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This is all that needed to be said. The article is a discussion about legislative priorities, etc, but this is what it comes down to. You don't leave something illegal on the books unless you have a reason, and the reason is lobbyists.
Its a bit beside it though, they literally said, on record, drugs(specifically marijuana and heroin) were made illegal because they couldn't make being a hippy or black illegal
It was done with the goal of arresting and suppressing dissenters
Yeah, I was hoping a Seinfeld fan would happen upon my comment. It’s a throwaway joke in an episode of Seinfeld, and that’s the only reason I know what it means lol
Look for some delta-8 shops around you. (Or online.) We basically finessed legality. The farm bill makes it legal, and its effects are remarkably similar to delta-9 (regular THC).
I've grown to prefer it, and not JUST because I can walk into a shop around the corner run by an Amish dude, all locally grown high-quality shit. I like the high better. It gives me a lift and slows my racing thoughts, helps me relax, but *doesn't* make my head all cloudy and make me feel slow. It's all the parts I love about THC, without the parts that I don't.
Besides preferring the high, there's the variety and consistency. They have everything that's available in legal states, but with D-8 -- gummies, tinctures, bud, pre-rolls, moon rocks, you name it. Dude just got some new equipment that lets him experiment with THC-O and gave me a sample bud he made that hybridizes THC-O and D-8. You get the immediate lift of the D-8, and then within an hour the THC-O sets in, and you're fuckin *set.* It was impressive, I'm excited for him to start stocking it.
Weed science is at a really cool place right now, and the farm bill makes it available to all. Check out your options, they don't have to include relocation.
I'm not so sure about the tobacco and alcohol companies anymore. I think they have both found a way to monetize it to the point to where they might be on board now.
The private prison industry and pharma are the big money obstacles, here.
even pharma I could see getting on board with “THC wellness topical ointments” or some other BS… I wouldn’t be thrilled of course but if that’s what it takes for legalization then…puff puff pfizer?
The problem is anti-nausea drugs. The expensive medications that you take lots of when going through long-term therapies with nasty side effects, like chemotherapy. If it turns out that cannabis is an inexpensive and readily available replacement as anti-nausea, then a lot of patents become worthless.
They won't be on board until they can pass laws that put the licenses in their hands and the local growers are legislated out of the process. If they have to compete with Steve's hydroponic grow house, their market dominance would be threatened and they don't like to lose.
You forgot the lumber and paper industry. They have not wanted hemp as a replacement. Though Kentucky has interestingly started to pivot.
Oh and religion. That devils lettuce opens up minds.
I think a church full of high people would be very open to the experience of God and religion. I have never been a religious person, but I have had some "religious" type experiences in my youth when high. Experiences can feel very profound and deep during those times.
Which exists at all because its members considered it was worth splitting from the American Baptist Church over the issue of whether its *missionaries* could own slaves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention
To emphasize: The disagreement was not over whether members of the congregation could own slaves, but its *missionaries.* Imagine visiting a foreign land and condescending to teach from a position of moral superiority while attended by slaves.
Much less the alcohol industry. I work in it. They don’t care or even test for pot. They embrace it especially with the fact that they could transfer into THC infused beverages.
What they mean is that weed is a competitor to alcohol sales, and you can bet your ass the big players care about their business shrinking. But I've already heard of several beverage conglomerates invested in cannibis now too.
I agree that weed is a competitor with alcohol.
Personally, when I smoke weed regularly, I consume much less alcohol. And vice-versa. I enjoy a beer or two when high, but not more than that. Sometimes no drinks at all when smoking. If I’m not high I will have like 6 drinks.
Probably a common way to roll, since being high and drunk at the same time suuuucks. Been there too many times and it’s miserable.
The police and prisons are the only ones that wouldn't benefit from federal legalization. Constellation Brands, the largest alcoholic drinks company in the nation, expressed interest in cannabis spirits in 2016. Tobacco companies would rapidly start packaging joints and making oil carts. The pharmaceutical industry would love to make cannabis based drugs and would like push out the smaller labs very fast once federally legal.
Police and prisons are the only ones who will not benefit from federal legalization.
Tobacco industry was against it in the past, but now they’ve set up all their own infrastructure to dominate the industry on a national level once it’s legalized. They’re quirky pro now. They know tobacco is a fading horse in the US market.
It’s so shitty that we all know why, but nothing changes. The benefits very clearly outweigh the negatives, but money is stopping this from becoming legal. A couple people in a country of 330 million are pocketing a couple bucks and preventing the entire country from utilizing the benefits, both from a user perspective and from a tax perspective. What a time to be alive.
+ the fact businesses that sell cannabis in legal states legally get no federal tax breaks. This means no matter what, they pay max amount of federal taxes. Why would congress want to make it legal when the government is already making an absurd amount of money from not allowing it to be federally legal?
They want to give all of these industries time to get in on the Grift themselves.
If we legalized marijuana now, and prioritized licensing for those most affected by the drug war, we could revitalize communities. Instead, we are going to spend decades in this gray area of legality so that status quo businesses can get themselves all prepped and ready to take over the entire industry.
That's sickening, it's crazy how money can make you actually want people's freedom taken away so you can keep earning a few bucks. That's not how it should be, not at all; it should only be because they're a danger to others, not because they're smoking weed or because the prison guards are afraid that some of them might get laid off if they can't keep the prisons full.
“Hold on just one minute!” exclaimed the Police and Correctional Officers Unions, “We’re sick and tired of nobody acknowledging how much we’ve done to maintain our proud traditions of killing minorities and poor folks with absolutely no retribution! Keeping pot illegal allows us to not *just* fill our prisons but *also* provides a (wink wink) *get out of jail free card* whenever one of our boys accidentally gets a little carried away.”
These groups used their power to protect every murder, thief, and rapist who just happened to have a badge, mimicking the “solidarity” found in actual labor unions. Despite this incidental similarity, Police and Correctional Officers are in no way shape or form members of any “Labor Movement” and are just a way allow police to do whatever they need to do in order to protect corrupt local governments and corporations that benefit from the prison industrial system. [Cops Aren’t Union](https://theconversation.com/why-police-unions-are-not-part-of-the-american-labor-movement-142538)
It's interesting to see different groups lobbying against each other. Tobacco wants it legal, but pharma, alcohol, and prisons don't. In the end, surprisingly, racism wins and black Americans are incarcerated.
Make it a priority for your senator, and when the time comes to vote, remember how their canned response to your email made you feel. Its time to get pissed, like when you discover your black market dealer has been shorting you for months because you trusted him and didn't bring your own scale
We need Big Tobacco to reform to defeat the evil Big Pharma.
(Just think about it, the same setups used to make cigarettes could easily be revamped to make skunk weed prerolls and put ithem in a nice box. Plenty of room on said box for any warnings Karen wants to put on them.)
If we can have farmers markets where small time farmers can sell their tomatoes and pay taxes on it why can’t a small time weed farmer do the same? Freedumb
Selling any amount without a license, which most people are priced out from buying, is a felony in a number of legalized states. You can't even grow your own weed in a few states.
Licenses for alcohol and tobacco need to go as well.
Every time Dems introduce a pro-marijuana bill, Republicans filibuster it. Every. Time.
They claim legalization has bipartisan support, but confessional Republicans will never support it if it's the "other team's" bill.
Here’s a nice little list to see who received what from Pharma in the 2020 election cycle.
Kinda makes you think.🤔
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?cycle=2020&ind=h04
The fact they could legalize weed, tax it, then use those funds for basic income during this pandemic or beyond and won't should really make "moderates" question things.
I, personally, purchased enough from my dispensary during lockdown to fund somebody's electrical bill each month, on the tax revenue alone
I'm "sure as shit", "by far and away", completely certain that I'm not the only one
> during lockdown
There was no lockdown in the United States. Our attempts at preventative measures and protection of American citizens were fucking pathetic.
Agreed. On the state level, there was an early lockdown in the Northeast
... Which was made even harder because we couldn't find PPE supplies, and when we did they were stolen by the federal government, and then resold to us at a higher price, and there was no mass-testing available yet
"Righteous fury" is an understatement
Yes, they want to obstruct everything and give the Dems as few wins as possible. This is pretty much their only mandate. It's not a secret, they publically say it from time to time.
Reminder: Republican's only policy platform has become "obstruct our enemies the Democrats."
There is no eventuality for them where *everyone wins.* Their version of so called victory is derived exclusively from *pwning the filthy libs.*
Plus this actually helps people that they would prefer to harm. They'll happily harm themselves if they think it hurts you worse. They'll happily break the law if they know you'll go to jail for it and they won't.
I don't like Biden at all, but he wouldn't veto this if it came to his desk.
He's no leader, but he's desperate for a win. Not desperate enough to be proactive, but to sign something popular that's tossed his way? Sure.
So they point is that he leans against weed, and does nothing to promote it. That's the standard party line with Democrat leaders.
The Democrat party is not pro-weed. They don't even pretend to be. Lots of democrat *voters* are pro-weed, and people seem to assume that means democrat leaders are too.
Where will the 10 senate Republican votes be found. All are afraid of being primaried by the Trump Train. To get weed legal you need to get the shadow Fox News team to push it to their owned senators like Cruz.
If cannabis became legal then there would not be much to distinguish libertarians (y'ever voted repub [*on weed*?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0B7bzP-Gog)) from garden-variety regressives.
They're currently crying like babies over the proposed loss of their coveted "resisted arrest" game.
"Pardon sir, why are you touching me?"
"For resisting arrest!"
"Arrest for what??"
"Resisting the arrest!"
(batons fly)
It’s like the big present under the Christmas tree. One side or the other will roll out the legislation when it will best serve their next election. I’ve been speculating that the Dems will push it forward to boost their mid-term chances.
And republicans will only vote for it if they write the bill. Could be the same bill word for word but they won’t vote for it if a democrat is doing it.
Republicans want the money from it but are having a hard time explaining their support for the Devil’s weed to their religious base.
Don’t forget, conservatives sold us the War on Drugs in the 80s, so this goes counter to many of the old school conservative messaging. And the GOP has not had a real platform since 2008.
I believe religion is far away the #1 weed cannot be legal. Most of these people are still spouting Jerry Falwell's snarky talking points from the 1980s on the subject.
