Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Ask advocates of marijuana legalization how their cause fared during the 2017 state legislative sessions, and they'll tell you that though the gains were incremental; they're hopeful several legislatures eventually will make possession and sale of the federally prohibited drug legal.
Ask the same of people who oppose legalization and they'll say it's been a banner year – they choked efforts to legalize recreational marijuana in many statehouses and stalled implementation of pot sales in at least one other.
Lawmakers in at least 23 states considered legislation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana this year, and 16 states weighed bills to establish medical marijuana programs.
But even as public support for marijuana continues to grow, few of those measures survived. That's in part because many lawmakers are concerned that the Trump administration may begin strict enforcement of federal drug laws, political analysts say. Many legislators are also beholden to conservative supporters and face little political pressure to sign off on marijuana legislation, the analysts say.
G. Terry Madonna, a public affairs professor who coordinates polling for Franklin and Marshall College, says legislatures are unlikely to take up legalization because most are controlled by Republicans who are less likely to support marijuana legalization and because supporters of legal marijuana don't care enough about legalization to pressure lawmakers into voting for it.
"The question I always ask is, 'Do [voters] care about it?'" he said. "What's the level of concern that they have? And right now, for the vast majority of Americans, it's not a cutting-edge issue."
Opposition from powerful law enforcement groups, including police and prosecutors, also keeps legislators from passing marijuana bills, said Mark Kleiman, a public policy professor at New York University.
"Nobody wants to see the uniforms [supporting] their opponent," he said.
This year lawmakers in Vermont got close to being the first to legalize recreational marijuana, only to see the legislation they passed get vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican. A compromise bill that would legalize possession of marijuana, but not establish a system for growing and selling it, is expected to pass early in the 2018 legislative session.
So far, voters in eight states have legalized recreational marijuana and regulate sales of the drug. West Virginia this year became the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana, and in New Hampshire, a new law decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.
Each year more bills to legalize recreational marijuana are being introduced in state legislatures. But most lawmakers are still unwilling pass them, leaving it up to voters to decide if the plant that opponents say is a gateway to hardcore drug use should be available for mass consumption and regulated similarly to alcohol.
"You don't get out of a hundred years of hysteria easily," said Jim Borghesani, communications director for a successful campaign last fall in Massachusetts to legalize recreational marijuana through a voter referendum. "A lot of public officials are just afraid of this issue, even though the public just keeps passing these ballots initiatives."
Voters in California, Maine and Nevada also moved to legalize the possession and sale of recreational marijuana last year, joining four other states that have acted through ballot measures.
But the referendums can be light on implementation details, and once they're passed, it's often up to legislators to pass laws that govern how and where marijuana can be sold.
For Massachusetts and Nevada, the processes for establishing a system to sell recreational marijuana couldn't look more different.
The ballot measures in both states proposed to start allowing marijuana sales in 2018. But almost immediately, Massachusetts lawmakers pushed back implementation by six months.
Nevada officials did the opposite, moving the first day of sales up to this July. Dispensaries sold so much pot in the first few days that they almost ran out.
Advocates have long watched Vermont, expecting it would become the first Legislature to legalize recreational marijuana. But while the Legislature signed off on the measure, the governor's veto put the state with at least 20 others that failed to pass recreational marijuana bills this year. Some, including New York and Illinois, will carry their bills over into 2018, while others such as Connecticut and Mississippi killed the bills before they received a vote from the full legislature.
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, considers these failures a big win for his coalition, which lobbies against legalization, but favors reducing punishments for low-level marijuana crimes.
He said voters sign off on marijuana ballot measures with little understanding of what the potential laws mean and how they will impact their communities. Once marijuana is legal, they realize they don't want it in their neighborhoods, he said.
"Even people that might be OK generally with marijuana, they don't want the smell increasing as we're seeing in cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston," Sabet said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Pot legalization faces rocky road | Nation And World | Denton Record-Chronicle
Author: Sarah Breitenbach
Contact: Denton News, Sports, Entertainment, Business and Weather - Denton Record-Chronicle
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Website: Denton News, Sports, Entertainment, Business and Weather - Denton Record-Chronicle
Ask the same of people who oppose legalization and they'll say it's been a banner year – they choked efforts to legalize recreational marijuana in many statehouses and stalled implementation of pot sales in at least one other.
