Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Source: Minnesota Daily (U of MN,  Minneapolis, MN Edu)
Copyright: 2012 Minnesota Daily
Contact:  http://www.mndaily.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1280
Author: Jonathan Morris

PASSING MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

Voters Passed a Measure Legalizing Marijuana for Recreational Use.

The election is over. The advertisements, the phone calls, the 
canvassers, the pundits, the mailers and the social media posts have 
stopped. For all the efforts nationally, it appears that the status 
quo remains intact: Democrats in the White House and the Senate will 
oppose a Republican Congress. Will anything change from the last two 
years? Only time will tell. However, at the state level, ballot 
measures had a field day. Obviously, Minnesota voted "no" on an 
amendment to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. Washington, 
Maryland and Maine outright legalized gay marriage via ballot 
measures. Montana and Massachusetts passed medical marijuana reform 
initiatives. And Colorado and Washington legalized personal use of 
marijuana outright for those 21 and over.

This is a major shift - neither major presidential candidate would 
approach the topic of legalization. President Barack Obama's 
administration has stepped up efforts in the past four years to raid 
and prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries. Marijuana remains a 
schedule I drug under federal law - a designation indicating that it 
has no recognized medical value - despite 18 states and the District 
of Columbia now allowing some form of medical marijuana use. This 
puts state and federal law into conflict in almost half of the 
country. Will raids of medical marijuana dispensaries continue in 
Obama's second term? How will the federal government handle 
enforcement of federal marijuana prohibition in Colorado and 
Washington, where it has been legalized for recreational use?

Obama himself is no stranger to recreational marijuana use. In his 
memoir, "Dreams of My Father," passages describe him and his group of 
friends known as the Choom Gang hot boxing cars and engaging in many 
of the same kinds of shenanigans young adults still do today. Who 
would have guessed he'd go on to be the first black president and be 
the first president re-elected with unemployment above 7.4 percent 
since Roosevelt?

Will legalization of marijuana become a national issue? The federal 
prohibition of marijuana has failed. The "War on Drugs" has largely 
failed and has contributed to the U.S. reaching the highest rate of 
incarceration in the world. For context, Iran has a rate under half 
of that of the U.S. One can hardly mention the incarceration rate 
without also addressing the racial disparities in convictions and 
sentencing. An African American is some 12 times more likely to go to 
prison than a Caucasian. Why does a country that prides itself on 
freedom and liberty incarcerate the highest percentage of its own 
people in the world?

Could the free market have anything to do with it? Many prisons have 
been privatized and are traded on the stock market - try the New York 
Stock Exchange's GEO for an example. These private prisons exploit 
their prisoners for labor, paying next to nothing for their work and 
receiving money from the government to pay for their housing and 
meals on the taxpayer's dime. And of course, the industry lobbies 
heavily to ensure its continued profitability and growth. The 
industry cannot grow without more prisoners. Do we really subject 
citizen's freedoms directly to assaults by corporate lobbyists?

How long will it take for the end of federal prohibition of marijuana 
like in Colorado and Washington? There is no simple ballot referendum 
outlined in the Constitution, so any effort will have to contend with 
lobbyists for the prison industry and the pharmaceutical industry.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom