America's Schizoid Pot Culture -- 4 in 10 Have Smoked It, and Millions Are Still Getting Busted

[marmar]

America's Schizoid Pot Culture -- 4 in 10 Have Smoked It, and Millions Are Still Getting Busted

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted April 28, 2009.

The Obama administration is giving mixed signals on its pot policies despite a tidal shift in social views on legalizing marijuana.



Fully 80 percent of Americans approve of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and fewer than one in five favor locking up non-violent adults who use pot in general. But since the inception of the disastrous “War on Drugs,” politicians from across the political spectrum have found that being a dedicated drug warrior is an easy way to appear “tough on crime” without much political risk.

The result of that divide is a truly schizoid patchwork of laws regulating the use of cannabis. Several states have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of weed -- most recently Massachusetts this year -- and 13 states have legalized medical marijuana. Yet each and every year we continue to lock up three-quarters of a million Americans for possession of marijuana and waste an estimated $14 billion on our misguided prohibition of a cash crop that’s worth more than wheat and corn combined.

The Obama administration has sent markedly mixed signals about whether it would continue the most regressive element of the “Drug War” -- Bush’s policy of going after medical marijuana providers in the states that have legalized the industry.

Bush turned federal law-enforcement into a de facto White House veto over state-level drug laws (and, often, over the will of the people -- 8 of the 13 states that permit the use of medical marijuana got there through a referendum process). It’s clichéd to describe the more labyrinthine corridors of our legal system as “Kafkaesque,” but the way Bush did it would draw a knowing sigh from old Franz. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/138460/america%27s_schizoid_pot_culture_--_4_in_10_have_smoked_it%2C_and_millions_are_still_getting_busted/

[tridim]

1. They just need to pull it from Schedule I and the issue will work itself out.

Does this definition fit in anyone's opinion?

Schedule I — drugs with a high abuse risk. These drugs have NO safe, accepted medical use in the United States. Some examples are heroin, marijuana, LSD, PCP, and crack cocaine.

What a joke.

[ms liberty]

2. K&R, and marking for later perusal...n/t

[OneBlueSky]

3. the crazies are still calling pot "the evil weed" and a "gateway drug" . . .

when, in fact, it is neither . . . the best description I've ever seen of marijuana is "a mild euphoric" -- and a natural one at that . . .

the number of people in jail and prison for pot offenses is staggering, and costing this country untold billions of dollars each year . . . decriminalizing pot is the only approach that makes sense, coupled with the immediate release of anyone incarcerated for simple possession or for selling small amounts of weed . . . the savings to law enforcement and corrections would be enormous . . . and, more importantly, it's simply the right thing to do . . .