Pot Legalization: Already A Moot Point?

By: Charles Cooper
Topics: In The News

(The Ackerley Group)

Chalk it up to happenstance but as Judge James Gray and the Drug Free America Foundation's David Evans concluded their CBS News.com debate on pot legalization earlier this week, the American Medical Association urged the federal government to review its decades-old classification of marijuana.

Not that the opinion of this august medical association likely will sway many of the undecided - if there are many undecided still left. (Are there any?) Judging from the tenor of the posts in the talkback section over the course of our two-day point-counterpoint, both sides appear locked and loaded in their conviction that their opponents are flat wrong.

The central plank of the anti-legalization argument is the claim that marijuana use has destructive health and social consequences. When I was growing up, that was the conventional wisdom, at least until the social changes wrought by the counterculture began stripping away the stigma around pot smoking. So it was that however ably he argued his brief - and his undeniably was a first-rate demonstration of the art of rhetoric - Evans was battling not just with Gray but also against four decades of increasing societal acceptance of marijuana use. The pro-legalization movement has good reason to believe that it's just a matter of time before local legislatures around the country rewrite local laws to reflect that change. In fact, the legislature in my home state of California recently met to hold hearings on a proposal to legalize, regulate and tax pot. On top of this comes the AMA news.

The arguments won't get put to rest, but at this point, you have to wonder it's already a moot point.

Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.

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by Athrunxala November 1, 2010 12:19 PM EDT: If I do vote for it to pass, and it does someone had better cut me a <a href="http://www.purechecks.com">personal check</a> for it. Because I put my vote forward and thought that all this might help the America economy.; Reply to this comment


by RFWoodstock November 14, 2009 12:10 PM EST: Valid medicinal value, it?s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit?Need I say more?

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by xmissile November 14, 2009 10:52 AM EST: The relaxation of laws prohibiting marijuana have more to do with economic necessity than political reality. States are facing record budget deficits with no end in sight. They simply do not have the resources to actively pursue, prosecute, and incarcerate offenders. In my state, police officers are turning a blind eye to minor possession. If you are a marijuana exponent, now is the time to go on the offensive and tear down legislation.; Reply to this comment

by lakota2012 November 14, 2009 9:50 AM EST

"The pro-legalization movement has good reason to believe that it's just a matter of time before local legislatures around the country rewrite local laws to reflect that change."
========================

As a matter of fact, that CHANGE is already underway:

Marijuana moves into open in a ?high? ski town

Drug ordinance spurs debate among businesses, ski bums in Breckenridge

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. ? High-altitude partying is a deeply carved tradition in ski country, where alcohol in the open and illicit drugs in the shadows have been intertwined for years.

Even before last week?s town vote here that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, one of the best-selling T-shirts at Shirt and Ernie?s on Main Street winked at what it means to live and play 9,600 feet up in the Rockies.

?Dude,? the shirt says, ?I think this whole town is high.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/us/14smoking.html?_r=1

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by lakota2012 November 14, 2009 10:00 AM EST: The vote on Nov. 3rd in Breckenridge that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, was not even close, with 75% of the residents in favor of the issue.

by dragon8me November 14, 2009 9:15 AM EST

I will say this about Texas. Some of the biggest advocates for ending prohibition are from here. Like Willie Nelson and Woodie Harrelson. It's because until we're oppressed we don't get fired up enough to do something about it, and if you think outside the box here you will be oppressed.

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by samantha1974 November 15, 2009 3:04 PM EST: That's funny because i haven't met not one! And I've lived here my entire life. In fact, while sitting in on a friend's arraignment hearing the district attorney got up and addressed the entire room and said, "And if you think you can smoke pot around here and get away with it, you're dead wrong. we don't like that stuff here. if you want to smoke pot, go to California. they don't seem to care over there."

Yeah, I was rather offended, but whatcha gonna do?

by dragon8me November 14, 2009 9:09 AM EST

It's certanatly not moot in central Texas. In this rural part of the state they are arresting people for cannabis every day. This county has only about 50,000. It goes to show 2 things. 1, there are a lot of stoners here to provide enough people to arrest, and thats the ones doing things to get them caught, the majority don't get caught because there smart enough to not do something to give them a reason to get arrested in the first place. 2, They are doing this because there afraid their main source of income will dry up soon if it's legalized.

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by retiredgustav November 14, 2009 12:02 PM EST: Here in Texas there is a lot of jury nulification going on. I was on one case in municipal court we voted 5 to 1 in favor of acquittal. The one guilty vote was that of an ex-cop.


by dragon8me November 15, 2009 9:47 AM EST: retiredgustav you must live near a city like Austin, I'm about 130 miles north and these southern Baptist will always convict someone for weed. I wish they would take their teabagging seriously and do that but there two faced on the issues.

by rwsmith29456 November 14, 2009 12:41 AM EST

Marijuana is a 'no big deal' drug but I'd be surprised if the government made it legal because they think it would send the message that all drugs are ok. Now the only 'ok' drugs are alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.

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by MatterofLiberty November 14, 2009 2:58 PM EST: Government is definitly marginalizing their own policy by alleging that Cannibus is as Toxic and chemicaly addictive as Heroin, Cocain, and other drugs that can lead to lethal overdose!!! Once a person tries Cannibus and experiences the TRUTH, they may mistake ALL schedual I drugs as equally harmless and proceed to hurt themselves by experimenting. Lets get real and teach our kids that while Cannibus may alter your perception, and could(debatably)negativly effect your life, it is a whole different beast than these other ACTUALLY toxic, addictive drugs.


by DoubleHappiness88 November 13, 2009 11:29 PM EST: "Prohibition... goes beyond the bound of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded" -Abraham Lincoln

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this." - Albert Einstein quote on Hemp

"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world." - Carl Sagan, renown scientist, astronomer, astrochemist, author and TV host

"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany)

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington, U.S. President

"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams, U.S. President; Reply to this comment

by MatterofLiberty November 13, 2009 7:32 PM EST

It seems that most people in this country aren't really worried about adults actually using Cannibus in their own home, they're more worried about "Drugged Drivers". That being said why not simply amend the law so that anyone driving with more than a certain amount in the blood stream ( i.e. thc/blood content lvls at 5ng/ml or higher) lose their license for 6 mos or so and take a drug/alchohol safety course??? The technology already exists to take these measurements. Let all the responsible adults have their Liberty to use Cannibus safely. We already respect the rights of adults to inebriate themselves with a substance more toxic than Cannibus...Alchohol. Why would we waste billions of dollars to lock up folks that aren't commiting any other crime for simple possesion and simple personal cultivation???? (a couple of plants can land you in Federal Prison for 5 years and give you a 250,000 fine.)

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by AOCGUY November 14, 2009 5:22 PM EST: Concur - It is already illegal to operate a vehicle when impaired but spending precious tax dollars in the pursuit of people smoking a plant that grows wild on every continent on this planet (except the polar icecaps) is crazy.


by dagrandma November 15, 2009 9:32 AM EST: Oh, come on. When you're high and doing 40 mph, you feel like you're doing 60. And you stop for green lights.

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by cgrosse November 13, 2009 3:35 PM EST: Also Charley just Google "marijuana news" and you'll see all of the arrests JUST TODAY of people posessing or privately growing a PLANT. Just ask the narco state and local enforcement, lawyers, judges and jail guards laughing all the way to the bank cashing their taxpayer funded payroll checks and the'll tell you prohibition rules like an IRON FIST.; Reply to this comment