“Back before the "l" word grew to popular awareness and comprehension, libertarians would often describe themselves as "liberal on social issues, conservative on economic issues." Drug legalization and gay marriage would be classified as social issues in that summary, but the way "liberal" and "conservative" are being used nowadays weakens the utility of this eight-word distillation. As those on the left side of the spectrum continue to abandon the more traditional, sixties, counter-culture and suspicious-of-The-Man liberalism in favor of all-hail-The-State leftism, and as those on the right side embrace the nativistic populism that gave us Trump, "split-the-baby" descriptions of libertarianism don't really work any more.”
NY pols seem to hate, loathe and despise Freedom and Liberty:
“New York, the state that was slapped down by the Court in the gun rights case, didn't take that restoration of liberty well. The governor and legislature proved that government can move like a scalded cat (usually when its power is threatened), and passed a sheaf of restrictions designed to skirt Clarence Thomas's ruling. Some of those restrictions have already been challenged, and some of the challenged have been struck down pending appeals.“
Libertarians may like it fine, but it isn't baby steps, or any kind of movement towards a core belief; it is progressive pandering pure and simple. It affects very few, and likely is not a small step towards the legalizing of all drugs.
It's a baby step for liberty. It's not a triviality for the 6500 who have a federal crime expunged from their record, and it might - might - open some more eyes and build some more support for ending this particular prohibition.
Pot would be legalized before almost everything else, barring perhaps psychedelics. I'd be fine with that. An incremental approach offers time for things to adjust, for structures to emerge that'll help abusers rather than punish them, etc.
It's obviously a stunt, but even stunts can have utility.
I don't disagree. But I don't believe this will ever rise above the pandering stunt level. There is huge money and power in this. Crime does in fact pay, even, (perhaps especially important) on the supposed "crime fighting" side. That power and that cash cow will not be given up.
Absolutely. The Drug War industry will resist federal legalization tooth-and-nail, just as it has at the state level. But, the momentum is still there, and if enough people make enough noise, those selfish interests can be overridden. 37 states legalized, despite all the opposition.
A bit of a correction. In my social media share, I asked why Biden didn't pardon everyone. He can't pardon state-level crimes, and I had forgotten that when I wrote the share blurb.
This could mark the first time I've agreed with Biden on an issue, with the caveat that there may be others that I'm not aware of, and I'm not really sure he is aware of his public opinion on any topic. But having marijuana in the schedule one category is ludicrous at best. My sister is ex-DOJ and a LE legend in the state of GA with her work coordinating efforts between fed-state-local levels. But we've long had debates on why pot is on that dreaded list and she would typically fall back on the gateway drug reason. I feel like that is a nonsensical argument. I had my share of beer as a teen (Miller ponies) long before I ever had my first toke, so if you ask me alcohol is a better gateway drug villain.
George Carlin had a wonderful bit on this issue and concluded that the true gateway drug was mother's milk, because it led to everything.
Absolutely!
“Back before the "l" word grew to popular awareness and comprehension, libertarians would often describe themselves as "liberal on social issues, conservative on economic issues." Drug legalization and gay marriage would be classified as social issues in that summary, but the way "liberal" and "conservative" are being used nowadays weakens the utility of this eight-word distillation. As those on the left side of the spectrum continue to abandon the more traditional, sixties, counter-culture and suspicious-of-The-Man liberalism in favor of all-hail-The-State leftism, and as those on the right side embrace the nativistic populism that gave us Trump, "split-the-baby" descriptions of libertarianism don't really work any more.”
NY pols seem to hate, loathe and despise Freedom and Liberty:
“New York, the state that was slapped down by the Court in the gun rights case, didn't take that restoration of liberty well. The governor and legislature proved that government can move like a scalded cat (usually when its power is threatened), and passed a sheaf of restrictions designed to skirt Clarence Thomas's ruling. Some of those restrictions have already been challenged, and some of the challenged have been struck down pending appeals.“
Libertarians may like it fine, but it isn't baby steps, or any kind of movement towards a core belief; it is progressive pandering pure and simple. It affects very few, and likely is not a small step towards the legalizing of all drugs.
It's a baby step for liberty. It's not a triviality for the 6500 who have a federal crime expunged from their record, and it might - might - open some more eyes and build some more support for ending this particular prohibition.
Pot would be legalized before almost everything else, barring perhaps psychedelics. I'd be fine with that. An incremental approach offers time for things to adjust, for structures to emerge that'll help abusers rather than punish them, etc.
It's obviously a stunt, but even stunts can have utility.
I don't disagree. But I don't believe this will ever rise above the pandering stunt level. There is huge money and power in this. Crime does in fact pay, even, (perhaps especially important) on the supposed "crime fighting" side. That power and that cash cow will not be given up.
Absolutely. The Drug War industry will resist federal legalization tooth-and-nail, just as it has at the state level. But, the momentum is still there, and if enough people make enough noise, those selfish interests can be overridden. 37 states legalized, despite all the opposition.
A bit of a correction. In my social media share, I asked why Biden didn't pardon everyone. He can't pardon state-level crimes, and I had forgotten that when I wrote the share blurb.
This could mark the first time I've agreed with Biden on an issue, with the caveat that there may be others that I'm not aware of, and I'm not really sure he is aware of his public opinion on any topic. But having marijuana in the schedule one category is ludicrous at best. My sister is ex-DOJ and a LE legend in the state of GA with her work coordinating efforts between fed-state-local levels. But we've long had debates on why pot is on that dreaded list and she would typically fall back on the gateway drug reason. I feel like that is a nonsensical argument. I had my share of beer as a teen (Miller ponies) long before I ever had my first toke, so if you ask me alcohol is a better gateway drug villain.
George Carlin had a wonderful bit on this issue and concluded that the true gateway drug was mother's milk, because it led to everything.
He's gotten things right on a few occasions. My biggie - he didn't send troops to Ukraine.