Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

Just read a great article about race + marijuana arrests in New York by Mark Jacobson: http://nymag.com/news/features/58995/

I don't think there's another thread like this -- a place to discuss the current movements to legalize marijuana (medicinally or otherwise) throughout the United States (and anywhere else that interests people), and any other legal/political/racial issues involved.

Also, I don't know how it works, but if it makes people feel more comfortable maybe a mod can unindex this thread from google? (If not, can we move it to 77 or something?)

Cary Tennis' last column on Salon is called "How I Became a Pothead": http://www.salon.com/life/drugs/index.html?story=/mwt/col/tenn/2010/06/03/marijuana

Some other more recent stories:

Marie Myung-Ok Lee's "Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot" Series from Slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2251174/

Marijuana inspiring Cuisine in NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pot.html

Jack Shafer telling NY Times they are ridiculous for writing that piece:
http://www.slate.com/id/2254397/

not sure i want to read "why i gave my 9-year-old pot" but.. hm..
intriguingly, my mom's position on weed has flipped--she used to bother me about 'becoming a druggie' and now she is all 'oh, i think pot should be legalized.' maybe she's been lighting up?

living in massachusetts i can openly smoke pot at my gay wedding, but good luck to the rest of you.

http://johngushue.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/19/bob_dylan_greenwich_village.jpg

Come gather round people wherever you roam...

I cannot help but conclude, after a lifetime of observation, that the present power regime in the USA will never consent to legalize drugs, even if it results in more rational regulation of these activities, a massively lowering of the costs of incarceration (both social as well as monetary), and a cutting off of the funding for huge criminal organizations.

There's just too much money at stake in continuing the drug war now. The cops are mostly in favor of it, because it gives them more power and money, and they get to look like they are saving society from a scourge, while they are just engaging in a lot of fruitless, showy, theatrical idiocy. The prison industry is all for it. And politicians love it, because hating on druggies is the opposite side of the coin from loving mom and apple pie.

Against such stupidity even the gods contend in vain.

Really? Cause the winds seem to be heavily blowing towards legalization.

Just became medically legalized in NJ, NY is currently looking to medically legalize it.

i hate the focus on medical though, no one should have to give a reason or be able to see a doctor to engage in freedom

Those winds of legalization will die away to a whisper in the South. If the Feds maintain prohibition, then the states will not be able to enact the kind of reform and regulation that will do a proper job of it.

I'm okay with that. I think that if it becomes legal (or de facto legal) in enough of the country, eventually that'll push things over federally too. You just need to build some momentum, and I see momentum all over the place.

If we could just strangle enough RRW Republicans, then maybe...

... but moral scruples forbid me to discuss this line of thought.

i hate the focus on medical though, no one should have to give a reason or be able to see a doctor to engage in freedom

― harbl, Sunday, June 6, 2010 3:14 PM (41 minutes ago)

idk, i agree totally about pot and think that all drug possessions should be decriminalized, but i wouldn't extend that 'freedom' to other illicit drugs or prescription medications obv

neither would i!

ha yeah i basically figured that's what you meant, i'm in lolcollege so i've had one too many conversations w/ ppl who are like yeah pot should be legal! fuck it all drugs should be legal!

penalties in ca may be reclassified (no longer misdemeanor)

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/cannabis-chronicles/marijuana-possession-less-than/

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss51/tr_fudge/arnold_smoking-pot-thumb-300x238.jpg

if dude can hold the pen straight

i think the legalization ballot measure is going down fwiw, but the fact that it's a question is amazing even given the state of bud politics here.

vast majority of la dispensaries needing to ROLL with the punches meanwhile
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15235255?source=rss

they're pushing to get full legalization on the ballot in oregon this fall

Also, I don't know how it works, but if it makes people feel more comfortable maybe a mod can unindex this thread from google? (If not, can we move it to 77 or something?)

