cannabisnews.com: Support for Legalizing Marijuana Grows Rapidly 
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Support for Legalizing Marijuana Grows Rapidly 
Posted by CN Staff on November 22, 2009 at 19:49:47 PT
By Karl Vick, Washington Post Staff Writer 
Source: Washington Post
Washington, D.C. -- The same day they rejected a gay marriage ballot measure, residents of Maine voted overwhelmingly to allow the sale of medical marijuana over the counter at state-licensed dispensaries.Later in the month, the American Medical Association reversed a longtime position and urged the federal government to remove marijuana from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act, which equates it with heroin and cocaine.
A few days later, advocates for easing marijuana laws left their biannual strategy conference with plans to press ahead on all fronts -- state law, ballot measures, and court -- in a movement that for the first time in decades appeared to be gaining ground."This issue is breaking out in a remarkably rapid way now," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Public opinion is changing very, very rapidly."The shift is widely described as generational. A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana -- a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, "the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years."A 53 percent majority already does so in the West, according to the survey. The finding heartens advocates collecting signatures to put the question of legalization before California voters in a 2010 initiative.At last week's International Drug Reform Conference, activists gamed specific proposals for taxing and regulating pot along the lines of cigarettes and alcohol, as a bill pending in the California Legislature would do. The measure is not expected to pass, but in urging its serious debate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) gave credence to a potential revenue source that the state's tax chief said could raise $1.3 billion in the recession, which advocates describe as a boon.There were also tips on lobbying state legislatures, where measures decriminalizing possession of small amounts have passed in 14 states. Activists predict half of states will have laws allowing possession for medical purposes in the near future.Interest in medical marijuana and easing other marijuana laws picked up markedly about 18 months ago, but advocates say the biggest surge came with the election of Barack Obama, the third straight president to acknowledge having smoked marijuana, and the first to regard it with anything like nonchalance."As a kid, I inhaled," Barack Obama famously said on the campaign. "That was the whole point."In office, Obama made good on a promise to halt federal prosecutions of medical marijuana use where permitted by state law. That has recalibrated the federal attitude, which had been consistently hostile to marijuana since the early 1970s, when President Richard Nixon cast aside the recommendations of a presidential commission arguing against lumping pot with hard drugs.Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he was astonished recently to be invited to contribute thoughts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, was police chief in Seattle, where voters officially made enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority."I've been thrown out of the ONDCP many times," St. Pierre said. "Never invited to actually participate."Anti-drug advocates counter with surveys showing high school students nationwide already are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco -- and that the five states with the highest rate of adolescent pot use permit medical marijuana."We are in the prevention business," said Arthur Dean, chairman of the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "Kids are getting the message tobacco's harmful, and they're not getting the message marijuana is."In Los Angeles, city officials are dealing with elements of public backlash after more than 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries opened, some employing in-house physicians to dispense legal permission to virtually all comers. The boom town atmosphere brought complaints from some neighbors, but little of the crime associated with underground drug-dealing.Advocates cite the latter as evidence that, as with alcohol, violence associated with the marijuana trade flows from its prohibition."Seriously," said Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, "there is a reason you don't have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests."But the controversy over the dispensaries also has put pressure on advocates who specifically champion access for ailing patients, not just those who champion easing marijuana laws."I don't want to say we keep arm's length from the other groups. You end up with all of us in the same room," said Joe Elford, counsel for Americans for Safe Access, which has led the court battle for medical marijuana and is squaring off with the Los Angeles City Council. "It's a very broad-based movement."Note: Approval for medical use expands alongside criticism of prohibition.Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Karl Vick, Washington Post Staff Writer Published: Monday, November 23, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Washington Post Contact: letters washpost.com Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/uMFxiiN5CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #26 posted by heretic on November 27, 2009 at 07:01:41 PT:
EAH
You said "So even though conservative philosophy should favor ending prohibition, they associate cannabis with hippies and liberals and socialists etc" and this is the problem. The problem is that prohibition is only a cover for the true purpose of the war on drugs, which is genocide of the hippies, radicals and non-whites. 
Jacob Hornberger's blog on conservative / libertarian issues
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 13:01:24 PT
EAH 
It's time for Republicans to get over their dislike for Democrats etc. Obama is allowing state's rights to decide in California about MMJ and other states so they best be ready to start thinking outside the box. I don't ever watch Fox News just MSNBC. I have a Republican friend that can't stand Fox News anymore. It is embarassing to him.
