Very long time lurker here. As part of a remarkable convergence of passions and talents, I recently began blogging for 420petition.com, a marijuana legalization website. Having had DailyKos among my regular daily reads for years, I would love to share my thoughts with the fine people over here and finally become more involved in this wonderful community. Thank you and I hope you enjoy my musings.
“Abatement in the hostility of one's enemies must never be thought to signify they have been won over. It only means that one has ceased to constitute a threat.” – Quentin Crisp
The inverse of this statement is that the greater our threat, the greater the pressure from our enemies. As much as we would like to see federal prosecutors marching in pro-pot rallies or watch Eric Holder light up a fat blunt during a press conference, such a thing coming from a government long committed to its failed War on Drugs would likely mean our side is losing. All the handwringing over the recent rise in federal attacks on medical marijuana is unwarranted in light of the bigger national picture. There is a reason for all the raids and thinly veiled threats, and it sure as hell isn’t the glorious successes of prohibition. The truth is that the nation is changing and authorities stuck on the wrong side of history are more likely to lash out the more they realize this.
Brutal federal raids against legitimate dispensaries in California, Michigan, Montana and Washington have sent a chill down the collective spines of the medical marijuana community. Shocked by the wanton destruction of property, seizure of capital and legal repercussions, marijuana businesses and patients have been forced to lay low and re-asses their future plans. While the Obama administration has certainly been no friend to pot, many thought they could breathe easier after a 2009 memo by Deputy A.G. David Ogden which advised against the prosecution of individuals who were in "clear and unambiguous" compliance with state law. In reality the memo never had any teeth, explicitly stating: “Nothing herein precludes investigation or prosecution…even when there is clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law.” So much for the feds going soft, or even consistent.
To add insult to injury, U.S. attorneys all across the country have been sending a flurry of anti-marijuana letters to Governors and state legislators. The “ominous sounding” letters, as one Associated Press piece puts it, warn states against going forward with medical marijuana schemes and threaten unspecified criminal charges against state officials involved in any medical marijuana licensing or regulatory actions. Letters have so far been sent to Washington, Montana, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, California and Rhode Island lawmakers. As a result, Governors in Rhode Island and New Jersey have put their states’ new medical marijuana programs on hold while the Montana and Colorado legislatures are rushing to pass wide-ranging and more restrictive regulations on the industry. Washington Governor Chris Gregoire vetoed a bill that would have legalized dispensaries but indicated she plans to form a work group with governors in the other medical marijuana states to try and get it federally rescheduled to a less restrictive category.
So is this a trend? No. The recent setbacks, painful as they are, are but a blip in the decades-long movement towards marijuana acceptance. According to ABC News, today a whopping 81 percent of adults favor medical marijuana, quite a jump from the 69 percent that supported it in 1997. When looking at outright legalization the change is even more dramatic: Gallup and the Pew Research Center both charted the same remarkable jump in support from 31 to 46 percent between 2000 and 2010-2011. That is a 15 percentage-point growth in just a decade. To put it another way, it took the marijuana movement only ten years to convince roughly 1 out of every 7 Americans that pot should be completely legal. That is some remarkable progress and considering that support among the 18-29 demographic is, at 61 percent, among the highest in the nation there is no reason to assume anything but a continuation, and likely acceleration, of the trend.
And why would things be any different? American popular culture has come a long way from the days of Barbara Bush, Just Say No and terrifying anti-pot PSAs. Today musicians like Wiz Khalifa can base an entire career on songs about marijuana, successful movies like Pineapple Express or Your Highness can be made about it without anyone batting an eyelid a prime-time TV show like Family Guy can feature an elaborate musical montage exalting the goodness of weed. Not only do people talk about marijuana far more openly than before, the government’s anti-pot propaganda is a good deal tamer. PSAs today threaten either anxiety or dullness, not death from marijuana use and some glaring message inconsistencies, like the DEA possibly authorizing THC pills, have developed.
Oh, and then there are those fifteen states that have legalized medical marijuana. Fifteen States that have gone, and continue to go directly against the federal government over the single issue of marijuana; fifteen states among twenty-seven that are engaged in a tooth and nail fight with the federal government over the President’s Healthcare law, some even attempting outright Nullification. And they will not be just fifteen for much longer either; medical marijuana reform is making headlines in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. Always trying to sell the opinion pendulum, the media has been portraying recent federal aggression as a significant setback for the marijuana movement. The truth, however, is that in this tale the government’s actions are born not from heightened resolve, but from the almost inevitable conclusion that its cause is lost.
Originally Posted at the 420petition blog