Over 100 Million Americans Have Smoked Marijuana -- And It's Still Illegal?

I was hoping that by the time I got to be 55, that pot would be on the back burner of politics. I guess I was dreaming! Prohibition won't work, it never has! No truer words have ever been spoken. No gateway drug,what happened?It should be legal,treated as alcohol,did I say Prohibition??

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I thought it was just me...


FREE AMERICA

REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

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"First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Pastor Martin Niemöller

We are talking about a sizeable chunk of the population. Many pot smokers are affluent and educated people who are willing to stand by in silence and let others go to jail for simple possession. Officials freely admit that most drug overdose deaths are caused by PRESCRIPTION drugs. The concentration camp has already come to Amerika:

The prison industry in the United States:
Big business or a new form of slavery?

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...that cannabis is hugely popular, not in spite of it.

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The United States legislative branch, sitting past & present, lacked / lack the constitutional privilege granted to them by the United States Constitution and it’s people in which to abrogate the natural rights secured by the citizens in same said U.S. Constitution unless the U.S. legislative branch of government has reviewed evidence and held fair hearings that shows that our national safety of health and or welfare would be negatively compromised should the people’s natural right continue.

It is only upon the reasonable presentation of real scientific evidence which presents a valid social and or individual harms upon the American society does Congress have the responsibility to the nation’s health and welfare to use it’s privilege of abrogations to secure said health and welfare of the Nation. But no United States legislative body has the privilege to abrogate the natural rights secured in the United States Constitution based on fanciful distorted conjecture and misinformation. No where in the people’s founding contact with their government does it allow deception and misinformation as bases for granting the U.S. Congress with the privilege of abrogation and or the outlawing of the inalienable rights of the American people.

Therefore lacking any real evident that cannabis is a safety issue to the health and welfare of the American Society or the individual Congress did not, can not, have the privilege granted by the people in their United States Constitution to write such legislation that would abrogate the American people from their natural God given rights to use the cannabis planet for traditional medicine, food supplement, alternative fuel source, clothing, wood-like replacement, the making of paper, and or for the peoples’ ancient religious ceremonial practices which are clearly protected for all time by the founding fathers’ first ten amendments of the United States Constitution also know as the Bill of Rights..

Furthermore, the United States legislative actions known as the Harrison Narcotics Act of the 63rd legislative session, the Marihuana Tax Act of the 75th legislative session, and the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of the 91st legislative session and all those sub-action therein, which all seek to / and abrogate the natural rights of the people in regards to the cannabis plant is based at best on fanciful propaganda lacking any and all real legal scientific evident that demonstrated a negative impact on society by the use of the cannabis plant which would adversely effect the safety and welfare of the America.

Harrison Narcotics Act - 63rd US Congress 1914
Marihuana Tax Act - 75th US Congress April 14, 1937, signed August 2, 1937
The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act - 91st US Congress October 27, 1970

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This is the Preamble to Thomas Jefferson wanted in the original Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles & organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.
No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or anywise destroyed; nor shall we go upon him, nor send upon him, but by lawful judgement of his peers or by the Law of the Land.(June 19th 1215 Chapter 39 of the Magna Charta)

