Legal Weed Is a Reality in America, but Congress Refuses to Admit It

Legal Weed Is a Reality in America, but Congress Refuses to Admit It
This is a great Vice article about how the ongoing rift between state cannabis and federal cannabis policy is becoming bigger and bigger. Keep in mind, that the public wants to legalize the plant. Medical use of the plant has near unanimous support throughout the country, yet Congress isn't moving to even deschedule the plant.

And to be honest, this is an easy layup for Trump. This is an issue with bipartisan support throughout the country. Plus most of its support comes from young people. A demographic that Trump is hurting at. He could easily get behind a nationwide push to legalize cannabis and ACTUALLY obtain a real victory for the people of the US he can brag about. I'm saying this as someone who despises the man too. The writing is on the wall and he is a fool for not taking advantage of it. At least he has voiced support for States' rights on the issue. So I'll give him that.

Anyways, I don't want to make the thread about Trump. He's not the only one at fault for this policy rift. This issue predates Trump. Obama could have done more to fix it too. Popular support passed the tipping point during his Presidency. But it is CONGRESS who is the most at fault. Dinosaurs in the House and the Senate (mostly GOP) keep holding up measures to legalize and even deschedule the plant. Why? This is a winner issue. Looking at this issue, it is almost textbook proof that Congress doesn't want to break partisan gridlock.

New York State Senator Diane Savino says she knows the moment Governor Andrew Cuomo changed his mind on legal weed.

Cuomo was famously so anti-marijuana that as recently as February 2017 he was still pushing the “gateway drug” line. However, at the beginning of August he announced a 20-person working group that will look into the practicalities of legalizing the drug for recreational adult use in the state, a decision that followed a recommendation from a commission that recreational marijuana be legalized.

Savino, one of the four named legislators in the working group, traces the governor’s change of heart back to a conversation she had with him after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy was elected in November.

“Murphy said that within his first 100 days in office he was going to do a bunch of things—including adult-use marijuana,” she told me. “I had a conversation with [Cuomo] and said: ‘You’re going to have to start thinking about adult-use marijuana now.’ He said: ‘Why? The Republicans in the Senate will never do it.’ I said: ‘It really doesn’t matter what they think or what anybody else thinks. If Phil Murphy does what he’s said he’s going to do then you’ll have marijuana to the left of you, to the right of you in Massachusetts, and to the north of you in Canada. You can’t stop it.’”

The long and short of that story is that Cuomo, someone who was Jeff Sessions level anti-weed as recently as 2017, became pro-weed because his state was going to be surrounded on all sides by areas with pro-weed policies. New York is too large a state to keep that out of the state. His only choices were to hop on the train or fall under the wheels trying to fight it.

Congress' neglect is insane. Like really bad.

Savino expressed her frustration that Congress hasn’t taken more of the initiative on the issue. “You have 336 members of Congress right now who live in states who have a legal marijuana program,” she said. “There’s only 435 members of Congress, not counting the Senate, but they are afraid to take a vote on marijuana policy. It blows my mind! There’s a level of cognitive dissonance on this issue in Congress that is astounding. You have 31 states and counting, plus the District of Columbia, that have legal medical marijuana regulations. That means you have 31 different sets of standards. Thirty-one different sets of patient requirements. It’s insanity, and all of this could be solved if they descheduled marijuana.”

Now I don't want to sit here and say that ALL of Congress is to blame. There are a lot of people that make up the Senate and House. Not all of them feel the same. There are even some Congressmen who helping out the burgeoning cannabis industry.

In June, Ted Lieu became the first sitting congressman in the country to help open a marijuana dispensary when he cut the ribbon on MedMen’s store on Abbot Kinney in Venice, Los Angeles.

“Prohibition did not work with alcohol, and it wasn’t working with cannabis either,” Lieu said that day. “We needed to bring this out and mainstream it. That’s why I was very supportive of Prop 64. I was one of the co-authors of the ballot guide language, urging voters to go for Prop 64.”

This needs to stop though. We need to get the federal government to finally put its foot down and legalize cannabis. The ship has long since sailed, and the longer we wait to join it, the more idiotic stuff like this will get worse:

As it stands, it’s very difficult for marijuana businesses to use ordinary banking services or to take out loans, with many forced to deal only in cash. Marijuana products can’t legally be transported across state lines—which has led to absurd situations like Oregon having a surplus of product—and even the more tolerated CBD and hemp industries exist in a legal gray area.

That's a thief's wet dream right there. The point of legalizing the sale of the plant is to help protect the sellers too. That's pretty hard if you federally regulate dispensaries to be giant neon flashing signs advertising tons of cash on hand and product to steal.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

A right good few people still in gaol that may somewhat disagree as to the legality of the stuff.

Then there are the misguided "War On Drugs" brigade to contend with.

Say this through America is far more progressive than my own nation where Cannabis is concerned.

