Top Senate Democrat Endorses Decriminalizing Marijuana at the Federal Level | Hacker News Reader

Top Senate Democrat Endorses Decriminalizing Marijuana at the Federal Level

bloomberg.com

91 pointsadventured36 comments

Isn't this where the "states rights" Republicans should be piping up?

To cite an ongoing example of legalization: what Canada is doing is allowing the provinces to set up their own systems under a federal framework, of sorts. This looks like it will result in an array of different outcomes, ranging from a fairly liberal system where privately-owned retail can exist (like what Alberta is doing), to monopolies on par with what already exists for alcohol in many provinces (like Ontario and Quebec). Of course there are already disagreements over whether some provinces are already butting heads with the federal government over their respective implementations. For instance, the federal provision calls for allowing some home grow, while some provinces seem keen to ban that outright.

But it seems that there should be room for such a compromise in the US, where the federal government mostly gets out of the way and lets each state decide what they want to do.

They long ago decided to make substance control federal.

Come on now. These are the same “deficit hawks” who had no problem passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut and another trillion in the budget. And the party of Family Values that has its leader a man who cheated on his wife multiple times. And a law and order party that has no qualms about attacking the FBI and it’s leaders, most of whom are Republicans. What faith can you really have in what they say anymore?

Great dissection of Republican hypocrisy. Now do the Democrats...

It's not hypocrisy, it's marketing. They preach what gets mindshare, they practice what gets money. Increased internal consistency would hamper their effectiveness by making them choose one or the other.

The common narrative mixes up the direction of information flow - politicians' ultimate job isn't to gather your input, but rather to make us believe in the policies that we're going to be subjected to.

Most Republicans on the federal level want to stay out of the way when it comes to decriminalizing marijuana.

Except for the far right....

https://reason.com/archives/2018/02/02/renewed-war-on-mariju...

Some Republicans at the federal level want to stay out of the way. I don't see any evidence that the fraction is most. If most wanted it, it would be done.

Republican Attorney General Jeff Sessions is also a vocal opponent (unless you consider him "far right").

Very much so. He's the last of a dying breed who still believed in the "tough on crime" narrative.

>“Since the campaign, President Trump has consistently supported states’ rights to decide for themselves how best to approach marijuana,” Gardner said Friday. “Late Wednesday, I received a commitment from the President that the Department of Justice’s rescission of the Cole memo will not impact Colorado’s legal marijuana industry.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-gardner-strike...

That's nice dear. I'm assuming he has no concrete plans to do this?

Just like Obama alluded to decriminalizing Marijuana for 9 years* along with Universal Healthcare and/or single payer?

There's a recent track record of making big promises in the Democratic Party, prior to selling out to corporate interests.

Obama's great explanation was "It just wouldn't work in our system"

So, if I'm skeptical and cynical, as I remember Obama also complaining about (not to make this all about him, it's just where it led as I finished writing this) it's because I just don't believe him.

*(1 being the election year prior)

"prior to selling out"

How are you going to convince your donors to bid for you without some radical threats on the table. This is just signaling that they are ready to seek donations on this issue, pro or against it doesn't matter.

the beehive has been disturbed, true, all flying around like crazy looking for someone to bite...

I understand the cynicism. However...

We're actually doing it. 29 states medicinal. Eight states legalized.

In 2008 when Barney Frank and Ron Paul proposed the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, there were only 13 medicinal states.

Wikipedia has this great gif showing the collapsing prohibition in action:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Cannabis...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cannabis_laws_in_t...

That was all unthinkable just as recently as 1992 when Clinton was elected on a tough on crime platform. Then we watched the prison population number go from 800,000 to 1.3 million just in his eight years; the greatest increase of any President or eight year period since the mass incarceration effort began in the mid 1970s.

Now we've got the Republican President standing down (compare that to Nixon, Reagan or the Bushes), and the top Senate Democrat arguing in favor of Federal legalization. We've come a very long ways in a relatively short amount of time.

What this signals, is that with continued pressure and legalization in more states, Federal legalization is a done deal. Whenever the next Democrat wave arrives that gives them enough votes, that will formally complete it. Otherwise, it's going to get legalized by most states regardless (which will realistically guarantee a Federal legalization).

You know, I think that's awesome, but gradualism has it's disadvantages, primarily, as you stated, all those millions of people, mostly black underprivileged people, who have had their ENTIRE LIVES DESTROYED.

So excuse me, if I don't hold the same love affair with the liars in chief, both current and former.

The President has the power to decide what gets prosecuted or not, and Obama directed his Attorney General to not prosecute minor drug cases. Only congress can change laws, though.

Are you blaming Obama for failing to enact single-payer healthcare? After the years he spent just trying to get the AcA through Congress?

Congress makes laws, not the President.

Wow talk about drinking the kool-aid.

Dispensaries legalized in their respective states continued to be raided and robbed throughout the Obama administration, one has only to witness such a scene, where local police and sometimes even elected officials look on, as the federal government marches in and destroys a legal business.

Marijuana law up in smoke as agents raid dispensaries

https://mg.co.za/article/2008-08-11-marijuana-law-up-in-smok...

there was no 'resistance' back then because Obama was the chosen one, who would lead us all into a golden age. Well, Obama's gone, and he didn't change shit in regards to drug laws, or at the very least neutering the DEA.

However, aside from my arguments from very limited first hand experience, there is also, oh right, all those pesky facts. Poor, powerless Obama, he's a victim!

Obama’s War on Pot | The Nation

https://www.thenation.com/article/obamas-war-pot/

(you can google search statistics yourself. i'm not going to list out links to someone who is clearly stuck on "talking points" from some publicist.)

However, he loved using the DEA as tool when it suited him:

The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-d...

Honestly they need to do more of this to make a compelling reason to vote for them.

Just some key points I think they need to seriously try to enact

-legalize it

-universal healthcare

-New Deal style infrastructure programs

-re-negotiate cap and trade

Got any others?

They try all of that and are blocked at every turn.

The better question is: what are the compelling reasons to vote for the other side?

The only people I know who vote red are effectively single-issue voters. That issue? Abortion.

Really? I would expect immigration to also be an issue motivating a republican vote.

This says more about you than about people who vote “red”.

Gun rights.

I'd say throw in something about student debt relief / free public college (community college or online college even).

But I think we're just back to the Senator Sanders' platform at this point. It will be interesting to see if those proposals are more appealing to the "mainstream" democratic party now that he and Clinton are out of the picture (hopefully). I'd hope so, but dems always find a way to disappoint me.

Sanders is not out of the picture. Schumer has actually included him in the senior ranks of the party.

Where’s the money for that?

I live in a state where the largest employers are US government projects. The have and have nots are separated by their distance to those projects. There is tourism here and other non governmental industries but none can come near them in size. The resource allocation system within the market works with government being the main source of employment. Why? Because the government has monopoly rights on making markets.

Ask not where the money comes from. Ask who else could make the market with the government maintaining exclusive rights to the currency.

Anything that lessens the power of the criminal "justice" system, I'm all for it.

Well of course if there was a citizens referendum on the issue tomorrow morning it would be legalized nationwide. But we live in times where the body politic is miles away from where the public is on pretty much every major issue. That's not really supposed to happen in a democracy. But that's the USA for you.

Decriminalize implies that there is some intrinsic immorality to self-affective substances. The term should really be uncriminalize, as it was only recently these meddling authoritarian shitheads conjured up the problem in the first place.

Tomato tomato

There are boatloads of studies that show heavy marijuana use is tied to brain damage.

Caution is warranted.

Can you share some of those studies?

I'd like to see some of these studies.

Heavy alcohol use is tied to all kinds of problems, yet when alcohol was outlawed, it was a disaster.

Even if I take it as a given that this is true. The overreach of government, and the "War on Drugs" has done far more damage than marijuana.

Anybody who wants to smoke weed can. The War on Drugs has been a failure, cost billions of dollars and ruined far more lives than weed has.

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