― Mordy, Sunday, June 6, 2010 12:37 PM (4 hours ago)

I've done this, though if it's kept to politics rather than personal habits, I don't know how necessary it was.

i hope it's not just a lolcollege idea to want to see see all drugs legalized. obviously we're not talking crack being freely available to schoolkids from the corner shop here; there would besome kind of sliding scale of control, e.g. cannabis as free as tobacco, e/speed/coke over the counter at the pharmacy, heroin perhaps only on prescription for registered addicts. i really don't see the benefit in having any substance completely criminalised. it does not effectively discourage use; it turns ordinary people into criminals - at best merely for usage/possession, at worst for having to commit crime in order to maintain a supply; it enables an enormous criminal trade; it means there is no control over substance purity. if drugs were under government control they would be clean and pure, they could be taxed to help fund treatment for addicts, and there would surely be a huge reduction in drug related crime.

ok maybe things wouldn't be quite that rosy. but it's clear the current system is a complete failure. and in general while i'm far from libertarian i am a strong believer in personal liberty and the idea of the government having such a strong say over what i choose to put into my body is anathema to me.

no i don't think the lolcollege thing refers to what you're talking about, just a certain type of libertarian thinking. i don't believe in drug criminalization either for the same reasons as you said, it has done a lot of very bad things to america in my opinion.

Full legalization is a LONG way away. The area of law I practice in, employment, is one of the areas where this is really clear: The California Fair Employment and Housing Act, or FEHA, recognizes the use of some prescription drugs, and mandates that employers, in certain situations, must accommodate the user of those drugs if the use of those drugs somehow limits their ability to do their job.

But it doesn't provide the same protections to medical marijuana. The way in which the Compassionate Care Act of 1996 was drafted, it addresses only the criminal aspects as it pertains to patients. It doesn't address employment aspects, or any of the other ways in which marijuana can impact lives. The CA Supreme Court ruled that employers do not have to accommodate compassionate care users for precisely this reason - the Act doesn't address employment law. Kind of a legal punt, but it drew attention to just how narrowly the Compassionate Care Act is drawn. There was an Oregon decision recently which arrived at the same rationale. Now, if two of the most pot-friendly states in the country have rulings like that on the books, the 9th circuit is not likely to hold another way if a case were to make it that far.

But the decriminalization has been good. And, in reality, no cop is going to bust you for a joint or a dime bag. Driving while doing smoking/stoned? Another story, as well it should be.

no cop is going to bust you for a joint or a dime bag.

if you have the right color of skin

I doubt we'll ever see pot legalized, though it would be so convenient if it was. OK, maybe not "ever," but I really seriously doubt it'll happen in the next 20-40 years, or so long as we have Mormons in the U.S.

Rev otm, and if you're in the "wrong" neighborhood, you'd be surprised how small an infraction you can end up in handcuffs for

no cop is going to bust you for a joint or a dime bag.

if you have the right color of skin

― donk quixote (The Reverend), Monday, June 7, 2010 10:02 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

I used to work at a diner where for dishwashers we hired convicts who were trying to get back on their feet, and they were mostly black guys that had been in jail for years and years after being busted in this way. Legalization is in a large part a civil rights cause.

i think the legalization ballot measure is going down fwiw

why do you think this...? I haven't seen any authoritative polling to-date.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/31/local/la-me-0601-poll-20100529

i just have a feeling. people don't pay attention to propositions, even this one, until the ads start ratcheting up and the opposition has a lot of boogeymen to unleash, not to mention opposing the measure more forcefully in the coming months is low-hanging fruit for both of the likely gub nominees. from what i've seen, trying to put myself in the shoes of the 'average voter' the pro argument as articulated feels kind of ad-hoc but that could change too.

Besides the Office of National Drug Control Policy, who funds opposition advertising? Someone said the cigarette companies spend a lot on opposition advertising, but I couldn't find any data to support that. Anyone here know?

cigarette companies are all broke I thought

I would not be surprised if it were religious people (cough cough Mormons). If there *were* a national vote, you bet the Mormon Church would do a Prop-8 style $$$$ push to shut that shit down. I promise.

are tobacco companies even allowed to spend campaign money? so many lawsuits/civil suits have crippled the industry

xp

If there *were* a national vote, you bet the Mormon Church would do a Prop-8 style $$$$ push to shut that shit down. I promise.

I can see this happening. at the same time, most of the country does not love Mormons, much less being told what to do by Mormons.

like what is the percentage that thinks Mormons aren't "really" Christians...? it's pretty high iirc

Well, sure, but it worked w/Prop 8, right?

And it's not like they would advertise, "WE, the MORMONS, want you to never smoke pot! And also we don't really have multiple wives. Brought to you by THE MORMONS."

