Again, I find AlterNet demonstrating genuine leadership by very prominently featuring stories and reports on some aspect of America's need to relegalize cannabis - the dreaded, evil, terrible, heinous, ugly, highly dangerous weed of mass destruction, MARA-JU-WANNA!
40 Years Ago Today, Feds Denied the Truth About Pot (and now it's Obama's turn to act)
On March 22, 1972 the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, chaired by former Pennsylvania governor Raymond P. Shafer, recommended that Congress amend federal law so that the use and possession of cannabis would no longer be a criminal offense. State legislatures, the commission added, should do likewise.
Amazing, isn't it?
Did you know that?
Make the jump.
“[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use,”concluded the 13-member commission, which included nine hand-picked appointees of then-president Richard Nixon, “It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.
“… Therefore, the Commission recommends ... [that the] possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, [and that the] casual distribution of small amounts of marihuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration, no longer be an offense.”
The criminal law is "too harsh a tool". Eloquently worded, don't you think?
However the very harsh tool, Richard Nixon, on his own, apparently, decided that this was the wrong answer and chucked the Shafer Commison Report into the trash and made "reefer madness" - marijuana prohibition and all the propaganda that goes with it - Republican Gospel.
, “We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' on all fronts.”
The rest, really, is history.
Tens of millions of Americans harrassed, ruined, imprisioned, many killed by police JUST BECAUSE the Asshole DICK Nixon decided to trash the recommendations of a "blue ribbon committee" for his own personal political bullshit.
Marijuana never should have been illegal. Period.
There's NO salient reason for it OTHER than the capriciousness and political devilry of very bad men.
Republicans in particular.
Sure, democrats have played along - what else is new?
Paul Armentano, the man who wrote the article I linked from Alternet, feels it's time for Obama to do the right thing. That's all nice and positive, but it ain't gonna happen : 1 | 2. It's not even worth discussing it.
But Democrats just simply do not have the foam-at-the-mouth, droolingly-stupid focus on "mara-ju-wanna" that the Republicans do.
They just don't.
They are, of course TERRIFIED of doing anything about it, but the times IS a-changin'.
Well, not ALL democrats: some are brave and demonstrate actual foresight: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4.
The discussion of cannabis reform has entered the maninstream; Many states - like a fourth of America - have legalized marijuana for medical purposes and have seen a reduction in the overall suicide rate.
The power of anti-marijuana propaganda is truly fearsome, though. Many people - even liberals who really should know better - still believe this horseshit despite the multiple debunkings it has had.
Facts mean just about nothing in this "debate". It's kept emotional by the reefer-mad propaganda.
We, the advocates for change, have the facts but they do us exactly no good when the funding for reefer mad propaganda goes unchecked, when Democrats are sitting around absolutely terrified of doing the right thing, and when the president has made it perfectly clear that he's not changing the course and is perfectly content to continue having 800000 Americans arrested wach year.
Nevertheless, I am calling on Markos to somehow, someway, make cannabis reform a regular focus of this site. I don't know how to do it, I don't know what it should look like, but Raw Story and AlterNet are leading the way on it and Daily Kos should be pitching in.
Because the mere discussion of 'alternative approaches to cannabis regulation' should send republicans, already in disarray and alienating themselves from mainstream Americans, would really melt down over this and further alienate themselves from a country that is able to actually move on.
Do we really have to anticipate another forty years of abject, needless stupidity?