Salon.com > Pot Legalization

For the first time a majority of Americans support legalizing pot

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:05:00 +0000

A new Pew Research Survey finds that for the first time ever, a majority of Americans think that pot should be legalized, by a margin of 52-45 percent.

The poll also found that almost half of Americans say they've tried pot:

The survey finds that an increasing percentage of Americans say they have tried marijuana. Overall, 48% say they have ever tried marijuana, up from 38% a decade ago. Roughly half in all age groups, except for those 65 and older, say they have tried marijuana.

Tom Angell of Marijuana Majority said in a statement that this is a good sign for legalization: "A majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana, and you're going to start seeing more politicians running toward our movement instead of away from it, just as we've seen happen with marriage equality recently."

Colorado may allow tourists to get high

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:38:00 +0000

The Colorado task force in charge of setting up regulations for the state’s legal marijuana has decided to let tourists in on the weed, the Associated Press reports. Lawmakers, law enforcement and marijuana policy activists on the task force assembled and agreed Tuesday that Amendment 64 legalizes marijuana for all adults at least 21 years old, and does not exclude out-of-state visitors.

Members of the task force were concerned whether allowing tourists to purchase marijuana would encourage or discourage illicit sale. "Imposing a residency requirement would almost certainly create a black market for recreational marijuana in the state," task force member Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat, said at the meeting.

Regulators agreed that marijuana tourists should be warned via billboards and airport signs not to take Colorado marijuana home, and that an undetermined limit of sale should be established for non-residents.

If lawmakers agree with the task force recommendation, tourists will be free to get stoned in Colorado. Still, whether they, or anyone else in the state can do so in public is up for a more heated debate.

According to the Associated Press:

Task force members were less successful agreeing to recommendations on marijuana growing and public use. Colorado's marijuana law allows home growing but requires plants to be in a locked, secure location out of public view. The task force couldn't agree whether a "locked" and "secure" location would mean a backyard surrounded by a fence, or whether an enclosure such as a shed or greenhouse should be mandatory.

Greenwood Village Police Chief John Jackson, whom the AP called “one of the task force's most vocal marijuana critics,” expressed concern that a chain-link fence would not be sufficient in keeping kids out of a backyard pot garden. Prominent marijuana policy activist Meg Sanders disagreed, and said requiring coverings like greenhouses would be unfair."I think it goes too far in restricting what people can do on their own private property," Sanders said at the meeting.

According to the AP, Jackson and like-minded members of the task force also want to ban marijuana use on publicly visible patios, porches and backyards.

"So I can drink a beer on my porch? But I can't smoke a joint?" marijuana advocate Christian Sederberg chided at the meeting.

State Sen. Cheri Jahn (D-Wheat Ridge) also warned against regulating the use of a legal substance on private property, asking, "What about backyard grills that send the smell of hamburgers into the nose of a neighbor who's vegetarian?"

"I don't know how far we want to go telling people what they can't do on their own porches," she said at the meeting.

The task force created by Colorado governor John Hickenlooper has a February 28 deadline for marijuana regulation recommendations, which the state legislature and Department of Revenue (which oversees gambling and alcohol) will ultimately decide.

In the meantime, residents and visitors can learn more about their rights to legal weed in Washington and Colorado here.

Dumb tweet of the day: “Mr Obama Clause”

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:19:00 +0000

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End the drug war

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:00:00 +0000

What's next? Amid all the munchie-themed jokes from reporters, political elites and late-night comedians, this remains the overarching question after Coloradans voted overwhelmingly to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in the same way alcohol is already legalized, regulated and taxed. Since those anti-drug war principles are now enshrined in Colorado's constitution, only the feds can stop this Rocky Mountain state – if they so choose. But will they? And should they even be able to?

The answer to the former is maybe. Barack Obama campaigned for president pledging to respect state marijuana laws, and his Justice Department in 2009 issued a memo reiterating that promise. But by 2011, the same Justice Department countermanded that directive and authorized a federal crackdown. Now, with the results of the 2012 election, Colorado's Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has been forced into the awkward position of fighting off the feds in defense of a state constitutional amendment he tried to defeat.

End the war on weed!

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:35:00 +0000

The decades-long fight to end the Drug War - and specifically, the absurd war on marijuana - received a huge boost in the 2012 election, as Colorado and Washington became the first states to vote to legalize and regulate cannabis. Following those historic votes, a new poll shows the vast majority of Americans want states - not the federal government - to decide for themselves whether to legalize pot. Meanwhile, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) took to national television to amplify the message of that poll, demanding that the federal government to respect states whose voters have spoken.

The problem, of course, is that the Obama administration may cite the 1970 Controlled Substances Act as statutory rationale to try to force states to continue an expensive and inhumane war on weed that unnecessarily arrests and incarcerates thousands of Americans each year.

Progressives win big in Colorado

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:03:00 +0000

On a watershed day with much to celebrate, no state exemplifies American politics' lightning-fast progressive earthquake more than Colorado. And here's the part of that story the media won't tell you about: The presidential election results from this formerly deep red state comprise only a minor part of the tectonic shift.

Sure, President Obama did effectively use his massive campaign war chest to eke out a much-needed victory here, but that not-so-surprising result is not the big news in a region whose demographics and population growth make it a vision of America's political future. Instead, the big square-state story is that a once-dominant Republican Party is utterly marginalized, an autocratic, top-down Democratic Party establishment is at the mercy of its activist base, and the state's corporate elite are no longer able to fully dictate political destiny.

Ten worst sentences for marijuana-related crimes

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Most Americans want pot to be legal, and as many as 70% of Americans want to legalize it for medical use. Nonetheless, the war on pot rages on. The Obama administration has actually increased raids on state-sanctioned medical pot programs, prosecuting both patients and their providers. Medical pot defendants have little protection in the justice system, which denies as evidence mention of their marijuana prescription or state-sanctioned use. A review of some of the sentences over the past few decades -- punishments that plague individuals for decades, even after release -- reveals the injustice of the drug war. Here's a rundown of the people who received the harshest penalties handed down for pot in recent history.

1. Christopher Williams