theguardian.com - Ngaio Bealum - Saturday 8 November 2014 13.40 GMT
Calm down, stoners: legal weed is on a roll, but conservatives are still harshing our momentum
Oregon? Alaska? DC? Great. But southern states and the feds won’t end the War on Some Drugs until unicorns fly out my bong – or at least until we get back to work
When activists find a way to win in the reddest states, then we can really start the party. Photograph: Rob O'Neal/Reuters
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Weed is winning.
Oregon and Alaska have joined Washington and Colorado in legalising recreational cannabis use for adults. (Do we even need to add the phrase “for adults”? Isn’t that implied?) Washington DC voted to legalise cannabis (if Congress will let them), and suddenly everyone is acting like weed will be completely legal – across the United States, if not the entire world – any minute now. Woo-hoo! Bong hits all around!
Well, slow your roll, buddy. Let’s not start swapping joints just yet. We still have a long way to go.
If you look at a map of the US, you’ll see cannabis law reform holding the country in a kind of pincer grip from the west and the east. California, Nevada, Arizona, Maine and Massachusetts are looking to put legalisation initiatives on the ballot in 2016. And that is great, but the big questions remain: What is gonna happen in the south and the midwest? And how do we keep the federal government from interfering?
So far, the southern states have been immune to the momentum for medical marijuana, let alone recreational use. Marijuana initiatives failed on the ballot this year in Florida, and Arkansas activists are regrouping for 2016 after not getting enough signatures to get legalisation on the ballot at all. People are claiming a moral victory in Florida because they got 58% of the vote – too bad they needed 60% to make it legal. Texas? Forget about it. And good luck getting voters in Mississippi and Virginia to hop on the weed train.
You would think that all the “Smaller government! We want Freedom!” types down south would be all for legalisation, but the movement in most of the south is quieter than a mouse pissing on a cotton ball, if I may turn a southern phrase. We might have a chance in Kentucky because they grow some great shit out there, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.
And in the flyover states, legalisation is getting no traction at all. Iowa? Ha! Nebraska is so mad at Colorado right now it’s kinda funny. Michigan could be an option, but their medical marijuana program is already constantly being challenged by law enforcement.
Until activists find a way to win in the reddest states (Alaska was a good start), the legalisation movement may stall just east of the Rockies and south of the Mason- Dixon line.
As for the federal government, well, damn. Where to start? That’s the reason we have marijuana prohibition laws in the first place. The Drug Enforcement Administration relies on marijuana being outlawed so they can justify invading people’s privacy, using asset forfeiture laws to steal property, buying fancy toys, and requesting multi-million dollar budgets every year. You think they are just going to let all that go? They can’t even admit that marijuana is less harmful than heroin.
In a perfect world, the DEA would be all, “You guys were right, we were wrong. Our bad. We are gonna go after some meth labs.” And, after taking a minute to reflect, they’d say, “You know what? Drug abuse is really more of a social health issue than a criminal one, so we are all going to quit the DEA and dedicate our lives to helping people get treatment for their addiction, instead of just throwing them in prison. Maybe we can reduce drug use and the crime associated with it that way.”
And then maybe unicorns will fly out of my bong and grow a special strain of weed especially for me.
If my 20-plus years of cannabis activism have taught me anything, it’s that you can’t expect common sense and reason to prevail when power and money on are on table.
Until federal law changes, marijuana legalisation will always be a halting, dicey proposition at the state level. Colorado and Washington are being “allowed” to legalise weed by the good grace of the federal government. But we’ll get a new president in 2017. You think President Cruz or President Jeb Bush will allow marijuana legalisation to keep spreading? You think President Clinton is a fan of weed? President Warren would probably be cool with it, and maybe even President Paul, but it seems pretty unlikely that they’ll end up on the ballot.
It was a great week for weed – but let’s remember that the war against the War on Some Drugs is far from over. Even in the states with legal weed, there are still challenges. We are fighting against almost 70 years of anti-cannabis propaganda. We only just started winning two years ago, but we haven’t really won anything yet. So put your joint down and get back to work. We have a long way to grow ... er, go."