Tag: Marijuana

Writing in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Colorado Rep. Jared Polis said President Obama and Congress have a short window to address debt issues before the political considerations of the 2012 presidential election overwhelms any chance at compromise and real leadership.

A few days after the Drug Enforcement Administration ruled that marijuana has no medicinal use, and a month or so after a prestigious international commission concluded the drug war was a colossal failure, The Denver Post documented the ongoing drug war with a story about Mexican tour bus operators busted for bringing tens of millions of dollars of pot to Denver. That same day, July 11, Time Magazine led its weekly print issue with this quote, "The carnage will end only when drugs are legalized."

When it comes to politics, there is no denying the pull of momentum. And while it is clear that for this eighth edition of our Power Rankings U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann owns it, there is also no denying that social and religious conservatives in the state still have choices to make.

Legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this morning to end the federal war on marijuana. The bill would enable each state to deal with marijuana as it sees fit.

Even as proponents of legalizing marijuana in Colorado meet this evening to debate the best way to accomplish that, former U.S. Attorney John McKay is one of a handful of people leading an effort to legalize marijuana in Washington State. Spurred in part by Governor Christine Gregoire's veto of much of that state's medical marijuana laws, McKay and others say the time is ripe for full legalization in Washington.

A Montana legislator is floating a radical idea--that the feds should leave the states alone when it comes to medical marijuana. Specifically, she said marijuana should be delisted at the federal level.

The ACLU sent a letter this week to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the Obama administration keep its word not to prosecute people for using medical marijuana in compliance with state and local laws.

On Friday, a bill to make it easier to charge stoned drivers with DUI rose from the dead and is now expected to pass by Wednesday.

The conventional political wisdom says that the entry of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, into the presidential race is bad news for former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson since the two will compete for similar voters in the Republican primary. However, a former Giuliani speechwriter and the staffers at High Times, the magazine devoted to marijuana, both agree that Johnson is the better choice between the two longshot libertarian Republicans.

Half the students in Prof. William Watson's Western Civilization course at University of Colorado Boulder abandoned class last Wednesday to join the "4/20" pro-legalization marijuana protest being held on campus. Watson blogged that he was taken by surprise by the pot protest-- an annual event that garners national media coverage-- but that it ironically gave his lecture that day on Protestant religious values greater power and relevancy. Watson told the students who showed up that it was the Protestant Work Ethic that made America great and encouraged them to "live responsible and sober li[ves]... and one day become good spouse[s] and parent[s]." He told them that they would all receive extra credit for their "faithful attendance" and for "choosing to learn about responsibility, instead of blowing smoke in the quad."