Legal marijuana opponents are getting increasingly desperate in their efforts to thwart legalization.
Maryland is going green.
Last week, the State Senate passed by a margin of 34 to 8 a bill that would decriminalize marijuana in the Old Line State.
Governor Martin O’Malley – a potential frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination – said in a statement that he would sign the bill.
He said: As a young prosecutor, I once thought that decriminalizing the possession of marijuana might undermine the public will necessary to combat drug violence… I now think that [it] is an acknowledgment of the low priority that our courts, our prosecutors, our police and the vast majority of citizens already attach to this transgression of public order and public health.”
According to an October Gallup poll – a record number of Americans – 58 percent now support full legalization of marijuana when just ten years ago 64 percent of Americans OPPOSED full legalization.
Once Governor O’Malley signs Maryland’s decriminalization bill – the Old Line State will join the 24 other states that have either decriminalized marijuana – OK’ed it for medical use – or legalized it altogether.
As Bob Dylan once said – “the times – they are a-changin.’”
Of course – not everyone is OK with the sudden shift towards decriminalization and legalization.
Just down the road from the Maryland in Washington, D.C., Michele Leonhart, the head of the DEA, is fighting decriminalization tooth and nail.
Leonhart – a Bush appointee – is one of biggest supporters of Nixon’s failed War on Drugs.
In fact – she’s such a hardliner that when Congressman Jared Polis asked her a few years ago whether marijuana was more or less dangerous than heroin and crack cocaine – she couldn’t give him an answer.
Two years later – Leonhart is sticking to her guns.
She told the House of Representatives last week that the wave of decriminalization laws sweeping the nation hasn’t discouraged the DEA one bit.
According to Leonhart- they just make the agency want to “fight harder.”
Fight against what – you might ask?
Well – apparently the plague of stoned dogs that’s sweeping the nation.
After saying she wanted to keep on fighting the good fight against stoners – Leonhart told Congress that she was worried about how lax marijuana policy was affecting America’s pet population.
Seriously.
She said: “There was just an article last week, and it was on pets. It was about the unanticipated or unexpected consequences of [marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado], and how veterinarians now are seeing dogs come in, their pets come in, and being treated because they’ve been exposed to marijuana…. Again, it goes back to the edibles, it goes back to products that are in the household that are now made from marijuana, and it’s impacting pets.”
Yep – that’s right.
The woman in charge of drug enforcement policy for the entire United States is worried that if we legalize or decriminalize marijuana – dogs will get the spins.
This is just embarrassing.
It should be common by knowledge now that not only is marijuana not dangerous – it’s actually way safer than alcohol.
Alcohol – which is legal and kills about 40,000 people every year.
Smoking marijuana has never killed anyone.
As we move closer and closer to legal marijuana – we need policymakers who actually understand what marijuana is and what its effects are.
Who knows why he kept her on after Bush left office – but it’s time for President Obama to fire Michele Leonhart.
She’s just harshing America’s mellow.