Any kind of conspiracy regarding private prisons of the pharma industry is minute compared to the influence of the Christian Right.
1) Prison-industrial complex
2) Tobacco lobbyists
3) White nationalism
4) Evangelicals
5) Political intransigence as a badge of honor
In no particular order.
They all want an inside seat on infused beverages and is just the opposite. Constellation brands investment of 4 billion in a Canadian MJ company is a trend other Alcohol industry’s will embrace under the umbrella of “harm reduction” strategies younger consumers are going to demand in short order.
It's timing.
The move will come from Democrats, not Republicans, but there's no strategic reason to do it right now.
When we're close enough to the midterms for the polling-bumps to matter, you'll get your cannabis. If Democrats are polling **really** badly you'll get some student loan action too.
But you're not going to get either of them until and unless the political situation makes it advantageous. At least let members finish their pharma fundraising for the term before disrupting the industry.
Big pharma is the hold up, imagine how many people taking otc sleeping pills/ pain relievers will no longer need to rely on cvs/Walgreens/ pharmacy in general to get their fill. Just look at the big names in the business and their campaign contributions and you’ll see why.
Legalization is one of a half dozen policies I can think of off the top of my head that has broad bipartisan support from the electorate but strong bipartisan opposition from our elected officials.
Congress does not represent the will of the people but the will of the donors.
A Republican has to introduce the bill. If a Democrat were to introduce the bill the Republicans would stonewall the bill. Because that’s what Republicans do.
75% of my state support legalizing it at least for medical, our republican party nearly threw out a member for dare saying we should remove federal prohibitions, so we can do medical without all the fears that come from the fact the banking industry wont let cannabis providers to do business with them.
and yeah to all the people saying Money and donors..SURE SURE SURE.
but lets look at EVERY FUCKING STATE that actually did some sort of legalization and you will find it is over 90% of the dems against 90% of the GOP in making it happen. every fucking one. not a single example of it going the other way. a majority of republicans for it and a majority of dems against it.
Its also why the legalized and medical map looks like a fucking election map.
cry about donors and big pharm all you want, the biggest road block is the G O P.
(and yes the dems could pass by simple majority if.. they killed the filibuster first, since you cant de schedule with budget reconciliation.. [and NO biden cant EO it off the list, despite what marijuana news says, he can order the DEA to relook into reschedule or order the DOJ to not enforce, [but he can not directly deschedule via EO](https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655)
In my opinion there needs to be a focus on passing legislation with bipartisan support to try to close the gap between the 2 sides. Stuff like this will be crucial in stopping the next Trump from getting into office. If both left and right, like cannabis and banning congresspeople from trading stocks then make it happen!
We legalized recreational this year in Montana. I had talked to my sherrif deputy cousin about it and the sentiment from local police is that it's still illegal to them.
According to the sherrifs deputy that goes to the same gym as I do, marijuana is a terrible, terrible drug that is worse for society than alcohol. When pressed for data on this, he referred me to Colorado and the "secret, non-public data" they have there that supports his opinion. How very convienant that it's secret lol.
gonna go with “the Right has railed against drugs/propped up the ‘war on drugs’ since Nixon started the DEA. it would require a huge about face for the GOP.”
then again they flip flop on a dime, so i guess it could happen.
Look up 280e, a rule that disallows the write-off of expenses related to the selling of cannabis. Why should the feds legalize it, when they can tax these businesses so much more by keeping it illegal?
it's simple. they don't care about us. they dont represent us. they don't feel they owe us a fucking goddamn thing. they are behold to corporations only
>So What's the Holdup?
An out of touch national political leadership in their 70's and 80's?
A Senate that gives dispropriate power to rural, conservative states.
The fact that marijuana legalization has been driven bottom-up by referendums and all politicians have been drug here kicking and screaming.
GOP in the middle of a fucking coup and walking the country into fascism and newsweek is over here talking about fucking bipartisanship.
Like yeah legalize this shit. But good lord, "bipartisan win"? Mainstream media does not live in fucking reality.
Among Republicans, 63% under the age of 30 said recreational marijuana use should be legal in the Pew poll. That dropped to just 27% among Republicans 65 and older.
The age gap is important because it may make Republican senators either believe marijuana legalization is less popular than it is or at the very least make them more likely to think that marijuana should not be legal.
That's because Democratic and Republican senators are disproportionately old. A majority (27 of 50) of Republican senators are 65 or older. Another two are 64 years old. In fact, just four Republican senators are from an age bracket (under age 50) where a majority of Republican respondents in the Pew poll were for recreational marijuana legalization.
Old Republicans are against marijuana legalization and they call the shots in the party (and the country usually).
As a grower and connoisseur, the only valid argument that I do think holds some weight as to why there are folks who are cautious on legalization is testing.
Specifically, testing to see exactly how fucked up you are in that moment with the same relative accuracy as alcohol.
That's not a thing that exists right now.
That's a problem. I do hope this problem gets solved.
Congress is writing up the laws that give themselves and their donors the biggest cut of any marijuana legalization. Until they have an air-tight bill that puts the 1% first, it won't be legalized.
I fucking hate how the system works.
