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Comment by flyt | Hacker News Reader

The cult of Reagan is less powerful than the cult of private companies that exist due to government money funneled through DEA programs.

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I wouldn't blame just Republicans for drugs not being legal and the DEA being intact. Democrats get campaign contributions from police unions, private prisons, alcohol companies, pharmaceutical companies, and prison guard unions too.

The fact of the matter is that our politicians don't work for us they work for corporate interests. Also, before someone says we should elect politicians, please realize that the problem isn't the politicians. It's the American people. Americans are dumber than a box of rocks. They love their low prices they get at Walmart and don't realize how much we subsidize the company's employees via welfare programs because they refuse to pay them a living wage.

The baby boomers (and possibly my generation) will have to die off before cannabis and other drugs are legalized.

I quite agree, but the 'morality police' stance is something I associate with the right (though not exclusively).

The problem is not the American people. If a system requires nearly the entire populace to be as active (intellectually and financially) as every individual vested interest just to be successful, then it is a bad system. Its easy to call people dumb as rocks when they aren't rich and need to spend their time working really difficult jobs, and then choose low prices and tv for the leisure they have left as opposed to researching the complex web of interests that define the political actions of this country. The reality is that even the people that are "well informed" have wildly different beliefs about what is going on.

The government represents an entity capable of on the one hand restricting just about anything, and on the other hand propping up other things. It is thus a completely natural and logical result that thousands of vested interests will start vying for its favor. Now all of a sudden the entire population needs to go on defense for each of these issues. Its madness and completely unsustainable. You happen to care about and understand drug legalization, but I guarantee you that there are hundreds of other issues you aren't even aware of that are equally bad. Does that make you a bad person or dumb? Of course not.

"If a system requires nearly the entire populace to be as active (intellectually and financially) as every individual vested interest just to be successful, then it is a bad system."

We can't even get half of the country to make informed decisions. Americans are definitely the problem. They vote every couple of years to elect rich politicians that don't give a fuck about them. And they vote based off of arbitrary reasons. They find out we are being constantly spied on and they just don't care. Just like they didn't care when Japanese Americans were thrown into camps during WW2. Just like they didn't care when we were lied into Vietnam and then again into Iraq to make a few people richer. Americans are complacent.

With drugs it's even worse than that: otherwise intelligent and well meaning people have been brainwashed into thinking that we have to be protected from these dangerous drugs.

Lot's of people will say legalize pot but not the "hard stuff" (only because they want legal pot for themselves).

I'm not sure "brainwashed" or anything like it is right, or at least the one's I've discussed this with who were beyond thinking were terrified about their children. I pointed out the choices of liberty or a drug war, which they did not deny, and they preferred the latter.

Brainwashed is the right word. Have you seen any of thr old drug propaganda videos? Check them out on YouTue. Also look up and watch Referrer Madness. In D.A.R.E my brothers kid learned that LSD stays in your system forever and drips acid down your brainstem, among a whole slew of other non-factual information.

These were people around my age or a bit younger, pre-D.A.R.E (which was started in 1983), and Reefer Madness was considered camp at best by my time.

Never heard any outrageous things like that LSD stuff (can't say for sure about the people I talked to), but it was very well established by then, without any lies needed, that hard drugs are very bad news (by that time psychedelics weren't a big concern, they were long out of fashion).

Americans are the worst citizens, except when compared to the people of other countries, who are around as apathetic as we are, if not worse. You see this even in Switzerland's mostly direct democracy. It might even be human nature to not care about big pictures and only worry about immediate needs/comfort.

Blame evolution I guess. Thankfully, a few people look forward...they just aren't in the majority.

> We can't even get half of the country to make informed decisions. Americans are definitely the problem. They vote every couple of years to elect rich politicians that don't give a fuck about them. And they vote based off of arbitrary reasons.

Why would it be any different? The chance of their vote changing anything is one in several million. It would be irrational for them to spend much time, if any, learning about the consequences of their vote, because most likely there will be none.

Colorado and Washington prove that wrong. I suspect many states will follow over the next 10 years for at least cannabis.

The federal government is going to step in and start confiscating grow-ops in Colorado and Washington State. They will bust people doors down and most likely injure or kill a few. It's going to happen. The powers at the federal level are just too great.

It will be interesting to see what happens; the federal agencies are between a rock and a hard place. While the initiatives passed at around 55%, the polls for the feds to respect state law are over 70%. If they go after the industry as a whole, they would end up losing a lot of political capital among the "law and order" voters who otherwise support the drug war.

Note that the medical operations have dealt with a handful of nasty busts under Holder/Obama, but don't seem to be closing up shop or going underground. Drive down the right streets in Denver, and you'll pass literally a dozen legal pot shops operating in the open, neon signs and all.

I don't think the federal government is interested in getting into what would essentially be a pissing contest. They will just ignore the problem and let things be, because that is their prerogative (state jurisdiction!) and they have nothing to gain, only resentment, for getting involved.

Why aren't federal drug laws don't change because many of the other states won't let them. A lot of southern states are not so open about drugs. This isn't the federal government vs. a few states, its more like many states against many states; there is just a general disagreement in our culture like there was/is about gay marriage.

If I were to think of enthusiastic drug warriors who've managed to get their preferred policies implemented I'd probably put Joe Biden at the top of the list and I don't tend to think of him as being a Reaganite, though of course YMMV.

Yes, but ALEC-affiliated legislators tend to trot out the Gipper when they're on the stump rather than talking about how many lobbyists they're friends with. Money talks but ultimately it's the votes that count.

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