When medical use marijuana is legalized federally, does anyone want to take bets on the amount stress and depression disorders goes up?

50%
75%
??
Anyone?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

It will happen. Maybe not with this congress, a d perhaps not with the next, but it WILL happen.

I think we’re all confident in that.

Really the youngbloods are just now beginning to push the whitehairs out of office, one by one. There is no stopping it.

It’s exciting to think about even though I probably won’t partake, unless some medical condition says otherwise.

Maybe Grambler will get us there in 2024!

a reply to: Bluntone22

Well as long as your people are going to have to tick the required box to receive what they demand people are always going to have to play the system to get what they need.

Tend to agree with your assessment all the same.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Krazysh0t
Say this through America is far more progressive than my own nation where Cannabis is concerned.

Depends on your local constabulary though mate. Police Scotland are like angry stormtroopers compared to Devon and Cornwall. I'm not even arsed with decriminalisation down here, the cops don't enforce the law anymore so it may as well be legal now.
It's crazy how some constabularies are more uptight about pot than others, but certainly in my parts it is legal in all but name, de-facto legal if you like.

a reply to: six67seven

Yeah it is an inevitability, but it would be wonderful if our boneheaded politicians stopped trying to hold back tidal forces...

a reply to: andy06shake

Everyone wants to get high....

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Still, should you manage to get caught with a few bars or kilo of the stuff "they" may very well decide to prosecute.

America has 50 states we only really have 3, Well 4 if your count Northen Ireland.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

It takes the piss. Across the western world...both the public and the experts agree with it being decriminalised or legalised.

That should be the end of it and the politicians should just hop to it and get it done. It's that simple.

I won't be applauding any of these assholes when it gets legalised. It should have been done years ago.

a reply to: Bluntone22

What do you mean wants to? LoL

If it's not one thing it's another, Weed over Bath Salts i say!

originally posted by: Kandinsky
I won't be applauding any of these assholes when it gets legalised. It should have been done years ago.

I know right? Applauding them would be the equivalent of giving them a participation trophy. Yeah no. You don't need thanks for doing what you should have done YEARS ago.

Heck, it's been known publicly that Nixon enacted the War on Drugs crackdown as a cover to legally go after black people and hippies for quite some time now. That alone should have invalidated the entire policy. Yet, it remains today mostly due to a stupid respect for tradition...

originally posted by: Bluntone22
When medical use marijuana is legalized federally, does anyone want to take bets on the amount stress and depression disorders goes up?

50%
75%
??
Anyone?

My bet would be it goes down.

Many people cope with prescriptions from doctors or alcohol, both seem to be far worse.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

I think he's suggesting that those people would see a doctor under false pretenses to get a prescription to treat those things.

We already have medical here in MI, but it made it to the ballot for recreational this coming November. It looks like it will pass pretty easily.


The only problem I see, is that we are also voting for a new governor, and only the Dems are coming out as pro. So, unfortunately I believe Gretchen Whitmar is going to be our new governor, and that just sucks.


As far as congress goes? I really don't think it will be long, and we will start seeing more young people start running for these offices. If that doesn't wake up the dinosaurs, nothing will. And really, we do need some new blood in there.

a reply to: andy06shake

Bars haha! You are showing your age now fella!
I get what you are saying, but even 'traders' in my area don't really worry about it anymore, keep below prison term amounts and it's just a tax if you are unlucky enough to have a cop on a bad day.
I used to be massively pro-decriminalisation but since cops have changed their tune here over the years I don't really care what the law is, if it ain't enforced it's just words on a legal document lol.
...I don't care about many laws to be honest though, I live by my own moral code, always have.

Drug test them to see if their political stance and personal one are the same.

I also see Trump doing this. Like you said, it's a "lay up."

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Even now...after all this time...even now it's mainly about tax money. The money has caught their imagination so they abandon their moral high horses! Wasn't the 'war on drugs' supposedly a moral crusade to preserve western values? Money, huh?

Fewer prisoners, fewer criminals, fewer broken families. Lots of upsides.

More mental illnesses, but they'd be up front and treatable instead of behind the scenes and festering.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Laws are for people who don't know right from wrong.

Well the stupid ones anyway, to be honest, i simply pick and choose which ones to heed and which to disregard in their entirety.

6ft round about me is my own domain really.

originally posted by: intrepid
Drug test them to see if their political stance and personal one are the same.

I also see Trump doing this. Like you said, it's a "lay up."

He wouldn't even need to do much. He could even stick to his usual style of just yelling and telling people what to do. All that really needs to done is to put a boot up the GOP's ass to get them motivated. Once he does that, he can sign out and take credit for the easy legislation that will be drafted. And it's not like the GOP won't listen to him. They have demonstrated that they will change core GOP beliefs to satisfy Trump's desires. This is a walk in the park compared to that.