , so much Mana .
If my usually reliable inside source of close to the US Federal Drug coal face is still reliable we are about to see Barack Obama’s Department of Justice put out other directives , one will be to take pressure off prisons and save money by releasing low level cannabis inmates from both Federal and State Penitentiaries ..The spin merchants are crunching the numbers so they can sell it to the great unwashed .. Also the ways and means experts are looking for a strategy that will encourage the individual States to back off simple cannabis grow and possession and consider ways of taxing and control .. in other words legalese the stuff .
It was intended to happen more slowly , but the current economic strife and the potential savings as well as tax take has given them some ideal opportunities to speed things up..It is rumored some of the State votes on cannabis matters are being positively manipulated by the Federal Political entities driving this change..
tony
'If' that is so, and came to pass, that would be a major step forward. Anything is possile though huh - who would have thought that Obama would direct the feds to back off state 'sanctioned' medical marijuana. Will be interesting to see what the NZ Law Commision has to say especially in light of these recent developments in the States.
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