On pot...seems a simple news story generates some controversy

[joshcryer]

36. Emboldened RI, ME lawmakers seek to legalize pot

Recent campaigns that made Colorado and Washington the first states in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana are energizing efforts to do the same in New England, with lawmakers in Rhode Island and Maine vowing to push legislation next year to impose alcohol-style regulations and taxes on the drug.

Rhode Island Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, said Thursday that the passage of legalization referendums in the two Western states are the latest indication that American attitudes toward marijuana are softening. She said the regulated sale of marijuana would eliminate the black market while raising a projected $10 million in revenue for government coffers. The state would also save some $20 million a year simply by no longer arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people for marijuana offenses.

‘‘Our prohibition has failed,’’ she said. ‘‘I think legalizing and taxing it, just as we did to alcohol, is the way to do it.’’

Maine Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, said she also will propose legislation to legalize marijuana in her state, and estimated that sales taxes on its purchase there would raise $8 million.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/2012/11/15/emboldened-lawmakers-seek-legalize-pot/Al2uD9D4T78TgAtN8MhL3O/story.html

The dominoes are already falling. It's only a matter of time. The will of the people cannot be ignored.

Washington is the farthest any state has gone down the road to decriminalize possession, though it did not go so far as to make it legal to cultivate.

Yeah, but Colorado allows 6 plants (3 flowering 3 not flowering), possession up to an ounce for anyone over 21, and doesn't give people in possession under 21 a felony (a really bad part of WAs law is that they didn't get rid of felony possession under 21), you simply get a fine like a kid in possession or alcohol or cigarettes. In that vein I think Colorado is way ahead of anyone else. It literally is "regulating marijuana like alcohol." You don't get a felony for underage drinking and you can brew your own beer in modest quantities.

The biggest problem for the prohibitionists / drug war advocates is simply that it will be impossible to stop export from Colorado short of putting up checkpoints at the border. It's all over.