About weed.

[fun n serious]

In my state (Oregon) the cops would illegally stop and frisk my son who was about 16 at the time looking for weed. I could not send my son to the store for a gallon of milk without him calling me from his cell telling me the cops were searching him. It happens a lot less now that weed is legal. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful that the cartel is not bringing weed to Oregon anymore. It does a lot of good. It has reduced the benzo scrips for anxiety and the many depression drugs. In Oregon we do not have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a medical card which BTW is hugely expensive to do. Just because I don't smoke it does not mean I should be against it. No one should be against weed. Oh.. and about that federal law bullshit... Marriage equality started in states so...

The next candidate who openly embraces legalization will win! Bet me!

[Warren DeMontague]

1. I agree. All sorts of atrocious shit has gone down under the rubric of the "drug war".

Case in point:

http://jezebel.com/cops-forcibly-search-womans-vagina-after-smelling-weed-1723207106

Beyond that, supporting legalization should be a no-brainer for our leadership. More and more Americans support it, and even greater numbers think that the Feds should butt out and leave it to states to decide. It is a perfect issue by which to cleave the GOP between their authoritarian and libertarian wings.

That's the thing; there's a model for doing it in the way prohibition was ended --and yes, alcohol prohibition even involved an amendment to the Constitution, whereas the rationale via which the Feds can enforce drug laws that don't involve interstate commerce rests upon one highly contested Supreme Court Decision broadly interpreting (over-interpreting, in my estimation) the reach of the Commerce Clause.

The Feds should get out of the marijuana enforcement business, preferably by removing (or descheduling) cannabis entirely from the CSA. Individual states would still be free to pass any laws against marijuana they wish- and what the people who expect the Feds to "do something" about state-level legalization seem to miss is, drug law enforcement is by and large, mostly a state and local affair.

So it wouldn't even need to be a candidate running on "legalize weed". Just get the Federal government out of the mix, and most importantly fix the Federal legislative situation via the congress or executive order (re and descheduling can be done through either, I believe)

And yes, we Oregonians know that legalization works.

[fun n serious]

2. Yes and we have bi partisan support to defend us from Jeff Sessions

12:41 PM, updated April 03, 2017 at 10:41 AM
SALEM -- A proposal to shield the names, birthdates, driver's license numbers or any other identifying information of potentially thousands of recreational pot customers cleared its first major hurdle at the Oregon Legislature this week amid worries over a federal marijuana crackdown.

Senate Bill 863 -- a proposal from the 10-member bipartisan committee that crafts Oregon's marijuana policies-- cleared the Senate on Tuesday and heads to the House for consideration.

The bill's bipartisan sponsors want to put a stop to what's become a common practice within Oregon's budding pot industry, where legal retailers often stockpile the names, birthdates, addresses, driver's license numbers and other private information of each recreational customer that walks through their doors. Such activity is either prohibited or discouraged in Alaska, Colorado and Washington state.
Should the proposal become law, pot retailers would have 30 days to destroy their recreational customers' data -- derived from the driver's licenses, passports or military IDs that are used to verify patrons are at least 21-- and would be banned from such record-keeping moving forward. Medical marijuana cardholders' data would be excluded from the provisions.


http://www.oregonlive.com/marijuana/index.ssf/2017/03/oregon_pot_shops_can_keep_your.html

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Sure. He's getting pushback from Republicans in AK, NV and CO as well.

I think he (Sessions) is limited in what he can actually do. Not to suggest he wont try- but if he throws the entire weight of the DOJ into an extremely unpopular battle against legal states, one possible outcome is some of those states might go "fuck you, Trump" and remove all mention of cannabis from their state law books entirely.

This is an interesting read from the ACLU lawyer who wrote WA state's legalization measure:

http://www.thestranger.com/news/2016/12/21/24755256/one-way-to-protect-washington-states-legal-weed-market-from-trump-burn-it-to-the-ground

In short, the "nuclear option" there would result in a state level free for all on weed, which the feds most certainly dont want.

I dont know what Sessions is gonna do, but I get the feeling he was expecting the country to go "yay! The keebler elf from Alabama is gonna save us from legal weed!" Instead he's got almot everyone, from Democrats to Roger Stone, FFS, telling him he's wrong.

[fun n serious]

4. That's a good read.

The decriminalization is extremely important to me. As democrats we should care about this in a big way since it's mostly people of color who get stopped n frisked for weed from weed searching popo.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Yep. Erlichman flat out said Nixon started the drug war to go after Minorities and Hippies.

That's the "moral" underpinning of the whole endeavor.

[fun n serious]

6. BTW, did you get a weed kicker in your tax refund?

I did. $238.00.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. You know, I don't even know.

My taxes are toooooo fuckin' complicated. But I thought this year's kicker had something to do with 2014's numbers, so the marijuana tax revenue wouldn't even be reflected at that point.

Which means it's only gonna get better.

[k8conant]

7. Alcohol and "prescribed" opiates have long been the drugs of choice

of the establishment. It is also ironic that smoking weed is now gaining "legitimacy" while smoking tobacco is the new "immorality".


Just saying...

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Well, a couple things on that.

One, my old man died of lung cancer. Joe Camel killed him, flat out.

The group of friends I had in high school, everyone except me and two other dudes became cigarette smokers. The difference? The 3 of us were too busy smoking weed to smoke anything else. I was always thankful for that, because I know I would have had one hell of a time stopping smoking- cigarettes.

I've seen people struggle to kick nicotine addiction. Stopping weed, in my experience, is a relative piece of cake. But neither should be illegal for consenting adults if they so choose to indulge.

I do, however, arch an eyebrow when cigarette smokers go on about how they're being oppressed while pot is being legalized. Fact is, you can buy cigarettes at any 7-11 in the country. No one has ever spent a night in jail - or 6 months in one - for a pack of marlboros, at least not in this country.

I do think it's legitimate to regulate where people can smoke, publicly, and that applies to weed as well as cigarettes.

[fun n serious]

10. Nothing immoral about cigs

They kill you and that is a scientific fact. Marijuana can be eaten or vaped.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Wyden, Blumenauer Announce Bipartisan Path To Marijuana Reform:

https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-blumenauer-announce-bipartisan-path-to-marijuana-reform_

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., along with senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., today introduced three pieces of legislation to preserve the integrity of state marijuana laws and provide a path for responsible federal legalization and regulation of the marijuana industry. The Path to Marijuana Reform includes the bipartisan Small Business Tax Equity Act, which prevents legal marijuana businesses from getting hit with an unfair tax bill. The package also includes measures to shrink the gap between federal and state marijuana policies and responsibly de-schedule, tax and regulate marijuana.

[sarah FAILIN]

12. we've already had a candidate support legalization

What happened? Trump won.

[fun n serious]

13. Trump didn't really win.

There was a slew of massive fraud.. from Russians to broken down voting machines in urban areas.

[sarah FAILIN]

15. None of that mattered

Trump still "won", but Johnson was an idiot. Next time get someone with a basic knowledge of current events and geography.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Actually, no. Our candidate's statements around marijuana were ambiguous at best.

She said to leave it to the states, so did Trump, so on that their positions were essentially indistinguishable.

She also said to move the schedule to II, which is beneficial to big pharma but doesn't do a whole hell of a lot in terms of fixing the conflict between federal and state law.


No, we need a candidate who will address this issue as an adult and say it's time to fix federal law once and for all regarding cannabis.

And the fact of the matter is, marijuana did better last Nov. 8 than pretty much anything or anyone else on the ballot.

[sarah FAILIN]

16. Johnson was very clear about his position

He was a nut that didn't know where Aleppo was is all anyone remembers.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Why the fuck should we cede legalization- an increasingly popular position- to the Libertarians?

It makes absolutely zero sense. No one seems to have a good answer. Is putting pot smokers in prison that important?

[sarah FAILIN]

32. I'm not against pot

I'm against putting forth candidates with zero chance of winning just because they support pot.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. I don't think anyone was suggesting that.

But it's also ludicrous to suggest that somehow Gary Johnson's weed stance sunk, or even damaged the guy. It's not like the Libertarian Candidate generally clears more than, what, 3% anyway.

I'm not sure where you live (because for some reason East Coasters, in particular, seem to be operating under the illusion that anyone who supports legalization is either Cheech or Chong) but a lot of important Democrats have already come out strongly in favor of fixing the conflict between federal and state law on this. Names like Gavin Newsom. Jay Inslee. Ron Wyden. Elizabeth Warren.

etc.

[fun n serious]

19. I never count the 3rd party candidates are " real"

I've never voted anything but DEMOCRAT. When you win the popular vote by 3 million and loses the electpral by 80,000 than yes... The gerry mandering, intentional breakdown of voting machines and the Russian hacking all mattered,

[Warren DeMontague]

21. Unfortunately, a lot of people- esp. as you get farther east- still think it's a "fringe" issue

However, like with marriage equality, popular opinion is changing much faster than conventional wisdom can keep up.

