High Time

It's been almost a year since I've blogged about legalization of marijuana, and I'm glad to report that more (slow) progress is being made.  Let’s recap.

Internationally, Canada legalized marijuana this year, leaving the U.S. in their socially progressive dust.

Nationally, after some additional November ballot approvals, eleven U.S. states have now legalized recreational marijuana use.  It isn’t just ‘liberal’ western states either; states like Michigan and Vermont have joined the enlightened minority that allow cannabis with the pleasant side effect of…..tax revenue.  (You thought I was going to say the pleasant side effect of sensitivity and relaxation?)

Meanwhile, at least 20 other states now broadly offer legal medical marijuana.  This should be the bare minimum allowance of any state.   So the good news is, over half of America gets it.

Unfortunately, the rest of America is still in a race to see which state can be the slowest and dumbest when it comes to legalizing pot.  A few of these states, including Iowa, now allow an extremely limited and convoluted way for medically-eligible people to obtain small doses of cannabis product.  It’s so limited, in fact, that it can’t even be considered a legalization of medical marijuana.

The hypocrisy on these non-legalization states gets worse by the day.  We still have a virtually unregulated opioid epidemic in the country, but people can still get prescriptions in those states for opioids with no problem.  And do I even need to make the point about legal alcohol consumption?  For example in Iowa, the regulators have gone out of their way to encourage home-based production and sale of beer and liquor – as if that’s not a mind-altering substance.

Today there is little doubt that most Americans at least want 1) medical marijuana to be legal, and 2) marijuana possession to be decriminalized.  In states that allow the public to vote on ballot initiatives, it’s now also become clear that most people believe in limited recreational sales and usage.

It’s only a matter of time before America legalizes marijuana, like its Canadian counterpart.  The only question is which state(s) will be the last, foolish ones not to do something before then.