So more legalization in States = Federal legalization?

[Crispyfried]

Doesn't it make sense that there will be at least some degree of federal decriminalization when a good amount of states have decriminalization? It seems that a democracy should have federal laws that coincide with the State laws. The more deviation there is, the more it's the federal government that is the entity that is breaking the law because it is not following the will of the majority of the country. So since there are more an more states that are legalizing medical marijuana and essentially decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana (even small amounts of live plants), how long will it be before the federal law follows the trend?

[Great Spirit]

Under the Controlled Substances Act, any Schedule 1 drug can be only legalized by the executive branch of the government, which means Bush will actually have to do work if he wants a safer society.

However, public opinion will be our key weapon. I'll tell ya this, most people just view marijuana as something smoked by hippies and weird people back in their day, so I would be careful on presenting positive information on weed, despite their being a great amount of good information on it. It's drug prohibition itself which fucks up the image of weed, because when its illegal, it is thrown into the categories of coke and heroin. Cannabis is VERY different from any other drugs and that must be realized. They should ban alcohol, but look what that did...it just created more crime.

However, there has never been a constitutional amendment to prohibit cannabis, like there was alcohol, so technically cannabis is de facto legal in the USA! Although law enforcement will not buy it. States however can legalize it which will bring pressure on the feds and will create more public awareness of this issue. This is a state issue and not a federal one. If more states start defying the federal government, than the President may be forced to legalize it.

Imagine a world free of prohibition. No more shootings over territory, non-inflated prices, and relief from not being arrested. Over in Holland, smoking weed is an acceptable part of society and does not create any more problems although they still have to develop a way of distribution.

Also, Jesse Ventura said that the Dutch government is seeking to ban alcohol on Queen's Day in the Netherlands because people get violent and rowdy when drunk, but when he asked a cabbie about cannabis, the cabbie said that the cannabis smokers were not a problem and there was no talk of that. Wake up to that fact!!
Why is this so hard for Americans to grasp?? Afterall, America is the land of free isn't it?

[mfactor420]

Maybe it is so difficult for Americans to grasp, because, as Gatewood Galbraith put it, America is an alcohol based society, not a cannabis based society. Did you ever stop to consider that one of the biggest reasons it is taking so long to legalize marijuana is because there is a ton of lobbying being done by the big tobacco and alcohol companies to keep it illegal for fear the legalization of marijuana would somehow cut into their profits?

[Crispyfried]

Oh yeah our government is definitely run by lobbyists and capitalism. Fortunately the lobbyists don't have 100% power, as elected officials still need to get elected by the population in order to follow the wishes of the lobbyists, so the elected officials do need to follow the requests of the voting population to some extent. If, for example, Howard Dean was elected President, marijuana would be at least somewhat legal by now.