Higher Ground
Pot on the left and right
Can conservatives and liberals agree on legalizing weed?
Published: December 15, 2010
Indeed marijuana has generated a class of Republicans who find something they actually want to tax. Now that's some bipartisan spirit.
Medical marijuana's strongest opponents, most observers would agree, have been law enforcement, some prosecutors, the drug treatment industry and the social conservatives of the Republican Party. Law enforcement faces a major quandary. Most of its members have been trained in a drug war mentality and from their point of view the law is unclear. They don't quite know what to do. Also, law enforcement agencies stand to lose drug war money from the federal government as well as money from property forfeitures if marijuana were legalized.
However, their job is to enforce the law, and when the law is clearly defined there will be only one recourse — follow it.
If support for medical marijuana can bring ideologues from both sides of the aisle together, maybe there is hope for other areas of politics. But then maybe it's just the fact that diseases such as arthritis, cancer and MS don't have political affiliations, and you don't need red or blue lenses to see the relief marijuana can bring.
On the political tip, we should get our representatives together to smoke a couple of fat joints, hold hands and sing "Legalize It."
Peter Tosh was onto something with the lyric "and I will advertise it." Indeed, there is money to be made.
> Email Larry Gabriel
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