Marijuana Legalization: Momentum Building For Broad Debate: AP

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/15/marijuana-legalization-mo_n_215838.html

CommentsNEW YORK — The savage drug war in Mexico. Crumbling state budgets. Weariness with current drug policy. The election of a president who said, "Yes _ I inhaled."

These developments and others are kindling unprecedented optimism among the many Americans who want to see marijuana legalized.

Doing so, they contend to an ever-more-receptive audience, could weaken the Mexican cartels now profiting from U.S. pot sales, save billions in law enforcement costs, and generate billions more in tax revenue from one of the nation's biggest cash crops.

Said a veteran of the movement, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance: "This is the first time I feel like the wind is at my back and not in my face."

[ixion]

1. End the so-called 'war' on drugs. Legalize it, and release the pot smokers

it's way past the time that this should be done, IMO.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

2. Pretty good article in this weeks Rolling Stone............

about ending the drug war that quoted Nadelmann as well.

However I fear that ol' drug-warrior VP Biden will be a tough sell. You think he'll bend to popular pressure?

[Wednesdays]

3. K&R

:kick:

[Fly by night]

4. One problem: people like Ethan Nadelmann don't know the word "we". It's all about "HIM".

The drug policy reform movement is hampered by big egos like Nadelmann with little empathy or understanding for real people who have been harmed by the drug worriers, except to use them as poster children for their 24/7 fundraising drives to feed their multi-hundred thousand salaries.

DPA did more harm than good with the New Mexico medical marijuana initiative, but they raised $millions$ for themselves in the process. Likewise, the Marijuana Policy Project leadership (sic) could use some serious ego deflation, but that's hard to accomplish as they inhale Peter Lewis' fortune.

For my money (and with my respect), I would get behind "old school" NORML, latter-day very productive and victim-friendly organizations like Americans for Safe Access and Patients Out of Time, and individuals like Howard Wooldridge, formerly of Law Enforcment Against Prohibition.

As for Ethan, I have 50 cents for him, so he can call someone who cares. Ethan would likely talk that person's ear off about himself for an hour, at the end of which he would say,

"Well, that's enough about me. Now tell me what you think about me."

[Gregorian]

5. Well I'm not holding my breath. OK, I am holding my breath. Aaaand...exhaling.

:)

[votingupstart]

6. good luck nt

[tabasco]

7. Are rational government and rational laws too much to ask????

PROBABLY.

[struggle4progress]

8. Pot Prisoners Cost Americans $1 Billion a Year (2007)

By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted February 10, 2007.

The latest numbers are out: nearly 800,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges in 2005 ...

American taxpayers are now spending more than a billion dollars per year to incarcerate its citizens for pot. That's according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

According to the new BJS report, "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. Combining these percentages with separate U.S. Department of Justice statistics on the total number of state and federal drug prisoners suggests that there are now about 33,655 state inmates and 10,785 federal inmates behind bars for marijuana offenses. The report failed to include estimates on the percentage of inmates incarcerated in county and/or local jails for pot-related offenses ...

http://www.alternet.org/rights/47815/

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Good. About time.

Way past time.

:kick: