Looks like New York lawmakers want to pay some bills and, what do you know, they're not going to jack yer real estate tax to bite you richies. Nope, they want to legalise the ganja in the Empire State! (CBS New York: N.Y. Lawmakers Propose Legalizing Marijuana, Making It Into A Cash Cow)
It's interesting to have watched the change in position over the years until now when I hear a lawmaker say:
“We really need to move beyond our totally broken prohibition model to a sensible tax and regulate model. I think it’s widely recognized that marijuana is at most nowhere near as potentially harmful as alcohol and our law is dishonest.”
That was from Richard Gottfried, Assembly Health Committee Chairman in New York. Twenty or maybe even ten years ago he would have been screaming that marijuana will inevitably lead users to heroin and cause a rampaging increase in crime. Today, pretty close to unanimously, that has reversed across the country. Yes, there is opposition but mostly it comes from fundamentalist cranks. Everyone else is tired of the Prohibition, tired of jails packed with potheads, and tired of fighting an unwinnable and pointless war.
Excellent!
What's interesting to me is whether Europe will fold on it. Legalisation seems inevitable to me everywhere and always has been. I've never hidden smoking reefer as it's been my successful belief that brazen cannot be busted. Tell me I'm wrong. It's worked for forty-five years!
It's interesting to have watched the change in position over the years until now when I hear a lawmaker say:
“We really need to move beyond our totally broken prohibition model to a sensible tax and regulate model. I think it’s widely recognized that marijuana is at most nowhere near as potentially harmful as alcohol and our law is dishonest.”
That was from Richard Gottfried, Assembly Health Committee Chairman in New York. Twenty or maybe even ten years ago he would have been screaming that marijuana will inevitably lead users to heroin and cause a rampaging increase in crime. Today, pretty close to unanimously, that has reversed across the country. Yes, there is opposition but mostly it comes from fundamentalist cranks. Everyone else is tired of the Prohibition, tired of jails packed with potheads, and tired of fighting an unwinnable and pointless war.
Excellent!
What's interesting to me is whether Europe will fold on it. Legalisation seems inevitable to me everywhere and always has been. I've never hidden smoking reefer as it's been my successful belief that brazen cannot be busted. Tell me I'm wrong. It's worked for forty-five years!
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