Post by seattle420 on Jul 31, 2006 20:38:15 GMT -5
Friends,
Cannabis law reform in the United States stands on a cusp - progress
in the years ahead could happen, or not.
What is happening now in California may be the largest single factor
in which way our issue goes.
There are many who believe that the next two or three years will be
critical and that how the medical cannabis issue plays out in
California may be the largest single factor.
If marijuana is good medicine, and it is, then it can hardly also be
the great danger the prohibitionists want us to believe it is.
The issue of medical cannabis must make progress in other states
within the next two or three years, or the issue will most likely
turn the other way, I am told.
Why, because by then both Sativex and a Marinol inhaler will be on
the market, and the voting public will then believe that there is no
need at all for medical cannabis.
Between now and then as we take the battle for medical cannabis to
more state legislatures, and through possible statewide initiatives,
our opposition will use what is happening in California against us.
The TV news shows, and the press clippings, that so easily
demonstrate an out of control selling of marijuana by the so called
medical cannabis clubs will be used to oppose our efforts. Who can
doubt that folks, either in the legislatures, or as voters, will
believe that medical cannabis is just back door legalization?
There are many good folks who try to honestly see that real patients
have access to medical cannabis, and who also support the
legalization of marijuana.
Then there are the dope pushers among us who may sometimes give lip
service to legalization, but who are really out to make a quick buck
before the law catches up with them. They are no different than the
drug cartels in Colombia. Actual legalization, even of medical
cannabis, is the very last thing they really want.
Unfortunately, because of the press and TV coverage the pot pushers
in California are receiving, the prohibitionists have been handed a
very powerful tool to use against us in any efforts we make in any
state, towards legalization, medical or recreational.
Thus there are folks far more knowledgeable than I about the politics
of our issues who believe that the pot pushers who are receiving so
much publicity could easily set our issues back for years, maybe
decades.
Friends, it has happened before.
In the early to mid seventies, in California and elsewhere, my
friends and I, Leo Paoli, Mike Aldrich, Gordon Brownell, Tod
Mikuriya, John Sinclair, Gatewood Galbraith and many others, really
thought that marijuana legalization was only years away. It was a
time of good scientific studies that recommended legalization. A
dozen states changed their draconian laws to at least decriminalize
small amounts of marijuana.
But then progress stopped dead for all practical purposes. The
prohibitionists held the ground until they were surprised by the
voters of California who passed Prop. 215 in 1996.
Will the prohibitionists stop us dead, again? There are those who
think it likely. Having seen it happen before, I think there is at
least an 50/50 chance that they will.
So when I read the San Diego City Beat alternative newspaper's
editorial Get the Pot to the Patients
www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n972/a08.html - a newspaper you
would expect to be on our side - which tells the truth about what
Prop. 215 actually authorized - which was not a pot pushing store in
every neighborhood, I think there is cause to worry.
Then when I go through the newspaper clippings at
www.mapinc.org/find?115 about marijuana in California and see
the cities and counties moving to block the local neighborhood pot
pushing stores (though some could well be the good folks, not the for
profit pot pushers) I also think there is cause to worry. A backlash
is already happening in California.
I know that some current friends may be unhappy with the above, but
it is my personal view, based on my understanding of what other
experts on the politics of marijuana are telling me, and my own forty
some years of experience with the issue.
Today, some of my friends from the '70s are dead, others have just
given up the fight. But there are still a fair number who continue
the struggle, against the odds, something some would call crazy, but
for which I prefer a Finnish word, sisu.
Yes, I know some will engage in ad hominem attacks against me for
writing the above. Not that I care. Folks who are unable to discuss
an issue without making ad hominem attacks will always be with us.
Thank you to all my friends who have privately thanked me for
expressing views which may be unpopular with some. You are the
majority. You are my real friends. I am sorry if I have not had a
chance to thank you privately.
Richard
___________________________________________________
Cannabis law reform in the United States stands on a cusp - progress
in the years ahead could happen, or not.
What is happening now in California may be the largest single factor
in which way our issue goes.
There are many who believe that the next two or three years will be
critical and that how the medical cannabis issue plays out in
California may be the largest single factor.
If marijuana is good medicine, and it is, then it can hardly also be
the great danger the prohibitionists want us to believe it is.
The issue of medical cannabis must make progress in other states
within the next two or three years, or the issue will most likely
turn the other way, I am told.
Why, because by then both Sativex and a Marinol inhaler will be on
the market, and the voting public will then believe that there is no
need at all for medical cannabis.
Between now and then as we take the battle for medical cannabis to
more state legislatures, and through possible statewide initiatives,
our opposition will use what is happening in California against us.
The TV news shows, and the press clippings, that so easily
demonstrate an out of control selling of marijuana by the so called
medical cannabis clubs will be used to oppose our efforts. Who can
doubt that folks, either in the legislatures, or as voters, will
believe that medical cannabis is just back door legalization?
There are many good folks who try to honestly see that real patients
have access to medical cannabis, and who also support the
legalization of marijuana.
Then there are the dope pushers among us who may sometimes give lip
service to legalization, but who are really out to make a quick buck
before the law catches up with them. They are no different than the
drug cartels in Colombia. Actual legalization, even of medical
cannabis, is the very last thing they really want.
Unfortunately, because of the press and TV coverage the pot pushers
in California are receiving, the prohibitionists have been handed a
very powerful tool to use against us in any efforts we make in any
state, towards legalization, medical or recreational.
Thus there are folks far more knowledgeable than I about the politics
of our issues who believe that the pot pushers who are receiving so
much publicity could easily set our issues back for years, maybe
decades.
Friends, it has happened before.
In the early to mid seventies, in California and elsewhere, my
friends and I, Leo Paoli, Mike Aldrich, Gordon Brownell, Tod
Mikuriya, John Sinclair, Gatewood Galbraith and many others, really
thought that marijuana legalization was only years away. It was a
time of good scientific studies that recommended legalization. A
dozen states changed their draconian laws to at least decriminalize
small amounts of marijuana.
But then progress stopped dead for all practical purposes. The
prohibitionists held the ground until they were surprised by the
voters of California who passed Prop. 215 in 1996.
Will the prohibitionists stop us dead, again? There are those who
think it likely. Having seen it happen before, I think there is at
least an 50/50 chance that they will.
So when I read the San Diego City Beat alternative newspaper's
editorial Get the Pot to the Patients
www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n972/a08.html - a newspaper you
would expect to be on our side - which tells the truth about what
Prop. 215 actually authorized - which was not a pot pushing store in
every neighborhood, I think there is cause to worry.
Then when I go through the newspaper clippings at
www.mapinc.org/find?115 about marijuana in California and see
the cities and counties moving to block the local neighborhood pot
pushing stores (though some could well be the good folks, not the for
profit pot pushers) I also think there is cause to worry. A backlash
is already happening in California.
I know that some current friends may be unhappy with the above, but
it is my personal view, based on my understanding of what other
experts on the politics of marijuana are telling me, and my own forty
some years of experience with the issue.
Today, some of my friends from the '70s are dead, others have just
given up the fight. But there are still a fair number who continue
the struggle, against the odds, something some would call crazy, but
for which I prefer a Finnish word, sisu.
Yes, I know some will engage in ad hominem attacks against me for
writing the above. Not that I care. Folks who are unable to discuss
an issue without making ad hominem attacks will always be with us.
Thank you to all my friends who have privately thanked me for
expressing views which may be unpopular with some. You are the
majority. You are my real friends. I am sorry if I have not had a
chance to thank you privately.
Richard
___________________________________________________
