The Good Marijuana News of 2008

Brian Doherty | December 16, 2008

The cock-eyed and blurry-eyed optimists at the Marijuana Policy Project lay out the good news for marijuana policy in 2008. Highlights:

MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZED IN MASSACHUSETTS:.....

MICHIGAN BECOMES 13TH MEDICAL MARIJUANA STATE: The 63 percent majority racked up by Proposal 1 was the largest ever for a medical marijuana initiative and exceeded Barack Obama’s vote total in the state by six points.

A NEW PRESIDENT PLEDGES TO END FEDERAL RAIDS IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA STATES: During the campaign, president-elect Barack Obama repeatedly promised to end federal attacks on individuals obeying state medical marijuana laws....

NEW RESEARCH VERIFIES MARIJUANA PAIN RELIEF: For the third time in less than two years, a published, peer-reviewed clinical trial demonstrated that marijuana safely and effectively relieves neuropathic pain, a notoriously hard to treat type of pain related to nerve damage, and often seen in illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and diabetes...

FEDERAL REPORTS DOCUMENT FAILURE OF CURRENT POLICIES: The Monitoring the Future survey, released Dec. 11, found that more 10th-graders now smoke marijuana than cigarettes, with teen marijuana use rising while teen use of cigarettes (which are legally regulated for adults) has dropped.

The bad news remains, hanging over our head from 2007, the last year for which figures are available: marijuana arrests were at an all-time high, with one citizen denied liberty for his harmless choice every 36 seconds.

Comments

24AheadDotCom|12.16.08 @ 2:42PM|#

Uh oh, "dude", I don't mean to "harsh your buzz" but, "like", Reason's choice to be president is, "like", not being cool in his answers to questions from the citizens.

"Like", maybe Reason could, "like" come up with a real question and see if they could get it to the top of the list, "dude". Oh, wait, they don't do that, they just whine.

"420", "Dude".

|12.16.08 @ 2:45PM|#

More bad news! When this question was voted to the number one spot on change.gov:

"Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?"

It was moved to fourth place and got this great answer:

"President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."

Here we go again, but are any of us really surprised? When are people going to wake up and demand that OUR government actually serve US? Both parties are corrupt beyond belief. It is time to get them out of office, once and for all. We need REAL "change we can believe in!"

24AheadDotCom|12.16.08 @ 2:45PM|#

Of course I would never smoke marijuana. I prefer methamphetamines as my MainDrug.

SpongePaul|12.16.08 @ 2:58PM|#

"President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana."
______________________________________________
well tough titties Mr. Obama! What you want care about or like matters not, it is not your JOB! Your JOB is to do the will of WE THE PEOPLE! WE THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN! #1 question on your site, support by most major medical associations, 75% of people in Zogby poll favor legalazation or decrime. The 2 GOVERMENT FUNDED STUDIES ON MJ BOTH SAID IT SHOULD BE LEGAL! So, Mr. Obama, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM! EITHER DO YOUR JOB OR GET THE F OUT!

|12.16.08 @ 3:07PM|#

Forgive me Thalia (and Reason OnLine), for I am about to sin.

This is from Lonewackoff's website -

Non-"liberal" coverage of immigration, politics, media bias, multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...[italics added]

Lonewackoff? Wacky humor? Who'd have suspected that?

|12.16.08 @ 3:14PM|#

I always thought all of Lonewackoff's comments were some kind of attempt at humor.

They generally fail but he tries.

|12.16.08 @ 3:14PM|#

Back on topic,

Whaddya think guys and gals?
Is a sane policy on marijuana (legalize, tax and regulate) in the near term (ten years) gonna happen?

I said yes in the seventies and was completely, totally, absolutely wrong.

BDB|12.16.08 @ 3:15PM|#

"Isaac Bartram | December 16, 2008, 3:14pm | #
I always thought all of Lonewackoff's comments were some kind of attempt at humor.

They generally fail but he tries."

Does laughing at him count as success?

Mister DNA|12.16.08 @ 3:22PM|#

Whaddya think guys and gals?
Is a sane policy on marijuana (legalize, tax and regulate) in the near term (ten years) gonna happen?

Definitely. I think it will happen right around the time we get responsible government spending and police departments start holding officers accountable for their abuses.