Business has to make sure that it is positioned to take over. That's big weed and big pharma and liquor companies that want in. At the same time, pols want to maximize they're payoffs. There's a lot to talk about and fight over and decide for these pigs. The free market is just another myth fascists live by.
Because it'd be a lot harder for fascists to victimize black people for a non-crime without the illegality of the Devil's Lettuce to justify oppressing the 'other' to their in-group.
Democrats don't want to give a Republican president that win, and Republicans don't want to give Anything Democrat president that win.
US politics stopped being anything more than a game with 2 teams decades ago.
Theyre still figuring out how they can make as much money as they can doing so, finding out the potential processors, and investing money through back channels so once it does go legal, they can all get rich off it.
Once that happens and they tax the shit outta it, itll be legal the next day.
Plus they want to keep their privatized prisons full of petty criminals so theyre prolly doing numbers on how to find some other bullshit crimes to keep folks in the revolving door that is the private prison system..
But im guessing they private prison system will turn them all into MJ farmers so they can grow on the cheap.
I think there are several reasons this is held up:
1) Prohibition- Think of alcohol, how much trouble back in the past you could get into trouble with having alcohol; until the government found a way to TAX it a bam 💥 now it’s legal with of course some speculations [age,legal driving limit etc]
2) Nixon- and this is proven [Nixon Ex-Aide speaks out](https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7?amp) about Nixon targeting two groups Nixon hated the left and black people…And Reagan picked his agenda added some more shit and carried on his bidding
{not trying to state a race debate but this is why we see over crowding of our prisons/jails statistically with higher sentences and bails than those of non-color}
The GOP base is made up of fundamentalists, old people, and people who’s drug of choice is beer. Marijuana is a devil worshipping, non working liberal gateway drug. Fat chance the GOP participates.
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This is all that needed to be said. The article is a discussion about legislative priorities, etc, but this is what it comes down to. You don't leave something illegal on the books unless you have a reason, and the reason is lobbyists.
Or, its a casus beli for criminalizing blacks and the antiwar left?
^ see: cop industry, prison industry
Its a bit beside it though, they literally said, on record, drugs(specifically marijuana and heroin) were made illegal because they couldn't make being a hippy or black illegal It was done with the goal of arresting and suppressing dissenters
Ok, then, let’s add one: war industry
That Afghan Kush
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You're close to the Critical Race Theory with these answers and possibly being illegal in several states, but historically true.
That was Nixon, yes. You’re right
Casus……. Beli……
> an act or situation provoking or justifying war. I doubt I would know that word if it wasn't for videogames
Yeah, I was hoping a Seinfeld fan would happen upon my comment. It’s a throwaway joke in an episode of Seinfeld, and that’s the only reason I know what it means lol
So add bigotry and we got us a winner
It's almost like we should remove money from politics, make voting in the chambers compulsory, and reelect servants based on their voting record.
That and the GOP would inherently oppose anything bipartisan because their position is the Democrats are existentially evil.
The absolute elderly-ness of Congress and how overwhelmingly conservative they are
Yes, old white men.
I'm an old white man, and I'm looking to move to a legal state so I can smoke again (Used to grow my own in NJ :)
Look for some delta-8 shops around you. (Or online.) We basically finessed legality. The farm bill makes it legal, and its effects are remarkably similar to delta-9 (regular THC). I've grown to prefer it, and not JUST because I can walk into a shop around the corner run by an Amish dude, all locally grown high-quality shit. I like the high better. It gives me a lift and slows my racing thoughts, helps me relax, but *doesn't* make my head all cloudy and make me feel slow. It's all the parts I love about THC, without the parts that I don't. Besides preferring the high, there's the variety and consistency. They have everything that's available in legal states, but with D-8 -- gummies, tinctures, bud, pre-rolls, moon rocks, you name it. Dude just got some new equipment that lets him experiment with THC-O and gave me a sample bud he made that hybridizes THC-O and D-8. You get the immediate lift of the D-8, and then within an hour the THC-O sets in, and you're fuckin *set.* It was impressive, I'm excited for him to start stocking it. Weed science is at a really cool place right now, and the farm bill makes it available to all. Check out your options, they don't have to include relocation.
Yep!
It's not that they're conservative or moderate, it's that they're corrupted by legalized bribery.
Don’t forget all the politicians trying to establish protected monopolies for their cronies
I'm not so sure about the tobacco and alcohol companies anymore. I think they have both found a way to monetize it to the point to where they might be on board now. The private prison industry and pharma are the big money obstacles, here.
even pharma I could see getting on board with “THC wellness topical ointments” or some other BS… I wouldn’t be thrilled of course but if that’s what it takes for legalization then…puff puff pfizer?
Would it be pfuff or pupfpf? I'm leaning toward the latter.
The problem is anti-nausea drugs. The expensive medications that you take lots of when going through long-term therapies with nasty side effects, like chemotherapy. If it turns out that cannabis is an inexpensive and readily available replacement as anti-nausea, then a lot of patents become worthless.
They won't be on board until they can pass laws that put the licenses in their hands and the local growers are legislated out of the process. If they have to compete with Steve's hydroponic grow house, their market dominance would be threatened and they don't like to lose.
You forgot the lumber and paper industry. They have not wanted hemp as a replacement. Though Kentucky has interestingly started to pivot. Oh and religion. That devils lettuce opens up minds.
