Recreational Pot Use Legalized In Portland, Maine & 3 Michigan Cities - AlterNet

[realizm]

Election Victory—Recreational Pot Use Legalized In Portland, Maine & 3 Michigan Cities
Portland makes history as the first east coast city to legalize recreational pot.

AlterNet / By Jodie Gummow

November 6, 2013


In a landslide victory for legalizing marijuana, voters in Portland, Maine and three cities in Michigan have shown their overwhelming support for legalizing marijuana use.

The measure was passed in Portland, Maine's largest city, with 67 percent of residents voting to legalize possession of marijuana for recreational use for those aged 21 years and over, Boston Herald reported.

While medical marijuana has been legal in Maine since 1999, the ordinance allows residents to now possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. However, the new measure does not permit the recreational purchase or sale of marijuana nor its use in public places. Moreover, it will not override state or federal laws where it is still illegal.

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[Orion VII 4 Life]

Great victory for the people of Portland.

 

I am conservative, but I fully support the legalization of pot. Hope we see some reform come our way as well, and the feds continuing to not take action against states and towns that enact decriminalization laws.

[realizm]

Well I have some news for you: New York State through a series of talks in Albany are considering starting the congressional process to pass a law making NY a medical marijuana state, a tentative step away from full legalization of cannabis for recreational use in NYC over time. The decision was already passed to drop the infamous 'Rockefeller' laws. So the process is defacto in the works here in our state.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/new-york-medical-marijuana-bill-state_n_3089821.html

[Turbo19]

Glad to see that some jurisdictions are excising a bit more leniency on the issue. Definitely on the right track, for sure.

 

Now for everyone else to progress further ahead.

[engineerboy6561]

This is a pretty great step forward, and from a political point of view it's pretty interesting to watch the pattern of adoption both of gay marriage and marijuana legalization. Nate Silver actually did a piece on the gay marriage angle a few months ago; he put together a model based on polling and ballot initiative data looking at how same-sex marriage proposals would fare across all 50 states over the coming years, and he found some pretty heartening things. Namely, even if you assume that support for gay marriage continues to increase linearly (as it has thus far) rather than quadratically or exponentially, and if you assume that same-sex marriage proposals will underperform slightly in the voting booth (i.e. more people will feel comfortable telling a pollster that they support gay marriage than will actually get out and vote for it), the model still predicts that gay marriage referenda would be capable of passing in 32 states by 2016, and in 44 states (basically all but a few in the Deep South) by 2020.

 

I'm bringing up gay marriage in this discussion because I believe it's entirely possible (though I don't think I can necessarily back this up with data and Mr. Silver has yet to turn his eye to the matter) that something similar is occurring with weed. It would seem that the rate of growth in national support for recreational marijuana use is growing decidedly more slowly than that for gay marriage, and the process seems to have started much later (we had our first referenda on the matter pass in 2012 in WA and CO, and other places are only starting to get in on the act now; gay marriage started taking off in 2008-09), but if the same trend holds we could see a majority of the country legalizing some form of recreational weed by 2022-2024.

[realizm]

Personally speaking I think it's about time that the nation shifts towards the reasonableness of such moves as this. We have to do something about the so called war on drugs which has been proven to be a major fail.

 

Decriminalizing and regulating the recreational use of  marijuana is IMHO the smart move to make. It's been for the record medically proven to be much less detrimental to a person's physiological and psychological health than alcohol and tobacco (which can kill) or even DXM in the case of OTC cough syrup abuse (which again can kill). It also does not make ethical sense to imprison people and slap occasional users of cannibus with misdomenors just because the comsumption of a harmless plant. Sounds cliche? No it does'nt because those are the facts as far as I see it.

 

In fact in recent years, the Obama administration with former Secetary of State Hillary Clinton considered making federal reforms straight across the board that would have decriminalized marijuana in all 50 states in the wake of the intense violence ongoing in the international black market.

 

I think the US Goverment and particulary the American public by an overwhelming majority are starting to realize the benefits in this, slowly but surely. Lift the ban completely on cannibus not just for medical treatment of the terminally ill but for recreational use. Regulate the control of the substance, and eventually, tax it. Let the DEA and ATF focus more on the current scedule 1 drugs that really poses as a social threat.

[46Dover]

Tell that to the US Military if anyone ever wants to enlist

[realizm]

Meanwhile the Mexican drug cartels are now hiring US Military personel including returning soldiers from oversees as contract killers and the numbers are rising. Because the black market is thriving. Decriminalization laws will starve the black market to the point that they cannot turn a profit on marijuana.

[46Dover]

Meanwhile the Mexican drug cartels are now hiring US Military personel including returning soldiers from oversees as contract killers and the numbers are rising. Because the black market is thriving. Decriminalization laws will starve the black market to the point that they cannot turn a profit on marijuana.

Wow. So much for honorable service to country *facepalm*

[B35 via Church]

Tell that to the US Military if anyone ever wants to enlist

Oh, Let them bring back the draft & you can take "wants" out of the equation..... IAWYP though.

 

Meanwhile the Mexican drug cartels are now hiring US Military personel including returning soldiers from oversees as contract killers and the numbers are rising. Because the black market is thriving. Decriminalization laws will starve the black market to the point that they cannot turn a profit on marijuana.

Not surprising.... Retired & otherwise returning US military soldiers are treated like dirt when they come back to this country anyway.... Just as, if not actually more difficult for them to find gainful employment as that of some low-life scum with multiple felonies on their record... There's the proverbial f**k you from good ole Uncah' Sam, I suppose.....

 

When you have local gangsters talkin 'bout they goin hire marines to control blocks & push weight, that says more than enough to me....

[realizm]

These very issues being highlighted are why I felt that in summmary, if the efforts to pass decriminalization laws goes through state goverments and as a result on the US Congress floor as the political will becomes more apparent (really is the case with a sizable majority from both parties who serioiusly are taking this into consideration) then the problems being dealt with in the drug war today then in effect the country is putting out the fire from the source by diplomatic means. Which will mean less bloodshed across the country and less strain on the American public.