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Comment #24 posted by EAH on November 23, 2009 at 12:40:12 PT:
Path to success
Watching the process that has unfolded with health care reform it makes me very worried that when it reaches the point where Congress considers this, it's going to get very difficult. A real end to cannabis prohibition and prohibition in general is going to have to happen in Congress. This is a terrifying thought.As we all know, doing the right thing is not what Congress does well. What should be fairly straightforward will become a tangled mess once the powerful lobbies decide what it is they want. There are only two things that Congress responds to, campaign contributions and their perception of what will insure re-election. The main obstacle to gaining more support is the culture divide. Most Republicans are supporters of states rights and lean libertarian. Both of those things should make them amenable to ending prohibition. The problem however is that since the 60s, cannabis has been seen as a counterculture icon. So even though conservative philosophy should favor ending prohibition, they associate cannabis with hippies and liberals and socialists etc. Until we can get the Fox News types to align with ending prohibition, or a good portion of them, it is going to be very difficult to convince enough politicians that it is safe for them to vote to end prohibition. It may seem close, but we don't even have expressions of understanding or support from most Democrats right now. It really took a massive effort to end 
alcohol prohibition, something most Americans favored. Ending cannabis prohibition is going to mean convincing a very broad swath of the political spectrum that it is the right thing to do, and that it is not a threat to the continued existence of "the America they love".
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Comment #23 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 10:30:14 PT
Lol! Runruff.
You would!
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Comment #22 posted by runruff on November 23, 2009 at 10:06:56 PT
Oh yeah!
Well, I disagree!
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 09:23:27 PT
Hope
If we want an army to win they must be on the same wavelength. We have no time for I'm right and you're wrong anymore. In the end and history is written we will see the need for all of the different views.
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 09:20:02 PT
"isn't anymore infighting"
I've noticed a sudden reduction in that too... and was surprised and grateful.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 09:09:53 PT
Hope
Me too. One think I've noticed recently is different people have sometimes a little different view but there isn't anymore infighting that I saw years ago. Those that oppose us are happy when we fight because they have done what they wanted and that's divide and conquer. We must never forget how we could lose.
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:52:36 PT
It has been an incredible journey...
So much pain, grief, and sorrow and so much blood on the tracks. It sure looks like there is daylight ahead, though. Finally. I thank God and all the people that have endured, resisted, and stood up and spoke out against all this injustice.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 08:45:17 PT
Hope
It really has been an incredible journey.
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:44:45 PT
Oh Ripit.
I hope victory and relief come soon, too.
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:43:00 PT
It's not over yet, of course...
but I will, as long as I live, always be grateful for this place and the people here.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:37:36 PT
FoM
Thank you for being my friend.I love being a "sidekick and stabilizer", too. That's going to keep me smiling for a while. This has been a very real "watering hole" for news, knowledge, understanding, strength, and courage. I shudder to think of not ever having had the fellowship we all have here.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:20:07 PT
Lol!
"side-kick and stabilizer"Thank you.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 08:14:09 PT
ripit
Let's hope that is happens soon so many of us will be able to enjoy the victory.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 08:12:43 PT
Hope
And thank you for being my side-kick and stabilizer all these years. Mostly thank you for being my friend.
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Comment #10 posted by ripit on November 23, 2009 at 08:09:43 PT
i keep seeing
advancements and it makes me glad in my heart but i fear they wont happen in time to help me. i just wish there was a way for me to push it forword faster.being broke an on probation don't help much either.
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 08:07:00 PT
And...
Thanks to the wonderful efforts of people like FoM... the Internet has been educational and has kept us up with what was going on as it's happening everywhere. That's been amazing and something we didn't have before we had the Internet. It was hard to find news once and if there was anything going on, most of us usually didn't know about it until it was all over. C-News has kept us focused, informed, determined, knowledgeable and sane, or mostly so, all these years. I'm so grateful for all that C-News is.Thank you so much, FoM, for your dedication to justice. 
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on November 23, 2009 at 07:58:10 PT
The Internet as a communication 
and discovery tool has been a wonder and a Godsend. It gave us profound contact with each other and a clear public voice, and as a movement... it put wheels on our rig.It's such a relief to finally see so much forward progress. I don't think our efforts will be squelched this time. The prohibitionists want to, but they can't... because we're right and enough people in this country, in this world, completely realize it now.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 07:04:37 PT
MikeC
The Internet was really created by Hippies. One of the documentaries on the 60s says that and I agree. 
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Comment #6 posted by MikeC on November 23, 2009 at 06:55:51 PT
FoM...
"The Internet is our liberator"I credit the internet for enabling communication and information sharing between us all. The internet has brought us together. 
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 23, 2009 at 05:08:38 PT
Paint with Light 
I worried about a backlash too. I think that this time we have reached a point where we can't be brought down the way it happened back then. The Internet is our liberator.
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Comment #4 posted by Paint with light on November 22, 2009 at 23:59:59 PT
Worries fading FoM
I have always worried, as you have, that there might be a backlash like we experienced in the 70's.We were so close once before.This time, I believe, is really different.I can almost breathe a sigh of relief.Almost.Legal like alcohol, in two to five years, is my dream. 
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 22, 2009 at 20:10:35 PT
MikeC 
It is amazing. All these years it's been so hard at times and now those days are but a memory. I love it.
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Comment #2 posted by MikeC on November 22, 2009 at 20:02:55 PT
FoM...
It's really amazing. We are marching our way to freedom!!!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 22, 2009 at 19:50:55 PT
Step By Step
We're getting there finally.
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