Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

you can do it Ohio!

http://d47hr5yd1ya83.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ivoted.jpg

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/willie-nelson-crusade-stop-big-pot.html

wish i got to vote on cannabis legislation today but my state's fucking legislature sucks

"big pot" is really much better than no pot

the monopoly argument is not a good one imo . gotta ride the momentum when it's there

yea, if it fails bc of the monopoly thing it could be a very long while before OH sees it on the ballot again, it takes a shit load of money and effort to get rec weed on the ballot

also i <3 willie but willie has 24/7 access to small-farm homegrown pot anywhere he travels in the world and the same cannot be said for most of us so idk man

i don't smoke, but I'm more interested in keeping people out of jail so it was a yes vote for me

ppl are voting no bc they're concerned about it becoming a monopoly? HELLO PEOPLE there are important things at stake here!!!

Yeah from what I read the monopoly narrative stems greatly from the prohibitionist crowd as a last ditch effort to slow legalization on Ohio

the prohibitionists put the monopoly language in the bill iirc. (it's more like a cartel, but whatever)

do you get any sense that this will pass ?

everybody I know mostly favors legalization but most are voting against this because of the "monopoly". this is just my handful of friends tho. I get the sense it's doomed. hope I'm wrong.

from what i hear both issue 2 (anti-monopoly language) and issue 3 (legalization) are likely to pass

which will probably result in some messy legal shit

^ possibly the best outcome would be for the Ohio proposition to fail, but very narrowly, showing deep and widespread support for legalization, then a better proposition gets sponsored next election cycle or the legislature decides to act on its own.

― Aimless, Monday, November 2, 2015 2:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't think this is the best outcome, like i said it takes a lot of effort to get something on the ballot and it could be a long time before it happens again. i don't see the ohio legislature acting on this independent of a ballot initiative fwiw

like 10 facilities permitted to grow/sell commercially plus individual growing rights is not a bad situation tbh

i mean it could be a lot better for sure but as brownie stated this cartel system is way better than people being imprisoned

I voted the same way brownie did for the same reasons. If it helps get rid of the idiotic "odor of marijuana" pretext for car searches, and the dumb cycle of petty drug bust --> convert to confidential informant --> bust the next guy --> turn him into an informant, and if it stops letting our police departments turn drug busts into ATMs via civil asset forfeiture, then I'm all for it.

so far it is getting killed by a 2-1 margin

RIP

oh wow. Are all precincts reporting? Recent polls indicated it would be much closer

welp RIP

lame Ohio

I'm considering the source while reading this, but this certainly *seems* suspicious. A small increase in the number of precincts reporting should not generally result in such a huge vote shift, assuming precincts are uniformly sized.

http://www.alternet.org/comments/drugs/was-ohios-marijuana-vote-stolen-tv-screen-shots-show-massive-number-votes-flipping

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/11/11/veterans-drop-hundreds-of-empty-pill-bottles-in-front-of-the-white-house/

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/12/02/the-marijuana-legalization-push-mass-just-got-little-more-clear/ysj6Ow9JBCocrMRwERAEdJ/story.html

A possible 2016 decision about marijuana legalization in Massachusetts got less complicated this week.

Massachusetts voters had faced the prospect of answering two separate pro-legalization ballot questions next November. But only one group believes its question is still standing.

The Committee to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol said Tuesday it had submitted enough signatures to the secretary of state to advance in the long process of getting a proposed law in front of voters.

“People can see that our current prohibition policy isn’t working, and they’re taking action to replace it with a more sensible system,” CRMLA campaign manager Will Luzier said in a statement.

Meanwhile the leader of Bay State Repeal, the group behind a competing ballot question, conceded Wednesday night that it had not gathered enough signatures.

“We didn’t make it,” Bay State Repeal’s Steve Epstein told Boston.com.

The two groups have pitched very different approaches to legalization.

CRMLA, backed by the national Marijuana Policy Project, proposes a tightly regulated system including a new state commission and an excise tax on pot sales.

Bay State Repeal, led by longtime local activists, sought what it called the least restrictive laws possible, such as allowing most existing retailers to sell marijuana and dividing light oversight of the industry between several existing state agencies.

The contrast between the groups spoke to a divide in national pot politics about how marijuana should be regulated as legalization becomes increasingly common. With only one question still standing, Massachusetts voters will not be thrown into the middle of the fight next fall.

But the rivalry will persist, in a form. On Wednesday Epstein said he would “use every skill in my power” to oppose CRMLA’s question, which he called a “bad law” that supports “crony capitalism.” (That marks a change in tune from earlier this fall, when Epstein said he “might hold my nose” and vote for CRMLA if it were the only one to make the ballot.)

i'm happy about that

i was definitely worried there would be 2 initiatives on the ballot and infighting between different legalization camps would mess things up enough to prevent any initiative from passing

But the rivalry will persist, in a form. On Wednesday Epstein said he would “use every skill in my power” to oppose CRMLA’s question, which he called a “bad law” that supports “crony capitalism.” (That marks a change in tune from earlier this fall, when Epstein said he “might hold my nose” and vote for CRMLA if it were the only one to make the ballot.)

this is bullshit imo, just suck it up dude and support the one that made it!!!

i sent hillary a letter yesterday by post asking her to support medical marijuana explicitly (so far she has just called for "more study" on the issue). it's so weird to me that she won't just embrace it though - medical marijuana has a huge amount of support, not just among democrats but for the general pop.

i dont follow politics especially closely but it does seem there is a conservatism on the issue among boomer politicians with a national profile who prob remember vividly when taking any remotely pro-cannabis stance would tarnish them

I wouldn't be surprised if she is planning to "evolve" on that issue when it is politically convenient

I prefer Hillary on almost every issue except one and it's v conflicting. Hopefully they'll have worked out the nominee before I have to cast a primary vote.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35587817

stoner parents are the future

still don't feel right being high around my kids. on the comedown side ok but otherwise just thinking about it makes me feel weird.

yea me too.

it's strictly an after-bedtime thing for me

i have no serious medical need for it though and if that were not the case it'd be different obv

also the weed comedown in general just kind of sucks so much if i have to be awake, i just feel so foggy and thick. going to sleep is the best solution

wow

http://fox13now.com/2016/02/19/utah-senate-votes-to-pass-marijuana-extract-bill/

http://i.imgur.com/LiYP4C6.jpg

feel like with all the attention opiate abuse is getting there's a strong case to be made for an effective painkiller that does not carry the potential side effect of overdose

you would think

nah i'm sure whoever decided doctors can prescribe opiates and not marijuana to patients had a really good reason for it

Not cannabis-related, but have you followed any of the recent coverage of kratom, either as an aid for people trying to kick opiates or a menace with its own addictive properties?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-alexander/the-latest-target-of-regu_b_8178028.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/us/kratom-an-addicts-alternative-is-found-to-be-addictive-itself.html

xp. have heard people speak highly of the analgesic effects of cannabis but it does nothing for me in that respect :/

it's not effective for 100% of patients but it is with enough that you'd think we'd allow doctors to have it in their arsenal before moving on to dangerous addictive opiates

this is not even getting into the fact that there are actual studies that have demonstrated cannabis having strong effects in a number of disorders but god forbid we should let dr's decide to do w/ such a dangerous plant. hillary's cowardice on medicinal ("let's see what the science says before doing anything") alone makes me want to vote for sanders.

oh all political opposition to it is obv based on idiocy or - as im sure in Hilary's case - doing what is politic by not scaring the puritans