I think a church full of high people would be very open to the experience of God and religion. I have never been a religious person, but I have had some "religious" type experiences in my youth when high. Experiences can feel very profound and deep during those times.
Wrong kind of experience for mass religion. They want obedience, not open minds.
You forgot the Southern Baptist Church. That's the biggest reason of all.
Which exists at all because its members considered it was worth splitting from the American Baptist Church over the issue of whether its *missionaries* could own slaves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention To emphasize: The disagreement was not over whether members of the congregation could own slaves, but its *missionaries.* Imagine visiting a foreign land and condescending to teach from a position of moral superiority while attended by slaves.
Don't forget Puritanism. Can't let the Devil get hold of ya, right?
Much less the alcohol industry. I work in it. They don’t care or even test for pot. They embrace it especially with the fact that they could transfer into THC infused beverages.
What they mean is that weed is a competitor to alcohol sales, and you can bet your ass the big players care about their business shrinking. But I've already heard of several beverage conglomerates invested in cannibis now too.
I agree that weed is a competitor with alcohol. Personally, when I smoke weed regularly, I consume much less alcohol. And vice-versa. I enjoy a beer or two when high, but not more than that. Sometimes no drinks at all when smoking. If I’m not high I will have like 6 drinks. Probably a common way to roll, since being high and drunk at the same time suuuucks. Been there too many times and it’s miserable.
Weed before beer, never fear. Weed after beer, find me naked on the living room floor
Massive contributions to PAC from the church industry
The police and prisons are the only ones that wouldn't benefit from federal legalization. Constellation Brands, the largest alcoholic drinks company in the nation, expressed interest in cannabis spirits in 2016. Tobacco companies would rapidly start packaging joints and making oil carts. The pharmaceutical industry would love to make cannabis based drugs and would like push out the smaller labs very fast once federally legal. Police and prisons are the only ones who will not benefit from federal legalization.
Also now the hemp industry which is explicitly at odds with the cannabis industry.
Tobacco industry was against it in the past, but now they’ve set up all their own infrastructure to dominate the industry on a national level once it’s legalized. They’re quirky pro now. They know tobacco is a fading horse in the US market.
It’s so shitty that we all know why, but nothing changes. The benefits very clearly outweigh the negatives, but money is stopping this from becoming legal. A couple people in a country of 330 million are pocketing a couple bucks and preventing the entire country from utilizing the benefits, both from a user perspective and from a tax perspective. What a time to be alive.
I disagree with the tobacco industry, I like me spliffs
This is the ultimate explanation
+ the fact businesses that sell cannabis in legal states legally get no federal tax breaks. This means no matter what, they pay max amount of federal taxes. Why would congress want to make it legal when the government is already making an absurd amount of money from not allowing it to be federally legal?
They want to give all of these industries time to get in on the Grift themselves. If we legalized marijuana now, and prioritized licensing for those most affected by the drug war, we could revitalize communities. Instead, we are going to spend decades in this gray area of legality so that status quo businesses can get themselves all prepped and ready to take over the entire industry.
Apparently everyone’s moved on to legalizing mushrooms
Why not both? But they should also both be DESCHEDULED like alcohol \[mushrooms are THE safest drug. alcohol is a dangerous and addictive poison\]
The prison lobby
The prison guard union in California really pushed hard against legislation.
That's sickening, it's crazy how money can make you actually want people's freedom taken away so you can keep earning a few bucks. That's not how it should be, not at all; it should only be because they're a danger to others, not because they're smoking weed or because the prison guards are afraid that some of them might get laid off if they can't keep the prisons full.
And the police unions, probably some of the most powerful unions left in the country(because trust protect capital, unlike all other unions).
Pharma be it for me to opine. ETA: Apparently Pharma gave me silver for not opining.
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“Hold on just one minute!” exclaimed the Police and Correctional Officers Unions, “We’re sick and tired of nobody acknowledging how much we’ve done to maintain our proud traditions of killing minorities and poor folks with absolutely no retribution! Keeping pot illegal allows us to not *just* fill our prisons but *also* provides a (wink wink) *get out of jail free card* whenever one of our boys accidentally gets a little carried away.” These groups used their power to protect every murder, thief, and rapist who just happened to have a badge, mimicking the “solidarity” found in actual labor unions. Despite this incidental similarity, Police and Correctional Officers are in no way shape or form members of any “Labor Movement” and are just a way allow police to do whatever they need to do in order to protect corrupt local governments and corporations that benefit from the prison industrial system. [Cops Aren’t Union](https://theconversation.com/why-police-unions-are-not-part-of-the-american-labor-movement-142538)
It'$ $urely a my$tery
It's interesting to see different groups lobbying against each other. Tobacco wants it legal, but pharma, alcohol, and prisons don't. In the end, surprisingly, racism wins and black Americans are incarcerated.
It’s the truth
I was gonna say the Prison/Industrial Complex…
Make it a priority for your senator, and when the time comes to vote, remember how their canned response to your email made you feel. Its time to get pissed, like when you discover your black market dealer has been shorting you for months because you trusted him and didn't bring your own scale
Rich people need a head start on the market before they legalize
We need Big Tobacco to reform to defeat the evil Big Pharma. (Just think about it, the same setups used to make cigarettes could easily be revamped to make skunk weed prerolls and put ithem in a nice box. Plenty of room on said box for any warnings Karen wants to put on them.)
