More Americans Back Legalised Cannabis Than Support Obamacare, Writes Andrew Sullivan. Alexis De Tocqueville, easily the best European interpreter of America, observed of how opinion shifts in this still-new country: "As long as the majority is still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced, everyone is silent, and the friends as well as the opponents of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety." If you want to know why universal healthcare is still being fought over in America, the answer is that the country remains split on the subject. And if you want to know why gay marriage has suddenly gone from being unthinkable to being an increasingly accepted part of the American landscape, you'll notice how polling support for it has shifted from 57-40 against marriage equality as recently as 2009 to 54-43 in the latest Gallup poll four years later. [continues 921 words]
Legalisation of Cannabis in the United States Is Only a Matter of Time, Writes Andrew Sullivan. Alexis de Tocqueville, easily the best European interpreter of America, observed how opinion shifts in this still-new country: " As long as the majority is still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced, everyone is silent, and the friends as well as the opponents of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety." If you want to know why universal healthcare is still being fought over in America, the answer is that the country remains split on the subject. And if you want to know why gay marriage has suddenly gone from being unthinkable to being an increasingly accepted part of the American landscape, you'll notice how polling support for it has shifted from 57- 40 against marriage equality in 2009 to 54- 43 in the latest Gallup poll four years later. [continues 575 words]
The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far, Savaging Trust I'M old enough to remember New York in the 1980s. It was violent, exhilarating and sometimes desolate. As the crack epidemic laid waste to AfricanAmerican neighbourhoods, in particular, the city felt like it must have in the gang-ridden New York of the 19th century. The number of murders in the city kept rising until, in 1990, a modern record of 2254 victims was marked. The city was ungovernable, we were told. And then Rudy Giuliani governed it. [continues 841 words]
The door has been opened for cannabis to be legalised across the US, and it's thanks to conservatives, writes Andrew Sullivan. Every country and every culture has its hypocrisies. But the vast, sprawling cultural and social churn of America abounds in them. Americans live in a world of sin and salvation. One of the most striking hypocrisies I have encountered is over cannabis. The plant is among America's biggest cash crops. It is a rite of passage for a vast plurality of college students. Every recent president has smoked pot, although the full extent of Bill Clinton's inhalation remains a Jesuitical mystery. The current president - as any image search on Google will show you - has a photograph from his days in the Choom Gang at his high school, where he is drawing joyfully on a joint. [continues 816 words]
The Humble Joint Can Save Lives. We Look Forward to the End of Senseless Prohibition You know things are shifting in America when Fortune magazine, the bible for business journalism, runs a cover story titled "Is pot already legal?". You also know it when Barack Obama's Department of Justice publishes a long-expected memo signalling that the federal government will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries if they are legal under state law. That happened formally this month. It was not, moreover, a symbolic gesture. Marijuana for medical reasons -- to tackle chemotherapy-induced nausea or Aids-related wasting or glaucoma, among other conditions -- is now legal in 13 states, including the biggest, California. Next year, 13 more states are planning referendums or new laws following suit. Last week a California legislative committee held the first hearings not simply on whether medical marijuana should remain legal, but on whether all marijuana should be decriminalised, full stop. The incentive? The vast amounts of money the bankrupt state could raise by taxing cannabis. [continues 888 words]
Bush Thinks He Knows What's Good for You, and He'll Spend Money to Prove It There's barely a speech by President Bush that doesn't cite the glories of human freedom. It's God's gift to mankind, he believes. And in some ways this President has clearly expanded it: the people of Afghanistan and Iraq enjoy liberties unimaginable only a few years ago. But there's a strange exception to this Bush doctrine. It ends when you reach America's shores. Within the U.S., the Bush Administration has shown an unusually hostile attitude toward the exercise of personal freedom. When your individual choices conflict with what the Bush people think is good for you, they have been only too happy to intervene. The government, Bush clearly believes, has a right to be involved in many personal decisions you make -- punishing some, encouraging others, nudging and prodding the public to live the good life as the President understands it. The nanny state, much loved by Democrats, is thriving under Republicans. [continues 659 words]