Sponsored by the Mormons For Curtailing Your Fun Committee for America (c)

At any rate, this topic of converrsation ("will pot be legalized") always kind of feels like a mass funtime of projections of the speakers' pasts & desires. I, por ejemplo, would love for pot to be legalized, but grew up in a community where smoking weed was tantamount (in perceived riskiness & evilness) to smoking meth. This informs my perspective. I imagine someone who grew up in a less conservative area, or had pot-smoking parents, would have a more optimistic view. ANd someone who thinks weed is bad, and has never smoked it, would naturally be more inclined to say it's so not gonna happen. I feel in some ways like there's no way to know.

i suspect in my lifetime we will see the states where it's been cleared for medical purposes legalize it wholesale; everywhere else will be in sort of limbo between where we are now and full legalization

It seems to me that once it's become fully legalized in a few states, it'll be de facto legal everywhere. They can't exactly set up state border patrols to make sure you aren't buying in NJ and driving it up to NY, or whatever.

still pretty illegal in lots of europe, despite amsterdam

Europe's different

As far as I know, Prohibition was repealed everywhere all at once, but an interesting comparison might be individual state tax laws on vices. Technically, afaik, it's illegal to buy alcohol in NJ and then drive it into PA, but this obviously happens all the time, whenever someone in Cherry Hill picks up a bottle of wine and then drives to his friend's place in Philadelphia, and it's de facto legal. How can you enforce that kind of law?

wrt CA as an avowed pessimist the fact that they gathered the signatures still feels like found money, bottom line is i think the radius of 'public consciousness raising' for legalization hasn't extended nearly as far as the medical angle, which tbh still relies on compassion for the very very sick to get over (medical cannabis is not going away but it's still plenty begrudged among the majority of counties and municipalities). i mean i hope that's an antiguated view of how politics move in 2010 but yeah, prop 8. think we can just wipe away the culture of prohibition w/o at least will n' gracing it for a minute, it just can't be that easy, right?

yeah, i guess i would liken it blue laws around here. like, you would probably never ever be able to just pop by dispensary/ package store in the state of Tennessee and buy a nice bottle of wine and some white widow for your dinner party. but if you were pulled over and had an oz cops would just be like eh, whatever - as long as you aren't smokin & drivin (someone will obviously need to build some kind of breath-alizer for weed if it's ever to be legalized i'm guessing)

56% of CA supports legalizing weed as of a couple months ago

Tennessee didn't go as far as Texas, but it did just ban all THCa products — which, I mean, it is pretty ridiculous to have weed illegal but THCa legal. Of course, the right answer is just legalize it! But that doesn't seem to be on the horizon here any time soon. (Polls show it would probably pass if you could get it on the ballot — but we don't have citizen-initiated referendums here either.)

So now all there will be here is the lame-ass delta 8 stuff.

D8 edibles are nice! you have to double the dosage but I think it's roughly the same effect, maybe a little longer lasting too. the D8 flower on the other hand sucks and the vape cart I got made me cough so much I just tossed it

never really understood what THCa was though I've heard when you smoke it it's basically the same thing

I've had OK D8 edibles but I'm not a huge edible fan in the first place and ... yeah, just not quite the thing. It's all just so silly.

I know its like uhhh can you just spare a few extra molecules bro

i didn't realize the citizens' referendum is just not allowed for half the country! it seems more common in the western states. part of 'western culture' i like. it still feels wild to me that medical is approved in utah, where the lds church sways everything. i feel like there's something there about how utah's lds culture has some "outside the law" roots.

Utah and Oklahoma tied for “wtf legalish weed” states

Virginia too, nothing but the fake crap

They cut down on a bunch of weed shops in DC when Ed Martin was interim whatever and all the traffic spilled into my store in MD by the border. The parking lot is mayhem.

i didn't realize the citizens' referendum is just not allowed for half the country! it seems more common in the western states. part of 'western culture' i like. it still feels wild to me that medical is approved in utah, where the lds church sways everything. i feel like there's something there about how utah's lds culture has some "outside the law" roots.

ha i'd be interested in more info about that, if you read it somewhere. they do tend to be depressed.

It was a clip from a podcast talking with an lds member in Utah. She was saying ketamine therapy was getting quite popular in the state and is being accepted by the church for the most part which is kinda cool.

nice! thx for sharing.

Ketamine and psychedelic therapy is wellness influencer/essential oils adjacent, it’s kind of in the Mormon wheelhouse.