[fun n serious]

24. It's a shame.

My mom is Mexican, she and my Mexican grandmother used marijuana for medicinal purposes. They would add it to rubbing alcohol and keep it in a dark cupboard for months before using it as a rub pain reliever.I never grew up with thinking pot was bad or profiling other users as nutty pot heads. I'm not a kooky far left or alt left person. I supported Hillary from the beginning. I knew she was a bit too conservative for me but she had other qualifications that I loved. Hopefully, in 2020 we could get a good candidate from the West Coast.



I think I smoked pot maybe 3 times in my youth then I bought a huge chocolate bar and had 3 pieces. I did not feel high at all. Just a body relax type feeling, like a muscle relaxer except a muscle relaxer gives me jimmy legs and this did not.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Yeah, those peak extract bars are really good, don't know if you've tried those.

The chocolate itself is super tasty. Important to remember not to eat the whole bar!

[fun n serious]

28. I don't remember the name of this one

I remember it was $24.00 for a bar. Lol. I remember it was a high cbd for pain. It came in a fancy box. It was a dark chocolate with sea salt. Yummy. Maybe I'll try PEAK next time.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Yeah, I had a similar deal when I tried one. The high cbd version.

(One piece of smart advice states like Oregon have offered to anyone considering trying edibles in a legal state, they mean it about going slow. They'll tell you, dont try to prove you're he-man because you pulled five foot bongs back in college. They suggest eating the smallest possible portion- they break em up for a reason- and then waiting a few hours to see the effects.)


...And thats another thing about legalization- I mean, I'm at an age where it's as valuable to me to get some occasional pain relief as it is to go explore out around Pluto in my head. So with legalization people can know what they're getting and tailor the experience, plus everything is tested for pesticides, etc.

But I'm like a (shudder) middle aged dude, right, I work out regularly and I think for my age I'm pretty healthy, i eat a mostly plant-based diet; and in terms of mild pain relief and relaxation, something like cannabis is miles better than pretty much all the other alternatives out there in terms of physiological effects.

It blows me away that someone like Chris Christie wants to lecture the millions of people who safely use marijuana about "unhealthy lifestyle habits"

[fun n serious]

37. I'm 48 so I know what you mean.

I hurt my neck and my back when I took a tumble hiking horse tail falls to triple falls went down an off trail ravine trying to save a lady's dog. I've never been the same since but the dog was safe and no one had to call the fire dept or rescue crew.

[fun n serious]

20. If you are characterizing pro legalization people as nuts

than you are on the wrong side of history. How many of our youths were turned away from good jobs over a bowl of weed in their pocket?

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Apparently, a lot of people are "nuts", huh?

http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/02/23/quinnipiac-poll-2017-marijuana-legalization-federal-crackdown/74227/


Add to that:

Senator Ron Wyden
Senator Jeff Merkley
Senator Elizabeth Warren
Senator Cory Booker
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom
Governor Jay Inslee
Governor Kate Brown

etc etc

[beam me up scottie]

23. Remember this viral video?

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Classic. Of course, even Bernie ... he soft-pedaled the issue unnecessarily.

He was absolutely correct in stating that it needs to be descheduled at the Federal Level, that should be the bare minimum from our candidate in 2020.

But Sanders fell prey to this thinking, presumably coming from his staff, that it was an issue they didn't want to make too much noise about. They disinvited Tommy Chong from some rally, I remember that, and it left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of pro-legalization folks.

I think- I've said this before, but I believe the analysis gets short shrift- there is just a yawning psychological divide between the West and East Coasts, on a bunch of things (like wearing shorts to restaurants) but it plays out particularly starkly in terms of marijuana.

It's not that there aren't pro-legalization people on the East Coast, and certainly a lot of pot smokers- but culturally I think when you get back East there's this big glaring divide between the "straights" and the hippies or freaks or weirdos or whatever you want to call them. And it's not like there aren't plenty of East Coast, workaday, 3 piece "straights" who go home to the Manhattan Condo and smoke a bowl... but they hide it and pretend like it's some state fucking secret.

Meanwhile, drinking yourself to blackout, hard liquor oblivion every weekend is fairly standard practice in your financial services or investment industry

Get out West, and no one fucking cares. People's grandparents get high. There's no divide between the job people and the pot people, hell, Silicon Valley was founded by acidheads and hippies.

[beam me up scottie]

27. Yeah he was radical back in the 70s.

He wanted to get rid of laws criminalizing drugs way back then but I'm sure he was advised that focusing too much on that issue during a presidential election would generate even more accusations of 'radical' leftism and would alienate centrists.

Some east coast states are more liberal than others - Vermonters' attitudes about pot for example are usually much more liberal than Pennsylvanians or law and order New Yorkers.

