The amounts of pot mentioned in my federal indictment and testified about in my criminal trial were in the multiple semi trailer load quantity. It’s like “a single joint or even a single ounce is basically harmless but when one gets to the point of having enough to sell a joint to several million people, well that’s different”. Yeah it’s different! Helping a million people get mellow is obviously a greater service to society than helping only a couple of thousand to do so.
Here’s a little recent Drug War history from my perspective. Reagan got elected in Nov. of 1980 and I got busted between his election and his inauguration. Coincidentally, Clinton got elected in Nov. of 1992, and I got released from Federal prison just slightly over a month after his inauguration so I claim to qualify as more than a simple observer of events during the relevant time frame (there was a four year period in here when I was a fugitive but that’s another story). I’m not superstitious but I believe that Reagan was connected to the dark side and Clinton brought us back into the light, including on all things marijuana.
The Reagan years were ugly, ugly, ugly for all things drugs. Clinton, on the other hand, couldn’t do anything more than change the tone, but he did that in spades. All this talk about “drugs are not only a violent crime, they’re the most violent crime” continued on wingnut radio but left the Whitehouse completely the minute Bill and Hillary took occupancy. He may not have been good enough to impose sanity single handedly on this nation, but the minute Bill took office the insanity had to find a home outside of the federal government and that is good enough for me.