Lawmakers in at least 23 states considered legislation to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana this year, and 16 states weighed bills to establish medical marijuana programs.
But even as public support for marijuana continues to grow, few of those measures survived. That's in part because many lawmakers are concerned that the Trump administration may begin strict enforcement of federal drug laws, political analysts say. Many legislators are also beholden to conservative supporters and face little political pressure to sign off on marijuana legislation, the analysts say.
G. Terry Madonna, a public affairs professor who coordinates polling for Franklin and Marshall College, says legislatures are unlikely to take up legalization because most are controlled by Republicans who are less likely to support marijuana legalization and because supporters of legal marijuana don't care enough about legalization to pressure lawmakers into voting for it.
"The question I always ask is, 'Do [voters] care about it?'" he said. "What's the level of concern that they have? And right now, for the vast majority of Americans, it's not a cutting-edge issue."
Opposition from powerful law enforcement groups, including police and prosecutors, also keeps legislators from passing marijuana bills, said Mark Kleiman, a public policy professor at New York University.
"Nobody wants to see the uniforms [supporting] their opponent," he said.
This year lawmakers in Vermont got close to being the first to legalize recreational marijuana, only to see the legislation they passed get vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican. A compromise bill that would legalize possession of marijuana, but not establish a system for growing and selling it, is expected to pass early in the 2018 legislative session.
So far, voters in eight states have legalized recreational marijuana and regulate sales of the drug. West Virginia this year became the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana, and in New Hampshire, a new law decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.
Each year more bills to legalize recreational marijuana are being introduced in state legislatures. But most lawmakers are still unwilling pass them, leaving it up to voters to decide if the plant that opponents say is a gateway to hardcore drug use should be available for mass consumption and regulated similarly to alcohol.
"You don't get out of a hundred years of hysteria easily," said Jim Borghesani, communications director for a successful campaign last fall in Massachusetts to legalize recreational marijuana through a voter referendum. "A lot of public officials are just afraid of this issue, even though the public just keeps passing these ballots initiatives."
Voters in California, Maine and Nevada also moved to legalize the possession and sale of recreational marijuana last year, joining four other states that have acted through ballot measures.
But the referendums can be light on implementation details, and once they're passed, it's often up to legislators to pass laws that govern how and where marijuana can be sold.
For Massachusetts and Nevada, the processes for establishing a system to sell recreational marijuana couldn't look more different.
The ballot measures in both states proposed to start allowing marijuana sales in 2018. But almost immediately, Massachusetts lawmakers pushed back implementation by six months.
Nevada officials did the opposite, moving the first day of sales up to this July. Dispensaries sold so much pot in the first few days that they almost ran out.
Advocates have long watched Vermont, expecting it would become the first Legislature to legalize recreational marijuana. But while the Legislature signed off on the measure, the governor's veto put the state with at least 20 others that failed to pass recreational marijuana bills this year. Some, including New York and Illinois, will carry their bills over into 2018, while others such as Connecticut and Mississippi killed the bills before they received a vote from the full legislature.
Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, considers these failures a big win for his coalition, which lobbies against legalization, but favors reducing punishments for low-level marijuana crimes.
He said voters sign off on marijuana ballot measures with little understanding of what the potential laws mean and how they will impact their communities. Once marijuana is legal, they realize they don't want it in their neighborhoods, he said.
"Even people that might be OK generally with marijuana, they don't want the smell increasing as we're seeing in cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston," Sabet said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Pot legalization faces rocky road | Nation And World | Denton Record-Chronicle
Author: Sarah Breitenbach
Contact: Denton News, Sports, Entertainment, Business and Weather - Denton Record-Chronicle
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Website: Denton News, Sports, Entertainment, Business and Weather - Denton Record-Chronicle