Talked about the latest in cannabis legalization in the South in the latest podcast episode. Short version: Legislatures getting even more invested in prohibition, even though legalization polls over 60% pretty much everywhere.

https://sites.libsyn.com/576820/ep-6-weed-whackers-in-the-south

Liquor lobbies are strong down here. That's a big reason why what's happening in Texas is happening now.

so dumb - "who wants free tax money anyway?"

Yeah the liquor lobbies are also gaming the legislatures in states other than Texas, by requiring stuff like Delta 8 to be sold only in places that are 21-and-over OR in places with an alcohol/liquor license. So in Tennessee e.g., the wine stores that already all have displays of "hemp THC" by the register can keep them, but gas stations/grocery stores/etc. can't.

The new Alabama law is the most brazen in that regard — it bans anything smokable outright, and allows edibles only in places with a liquor license or 21-and-over dispensaries. But it also allows THC beverages in grocery stores, and topical/sublingual products in pharmacies. So basically every retail sector gets a cut of the business.

good podcast piece, tipsy, ty

minor correction: Georgia does have legal medical marijuana, though under highly restrictive terms

Ah, thank you! It didn't show up on the lists I could find of "medical marijuana states," but I guess that's because of its restrictions. Probably depends on what people count as "available."

Figuring out the state by state rules is super confusing, especially because they keep changing.

Abbott vetos SB3, which would have banned THC products in Texas had it gone into law.

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/22/texas-thc-ban-bill-greg-abbott-veto-senate-bill-3/

lol

https://40thward.org/2025/08/notice-of-intent-2415-25-w-peterson-avenue

Feedback on this proposal was mixed. While the majority of neighbors indicated support for a dispensary at this property, a significant number of neighbors indicated concerns with the dispensary ownership. Neighbors indicated a discomfort that the majority of the ownership are former police officers who may have previously arrested others for marijuana possession and would now be profiting from cannabis sales. Due to these concerns, this particular dispensary proposal did not receive a majority of neighbors’ support.

so THC products are about to be federally banned again?? thanks a lot assholes, especially you John Fetterman, the guy who explicitly ran on a "I will legalize weed" platform

Wait, were they ever federally legal?

Only 22 Dems voted for taking out that provision. Truly baffling.

“baffling”

it’s funny, at some point in my time off I became more cynical than milo

I didn’t see that many Democrats in the Senate caring enough to actively take a stand against weed. They’re useless and indifferent but have mostly learned to not flip the bird to the Democratic base on such a low stakes issue.

Yeah they have been federally legal under the farm bill. I mean, McConnell’s right that the THC loophole was not the intent of the original law. But also obviously weed should be legal and all of this is ridiculous.

I worry a little that it could be a step toward a federal crackdown on legal states. Maybe they wouldn’t do it because the politics of it aren’t good, but it would be a way to wreak havoc in blue states. Send in troops, the whole deal.

nothing could make weed more uncool lol

i'll take what i can get

👍

I think RFKJ is high as a fucking kite most of the time, he was probably the whisperer that pushed this through

Opening the door for private equity to buy up weed operations and gut them.

https://scontent.fslc3-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/657155311_1858930625018500_8501602696881213279_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_nc_ohc=D2ZkfF02UScQ7kNvwEFinuG&_nc_oc=Ado7fjC44QVQYZ93xSy2iw42kIglguKmnjgN4uhOY6UyIOtEqYScy4c36TsHLYJteTdhy09YtEyOJk1iDQBDx5Pf&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fslc3-2.fna&_nc_gid=n_T9j4JtO8tbtTqL0Pmkhw&_nc_ss=7a32e&oh=00_AfzCXflQvG0VReIIDn37HoLPaRmhGKYeFnZzuPm2ady34A&oe=69C7CF92

the interesting thing about this to me is that ptsd symptoms and depression don't seem to be measurably improved by cannabis (which tracks with my personal experience tbh). that and cannabis use disorder is a real danger.

it seems like other psychedelics have more potential when it comes to alleviating ptsd, anxiety and depression afaict. lsd in particular had a notable effect on improving depression in a recent study i saw that i can't recall?

of course thc/cbd definitely helps with certain kinds of pain.

i'm noticing the drawbacks more and more of my own use.

i'm pretty evenly split on the times it makes me less anxious vs more anxious. that wide range with it sort of favoring less anxious but insignificantly so feels familiar to me.

i haven't read the full study, just a precis, so i think depression may be covered in another section. probably worth taking the time to look through the whole thing.

