New York state lawmakers on Saturday night put the finishing touches on a deal to legalize cannabis products for those 21 and older while allowing adults to maintain up to three mature marijuana plants in their home per person.?
In 1979, a controversy was brewing at McDonald’s. The concern was over a small plastic utensil that had a spoon on one end and the company's name and those famous arches on the other. Millions of the spoons were in the company’s restaurants all over America, and most people were using them for their intended purpose—to stir coffee.
But others had discovered an alternative use: The spoons were purportedly also ideal for snorting cocaine
Nearly 50 years later, this offensive has seeped into our policing culture. From broken windows model of policing and the advent of stop and frisk to no-knock warrants and the militarization of local police departments, the so called War on Drugs has led to the targeting of communities of color.
With over 2 million people behind bars, the United States is the world’s most carceral country. A large number of those serving time are for crimes related to drugs possession and activity.
Advocates for reform have long argued that punitive policies have not reduced the flow of drugs across the country. In fact, they have strengthened illicit drug markets, creating risky and unhealthy conditions for drug users by focusing on the criminal element of substance use instead of seeing it through a lens of healthcare access and social justice.
As the cannabis industry continues to take root state by state, Congress will consider whether to remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act once and for all.
The House will vote Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which would decriminalize cannabis and clear the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions.
Experts say stigma can be a life-or-death issue for Americans who suffer addiction. According to the National Institutes of Health, 75% of those people never get help, often because of shame and stigma.
I am glad Joe Biden has said he supports legalization of marijuana on the federal level. I think it would have a lot of benefits to society if marijuana was federally legal.
For one, making marijuana federally legal would open finance up to farms that grow it and businesses that sell it. Banks can legally loan to hemp growers now with the federal regulations but their cautious for good reason – hemp is just cannabis with less THC and its easy for hemp to test too hot and be illegally diverted.
Even though hemp is now federally legal and is allowed in many states, it tends to be strictly controlled as hemp with too much THC is considered marijuana even if it’s not smoked or injested. Regulations over hemp make it hard for farmers to succeed.
Also legalizing cannabis would spur the hemp market – as if you are producing hemp as a primary crop you might as well produce cannabis on the side, similar to how many dairy farms which grow field corn for silage and high moisture corn feed also run farm stands with sweet corn.
There is a limited market for cannabis – as people can only smoke and ingest so much of it but hemp offers a lot of possibilities. A lot of products could be made with the fibers of hemp, beyond the boutique items currently sold. Cannabis might be a few acres on a farm, while hemp would be several hundred or thousand acres.
I think it’s an exciting agricultural crop and one that could get the younger generation interested in agriculture and plant science, especially in more urban areas. It’s also a great hobby for people to do on their patio, learn about plant genetics and growing their own food.
Myself, I’m not really interested in smoking pot. It’s rather expensive and not nearly as much fun as people claim. But I think we should end the war on drugs to help our cities, especially this potentially profitable agricultural crop that can be grown on a large scale, outdoors using many of the same field cultivation crops commonly used on farms across the nation.