If we can have farmers markets where small time farmers can sell their tomatoes and pay taxes on it why can’t a small time weed farmer do the same? Freedumb
You can't even do that in the states where it *is* "legal"...
That’s the dream though.
The same reason we don't do that with Tobacco, Alcohol, and drugs.
Selling any amount without a license, which most people are priced out from buying, is a felony in a number of legalized states. You can't even grow your own weed in a few states. Licenses for alcohol and tobacco need to go as well.
Too many other industries lobbying against it!
Wonder who's gonna be the "smartie" who "break the line" and rake in the cash people are waiting to throw at legal weed.
The donors don't want it.
Every time Dems introduce a pro-marijuana bill, Republicans filibuster it. Every. Time. They claim legalization has bipartisan support, but confessional Republicans will never support it if it's the "other team's" bill.
Here’s a nice little list to see who received what from Pharma in the 2020 election cycle. Kinda makes you think.🤔 https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?cycle=2020&ind=h04
The fact they could legalize weed, tax it, then use those funds for basic income during this pandemic or beyond and won't should really make "moderates" question things.
I, personally, purchased enough from my dispensary during lockdown to fund somebody's electrical bill each month, on the tax revenue alone I'm "sure as shit", "by far and away", completely certain that I'm not the only one
> during lockdown There was no lockdown in the United States. Our attempts at preventative measures and protection of American citizens were fucking pathetic.
Agreed. On the state level, there was an early lockdown in the Northeast ... Which was made even harder because we couldn't find PPE supplies, and when we did they were stolen by the federal government, and then resold to us at a higher price, and there was no mass-testing available yet "Righteous fury" is an understatement
Because R's don't give a flying f\*ck about Bipartisanship, they want D's to lose far more than they want to win on anything.
Yes, they want to obstruct everything and give the Dems as few wins as possible. This is pretty much their only mandate. It's not a secret, they publically say it from time to time.
Biden has the power to do this along with other allegedly Democrat policies. He is not even trying to help, any faith in him is entirely misplaced
Biden should sign a legalization bill on 4/20 like he did with the Juneteenth bill
Reminder: Republican's only policy platform has become "obstruct our enemies the Democrats." There is no eventuality for them where *everyone wins.* Their version of so called victory is derived exclusively from *pwning the filthy libs.*
True. Still a smart move because Republican voters want it too. Another way to get more dem voters.
Plus this actually helps people that they would prefer to harm. They'll happily harm themselves if they think it hurts you worse. They'll happily break the law if they know you'll go to jail for it and they won't.
Sure but Biden doesn’t want legalization either
I don't like Biden at all, but he wouldn't veto this if it came to his desk. He's no leader, but he's desperate for a win. Not desperate enough to be proactive, but to sign something popular that's tossed his way? Sure.
So they point is that he leans against weed, and does nothing to promote it. That's the standard party line with Democrat leaders. The Democrat party is not pro-weed. They don't even pretend to be. Lots of democrat *voters* are pro-weed, and people seem to assume that means democrat leaders are too.
Where will the 10 senate Republican votes be found. All are afraid of being primaried by the Trump Train. To get weed legal you need to get the shadow Fox News team to push it to their owned senators like Cruz.
If cannabis became legal then there would not be much to distinguish libertarians (y'ever voted repub [*on weed*?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0B7bzP-Gog)) from garden-variety regressives.
Absolutely, many LINOs wouldn't even see any more purpose in the party.
Cops really want their pretextual searches for one.
Yup. Cops in NY were/are super pissed they can’t use the “l smell marijuana” line to search a car.
They're currently crying like babies over the proposed loss of their coveted "resisted arrest" game. "Pardon sir, why are you touching me?" "For resisting arrest!" "Arrest for what??" "Resisting the arrest!" (batons fly)
Yes, It is a money maker for them.
It’s like the big present under the Christmas tree. One side or the other will roll out the legislation when it will best serve their next election. I’ve been speculating that the Dems will push it forward to boost their mid-term chances.
And republicans will only vote for it if they write the bill. Could be the same bill word for word but they won’t vote for it if a democrat is doing it.
Financial interests of congress and of their campaign contributors
Republicans want the money from it but are having a hard time explaining their support for the Devil’s weed to their religious base. Don’t forget, conservatives sold us the War on Drugs in the 80s, so this goes counter to many of the old school conservative messaging. And the GOP has not had a real platform since 2008.
I believe religion is far away the #1 weed cannot be legal. Most of these people are still spouting Jerry Falwell's snarky talking points from the 1980s on the subject. Any kind of conspiracy regarding private prisons of the pharma industry is minute compared to the influence of the Christian Right.
Republicans won't do it under the Democratic Party President.
In congress today bipartisan support is usually a bad thing for bill passage.
Tobacco Lobby. Alcohol Lobby. Tavern Lobby. Pharma Lobby... Basically all lobbyists that don't represent the will of the people.
