America's Insane 40-Year Marijuana Prohibition Is Like a Tragic Play in Three Acts{long read}

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/congress-can-end-40-year-marijuana-prohibition-america



Act I: The People Press Their Case

In 1937, Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which made the recreational use of marijuana illegal. But it affirmed the right of physicians and pharmacists to prescribe and dispense it. The American Medical Association opposed the Act not because it allowed medical marijuana but because it required doctors to register with federal authorities and pay an annual tax or license fee that the AMA felt would unduly inhibit doctors' ability to offer their patients this medicine. The AMA was right. Few doctors were willing any longer to prescribe marijuana. In 1942 cannabis was removed from the United States Pharmacopeia of existing medicines.

***SNIP

Act II: The Curtain Goes Up

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama was asked about his position on medical marijuana. He responded, “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue.” In March 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder insisted, "What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing in law enforcement," Gil Kerlikowske, head of ONCP agreed. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

***SNIP

Act III: The Curtain Goes Down

But these early regulatory efforts were thwarted in 2011 by a dramatic change in federal policy. In March, DEA agents swept through Montana, frightening state legislators into passing a law that severely restricts the distribution of medical marijuana, and makes it more difficult to qualify for as a patient. In April, after the legislature passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana dispensaries the DEA carried out coordinated raids on dispensaries in eastern Washington. The next day Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed the licensing bill declaring, “The landscape has changed.” In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee scrapped a plan to implement the 2009 legislation by allowing "compassion centers."

In July a new memo was issued by the Department of Justice formally affirming a third war on marijuana. Gil Kerlikowske who two years before had said Washington would not intervene now declared, “No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress.

[Anymouse]

1. I Can't Wait . . .

. . . to see what happens now that Colorado has approved recreational use. Colorado shares several hundred miles of state line with Nebraska, hundreds of back dirt roads cross that line, and out here in the Panhandle the area is mostly devoid of both people and police. (Our county has one sheriff and one car.)

All the states surrounding Colorado are concerned that it will become "supplier #1" for the whole region, though Colorado insists that it will restrict sales to prevent out-of-state export (right).

[B Calm]

2. Nebraska should legalize it too, problem solved!

[bemildred]

3. Bet on it. It will happen just like that.

And Colorado will get a big economic boost from the cannabis tourist trade.