Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[Ohio Joe]

1. K & R - nt

[BComplex]

2. I knew Bernie was a stoner!

[Evolve Dammit]

17. It's common sense America. I don't identify Bernie as a "stoner." Maybe 50 years ago..!

[BComplex]

21. I was actually kind of joking, but I have no doubt that Bernie probably "inhaled" at some point.

Bernie's awesome.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. I appreciate his fight for working people and social values that make sense. He and Liz both.

We can't even get to single payer while the middle class is on life support. But I digress. Happy Earth Day!

[SamKnause]

3. I'm on board Bernie.

I have been for decades.

It is a crime against humanity that cannabis has been criminalized.

The destruction this has caused in incalculable.

How many have been killed ?

How many have been orphaned ?

How many have been locked away ?

How many have been turned down for employment ?

How many have been turned down for housing ?

How many have been turned down for educational grants ?

This was a farce from the very beginning.

This was aimed at blacks and hippies under Nixon.

This was aimed at Mexicans and black musicians from the jump in 1937.

This was never based on science.

Nixon threw the report in the trash without every reading it.

The U.S. convinced and sometimes forced other countries to follow suit and spread the destruction world wide.

[jaxexpat]

9. I have heard that the Busch family may have had an interest in ......

Eliminating competition for their product. Probably an urban legend thing. But right after prohibition was repealed there was a pretty hard push to demonize cannabis. It hasn't gotten any better. I theorize the pharmaceutical industry is no friend of legalization either. Data recently coming out that states who've legalized or approved medical use are selling less prescription drugs. That's not what CVS or Pfizer want to hear. It's just a warning of lost profits to them.

[Warpy]

12. No, it was because an evil sonofabitch named Harry Anslinger

hated Mexicans and black folks, in that order.

Nixon doubled down because he hated people under 30, especially college kids.

NM decriminalized recreational cannabis a few weeks ago. Medical cannabis has been on the books since the 70s, but was only put into the hands of patients in the early 00s.

Cannabis is not a panacea, some people react badly to it. However, they're a minority, most people find it beneficial.

It's long overdue to have thisk useful plant decriminalized.

[questionseverything]

18. Nm legalized mj not decriminalized, there's a difference

Decriminalized means you can still be ticketed and forced into treatment, then if you don’t “pass” the treatment requirements , you can be jailed for not following the court order

Because our current president favors decriminalization the term is being used interchangeably but it’s not

[XacerbatedDem]

29. I've heard that the feds are trying to enact a law that anybody on medical MJ...

can not buy a gun or have a conceal and carry license. Is that true?

[madeup64]

31. It's already true

Having a medical marijuana card and admitting to it on a firearm background check means an automatic denial. This is because of federal regulations on marijuana being schedule one.

[questionseverything]

32. That's how it is right now

A democrat from Florida is suing over it now

[questionseverything]

38. That's already the law since it's still illegal nationally

[MustLoveBeagles]

4. K&R

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. Bernie finally says something I really agree with.

Go Bernie!

[FakeNoose]

6. Marijuana use should have never been made illegal

The sad fact is that there was a time when most of the marijuana users were black and not wealthy. It became easy to round up the "trouble-making" black folks and charge them with marijuana use. It was totally racist and unfair, and it was never about the safety or health issues of using marijuana. It was always about perceived trouble-makers and putting them in jail.

This country needs to face our racism head on and make substantive changes for the betterment of all.

[Hulk]

14. Exactly! This is why it became illegal.

I've watched documentaries on this, and this is exactly how the racist boot was put on the necks of our black communities. Whites and other minorities have also been caught up in this bitch nancy reagan Scarlet Letter of "crime"...yet drunks are put in a cage over night and sent home to beat their wives freely.

So wrong for a century now. Time to wake the fuck up and join the Twenty-first Century.

[Hulk]

15. No more a gateway drug than pissing in a bush.

You honestly believe a meth or heroin addict wouldn't be an addict if it wasn't for pot?

Oh please...save that shit.

[housecat]

20. Of course there is no connection between pot and, say, narcotics, but there may be with dealers.

I remember in the 60's some were just potheads also selling, but there were others, opportunists, only in it for the money. They sold whatever someone would buy. Usually it was pot, hash, and a variety of psychedelics, especially in the college crowd. Narcotics were considered to be a separate world then, but I don't know about today. Just sayin

[multigraincracker]

7. No more pee test for

jobs.

[ripcord]

10. What about airline pilots, truck drivers and train engineers? n/t

[Mariana]

13. Pee test doesn't tell whether they're high at the time of the test.

Only that they used it sometime in the past. So, what's the point?

[KS Toronado]

16. What about airline stewardess, truck mechanics, aircraft engineers,

diner waitresses, teachers, ditch diggers, meter readers, postmen, congressmen, store clerks, boat passengers,
football coaches, auto mechanics, bank employees, McDonald's cooks, pizza delivery drivers, auto parts counter
help, doctors, dentists, nurses, butcher, baker, the candle stick maker, police, prison warden, guard dog, drivers
flying trump flags, HARLEY DAVIDSON riders

No more pee tests for jobs, period.

[SergeStorms]

8. More talk.

I've been hearing talk about it since the early 70s, and that's all it's been. Talk.

Dozens of states have decriminalized it, some have legalized it, but as long as it remains a schedule 1 "narcotic" there will be no justice.

The government makes a big deal about opioids, but I'll never be able to get off of them (prescribed) until they legalized the use and posession of marijuana.

[Hulk]

11. Needs to be voted on in EVERY BALLOT in EVERY state

Whether it passes or not is insignificant. It will bring out the youth vote. It has the potential to finally legalize what is ALREADY LEGAL in half the states, and expunge the records clean of so many citizens that were apprehended for activities the majority of us have taken part in for decades.

Enough already! Get it on the ballots for THIS NOVEMBER. Then push voting Democrat for the down ballot and cleanse this sick nation of these gQp hypocrite snake oil politicians.

[twodogsbarking]

19. It was Reagan who said no to rugs.

[Carlitos Brigante]

22. Especially those Persian ones!! nt

[housecat]

36. What kind of rugs?

[twodogsbarking]

37. Well

[progressoid]

23. k/r

[Farmer-Rick]

28. Criminalization of cannabis just helped push a 2 tiered legal system

It was the up selling of a 2 tiered legal system.

Today the 2 legal systems, 1 for the masses and 1 one for the filthy rich, has become common place. If you or I were drunk and ran over and killed a 50 year old woman we would be in jail. But not the Waltons, who own Walmart.

There was always a bias in favor of the filthy rich built into our legal system. Hiring lawyers and bail is very expensive. But it was rarely talked about or openly encouraged to divert so drastically.

Making cannabis illegal allowed that 2 tiered justice system to fully develop. But now that everyone knows the filthy rich can even murder without any legal repercussions, there's no need for using cannabis as an excuse to lock away minorities and critics of capitalism.

They can just get the Supremes to wave their magical legal wands. I bet you Brett waves that wand around a lot. And Amy waves it around as her husband tells her to. Roberts's court is a joke and we now have 2 separate legal systems.

[Pepsidog]

30. Yesterday was first day NJ allowed the sale of recreational pot. No script needed.

[Emile]

33. Past time for our government to do the right thing and change cannabis classification.

[AllaN01Bear]

34. ding , ding , ding , ding. the "war on drugs " is a war on minorites and poor people .

failed .

[ripcord]

35. California legalized pot and now there are illegal grows all over our desert area stealing water

If we are going to make it legal we need to make it work for everyone. There have already been shots fired over water thefts from private wells, for some reason people in the desert take that very seriously.