Legalize pot movement gains steam - Violence in Mexico, crumbling budgets build momentum for debate

[Better Believe It]

Legalize pot movement gains steam
Violence in Mexico, crumbling budgets build momentum for debate
Associated Press
November 15, 2009

NEW YORK - The savage drug war in Mexico. Crumbling state budgets. Weariness with current drug policy. The election of a president who said, "Yes — I inhaled."

These developments and others are kindling unprecedented optimism among the many Americans who want to see marijuana legalized.

Doing so, they contend to an ever-more-receptive audience, could weaken the Mexican cartels now profiting from U.S. pot sales, save billions in law enforcement costs, and generate billions more in tax revenue from one of the nation's biggest cash crops.

Said a veteran of the movement, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance: "This is the first time I feel like the wind is at my back and not in my face."

"For the most part, what we've seen over the past 20 years has been incremental," said Norm Stamper, a former Seattle police chief now active with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "What we've seen in the past six months is an explosion of activity, fresh thinking, bold statements and penetrating questions."

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31375064/ns/health-addictions/

[UndertheOcean]

1. I like pot and all

but should we really be spending energy and political capital on this while more pressing and important problems are on our plate : Like Health care , the wars for oil , homelessness ....etc.

[mdmc]

3. i think that the GOP should take the lead on this

the only way they can make it back to power is by riding the libertarian wing into office.. it is good business and good public policy and it would take courage to change course..

[Better Believe It]

4. Yes, because people are serving years in jail for pot use and personal liberty is important.

And billions of dollars are being wasted for the enforcement of pot laws and imprisonment of pot users. Those vast funds could be freed up and used to help homeless people and others in need.

[RKP5637]

5. Exactly True!!! n/t

[Echo In Light]

10. Exactly - class warfare on all counts

[nashville_brook]

6. actually, the establishment is trying to stop expending energy on the bogus War On Drugs

that's kinda the point of the OP -- that states aren't fighting it anymore.

[reggie the dog]

7. sure we should, us pot smokers are sick of risking fines and jail time

legalizing cannabis and gay marriage are as important as health care.

[WhiteTara]

11. with the number of truly able people being locked up

the fabulous uses of the plant and the prospects of better things to come...hell yes we should be spending time, energy and political capital to end the criminalization of one of the most useful plants on our planet.

[Gman]

2. I really don't think we're expending an ounce of energy on this

But the movement is trying to move forward more quickly now, if anything because of the change in political climate. The DOJ's decision not to waste valuable resources on petty drug crimes is giving the movement probably the wrong signals.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Better Believe It.:thumbsup:

[Fly by night]

9. Thank the Goddess for E. Nadelmann, the only person working for drug policy reform in the USA.

Just ask him. (snark)

Frankly, we could do with fewer Nadelmanns and more Howard Wooldridges (one of the founders of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and Citizens Opposing Prohibition (COP)) and Mary Lynn Mathres (the founder of Patients Out of Time (POT)).

Nadelmann's Drug Policy Alliance participated actively in the formation of New Mexico's medical marijuana program regulations, which are terribly uninformed and almost entirely unworkable. However, the DPA did solicit (and spend) $mucho dinero$ on staff salaries by congratulating themselves for the NM (d)regs.

Time to get serious and to put these money-grubbing grand-standers out to pasture.