I am going to make a fearless prediction about this:
The White House on Thursday announced a new way it will keep in touch with public concerns — by promising to consider online petitions that get at least 5,000 supporters.
The idea behind “We the People” — as the program will be called — is that anyone with an idea or cause can go to the White House website and make a public pitch for support. If the idea gets 5,000 backers within 30 days, said White House spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya, a “working group of policy officials” will respond.
I predict that the number one issue that will succeed in getting 5,000 supporters will be pot legalization. It seems like this is what happens whenever the political parties pretend to give a crap about what ordinary folks care about. Personally, I have other interests at the top of my list, but I don’t know anyone who thinks we should treat casual pot-smoking as a serious crime. I’m not advocating smoking marijuana. But I think you undermine respect for authority and the rule of law when you have laws that no one respects or wants to see enforced. Legalize pot and tax it. Use the revenues to help petty criminals deal with their substance abuse problems and to give them work-skills so that they can be productive members of society. Empty the prisons of drug offenders and put them through the training/rehab program.
I bet I can get a million supporters for a well designed plan like that.
I for the life of me cannot see how this issue — the Drug War in general — is NOT at the top of any progressive’s list. It’s easily my second ticket item after climate change. Treating it as some fringe item that is belittled because people want to smoke pot isn’t cool. I’m not saying you’re doing that, but I see it in A LOT of circles.
There’s a reason the NAACP has decided to make it a top-ticket item of their own.
I just wrote a post about it. How is that making it fringe?
I’m not saying you’re doing that, but I see it in A LOT of circles.
If you look at the racial breakdown of who is in prison for minor marijuana related crimes (disproportionately minority, even though whites actually smoke the stuff more) and the sheer number of people whose lives have been ruined due to incarceration for said crimes, it becomes a much bigger issue.
Sadly it is trivialized very successfully by the industries that have built themselves around prohibition.
One of those industries is the privately run prison industries, which would lose a lot of money if they didn’t have all those inmates busted for pot and other drug related crimes.
Despite problems, states continue to hawk private prison schemes like these. Examples aren’t difficult to find.
“Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble”
Prisons for profit.
Ohio becomes first state to sell state prison to private company
but isn’t this basically a copy of that bullshit site the republicans put up a year ago? the one that got massively trolled by lefty pranksters? I STILL get updates from that site.
No. Its not.
Yeah. It’s the same in the sense that a lot of people will tell the Democratic Party that it’s got its head up is ass and the Democratic Party will ignore them.
I can think of hundreds of other issues progressives can petition for. Why waste time on an issue that Obama has shot down time and time again?
There are petitions on almost every site I visit and most people don’t hesitate to sign one. They have no idea what’s done with the petition and sometimes these petitions just collect names for future donations. but the administration tries to make it easier to organize and communicate with them and people find every excuse not to engage.
This is an issue where politicians of both parties are way, way behind the people.
Two weekends ago an annual political street festival called “Hempfest” was held here in Seattle. It drew 300,000 people. It’s by far the largest annual public event in the state. That’s not a fringe issue.
Pot legalization is seen as a “left” (read: pot-smoking DFH) issue, but it cuts across economic and ideological lines, especially among younger folk. Too many people know people who smoke pot and live normal lives, and don’t see why they should be busted. It’s both an economic issue (the massive costs of prosecution and incarceration) and an issue of ruined and wasted lives. And eventually it will be legalized eventually, because in an era of strained budgets, there’s a massive economic sector going entirely untaxed. That won’t stand. The only question is, how many lives will be ruined first?
It’s a testimony to how deeply ingrained the War on Drugs is on our ruling classes that this is seen as either a fringe or untouchable issue by so many politicians. As with so many other issues (universal health care, creating jobs, ending wars), the gulf between what the majority of the public wants and what either party is willing to stand up for is massive.
As with so many other issues (universal health care, creating jobs, ending wars), the gulf between what the majority of the public wants and what either party is willing to stand up for is massive.
Which is really why people don’t vote, not because Jane Hamsher or Glennzilla say mean things about the President.
The problem is that the polling on these issues is of Americans in the aggregate. The situation changes when you start polling in Congressional Districts. I don’t want to have to campaign on this issue in Maine’s CD2. It is an older and socially very conservative district and this issue would absolutely terrify them–especially since they have had issues with oxy contin abuse and crime.
Just to give one example, CD2 did not support health care reform until after the Stupak amendment–the same one that “progressives” were infuriated about and characterized as a betrayal. It is dangerous to assume that Democrats/progressives/liberals are monolithic. That Stupak amendment gave Rep. Michaud the cover he needed to vote yes.
BUT I AM ADVOCATING SMOKIN’ THE WEED! Seriously, I am. Big Pharma and Big Liquor has a big problem because no one will need their depression drugs or alcoholism if folks just smoked a joint every night before bed.
And we need to release all of our pot-smoking brothers and sisters from jail NOW. They don’t even need rehab because it’s not even addictive. They were just caught in possession of a vegetable. How ridiculous is that?
And sex is alot better that way too. Most of you know. Even just brushing your teeth is lots more fun if you’re high. Showers can be fun. But sex is awesome when you’re high on The (totally harmless) Weed.
God forbid Americans might enjoy their sex, showers or teeth-brushing sessions like Northern Europeans do… Those socialists! Those commies! How dare they enjoy the simple things? Just shameful!
I love Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc. They don’t care about people smoking pot, even though it’s not legal. (Note that it is RARELY prosecuted) But they live very happy lives and we are fucking miserable in this country. Think about it, really. There IS something there.
Agree with much of what you are saying, however…
I love Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc.
I would strongly recommend to be very discrete if smoking green or brown in Norway and Sweden.
Even the Dutch and the Danes are less sanguine about it nowadays (at least when it comes to purchase), unless you are a legal resident in the respective country.
Sweden is more strict about drugs than we are. As a matter of fact, drug warriors here stateside always point to their successful model of fighting Their Drug War.
Unfortunately for our idiotic policymakers, while they are stricter on drugs and you can have a successful drug war with the right policies, they do not just throw people in jail and then collect $200. They force you into rehabilitation.
They also don’t have Mexico and South America bordering them. But again, with the right policies, you can choke this off. After all, Sweden was heavy with human trafficking, so they changed their prostitution laws, and now they have virtually no problem at all. But that’s what competent governments who care about their country do; it’s not what people shilling for the prison industry complex do.
er, marijuana doesn’t cure depression. It can, like many drugs, including alcohol, even make it worse in some people.
I’m big-time pro-legalization but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here….pot is great for things like glaucoma, lack of appetite due to chemo, etc. But it’s not a cure-all. It’s just another drug.
I say this as someone who has lost two relatives to depression.
I’m for legalization,
to the best of my knowledge, marijuana has (almost) never hurt anyone and there is a growing body of evidence that it is beneficial in treating a number of diseases but,
the idea that marijuana helps everyone or that no one will need their depression medication or use alcohol if they just smoked a joint every night
is not just bullshit, it’ harmful bullshit and serves you poorly in your struggle to have marijuana decriminalized. A lot of drugs prescribed for mental illnesses provide legitimate benefits and probably more benefit than marijuana would for the given illness. Suggesting that a person suffering from clinical depression stop using the medicine prescribed by their doctor and substitute pot is irresponsible to the extreme. It might work better, and it might make things worse. A lot of research is called for.
Marijuana triggers anxiety in a small proportion of people who use it. Simply put, not everyone gets a benefit and some people get negative affect. Recognize that and point out that it’s the least dangerous know substance and that you cannot overdose on it.
Children shouldn’t be getting high. Not on pot, alcohol, anything. It’s unrealistic to think that they won’t get high, and of all of the substances they can use marijuana is probably the least harmful, but
children shouldn’t be getting high.
The argument that something shouldn’t be illegal because “it’s just a vegetable” is meaningless. Poppies are “just flowers,” but all opiates are derived from them.
Personally, I’m for decriminalizing all of it a treating the “abuse” of any substance as a medical issue and not a legal issue.
I agree completely with you about legalizing pot smoking and all the rest of your proposal! Can we all agree though, to wait on pushing this issue until after the election?
I hope for their sakes that the folks in the Obama administration have thought this through and are prepared to deal with what they’re going to get—the good and the bad.
Politically, I can’t see that legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana helps Obama or the Democrats unless it’s an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. Those who support pot legalization should be organizing in their congressional districts (particularly the Republican ones) to line up endorsements from their reps—to go public once 50% + 1 of their caucus members also agree. Just my opinion, YMMV.
Dope is the guns of the Left.
Dope would be the guns of the Left if dope had a Charlton Heston, a lobby that was feared in Washington, and single-issue voters that actually voted.