Beyond Medical Marijuana

In addition to a second try at marijuana legalization in Nevada, The Washington Times notes, voters next November may face a decriminalization initiative in Colorado. The latter measure, inspired by a successful (but mainly symbolic) referendum in Denver, would eliminate penalties for possession of up to an ounce by residents 21 and older. The Nevada initiative goes further, creating a legally regulated distribution system. "There's a libertarian streak in Colorado and a respect for people's individual rights throughout the West," says the camaign manager for the Denver initiative, "so there's no reason people shouldn't vote for this."

Comments

[cliff]

It will be interesting to see the outcome of these votes and how they are spun by the prohibitionists. I predict if the measures pass, it will be because the voters were duped by misleading propaganda and the prohibitionists will be so very sad and angry. If the measures fail, then it will be a decisive victory for the drug war status quo and the prohibitionists will be dancing in the streets.

[Hambone]

Boo is our friend!

[Warren]

The hope lies in Colorado. Nevada's call for a new sate bureaucracy is hardly an improvement over prohibition (although the value of direct confrontation with the feds is not to be overlooked). The Denver initiative was superb. The attempt to make it a domestic violence issue was a decided misstep, but not a stumble. I am skeptical that there is enough support throughout the state. It will be huge blow to the drug warriors if it passes. The 'pot should be treated like booze' theme goes straight to the heart of the failing WOD. Medical MJ and industrial hemp illustrate the fanatical extremism of those waging the WOD. The Colorado initiative nicely avoids the possibility of tactical victory while conceding the philosophical landscape.

[Jaybird]

I am a Coloradan and I suspect that, Colorado Springs aside, this has a good chance of passing.

I wonder if the 2006 election is the best time to do this (as opposed to the 2008 election) but I reckon that it's probably better than the 2007 elections.

Cross your fingers.

[daksya]

Better Colorado than Minnesota.

[Shawn Smith (in Las Vegas)]

The MJ legalization effort will fail here. The Mormons and Catholics who control the political establishment here won't allow any positive messages to get out. If we could bet on it, I would probably bet $100.00US saying that it would fail, even though I will probably vote yes for it.

[mediageek]

"I am a Coloradan and I suspect that, Colorado Springs aside, this has a good chance of passing."

Possibly. I'm sitting in an office in Colorado Springs, and I can practically hear the turbines warming up at the Focus on the Family propaganda center from here...

[Bonar Law]

"a decriminalization initiative in Colorado. . . . would eliminate penalties for possession of up to an ounce [of marijuana] by residents 21 and older."

That sounds good.

After all (the advocates could say), marijuana is so closely linked to interstate commerce that Congress can prohibit possession. Therefore, marijuana is clearly a federal issue and not a state issue. Therefore, the states should not presume to meddle in a federal issue!

[James]

Bonar Law: in other words, it's Washington's law, let them enforce it. I can get behind that.

I think the very fact that it's on the ballot anywhere is a major victory. No fortress was ever knocked down by a single stone...if it fails this time, try, try again.

[B.P.]

Picking nits: The Denver thing was an initiative, not a referendum. Colorado enjoys some pretty generous initiative hurdles.

[sage]

Shawn Smith,

I think you are right. Pot is one of the few occasions where church grannies and drug dealers can come together for a common cause. And, I'm told, there are more churches in NV than there are casinos.

[Warren]

I'm told, there are more churches in NV than there are casinos.

I always assumed that was only if you counted the marriage/divorce mills.

[thoreau]

Pot is one of the few occasions where church grannies and drug dealers can come together for a common cause.

Judge Jim Gray (formerly R-Orange County, now L-Orange County) had an interesting anecdote about Nevada in his book. A dry county was having a vote on whether or not to allow liquor sales. For a while it looked like the measure would pass. But shortly before the vote a bunch there was a blitz of ads urging people to vote against the measure. The measure failed, and the county remained dry.

It was later learned that the ads were funded by liquor store owners just across the county line. They would lose customers if the measure passed and competitors sprung up in the formerly dry county.

