Get with the program. Legalize weed.

December 9, 2020
AggregatedNews
Federal, Op-Ed, Policy & Legal
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Decades ago, our country outlawed a plant. This plant, then as now, has never resulted in a single overdose death. Since the plant is an outlaw, you’ll be branded one if you’re unlucky enough to get arrested for casually consuming it.

What a profoundly odd and destructive national fixation — one that seems more like superstition than rational argument.

So how do you convince a nation that something that could easily and benignly grow next to your prized tomatoes is a weed from hell coming for your children?

That was the work of “Reefer Madness,” the 1930s anti-weed propaganda paid for by a church group that wanted to scare anyone who ever thought of smoking a joint. I highly recommend giving it a fresh watch. Look at the imagery. Take in the propaganda. Realize that there was an orchestrated effort to criminalize it in a way that would be hilarious if not so sinister and destructive.

It needs to be said: Just legalize it already.

On Friday, the House of Representatives voted for the MORE Act to decriminalize cannabis. A decision by the Senate awaits, probably in the new year.

The sovereign nation of Canada is way ahead of us. Canadian lawmakers legalized cannabis in 2018. Miraculously, Canada hasn’t slid into anarchy and chaos.

South Dakota just voted for legal weed. That’s not a typo. Arguably one the most conservative states in our Union just voted to make cannabis legal. Arizona just voted to allow you to grow up to 12 plants at home.

But in my home state of Pennsylvania, you’d be a felon for life and literally go to prison for years for doing the same. [Read More @ The Washington Post]