can you link that article?

don't bogart that article, my friend

ok so the image came across my facebook feed, (i know, a fount of reliable info), from william wallace a generally reliable source on health. i don't have a gift link to the study itself unfortch. this is his summary fwiw:

The largest review of medicinal cannabis for mental health just published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
54 randomized controlled trials spanning 1980 to 2025. 2,477 participants. Nine psychiatric conditions. Every outcome GRADE-assessed.
The results are in the figure. Most of the confidence intervals cross the null line. Anxiety, PTSD, psychosis, opioid use disorder: no significant effect versus placebo across any primary outcome. For depression, there was not a single RCT to analyze. It is one of the top reasons cannabis is prescribed and it has never been tested in a controlled trial.
Where signals did emerge: cannabis use disorder, device-measured sleep time in insomnia (the only moderate-certainty finding in the entire review), and tic severity in Tourette's (combined CBD and THC only). Autistic traits showed a reduction, but both contributing studies had high risk of bias.
One finding went the wrong direction. Cannabinoids increased cocaine craving compared to placebo.
Across all conditions, cannabinoid users were 75% more likely to experience an adverse event than placebo. For every 7 people treated, 1 experienced a side effect that wouldn't have occurred on placebo.
27% of adults aged 16 to 65 in the US and Canada report using cannabis medically. About half are using it for mental health. More than a dozen US states list PTSD as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Interestingly, the regulatory framework approved the product before the trials were run.
Cannabis has legitimate therapeutic applications. Epilepsy. MS spasticity. Certain pain conditions. The evidence there is real. But for the conditions millions of people are actually using it to treat, the RCT evidence either shows no effect (to this point) or doesn't exist, yet.

sorry for any mischaracterization in my words above i am not exactly good at reading and interpreting this stuff.

Here's the study.

thanks!

Feel like this has always been the weakness of the medical cannabis argument, that it rests almost entirely on self-reported anecdote. Of course I think everyone has understood that the medical campaign was mostly a way to get legalization on the political map, kind of a stalking horse. Now that so many states have legal weed regardless of prescription, it seems like it's still useful to figure out what conditions cannabis is actually beneficial for, so these kinds of studies are helpful. But the bigger thing is just that a lot of people enjoy getting kinda high. (Me too!)

Anyway, if RFK Jr. can roll back the clock to the "wine is good for you actually" argument despite evidence to the contrary, I won't gainsay anyone asserting the medical benefits of weed.

One thing I have found weed to help me with is IBS. I guess the muscle relaxant aspect is what does it. And it's no solution, just provides a few hours of relief...would have to be high 24/7, which is obv not on, but during a flare up it can help, and ends up being less risky than imodium (which can easily bring me too far in the other direction). Never heard anyone else mention this.

it induces peristalsis!

so yeah totally. see also, giving cancer patients an appetite when on chemo

map that is a super interesting study, thanks

Interesting. I have fairly mild lifelong IBS, and I've just never paid attention to whether cannabis improves it. Although my symptoms tend to hit earlier in the day, and cannabis use tends to be evenings-only, so maybe I wouldn't notice.

Those videos you see of it affecting dramatic changes in certain conditions are impressive. Heck, my wife told me half of the discussions on one of the mom groups she frequents is about menopausal women relying on edibles to get a good night's sleep; for sure it seems more calming than alcohol before bed. On the other hand, I remember when my MIL had glaucoma and looked into cannabis, and she found she'd basically have to be high all the time for it to make a slight difference.

Findings of that study not a particular shock, imo. There is just so much going on chemically that I imagine even if it had clear benefits it would be really difficult to isolate them, which aiui is one of the reasons it's been relegated to the schedule 1 category, not that it is on par with heroin or whatever but because there was no clear, consistent medical application (i.e. take x mgs for y result). It's probably more akin to multivitamins and whatnot in terms of nebulous effects and benefits, but because it's psychotropic it's not like you can safely shelve it at GNC or whatever.

One thing I have found weed to help me with is IBS. I guess the muscle relaxant aspect is what does it. And it's no solution, just provides a few hours of relief...would have to be high 24/7, which is obv not on, but during a flare up it can help, and ends up being less risky than imodium (which can easily bring me too far in the other direction). Never heard anyone else mention this.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, March 24, 2026 5:33 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i have heard it helps a lot with crohn's.