Draw your own conclusions.

[sage]

Warren, I got married in one of those. Ten years ago. Yes, we're still together.

[Warren]

sage,
Good for you!
I was just saying that I don't think the high number of churches says very much about the electorate of NV

[Warren]

thoreau,
The 'Baptist and bootlegger' coalition is still with us. However, it's the bureaucrat that is most committed to modern prohibition. The campaign to keep drugs on the black market, is financed and fought by first and foremost by government agents.

[David]

Nice use of alliteration ,Warren!

[Shawn Smith (in Las Vegas)]

And, I'm told, there are more churches in NV than there are casinos.

It depends what you mean by "casinos." Just about every convenience and grocery store has a few slots or video poker machines, so if you count those, I would have to disagree with the statement. I know of at least one Mormon temple, a Catholic church, a couple of "non-denominational" permanent Christian churches within one mile of my house. In other words, I believe the number of churches outnumbers the number of schools.

Las Vegas is well known in the state as being where the Democrats (and more socially liberal people, generally) have settled. Most of geographical area of the state is still overwhelmingly populated by socially conservative people.

[zach]

Seems similar to Philly. We pretty much hate Republicans here (I think we voted for Kerry 85% or so), but they dominate the rest of the state. This mostly causes controversey in the gun control area, where Philadelphia is forced to adapt the same (absurdly lax, even to this libertarian mind) standards as the rest of the state.

[dead_elvis]

I think how this plays out depends on how it's perceived by those states- I had the impression, someone correct me if I'm wrong, that the last votes in Alaska and Nevada failed partly because voters resented the fact that the debate was fueled and funded primarily by out of state forces.

Western states might have a libertarian streak, but that also means they hate being told what to do by out-of-staters. The legalization advocation has to come from within the state; if nationwide advocates are perceived to be in charge or providing most of the funding, it might be sunk.

[zach]

Adopt.

[Kwix]

dead elvis,
You are at least partially right in regards to Alaska. We don't take kindly to folks from the "Lower 48" telling us what to do. The demographics here are a bit wonky though. A lot of political power here comes from the tribal chiefs with villages on Native Corporation lands. Most of those villages are dry(alcohol) and try to remain drug free. Contrast that with the "Big Cities" of Anchorage and Fairbanks which are much, much more cosmopolitan. However, even the most Liberal Alaskan likes to think that only Alaskans know what is good for the state. Makes for some interesting politics though.

[Eric the .5b]

I have to wonder how a "gun-control" law can be "absurdly lax" by any libertarian standard.

Mosh pit in the digression argument! Whoo!

[Chris Buors]

Dr. Thomas Szasz was right again!

All these efforts to medicalize marijuana have simply prolonged the struggle for liberty.

The key to winning over the morally rightoues is paint them as aggressors who will not pass muster with St. Peter.

Temperance, prudence, justice and fortitude are the Four cardinal Virtues of St. Thomas Aquinas. Temperance and prohibtion are at irrconcianle odds and prohibtion does not live up to a single other virtue either.

Next is the Seven Deadly Sins explainition.

For instance. Vainglory is defined as wanting your way so badly that you would willing harm another person to get it.

Sneek in a little Spooner's Vice Are Not Crimes defintion at this point and then....meting out criminal records to sinners is vainglory defined!

I urge all to read the Sinful State by Lew Rockwell and Demon Drugs and Four Cardinal Virtues at reconsider,com from when I cobbled the above together. Lots of published LTE's based on who does and does not hold the high moral ground.

I credit Dr. Thomas Szasz for the underlying arguments. Thank for the clairity!

[Adam]

All these efforts to medicalize marijuana have simply prolonged the struggle for liberty.

Nobody "medicalized" marijuana. Marijuana is medicine, plain and simple. Just like tree bark and fungi and all kinds of other seemingly weird shit that people in other cultures take to make themselves feel better. Some of it works, even if the "medicines" in question haven't passed muster with the FDA.
---
One (hint of a) step forward, one (hint of a) step back..just got this in the email inbox from the Marijuana Policy Project:

He's back. Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski (R) is once again trying to pass legislation that would wipe out Alaska's good marijuana law -- the best state marijuana law in the nation.

