Americans from Both Parties Want Weed to Be Legal. Why Doesn’t the Government

I mean, it's a pretty well known fact that what the people want doesn't actually matter.

Putting people in to prison for drugs is very important to the huge prison industry (#1 prisoner population per Capita in the world, baby), so in order to keep some people employed, we have to enslave some folks. It's a beautiful balance.

There is a large economy built around policing weed and other drugs that may not be nearly as bad for you as they would have you believe. Legalization is an existential threat so they'll pull whatever strings they have to prevent it. The general public doesn't have this lobbying power, but when public opinion translates into getting voted in, that's when tides turn.

Despite what some DARE aficionados might say cops aren't running around reading scientific research to understand the effects of weed on brains of different ages. A vast majority of them couldn't care less.

Weed is illegal because enforcing weed laws is immensely profitable for police departments and prison systems who lobby intensively to keep them illegal because they know many of their jobs would dissappear if weed was federally legalized.

So although Biden would probably love to federally legalize weed because its an easy voter win, it would put huge amounts of money from powerful lobbies at risk so its a catch 22.

People who think smoking pot is harmless are wrong on so many levels. Why do we need another bad thing to be legal?

There are two reasons marijuana is still illegal:

1) The cops in the US are largely two types of people: straight-laced rule-followers and abusive bullies. The rule-followers support the rule because it’s the rule, and the bullies support the rule because it lets them continue to beat up theatre kids after high school.

2) Marijuana abuse leads to economic harm for capitalists. People can stay economically productive through tobacco or alcohol abuse but marijuana abuse tends to make people lethargic and low-output. While tobacco harms the individual tremendously and alcohol harms society tremendously, marijuana use, while on an absolute basis nowhere near as destructive as alcohol, hurts the tycoons who call the shots.

Probably because marijuana use damages young brains. Potent strains, which are now commonplace -- if not the norm, cause psychosis. People end up in emergency rooms, especially with edibles. Long term users suffer from brain damage, mental, and behavioral disorders. It's perceived as harmless, and thus is easier to accept as a supposedly innocent long term habit, when the truth is that it silently robs long term users of their motivation and destroys dreams. People become enamored with the altered state of consciousness early on, to the point where it permanently interferes with their life path.

Marijuana is still strictly disallowed in the military, for clearance holders, and for employees of government agencies such as the FBI for good reason. It impairs judgment.

While I have personally used the substance in the past, I do applaud the current administration for banning anyone who has ever tried it from working in the White House. Many agencies have reasonable policies for past use. I believe the NSA allows for past use no more recently than 12 months, and the FBI for 36 months.