4 ms·

Marijuana legalization is massively popular across the entire political spectrum. It's legal in several states producing no horrible headline disasters as far a

Marijuana legalization is massively popular across the entire political spectrum. It's legal in several states producing no horrible headline disasters as far as I'm aware. So why hasn't it been legalized federally? Seems like a slam dunk for any party. I'm old enough to remember all the rumors about how Trump would try to legalize it via executive order right before the election and at other times in his presidency (I have no idea whether that is actually possible/legal)

LiquidSky 5y ago
Not having numbers handy, I suspect the problem is that while polls do show widespread support generally, that doesn't hold true across demographics and districts. For example, older voters tend to vote Republican, and I can imagine that marijuana legalization isn't as popular among that group. If you were a Republican counting on support from that demographic, it would make sense to oppose it. Or maybe in your particular district it isn't a popular position, at least not popular enough to stick your neck out for it, especially when your opponents will likely hit you with a "soft on crime"/"moral corruption" attack if you try.
- madcows 5y ago
  So many conservatives smoke pot now, especially here in Florida. Weed used to be a "friendly" signal, but not anymore. For example, my pothead sister is a HUGE Karen. Ie can't where a mask because "breathing issues", but that doesn't stop her from smoking joints! Her BF sells weed illegally. And she manages to complain about pride month. I'm 30, and she's almost ten years younger. Point is, sadly, weed smoking doesn't mean liberal.
- devilbunny 5y ago
  I wouldn't be so terribly sure. <em>Mississippi</em> voters approved medical marijuana last year by a fairly strong majority https://ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_Ballot_Measure_1,_Initiative_65_and_Alternative_65A,_Medical_Marijuana_Amendment_(2020) https://ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_Ballot_Measure_1,_Initia.... The vote was complicated by competing "initiatives", one of which was written by the legislature, and by a legal challenge to the rules surrounding initiatives in the state that ultimately led to the state Supreme Court striking it down, but 68.5% approved of at least one of the two competing proposals, and of them 73.7% voted for the one that was actually a popular initiative. It was popularly perceived that the "medical" requirement would not last for more than a few years before recreational was legalized. So while it might still be a deal-killer in, say, Utah, I don't think it holds nearly the sway it did even ten years ago. It got almost as many votes as the presidential race, and even if you assume that every Biden voter was pro-legalization, there are nearly 300k extra "yea" votes you have to account for. You only make that go away if you assume that every Biden voter was pro-legalization and voted for the citizen initiative, and that every Trump voter who voted to legalize voted for the (more restrictive) legislative proposal instead of just voting against it or choosing the citizen proposal.
milkytron 5y ago
> So why hasn't it been legalized federally? From my layman point of view, there is a lot involved with legalizing federally. Some of the obvious points that I can think of are: 1. Career politicians don't want to seem "soft on drugs or crime". This seems to be changing, but it's a slow roll. 2. Agency funding. The DEA gets a ton of money to enforce these federal laws. This has many layers to it and it seems much more complex than what I'm aware of, but I can imagine that all the people who currently get paid to enforce the ban on cannabis would be against this because there would likely be decreased funding to them (or at the very least, their roles would be changed). 3. Lobbying. Many people might want cannabis to be legal, but a lot of business do not because it could hurt their business. Big pharma has made a ton of money from prescription drugs that might possibly be replaced by a plant that people can grow on their own. These companies pay our representatives, and then representatives vote in their interests. One of the reasons cannabis was made illegal in the first place was because of a paper company that felt threatened by the use of industrial hemp. 4. In addition to the points related to money above (agency funding, lobbying), there are private prisons that make money from offenders of the current crimes in place. Police departments can get easy revenue from fines related to cannabis. Big pharma doesn't want legal alternatives to their drugs. Cartels also have an interest in keeping cannabis illegal. Alcohol companies may even be incentivized to keep it illegal so that alcohol remains the vice/drug of choice (this seems to be changing, major hard beverage companies have invested in cannabis companies). These are some of (not all) the main reasons for why I think it's taking much longer than we would like.
- pixiemaster 5y ago
  thanks for your explanations, which might make sense from my view. But: Racism. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-marijuana-illegal-in-the-us https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-marijuana-illegal-in...
  - milkytron 5y ago
    Oh yeah racism played a major role in making it illegal and enforcing it to begin with. And it certainly still plays a role.
paulmd 5y ago
republicans uniformly oppose it. in practice it's the issue on which their supposed libertarian ideology is the most transparently phony (if the deficit spending, anti-gay fervor, religious power grabs, opposition of voting rights, etc weren't clear enough anti-personal-freedom stances for you), they literally held complete and total political power in the US during the first couple years of Trump and didn't do shit, and they'll vote lockstep against it if democrats bring it up. and on the flip side some democrats aren't great about it either, but it's far from the lockstep opposition on the republican side. personally I think democrats are fairly likely to bring it up as an easy victory lap before the 2022 elections but it's highly likely that republicans will filibuster it anyway to prevent democrats from "getting an easy win" . and that's about the state of the things - republicans are just 100% against it and democrats are tepidly for it but don't really have the political control to break lockstep opposition, even if they were agreed within their own party. It's easier to work at a state level but obviously that leaves huge problems with federal enforcement and various legal logjams. it's largely a problem of republicans, if there were only a few republicans willing to cross the aisle it could probably pass, but it's more important that democrats be denied political "wins" than to do what's good for their voters, and what their voters overwhelmingly want. Like I said, probably look for it to be brought up sometime in 2022, unless democrats lose their senate majority in the meantime in which case probably 5-10 more years (republicans ain't gonna do it, just like they didn't under trump). would be the easiest possible "crossing the aisle" ever, if republicans were the least bit interested in good governance, but they're not.
- txsoftwaredev 5y ago
  Republicans do not uniformly oppose it. That is not true. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/2-republican-lawmakers-introduce-federal-cannabis-legalization-bill/ar-BB1gJxwG https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/2-republican-lawmake...