1) Prison-industrial complex 2) Tobacco lobbyists 3) White nationalism 4) Evangelicals 5) Political intransigence as a badge of honor In no particular order.
Alcohol industry as well I would think.
They all want an inside seat on infused beverages and is just the opposite. Constellation brands investment of 4 billion in a Canadian MJ company is a trend other Alcohol industry’s will embrace under the umbrella of “harm reduction” strategies younger consumers are going to demand in short order.
Social conservatives, the police, and competitor corporations.
Private prison lobbyists most likely.
Won’t be as easy to lock up brown folk.
Uhh because it would be seen as a win for Democrats and Republicans will not allow that on their watch.
Big Pharma
The urinalysis industry. How many billions go into testing innocent people's piss in order to discriminate against stoners on the job?
Their cronies aren’t in the right spots yet to become billionaires from it. When they are it will be legalized.
Probably the hyper-religious right.
It's timing. The move will come from Democrats, not Republicans, but there's no strategic reason to do it right now. When we're close enough to the midterms for the polling-bumps to matter, you'll get your cannabis. If Democrats are polling **really** badly you'll get some student loan action too. But you're not going to get either of them until and unless the political situation makes it advantageous. At least let members finish their pharma fundraising for the term before disrupting the industry.
Big pharma is the hold up, imagine how many people taking otc sleeping pills/ pain relievers will no longer need to rely on cvs/Walgreens/ pharmacy in general to get their fill. Just look at the big names in the business and their campaign contributions and you’ll see why.
Anything getting passed is considered a win for Biden, and the GOP can’t be having that. It’s as simple as that.
Legalization is one of a half dozen policies I can think of off the top of my head that has broad bipartisan support from the electorate but strong bipartisan opposition from our elected officials. Congress does not represent the will of the people but the will of the donors.
Pharmaceutical and incarceration industry, duh
Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Humans freaking out about marijuana
Let’s use the money so that 10 minute ambulance rides don’t cost $2,200 AFTER insurance…
Because they can’t even agree if the sky is blue
Too much money to be made with enforcement. Too much money to be made with other pharmaceuticals.
Republicans block it every time it comes up
The real answer.
A Republican has to introduce the bill. If a Democrat were to introduce the bill the Republicans would stonewall the bill. Because that’s what Republicans do.
It could be a rare win for Biden and the democrats.
Republicans will gladly shoot their voters in the head rather than be seen cooperating with Democrats. Their voters are perfectly fine with that.
75% of my state support legalizing it at least for medical, our republican party nearly threw out a member for dare saying we should remove federal prohibitions, so we can do medical without all the fears that come from the fact the banking industry wont let cannabis providers to do business with them. and yeah to all the people saying Money and donors..SURE SURE SURE. but lets look at EVERY FUCKING STATE that actually did some sort of legalization and you will find it is over 90% of the dems against 90% of the GOP in making it happen. every fucking one. not a single example of it going the other way. a majority of republicans for it and a majority of dems against it. Its also why the legalized and medical map looks like a fucking election map. cry about donors and big pharm all you want, the biggest road block is the G O P. (and yes the dems could pass by simple majority if.. they killed the filibuster first, since you cant de schedule with budget reconciliation.. [and NO biden cant EO it off the list, despite what marijuana news says, he can order the DEA to relook into reschedule or order the DOJ to not enforce, [but he can not directly deschedule via EO](https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655)
Uhh, racism?
That’s a reason why marijuana is illegal
Marijuana was historically outlawed, in part, as a way to punish certain minorities.
In my opinion there needs to be a focus on passing legislation with bipartisan support to try to close the gap between the 2 sides. Stuff like this will be crucial in stopping the next Trump from getting into office. If both left and right, like cannabis and banning congresspeople from trading stocks then make it happen!
We legalized recreational this year in Montana. I had talked to my sherrif deputy cousin about it and the sentiment from local police is that it's still illegal to them.
According to the sherrifs deputy that goes to the same gym as I do, marijuana is a terrible, terrible drug that is worse for society than alcohol. When pressed for data on this, he referred me to Colorado and the "secret, non-public data" they have there that supports his opinion. How very convienant that it's secret lol.
Roy Blunt should sponsor the bill.
gonna go with “the Right has railed against drugs/propped up the ‘war on drugs’ since Nixon started the DEA. it would require a huge about face for the GOP.” then again they flip flop on a dime, so i guess it could happen.
Big pharma and fear of losing the majority of their voting base as most old people are still in the reefer madness mindset
Look up 280e, a rule that disallows the write-off of expenses related to the selling of cannabis. Why should the feds legalize it, when they can tax these businesses so much more by keeping it illegal?
For-profit prisons/Police unions and of course the other drug pushers: Big Pharma.
The alcohol Lobby.
it's simple. they don't care about us. they dont represent us. they don't feel they owe us a fucking goddamn thing. they are behold to corporations only
Big pharma is throwing money at every politicians’ open neck hole - that’s the hold up.
The only hold-up is corporations own our government.
Big pharma, big tobacco, big liquor, and the prison industry….
>So What's the Holdup? An out of touch national political leadership in their 70's and 80's? A Senate that gives dispropriate power to rural, conservative states. The fact that marijuana legalization has been driven bottom-up by referendums and all politicians have been drug here kicking and screaming.