Oh... you said "near term". Sorry about that.

|12.16.08 @ 3:30PM|#

Does laughing at him count as success?

It worked for Rodney Dangerfield.

SIV|12.16.08 @ 3:36PM|#

"Obama supports the rights of states and local governments to make this choice -though he believes medical marijuana should be subject to (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) regulation like other drugs," LaBolt said. He said the FDA should consider how marijuana is regulated under federal law, while leaving states free to chart their own course.

Obama can drive a fleet of DEA/FDA tactical response vans through that weasely loophole you dirty hippies.I predict the raids continue.
Has "the one" named his Drug Czar yet?

BDB|12.16.08 @ 3:49PM|#

Maybe he'll appoint Marion Barry.

Alice Bowie|12.16.08 @ 3:58PM|#

Keep Dope ALIVE

24AheadDotCom|12.16.08 @ 4:10PM|#

The second comment above was not from me.

If any lurkers want to see even more retardation, see some of the comments here.

|12.16.08 @ 4:14PM|#

regulate it,
tax it,
put age limits on it,
and create millions of new jobs
and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.

If that's what they plan on doing, everyone might be better off if it stays in the black market. The black market probably has less economic distortion, and, if marijuana taxed, there's still a non-negligible possibility of having your door kicked in for tax evasion.

Zeb|12.16.08 @ 4:18PM|#

Lone Shithead,
You would have come off better if you had claimed the second comment.

4:20|12.16.08 @ 4:20PM|#

420

|12.16.08 @ 4:43PM|#

If that's what they plan on doing, everyone might be better off if it stays in the black market.

I emphatically disagree. What they are essentially asking is that marijuana be treated like beer. Unless you think that Prohibition was better for the drinking man than Repeal, this would be a huge step in the right direction.

But, as Mr. Hope 'n' Change has already stated:

Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

And, as SIV points out above, this liberalization of federal policy on medical marijuana? Also,

Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

|12.16.08 @ 4:47PM|#

Anyone reading this holding out hope that legalizing marijuana could lead to a cease fire in the War on Drugs are guilty of the equivalent of the logic of Oliver North's arms-for-hostages.

|12.16.08 @ 4:51PM|#

Sorry, R C Dean, I was kidding around in order to take the opportunity to illustrate how even the grassroots movement for legalization among Obama's supporters couches their proposal in terms of

-nanny-state regulation,

-economic fallacies about make-work job creation,

-and xenophobic "Made-in-U.S.A." protectionism,

all of which do their own damage, especially to the poor.

|12.16.08 @ 5:15PM|#

Does laughing at him count as success?

True, to that extent he succeeds.

24AheadDotCom |12.16.08 @ 5:58PM|#

DoDrugs?

I amDrugs

24AheadDotCom|12.16.08 @ 6:29PM|#

Once again, the last comment was not from me.

Here's something interesting that Reason's lawyers might want to see: The courts have not clarified the line between acceptable editing and the point at which you become the "information content provider." To the extent that your edits or comment change the meaning of the information, and the new meaning is defamatory, you may lose the protection of Section 230.

The Narrator|12.16.08 @ 7:49PM|#

24Ahead is onto the sinister Reason-sponsored conspiracy to make him look like an idiot. "Damn it" he says with gritted teeth, "I work alone."

|12.16.08 @ 7:57PM|#

Hey Lonewackoff,
Stop clogging op the comment threads with your monomaniacal immigration bullshit and nobody will ever comment on your mental shortcomings again.

Yet you continue to pollute the discussion with your inane bullcrap which indicates to me that you like it when we mock your intellectual deficiencies.

Internet masochist?

The Bearded Hobbit|12.16.08 @ 8:46PM|#

Whaddya think guys and gals?
Is a sane policy on marijuana (legalize, tax and regulate) in the near term (ten years) gonna happen?

I said yes in the seventies and was completely, totally, absolutely wrong.


.. hell, I said yes in the sixties and was wrong, too . .

.. btw, the best chance that we've had at the presidential level was Carter and see how well he is respected around here .. ain't gonna happen with Hopey..

.. ten years? you're talking the Feds, right?? .. I vote nope .. same vote for twenty and thirty years, too ..

.. Hobbit

Mike |12.16.08 @ 10:26PM|#

Hey man I sell marijuana hell I don't want the government to legalize it shit I'll lose money.
Business has been booming