realitysandwich | Pot-smokers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your pipe dreams.
Marijuana legalization is a beginning, not an end.
When residents of Colorado and Washington voted to legalize the adult
use of cannabis, it felt like a momentary rush of sobriety in a country
dazed by decades of anti-marijuana hysteria. But what comes next?
The drug war edifice is cracking and the end of prohibition may be nigh.
Or may not be. The way things play out is not preordained. Major
strategic differences among legalization proponents are surfacing about
how to proceed. Some drug policy reform leaders, fearing an official
backlash, are urging a cautious, go-slow, approach: make it as easy as
possible for the Feds to back off and let the states do their thing.
Other voices, claiming a pro-pot electoral mandate, are calling for
bold, assertive moves to implement the will of the voters.
Some medical marijuana dispensary operators are celebrating the prospect
of expanding into adult sales, while others worry about getting
squeezed out as weaker players fold in an increasingly competitive,
multibillion-dollar industry. Mom and pop growers in the Emerald
Triangle of Northern California, America's cannabis bread basket, who've
paid their dues over the years, cringe when they hear of post-election
overtures to tobacco companies from single-issue obsessed, DC-based drug
policy reform lobbyists who presume to speak for tens of millions of
cannabis consumers.
The future of cannabis is up for grabs -- as much as anything can be in
our ailing, corporate-dominated culture. So why not think big? Here are
some ideas:
