Get up frenz…you’re in a Battle Proper Now!
Let me be crystal clear about one thing – the Battle on Medication is not some relic from the Nixon period that ended when Colorado and Washington first legalized weed. It is occurring proper now, as you are studying this. And in case you assume I am being paranoid, keep on with me for a minute.
I have been documenting the indicators of escalation on this battle for years, however right this moment I need to deal with the elephant within the room: this has by no means been a “Battle on Medication.” Medication do not get arrested. Medication do not lose their jobs. Medication do not get their children taken away. Medication do not have their property seized or their voting rights stripped.
This has all the time been a battle on folks – particularly, on YOU.
Regardless of hashish having fun with unprecedented public assist (70% of People favor legalization), the battlefield has merely shifted. The opponents have not surrendered; they’ve simply modified techniques. As Paul Armentano brilliantly outlines in his current MarijuanaMoment.web op-ed, hashish customers are being focused by each Republican and Democratic lawmakers, simply in several methods.
On this article, we’ll dissect Armentano’s observations about how politicians from each side of the aisle are undermining legalization efforts – from Republicans outright nullifying voter initiatives to Democrats taxing authorized markets into oblivion. Extra importantly, we’ll discover how we, as hashish customers, can begin rattling the cages that maintain our our bodies categorised as authorities property somewhat than our personal sovereign domains.
Time to get up, frenz. You are still on the battlefield whether or not you understand it or not.
Paul Armentano’s current op-ed for Marijuana Second reads like a battle report from the frontlines. As NORML’s Deputy Director, he is been watching the battle unfold from a privileged vantage level, and what he sees ought to alarm each hashish client in America.
On the Republican aspect, we’re witnessing one thing notably insidious – the outright nullification of democracy itself. In South Dakota, GOP lawmakers almost repealed a voter-approved medical hashish legislation by a single vote. Nebraska’s Republican lawyer common is urging lawmakers to easily ignore election outcomes. In Ohio, Senate Republicans are gutting the voter-approved legalization by limiting residence rising, imposing arbitrary THC caps, and – most annoying – creating new crimes for adults who share hashish.
However Democrats aren’t precisely using to our rescue. As Armentano factors out, in blue states like New Jersey, Maryland, and California, Democratic governors are treating hashish customers as strolling ATMs. Governor Murphy needs to quintuple hashish taxes in New Jersey. Maryland is trying to double the particular gross sales tax on marijuana purchases. These aren’t simply annoyances – they’re calculated strikes that push customers again to the illicit market, undoing the very advantages legalization was imagined to create.
This patchwork strategy to legalization has created what quantities to feudal kingdoms the place native rulers can goal hashish customers nonetheless they please. The hodgepodge of conflicting state, county, and municipal legal guidelines turns regular folks into criminals just by crossing invisible boundaries. In Texas, the lawyer common is actively suing cities which have decriminalized possession, forcing native governments to ignore voter initiatives out of worry of litigation.
Let’s be completely clear: till hashish is totally faraway from the Managed Substances Act, we’ll stay on the mercy of lawmakers and the particular pursuits that fund their campaigns. The pharmaceutical foyer, jail business, and alcohol/tobacco pursuits all have a stake in holding hashish customers criminalized or overtaxed. These industries pour thousands and thousands into marketing campaign coffers, and politicians reply accordingly.
Whereas we do not but know the way the Trump administration may strategy hashish if returned to energy, his rhetoric about drug cartels and terrorists raises critical issues. Historical past has taught us that governments love nothing greater than bloodbath or disaster to justify draconian new legal guidelines. The escalation of militarized anti-cartel operations in Mexico may simply turn out to be the pretext for a renewed crackdown on hashish domestically.
Keep in mind how shortly civil liberties evaporated after 9/11? How the Patriot Act was rammed by means of whereas the rubble was nonetheless smoking? I worry we’re one border incident away from politicians utilizing cartel violence as justification to roll again the delicate progress we have made.
Armentano’s warning could not be clearer: “Now will not be the time to turn out to be complacent, neither is it a time to presume that marijuana will one way or the other legalize itself.” The battle continues, the battle strains have shifted, and hashish customers stay squarely within the crosshairs – whether or not they’re being shot at by Republicans with repeal efforts or by Democrats with taxation schemes.
These of us who got here of age throughout the heightened drug battle hysteria of the 90s and early 2000s have a sure ability set right this moment’s youthful hashish customers may lack. We bear in mind strolling round with eye drops in our pockets, perfecting the artwork of the towel-under-the-door, and talking in elaborate coded language over landlines we assumed had been tapped. Paranoia wasn’t only a aspect impact – it was a survival mechanism.
Again then, smoking a joint carried a tangible subversive thrill. It wasn’t nearly getting excessive; it was an act of riot towards a system we knew was mendacity to us. There was one thing virtually romantic about it – echoes of the 60s counterculture filtered by means of hip-hop, Cypress Hill albums, and Kevin Smith motion pictures. Being a stoner meant belonging to a secret society with its personal language, rituals, and heroes.
However here is the onerous reality many people forgot alongside the way in which: till your rights are constitutionally enshrined, they are often taken from you simply as arbitrarily as they had been granted. The progress we have celebrated – medical applications, leisure markets, decriminalization – exists on the pleasure of politicians who see us both as ethical degenerates or strolling tax income.
The Managed Substances Act is not simply dangerous coverage; it is basically a pharma-sponsored slaver’s contract. That sounds hyperbolic till you study the thirteenth Modification’s insidious loophole: slavery was abolished “besides as punishment for against the law.” By criminalizing what you place in your personal physique, the state created a authorized framework to fairly actually personal you – to grab your property, your liberty, your vote, and your labor.
When Democrats impose crippling tax burdens on authorized hashish, they are not simply being grasping – they’re sabotaging the complete experiment. These taxes push customers again to the illicit market, creating the very issues prohibitionists then level to as proof that “legalization does not work.” It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, a rigged sport the place the home all the time wins.
The bitter actuality? We have by no means skilled true legalization in our lifetimes. What we have now is a tenuous, compromised model that leaves thousands and thousands nonetheless susceptible to life-altering felony penalties whereas permitting politicians to boast about their progressive credentials.
This is not your mother and father’ drug battle anymore – it is developed, tailored, and in some methods turn out to be extra insidious exactly as a result of it masquerades as progress whereas sustaining the elemental energy dynamic: the state nonetheless claims possession over your consciousness.
Earlier generations of hashish activists handed the torch to us. They fought the brutal entrance strains – going through many years in jail, having their kids taken away, being denied housing and employment. We owe it to them, and to future generations, to complete what they began.
Do not be lulled into complacency by dispensaries with intelligent branding and budtenders with tattoos. Do not mistake the power to purchase government-approved hashish merchandise for precise freedom. And do not anticipate politicians from both social gathering to respect your autonomy except you make it politically painful to not.
The battle continues. The query is: will you be a casualty, a conscientious objector, or a freedom fighter?
Your physique. Your thoughts. Your alternative. However provided that you are prepared to demand it.
WHO IS BLOCKING LEGALIZATION, READ ON…
