Black Calling The Kettle Pot

Legal sales of recreational marijuana to adults began on October 1st, in Oregon. But administrators of Oregon colleges and universities, both public and private, say nothing has changed or will change on their campuses because of the state’s new pot law. Also, it will also be illegal to smoke pot in any federally funded housing projects or in any public place. It is also a federal offense to transport pot to nearby Washington State.

So even though cannabis is legal according to the State, the Feds are still living in the 1930’s when pot was made illegal.

Living in a state where marijuana is legal is sort of a surreal experience. I noticed on Facebook the other day that my son had posted that he was proud to say he bought pot legally and it seemed so weird to me. Not that I am anti-pot, only that when I was young, pot was one of those things that was a best kept secret.

I realized the attitude about pot had changed when during the CNN republican debates, Jeb Bush announced that he had smoked marijuana.

Bush shared this personal tidbit after he was asked about enforcing federal laws against marijuana in places like Colorado, Oregon and Washington where it is legal. Sen. Rand Paul declared: “There’s at least one prominent example of someone on stage who said they smoked pot in high school, yet the people going to jail for this are poor people, often African-Americans and often Hispanics, yet the rich kids who use drugs aren’t. I personally think this is a crime where the only victim is the individual.”

Moderator Jake Tapper asked if Paul would like to name the “hypocrite,” and Bush piped up with: “He was talking about me… Forty years ago I smoked marijuana and I admit it. I’m sure that other people might have done it but might not want to say it in front of 25 million people; my mom’s not happy that I just did.”

Times have definitely changed in America and it is beginning to look a lot like marijuana is losing its notoriety and becoming less taboo.

The ending of the pot prohibition is a popular issue for people. State authorities are trying to catch up and are lessening their iron hand when it comes to prosecuting Americans and making laws against euphoria.

The state and local authorities are realizing that there are far more heinous crimes that need to be investigated and that now authorities are calling a partial truce that liberates most Americans from being jailed of even growing marijuana.

The victory however is a small one and not everyone is blessed with the ability to use marijuana which in the 21st century strikes me as being just a bit archaic. The fact that the forbidden plant has resulted in the United States having the largest prison population in the world, is ironic since we are called the “Land of Free.”

Making marijuana illegal has forced many people who want to take away their pain to take more dangerous drugs with unwanted side effects.

Just last year, the DEA had cracked down hard on opiate drugs that were once schedule III drugs and made them Schedule II drugs. The DEA puts them on par with powerful illegal narcotics including heroin and methamphetamine, as well as commonly abused medications Adderall and Ritalin.

In a strange turn of events we reported last August that the Food and Drug Administration approved limited use of the powerful and frequently abused painkiller, OxyContin for children as young as 11 years old.

OxyContin is highly-addictive and should be used responsibly. What is worrisome is whether or not the approval of such a powerful drug for children is opening up the possibility of misuse and creates an iatrogenic artifact for kids. Oxycontin is a schedule II drug.

Since the Reagan administration, there was propaganda that was circulated that marijuana was the gateway drug. However, most people who use marijuana alone do not go on to use other, “harder” substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs—and so the combination creates a cycle that pushes users into other drug abuses.

An alternative to the gateway-drug hypothesis is that people who are more vulnerable to drug-taking are simply more likely to start with readily available combination of substances like marijuana, tobacco, or alcohol, and their subsequent social interactions with other drug users increases their chances of trying other drugs.

Giving Oxycontin to young children may create bigger problems and really doesn’t make any sense. Let us use some intellectual honesty; The FDA has approved Oxycodone for kids, a highly-addictive drug that can have serious consequences if abused. The FDA states that children have to demonstrate that they can handle the drug by tolerating a minimum dose equal to 20 milligrams of Oxycodone for five consecutive days.

This opioid experiment on children could be avoided if children could legally use medical marijuana. The dispute between the state and the federal government also needs to end as the chasing down of pot smokers and growers is beginning to get ridiculous.

The conflict between federal and state laws has become more pronounced in recent years as states expand legal uses of marijuana. Four states — Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Alaska — and the District of Columbia allow the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. And almost half the states allow marijuana for medical purposes.

Amid the growing acceptance of at least some marijuana use in states across the country, the Justice Department, in an August 2013 memo to United States Attorneys indicated it would not enforce federal marijuana laws against businesses operating under state laws.

But state legislatures aren’t rushing to follow the legalization trend. However they are at least discussing the feasibility of legalization. Legislators questioned Colorado and Washington law enforcement experts on whether legalization has led to a change in crime statistics.

Two years after marijuana became legal for the first time, those experts said, the data remained unclear.

Arrests for operating vehicles under the influence of drugs have gone up, as more officers have been trained to spot marijuana-impaired drivers. But overall, crime rates have trended down in Colorado and Washington and across the country.

Experts aren’t even sure how long THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, impairs someone’s ability to drive. Washington’s legislature this year passed a law allowing the state’s two major universities to cultivate its own marijuana crop for research.

The new marijuana laws in Washington and Colorado have set up a steady revenue stream at a moment when state budgets are stretched to the limits. In Washington, marijuana sales contributed almost $65 million in tax revenue to state coffers in the last fiscal year; the first month of the new fiscal year shows tax revenue is being generated at almost twice last year’s rate. Washington budget officials expect marijuana sales to generate $1.1 billion in taxes by 2019.

But even skeptical legislators may not have a say in whether their states allow recreational marijuana use. Ballot initiative petitions are already circulating in Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Massachusetts, all of which could make the 2016 ballot. Officials in California expect a ballot initiative too.

In fact, it is being proposed the in 2016 the first steps in putting the stake through the heart of prohibition will happen during the next election. We have the real possibility of more than doubling the number of states with full legalization during 2016.

The DEA has been fighting the war on drugs for over four decades now, and it’s overwhelmingly clear that it’s time to cut our losses, admit the whole thing was a mistake, and work toward restoring the lives that have been destroyed by the drug war.

Most major media outlets also tend to treat legalization as if it is a crazy idea that is absolutely outside of serious discussion.

There also television shows that still show federal police officers chasing down growing operations and in the process making themselves look ridiculous.

Since the “War on Drugs” began, the United States has spent more money fighting this than any other moral social expenditure.

Prohibition has done very little to stop people from getting drugs of all kinds, let alone quell the enthusiasm of those that have used weed regardless of its legality.

The federal government still takes the position technically that you’re violating federal law if you’re complying with the state law.

It all becomes too confusing. In most cases, federal law trumps state law. The conflict between state and federal marijuana laws is likely to continue and ultimately require resolution, possibly in a decision by the Supreme Court.

Prohibition has failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last generation. The issue of marijuana’s legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away.

Text – Check out Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis Live Nightly @ http://www.groundzeromedia.org