Marijuana Nation
In the 2012 election, two states voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Some things are so damn awesome and wonderful, they merit examination.
What this means now and in the future is nothing short of incredible. It's the only area of the states rights' argument that I agree with.
Though now legal in Colorado and Washington, pot remains illegal under federal law.
Whether the Feds will violate the will of the people or allow all states to write their own marijuana laws is the question we wait to see answered.
However, in those two states at least, enforcement of the drug war on pot is scaling back.
They will test whether or not taxation of pot will indeed be an effective source of state revenue. I can only imagine it will be a better source than state lotteries as you won't need to face odds equivalent to be struck by lightening or eaten by a shark to get some joy.
One thing NOT discussed, yet, is the implications for their respective Depts of Corrections. Those states will no longer be spending future tax dollars on the back-door welfare state of the prison industrial complex holding people on marijuana possession charges. Amnesty for former pot convictions will empty prison beds and re-enfranchise thousands; strengthening those states substantially in a variety of ways.
What promises maximum entertainment potential is if the federal govt follows the precedent posed by the abolishment of Prohibition, returning the drafting of pot laws to each of the states.
When this happens, each state will be responsible for their own law enforcement and correctional policies.
You can be sure that many states will continue the same policies that they have always pursued without the excuse of of Federal law.
I live in a state where Prohibition remained the law of the land until the 1950s. I met an old bootlegger when I was in prison. And I remember "liquor by the drink" being a controversial ballot measure when I was a kid. I'm 41 years old.
There really will be no accounting for the stupidity of state and local legal mores once the federal govt rescinds its mandates, though that won't stop me from trying.
True for alcohol, would be doubly true for abortion if Roe v. Wade ever got reversed and absolutely WILL be true when the national war on weed is ended!
Every state will be given the option of freeing up millions of dollars and redirecting them toward more pressing concerns, freeing up several thousands of prison beds and lightening the load of the back-door welfare state of the prison-industrial complex. Allowing full economic and political participation for those who had been previously marginalized.
Trust that numerous states will decline these opportunities. Among them those which already have the highest rates of incarceration in the nation and which are least able to afford them.
Just in terms of pure pure economic and political pragmatism, there would seem little upside in continuing these failed policies.
What will happen is that a large swath of beard will be stripped from the face of the nation. What weed control policies remain on the state and local level will continue, as they always have, to be proxies for Jim Crow, racial profiling and disenfranchisement, and anti-immigrant animus. Which, not coincidentally, was the first use of marijuana criminalization. Those states that keep pot criminalized will do so precisely because they need the beard for local Jim Crow in their state.
Whatever happens and however you slice it, we are about to learn some telling lessons about ourselves as a nation.
Until then it will be a banner year in households in Colorado and Washington.
Smoke up Johnny! And take a toke for the rest of us poor sods waiting to move into the 21st Century and who will be waiting still in 2050!
What this means now and in the future is nothing short of incredible. It's the only area of the states rights' argument that I agree with.
Though now legal in Colorado and Washington, pot remains illegal under federal law.
Whether the Feds will violate the will of the people or allow all states to write their own marijuana laws is the question we wait to see answered.
However, in those two states at least, enforcement of the drug war on pot is scaling back.
They will test whether or not taxation of pot will indeed be an effective source of state revenue. I can only imagine it will be a better source than state lotteries as you won't need to face odds equivalent to be struck by lightening or eaten by a shark to get some joy.
One thing NOT discussed, yet, is the implications for their respective Depts of Corrections. Those states will no longer be spending future tax dollars on the back-door welfare state of the prison industrial complex holding people on marijuana possession charges. Amnesty for former pot convictions will empty prison beds and re-enfranchise thousands; strengthening those states substantially in a variety of ways.
What promises maximum entertainment potential is if the federal govt follows the precedent posed by the abolishment of Prohibition, returning the drafting of pot laws to each of the states.
When this happens, each state will be responsible for their own law enforcement and correctional policies.
You can be sure that many states will continue the same policies that they have always pursued without the excuse of of Federal law.
I live in a state where Prohibition remained the law of the land until the 1950s. I met an old bootlegger when I was in prison. And I remember "liquor by the drink" being a controversial ballot measure when I was a kid. I'm 41 years old.
There really will be no accounting for the stupidity of state and local legal mores once the federal govt rescinds its mandates, though that won't stop me from trying.
True for alcohol, would be doubly true for abortion if Roe v. Wade ever got reversed and absolutely WILL be true when the national war on weed is ended!
Every state will be given the option of freeing up millions of dollars and redirecting them toward more pressing concerns, freeing up several thousands of prison beds and lightening the load of the back-door welfare state of the prison-industrial complex. Allowing full economic and political participation for those who had been previously marginalized.
Trust that numerous states will decline these opportunities. Among them those which already have the highest rates of incarceration in the nation and which are least able to afford them.
Just in terms of pure pure economic and political pragmatism, there would seem little upside in continuing these failed policies.
What will happen is that a large swath of beard will be stripped from the face of the nation. What weed control policies remain on the state and local level will continue, as they always have, to be proxies for Jim Crow, racial profiling and disenfranchisement, and anti-immigrant animus. Which, not coincidentally, was the first use of marijuana criminalization. Those states that keep pot criminalized will do so precisely because they need the beard for local Jim Crow in their state.
Whatever happens and however you slice it, we are about to learn some telling lessons about ourselves as a nation.
Until then it will be a banner year in households in Colorado and Washington.
Smoke up Johnny! And take a toke for the rest of us poor sods waiting to move into the 21st Century and who will be waiting still in 2050!
Post script from 6-22-2022
Oklahoma has been on record as the most liberal medical weed laws in America. Expect this to change at any time of course...especially if it cuts Gov Stitt into the profits. He's trying to shake down members of Sovereign Nations as well.
Waiting and watching for him to make Fallin's mistakes, gotta give him time to find his footing on the kind of criminal he'll be.
Nobody gets political cred in conservative circles unless they have a body count they can point to.
Aside from the strong showing of killing Herman Cain at what would have been a gigantic super-spreader event where they tried to kettle this Trump rally w/ the Juneteenth Celebration going on at Greenwood. Site of the 1921 Pogrom against Black Wall St. You all see HBO's Watchmen series?
THAT Greenwood!
They had barricaded downtown, setting up a set piece from someone w/ Nazi sensibilities. Trying to stick fingers in local wounds.
That got dismantled by folks on the ground and by countless #Tiktok kids reserving fake seats for the event. You all are #Scoobies in the Buffy the Vampire Hunter tradition!
And if I have to explain what that is, then fuck the lot of ya!
Give it a watch. Badass sisterhood right there!
You did a service for the forces of Civilization that day! Thank you!
Evidently I just wandered in to say something about Weed Law and went into a weird PTSD trip. Fortunately, weed is good for that.
I'm going to try to amputate this and transplant it.
It has been a fucked up 11 years.
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