LiquidSky 5y ago

Not having numbers handy, I suspect the problem is that while polls do show widespread support generally, that doesn't hold true across demographics and districts. For example, older voters tend to vote Republican, and I can imagine that marijuana legalization isn't as popular among that group. If you were a Republican counting on support from that demographic, it would make sense to oppose it. Or maybe in your particular district it isn't a popular position, at least not popular enough to stick your neck out for it, especially when your opponents will likely hit you with a "soft on crime"/"moral corruption" attack if you try.

madcows 5y ago
So many conservatives smoke pot now, especially here in Florida. Weed used to be a "friendly" signal, but not anymore. For example, my pothead sister is a HUGE Karen. Ie can't where a mask because "breathing issues", but that doesn't stop her from smoking joints! Her BF sells weed illegally. And she manages to complain about pride month. I'm 30, and she's almost ten years younger. Point is, sadly, weed smoking doesn't mean liberal.
devilbunny 5y ago
I wouldn't be so terribly sure. <em>Mississippi</em> voters approved medical marijuana last year by a fairly strong majority https://ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_Ballot_Measure_1,_Initiative_65_and_Alternative_65A,_Medical_Marijuana_Amendment_(2020) https://ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_Ballot_Measure_1,_Initia.... The vote was complicated by competing "initiatives", one of which was written by the legislature, and by a legal challenge to the rules surrounding initiatives in the state that ultimately led to the state Supreme Court striking it down, but 68.5% approved of at least one of the two competing proposals, and of them 73.7% voted for the one that was actually a popular initiative. It was popularly perceived that the "medical" requirement would not last for more than a few years before recreational was legalized. So while it might still be a deal-killer in, say, Utah, I don't think it holds nearly the sway it did even ten years ago. It got almost as many votes as the presidential race, and even if you assume that every Biden voter was pro-legalization, there are nearly 300k extra "yea" votes you have to account for. You only make that go away if you assume that every Biden voter was pro-legalization and voted for the citizen initiative, and that every Trump voter who voted to legalize voted for the (more restrictive) legislative proposal instead of just voting against it or choosing the citizen proposal.

milkytron 5y ago

> So why hasn't it been legalized federally? From my layman point of view, there is a lot involved with legalizing federally. Some of the obvious points that I can think of are: 1. Career politicians don't want to seem "soft on drugs or crime". This seems to be changing, but it's a slow roll. 2. Agency funding. The DEA gets a ton of money to enforce these federal laws. This has many layers to it and it seems much more complex than what I'm aware of, but I can imagine that all the people who currently get paid to enforce the ban on cannabis would be against this because there would likely be decreased funding to them (or at the very least, their roles would be changed). 3. Lobbying. Many people might want cannabis to be legal, but a lot of business do not because it could hurt their business. Big pharma has made a ton of money from prescription drugs that might possibly be replaced by a plant that people can grow on their own. These companies pay our representatives, and then representatives vote in their interests. One of the reasons cannabis was made illegal in the first place was because of a paper company that felt threatened by the use of industrial hemp. 4. In addition to the points related to money above (agency funding, lobbying), there are private prisons that make money from offenders of the current crimes in place. Police departments can get easy revenue from fines related to cannabis. Big pharma doesn't want legal alternatives to their drugs. Cartels also have an interest in keeping cannabis illegal. Alcohol companies may even be incentivized to keep it illegal so that alcohol remains the vice/drug of choice (this seems to be changing, major hard beverage companies have invested in cannabis companies). These are some of (not all) the main reasons for why I think it's taking much longer than we would like.

pixiemaster 5y ago
thanks for your explanations, which might make sense from my view. But: Racism. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-marijuana-illegal-in-the-us https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-marijuana-illegal-in...
- milkytron 5y ago
  Oh yeah racism played a major role in making it illegal and enforcing it to begin with. And it certainly still plays a role.

paulmd 5y ago

republicans uniformly oppose it. in practice it's the issue on which their supposed libertarian ideology is the most transparently phony (if the deficit spending, anti-gay fervor, religious power grabs, opposition of voting rights, etc weren't clear enough anti-personal-freedom stances for you), they literally held complete and total political power in the US during the first couple years of Trump and didn't do shit, and they'll vote lockstep against it if democrats bring it up. and on the flip side some democrats aren't great about it either, but it's far from the lockstep opposition on the republican side. personally I think democrats are fairly likely to bring it up as an easy victory lap before the 2022 elections but it's highly likely that republicans will filibuster it anyway to prevent democrats from "getting an easy win" . and that's about the state of the things - republicans are just 100% against it and democrats are tepidly for it but don't really have the political control to break lockstep opposition, even if they were agreed within their own party. It's easier to work at a state level but obviously that leaves huge problems with federal enforcement and various legal logjams. it's largely a problem of republicans, if there were only a few republicans willing to cross the aisle it could probably pass, but it's more important that democrats be denied political "wins" than to do what's good for their voters, and what their voters overwhelmingly want. Like I said, probably look for it to be brought up sometime in 2022, unless democrats lose their senate majority in the meantime in which case probably 5-10 more years (republicans ain't gonna do it, just like they didn't under trump). would be the easiest possible "crossing the aisle" ever, if republicans were the least bit interested in good governance, but they're not.

txsoftwaredev 5y ago
Republicans do not uniformly oppose it. That is not true. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/2-republican-lawmakers-introduce-federal-cannabis-legalization-bill/ar-BB1gJxwG https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/2-republican-lawmake...