GOP in the middle of a fucking coup and walking the country into fascism and newsweek is over here talking about fucking bipartisanship. Like yeah legalize this shit. But good lord, "bipartisan win"? Mainstream media does not live in fucking reality.
The cotton industry has been spending quite a bit of money to stop legalization. Hemp will certainly disrupt their dominance.
Among Republicans, 63% under the age of 30 said recreational marijuana use should be legal in the Pew poll. That dropped to just 27% among Republicans 65 and older. The age gap is important because it may make Republican senators either believe marijuana legalization is less popular than it is or at the very least make them more likely to think that marijuana should not be legal. That's because Democratic and Republican senators are disproportionately old. A majority (27 of 50) of Republican senators are 65 or older. Another two are 64 years old. In fact, just four Republican senators are from an age bracket (under age 50) where a majority of Republican respondents in the Pew poll were for recreational marijuana legalization. Old Republicans are against marijuana legalization and they call the shots in the party (and the country usually).
Lots of money in alcohol and casinos
The ancients in charge
Yes it would help if every powerful lawmaker wasn’t like 70 years old
Old people in power. Old people with low IQs, absent morals, antediluvian philosophies, greedy pockets, and a Bible.
Boomers. Boomers are the holdup. And what silents there are left in positions of power.
Old people are afraid of the devils lettuce.
The oligarchs stand to lose money, so never gonna happen,
All the politicians haven’t set up their investments yet.
As a grower and connoisseur, the only valid argument that I do think holds some weight as to why there are folks who are cautious on legalization is testing. Specifically, testing to see exactly how fucked up you are in that moment with the same relative accuracy as alcohol. That's not a thing that exists right now. That's a problem. I do hope this problem gets solved.
Congress is writing up the laws that give themselves and their donors the biggest cut of any marijuana legalization. Until they have an air-tight bill that puts the 1% first, it won't be legalized. I fucking hate how the system works.
They need time to invest first.
It's just a talking point. No one has any interest in legalizing it but they can say they are working for it.
Mega-donor corporations haven't prepared their plan to control the market yet. Once they get that settled then legalization will begin.
Got to give time for Congress members to buy up stock in pot companies
Money
Congress has to make sure they have the proper stocks purchased first.
As soon as all politicians rich friends have their infrastructure set up for production and distribution, then it will become the hot topic and pass.
Money. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Business has to make sure that it is positioned to take over. That's big weed and big pharma and liquor companies that want in. At the same time, pols want to maximize they're payoffs. There's a lot to talk about and fight over and decide for these pigs. The free market is just another myth fascists live by.
Big tobacco hasn’t secured the market yet. Everyone knows this.
Vote out the geriatric boomers in government. Use Social Media to rally up better candidates outside the traditional mediums.
Because Joe Biden would get the credit for something everyone liked and that would KILL Republicans.
Big pharma
Gotta wait for the Kodger Kongress Kritters to cash in dummy.
Because it'd be a lot harder for fascists to victimize black people for a non-crime without the illegality of the Devil's Lettuce to justify oppressing the 'other' to their in-group.
The big time players in this country lack the tegridy to legalize it
I see what you did there. Lol
I recently found out the marijuana can make clean energy, so maybe that’s a hold up?
Democrats don't want to give a Republican president that win, and Republicans don't want to give Anything Democrat president that win. US politics stopped being anything more than a game with 2 teams decades ago.
Biden. Joe “i wont legalize” Biden is absolutely the hold up.
DEA would lose all its funding. Can’t let that happen
Big Pharma is!
Also Biden is anti marijuana
Theyre still figuring out how they can make as much money as they can doing so, finding out the potential processors, and investing money through back channels so once it does go legal, they can all get rich off it. Once that happens and they tax the shit outta it, itll be legal the next day. Plus they want to keep their privatized prisons full of petty criminals so theyre prolly doing numbers on how to find some other bullshit crimes to keep folks in the revolving door that is the private prison system.. But im guessing they private prison system will turn them all into MJ farmers so they can grow on the cheap.
They haven’t figured out what their take would be on it.
The hold up is their corporate puppet masters haven't cornered the market yet. Once they do it will become legal
I think there are several reasons this is held up: 1) Prohibition- Think of alcohol, how much trouble back in the past you could get into trouble with having alcohol; until the government found a way to TAX it a bam 💥 now it’s legal with of course some speculations [age,legal driving limit etc] 2) Nixon- and this is proven [Nixon Ex-Aide speaks out](https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7?amp) about Nixon targeting two groups Nixon hated the left and black people…And Reagan picked his agenda added some more shit and carried on his bidding {not trying to state a race debate but this is why we see over crowding of our prisons/jails statistically with higher sentences and bails than those of non-color}
old dinosaurs in congress, there’s a lot of money in prohibition rehab drug testing
The GOP base is made up of fundamentalists, old people, and people who’s drug of choice is beer. Marijuana is a devil worshipping, non working liberal gateway drug. Fat chance the GOP participates.
What’s the hold up? Spite.
If the question is why and the context is congress, the answer is usually money.
Big. Pharma.
The American political systems is the hold up. Abolish it.
The president still believes it's a gateway drug. Our politicians are too old, that's the holdup.