VT marijuana legalization bill heads to House floor
April McCullum | Free Press Staff Writer
Updated 4:24 p.m. ET March 22, 2017

MONTPELIER - The Vermont House Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, or a handful of home-grown marijuana plants.

The bill would allow adults over 21 years old to have up to one ounce of marijuana or up to five grams of hashish, as well as up to two mature marijuana plants and four immature marijuana plants per household.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/22/vt-marijuana-legalization-bill-heads-house-floor/99498264/

It's a start.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. People here had a shitfit about some of his positions back then, I remember.

Yes, the radical idea that the government shouldn't be telling citizens what they can do with their own bodies. The nerve!

Anyway, yeah, I do know a bit from Vt. although I've never been there. (Seen Phish a few times, tho) ... I was hoping the Vt. legislature would make it the first state to legalize via elected officials and not citizen initiative last year, but I don't know what happened, they chickened out. Hopefully it will go through this time.

Otherwise it sounds like RI may beat you guys to the punch.

[fun n serious]

30. Here in the West we hold those values high.

I am proud to say I am one of the many who helped make Portland weird. The Satyricon. Paranoia park. Rialto and Mary's club.. Those are the places I spent my weekend. Nirvana, Black Flag, Violent Fems.. those were the days.

[sarah FAILIN]

31. I said JOHNSON was a nut, not everyone.

Also said he didn't know what or where Aleppo was. It was pretty obvious he was a lost cause.

I personally support legalization and I have never smoked it in my life. I believe it can be a very good thing, but you have to get someone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together if you want it to be a plank in the platform..

[fun n serious]

33. Since I am a proud loyal democrat..

I don't even register 3rd party candidates in my brain. We now have a lot of excellent Dem leaders who support it.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. It actually was a plank in the 2016 platform. "A reasonable pathway to future legalization"

I think that was the language.

Trouble is, people pay more atrention to the statements of the candidates, than to the platforms.

Surely you realize that Gavin Newsom is smart? Ron Wyden? Jay Inslee?


If you dont mind my asking, what state are you in? Because ive noticed a big geographical difference between people who still think this is a "fringe, out there" issue and those who see how mainstream it already is.

[sarah FAILIN]

38. I have no idea who those people are

I also don't think this is a "fringe" issue just because Johnson was loopier than a roller coaster at 6 Flags.

I'm from Alabama and I fully support going legal with it even though I don't smoke it as do a lot of people I know. My problem is with Johnson, not the weed. Johnson was not as bad as Trump, but that is not good enough to be POTUS either, lol.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Okay, but you're the only person here who brought up Gary Johnson.

This thread was never about Gary Johnson.


Gavin Newsom is the Lt. Governor of California. He had a prominent speaking position at the 2016 Dem. Convention.

Ron Wyden is the Senior Senator from Oregon.

Jay Inslee is the Governor of the State of Washington.


All Democrats, BTW.


You also might recognize some of the names associated with these two documents:

https://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2017_3_2_Letter_to_DOJ.pdf

http://www.businessinsider.com/governors-wrote-a-letter-to-sessions-and-mnuchin-to-keep-weed-legal-trump-2017-4

[sarah FAILIN]

40. the thread was about weed and the need for a candidate that supports it

Johnson did and between him and Jill, pulled in enough votes to elect Trump. The need is not just for a weed supporting candidate.

I'm on my phone and don't have time to look at those links, but I will later.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. To clarify, though I can't speak for the OP: The need is for OUR candidate to support legalization.

(I am 100% sure that's what she meant, too)

I mean, yes, you can run Vermin Supreme or Deez Nuts for the Beer Bong party or the Transcendental Meditation party or the Fans of Yahoo Serious Films Party and maybe they also happen to be in favor of legalizing marijuana, but if they don't win it probably has to do with the traditionally low turnout for the Fans of Yahoo Serious Films Party, not the fact that the marijuana plank did them in.

[sarah FAILIN]

44. I think we agree

Even though you may not see it, lol. The part of the post I responded to was

The next candidate who openly embraces legalization will win! Bet me!

We have to have more than just some person with a bong. We need a well rounded candidate with a plan for everything, not just pot. I agree that pot is much better legalized and being used for whatever reason, but we have bigger problems right now and they all have to be addressed.

[Warren DeMontague]

45. I think we agree, too, I just think we read the OP differently.

[fun n serious]

43. I personally would love to see a qualified Gov or Senator from the West Coast

Be our next nominee.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Does adding weed, make things better? Let's see.

.





.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. KnR