Although his draconian marijuana crusade stalled and drew public ridicule last year, Murkowski recently announced that he plans to "hit the ground running" in his effort to pass harsh new marijuana penalties in Alaska's 2006 legislative session, which starts today, January 9.

Currently, Alaska is the only state where any aspect of recreational marijuana use is legal, but Murkowski's legislation would undo this and send Alaska back to the Dark Ages. His outrageous bill would:
* Send a 21-year-old to prison for up to 10 years for passing a marijuana cigarette to a 20-year-old friend.
* Make the penalty for possession of four or more ounces of marijuana the same as for incest, burglary, or possessing child pornography -- up to five years in prison.

[Adam]

dead elvis - to some extent you're right, but the Marijuana Policy Project is also cultivating long-term relationships with interested state and local parties - such as alcoholism treatment providers in the case of Nevada, including tying the proceeds of the regulatory system's taxes into direct funding for treatment. I'm in no position to tell you how well that effort is going because I don't know, but they are very well aware of the "appearance of invasion" problem. No idea about Alaska and the invasion problem, but their laws are the best in the country because the Alaskan court system held that possessing pot in one's own home was not something that the state could legally prosecute under the Alaskan constitution.

[Adam]

...and aside from MPP, there are marijuana supporters and activists in all 50 states and there are people who aren't "marijuana supporters" or "activists" (or "libertarians") who come to the table not wholeheartedly convinced that prohibition is effective or worth the cost or fair or in any way reasonable. And this Colorado thing appears to me (after brief inspection of the website) to be...shall we say...home grown?

[daksya]

Someone please explain the basis of Alaskan law legalizing home possession. Does it apply to other drugs, say, 2 oz. of shrooms?

[Rick]

'Nobody "medicalized" marijuana.'

But medical marijuana laws force people to get a prescription from a doctor in order to get it. That's what Chris meant by "medicalizing" it. I could really care less if marijuana has any medical value or not. It's a non-issue for me. Healthy people have as much right to smoke marijuana in order to have a good time at a party, as do people battling chronic pain.

Medical marijuana laws pander to this phony morality that keeps marijuana prohibition firmly in place in our society. Underlying medical marijuana laws is the idea that it is a "sin" to use marijuana to party with, and, therefore, those people should be punished with the criminal law. Eric Schlosser, author of "Refer Madness", argues that the primary force keeping marijuana prohibited is the belief among many people that it is somehow "immoral" to use it. Schlosser argues that the economics arguments are of secondary importance when it comes to keeping marijuana prohibited.

If you watch the 1930's anti-marijuana propaganda film "Refer Madness", the makers of the film don't make any mention of the industrial uses of marijuana and alternative materials. What they are saying is that marijuana produces a kind of drug-induced demonic possession in users that turns straight-arrow white youth into mad killers and sex fiends. There is a strong racism underlying "Refer Madness" as well because at the time it was mostly smoked by hispanics and blacks. Whether or not "Refer Madness" was finianced by competing industries doesn't matter. Marijuana prohibition would have never been successfully sold to the public if marijuana hadn't been successfully cast as devil weed.

[joshua corning]

This mostly causes controversey in the gun control area, where Philadelphia is forced to adapt the same (absurdly lax, even to this libertarian mind) standards as the rest of the state.

I have to wonder how a "gun-control" law can be "absurdly lax" by any libertarian standard.

The government in Phily must be handing out Abrams tanks to every new born.

[Maria Folsom]

A "libertarian streak" in Colorado? Really, Jacob Sullum? These are the same people who voted out the Tabor tax limitations!

Rick is right - the issue is about Freedom, not medical need or anything else.

[Andrew Ian Dodge]

Excellent I hope the thing passes and starts a trend. Legalise it! (Even thought I am not a regular user I think it should be legal.)