There's a little bottle in my medicine cabinet, prescribed by my doctor. The pills are perfectly spherical, opaque, and shiny, like tiny pearls. The medication is called Marinol. It's an anti-nausea medication I take sometimes to deal with what most people on the AIDS cocktail manage day after day, meal after meal. The pills are perfectly legal, and their active component is THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, which human beings have known for centuries to be able to cure an upset stomach and increase appetite. [continues 1149 words]
The most frustrating part of the interminable debate about the "war on drugs" is the word "drugs." Strictly speaking, after all, there is no war on drugs in this country; there is a war on some drugs. America boasts a vast legitimate pharmaceutical industry, and personal expenditures on its products go up every year. Very, very few of us go even a week without taking some kind of drug, be it an over-the-counter cold medicine, a doctor-prescribed medication, or a self-medicated legal substance--a cigarette, a shot of tequila, a double espresso, a McFlurry. And the variety and sophistication of these substances are growing as fast as their use. Do you remember the day when you could simply ask for a cup of coffee and no further elaboration was required? The salient question behind the "drug" war, then, is not simply the usual libertarian-authoritarian conundrum. [continues 1085 words]
The most frustrating part of the interminable debate about the "war on drugs" is the word "drugs." Strictly speaking, after all, there is no war on drugs in this country; there is a war on some drugs. America boasts a vast legitimate pharmaceutical industry, and personal expenditures on its products go up every year. Very, very few of us go even a week without taking some kind of drug, be it an over-the-counter cold medicine, a doctor-prescribed medication, or a self-medicated legal substance--a cigarette, a shot of tequila, a double espresso, a McFlurry. And the variety and sophistication of these substances are growing as fast as their use. Do you remember the day when you could simply ask for a cup of coffee and no further elaboration was required? [continues 1097 words]
Fine Lines The most frustrating part of the interminable debate about the "war on drugs" is the word "drugs." Strictly speaking, after all, there is no war on drugs in this country; there is a war on some drugs. America boasts a vast legitimate pharmaceutical industry, and personal expenditures on its products go up every year. Very, very few of us go even a week without taking some kind of drug, be it an over-the-counter cold medicine, a doctor-prescribed medication, or a self-medicated legal substance--a cigarette, a shot of tequila, a double espresso, a McFlurry. And the variety and sophistication of these substances are growing as fast as their use. Do you remember the day when you could simply ask for a cup of coffee and no further elaboration was required? [continues 1101 words]
Is there anyone in this administration as unsettling as "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey? Salon magazine revealed last week that the federal government has been secretly doing financial favors for the TV networks in return for the insertion of anti-drug messages into their programming. According to Salon, the feds promised to let the networks sell their mandated anti-drug public-advocacy spots to commercial advertisers if they pushed government anti-drug messages in the story lines of their shows instead. I waited in vain for the usual suspects to voice outrage, for mass resignations from TV companies in Hollywood and New York, but there was barely a squeak. [continues 182 words]
The editorial page is wrong to blame the Omaha Police Department for the problems of underage drinking ("Wrong Signal on Teen Drinking," Sept. 15). Law enforcement officials are expected to enforce drug laws that make no sense. Why can you smoke tobacco at 18 but are not allowed to drink alcohol? Why is marijuana illegal when alcohol is more dangerous? Police must contend with the fact that a large portion of the public thinks the drinking age is too high and are actively engaged in evading the law. [continues 63 words]
Why can you smoke tobacco at 18 but are not allowed to drink alcohol? Why is marijuana illegal when alcohol is more dangerous? Police must contend with the fact that a large portion of the public thinks the drinking age is too high and are actively engaged in evading the law. State lawmakers in both Iowa and Nebraska gave up the rights of the people to make their own laws when the federal government threatened to take away highway funds if the drinking age was not raised to 21. Get the federal government out of making drug policies and end the federally funded Project Extra Mile. Andrew Sullivan Omaha [end]
