In today’s United States, full-blown legal marijuana seems all but a certainty.
While Bernie Sanders may not win the Democratic nomination, his pledge to make marijuana legal on day one of his theoretical presidency nevertheless struck a chord with millions of voters. Joe Biden can hardly ignore the 80 percent of his supporters who are pining for legalization. Even 55 percent of Republicans nationwide now support medical marijuana at least, and 91 percent nationwide support decriminalization at a minimum.
Clearly, the times aren’t-a-changing; they’ve already changed. Despite the fact that there has been a “Republican” in the White House as of late – a fact which all sane and decent people mourn daily – the tide towards legalization has continued largely unabated over the past 5 years.
It was one-time Senator and Attorney General, 407-year old Jeff Sessions, who ironically illuminated the most important point as we look to the future of marijuana laws.
“I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana—so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful.”
No one is taking their weed advice from Jeff Sessions, nor should they; he once joked (well, according to him it was a joke) that he didn’t like the KKK but only because he had heard they smoked pot. He actually said that.
These are the kinds of people who have been making marijuana laws for a century.
Nixon’s Draconian Drug War
One such law, called the Controlled Substances Act, was enacted 50 years ago by the Richard Nixon administration. They did, in fact, lump marijuana and heroin in the exact same category – as a “dangerous narcotic” with “no medical value”.
That law is still – technically – on the books. At this point, however, it is such a dinosaur that it is not being taken seriously, as the growing number of legal marijuana states demonstrate. Yet because it still exists as written, marijuana cannot be made legal at the federal level. That’s what Bernie was trying to – enact an executive order to squash it and wait for the old angry people to file lawsuits.
With how marijuana laws have been going lately, my money – and about 30 billion dollars of other people’s money – are on team weed.
At this point, it bears asking:
- Who the hell are these people who are making these laws?
- What financial engine has been driving the war on weed all this time?
- On what authority do they truly operate?
- And where on God’s Green Earth are they getting their information?
Because it seems like the answers to the above questions are:
- Idiots and racists
- That’s a long and impossibly weird story we will delve into during tomorrow’s Bud Blog
- A small handful of white guys with lots of money
- Straight out of their ass.
It’s crazy to think that, not too long ago, draconian laws by awful human beings could slap a 20-year prison term over a joint. Now, you can get marijuana delivered right to your door, and it’s all within the law of the land. Check back tomorrow as we weed our way through the crazy and little-known early years of marijuana and how such a beautiful thing became so badly derailed by forces of greed.