“ The Constitution is a written instrument, as such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now.” South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S. 437, 448 (1905)
“To disregard such a deliberate choice of words and their natural meaning, would be a departure from the first principle of constitutional interpretation.”
“Every word must have its due force and appropriate meaning; for it is evident from the whole instrument, that, no word was unnecessarily used, or needlessly added.” Chief Justice Taney in Holmes v. Jennison, 14 U.S. 540, 570-1
“ Every word appears to have been weighted with the utmost deliberation and its effect to have been fully understood.” Wright v. United States, 302 U.S. 583 (1938)
“All laws which are repugnant to the constitution are null and void.” Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 174, 176 (1803)
“If the legislator clearly misinterprets a constitutional provision, the frequent repetition of the wrong will not create a right.” Amos v. Mosley, 74 Fla. 555; 77 So. 619. (Congress)
“Where rights are secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 491.
“When any court violates the clean and unambiguous language of the constitution, a fraud is perpetrated and no one is bound to obey it.” State v. Sutton Minn. 147, 65 NW 262, 30 L.R.A. 630 Am. St. 459)
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a public official does not have immunity simply because he operates in a discretionary manner. It indicated that the public servants are to be held liable when they abused their discretion or acted in a way that was arbitrary, fanciful, or clearly unreasonable. Littleton v. Berling, 1972, CA 7 Ill., 468 F2d 386. (Civil Law)
“The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment guarantees to each citizen the equal protection of the laws and prohibits a denial thereof by any federal official.” Bolling v. Sharpe, 327 U.S. 497
Lets not give them another day, certainly not another 70 years. Let stop them from putting us to the back of the bus, Jim Crow needs to stop!

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Great article, Mr. Armentano! This statement is thought-provoking:

"the government’s long-standing prohibition and anti-pot ’scare’ campaigns have done little, if anything, to dissuade young people from trying it."

I have always felt the government's anti-marijuana campaigns do not have reducing marijuana use as their real goal. They know marijuana is far safer than alcohol and that Americans know this also. It seems more likely the purpose of their lurid portrayals of cannabis consumers is simply to stoke the stigma to protect their precious prohibition. Why?

Because police, prosecutors, and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because the alcohol industry fears the far safer product as competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industries and the prison industry depend on it for their life's blood. Because many corporations could not exist without the cartel money they are laundering, and Because the corrupt government uses marijuana prohibition as a means of controlling minorities, dissenters and the poor, as well as using it as a pretext to destabilize countries that don't bow to U.S. corporations.

Hopefully, the public will soon realize who benefits from this fraudulent prohibition that destroys millions of Americans, and choose to stand on the right side of justice once more.

It's been a long time coming.

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Despite 70+ years of criminal prohibition, marijuana still remains widely popular among Americans, with over 102 million Americans (41 percent of the U.S. population) having used it during their lifetimes, 26 million (10 percent) having used it in the past year, and over 15 million (6 percent) admitting that they use it regularly.

Let's parse this a bit. Sure, 41 percent have used it at some point. But you're recognizing that for many of us, that was in the past.

Former pot enjoyers aren't going to get as worked up about this issue. We might agree that it's an important issue, it's just that at a practical level, any run-ins we had with law enforcement were in the past, sometimes long in the past.

But that doesn't mean we don't care. We will and do vote for pro-marijuana measures.

In states & localities where a marijuana initiative gets on the ballot, it tends to pass nowadays. The current users, along with the former users tend to unite. A very reasonable ballot proposal to make minor possession a $100 cilvil penalty passed here (Mass.) overwhelmingly last year, despite the UNITED opposition of the law enforcement establishment and harrumphing from our AG / supposed liberal / supposed future senator Martha Coakley (one reason I doubt I'll vote for her). The sky hasn't fallen despite their predictions.

I suspect certain California legalization propositions would pass in a breeze too (as with pot-smoking, my days of California living are in the past). But I joined in the signature-gathering thing there for long-ago propositions that failed because there just weren't enough former pot-enjoyers voting yet to understand the benefits.

When & where these two forces - former & current enjoyers - converge, we'll see action even in conservative areas. I think the kind of people who run for public office tend to be cautious, doctrinaire types who are not going to lead on an issue like this. The ballot proposals are where the action is, for the next several years at least.

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The alcohol prohibition ended sooner most likely due to the profit motives while the cannabis prohibition still holds because profiting from that is harder. Anything that puts quality over profits first be it single payer health care, multiple payer like the one in Germany and Switzerland that keeps insurance and drug companies regulated and not allowed to abuse their rights to obscene profiteering, or for that matter growing cannabis for health and industrial purposes is somehow a taboo in this country. Again, it's all about class more than culture when fully examined.

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I keep hoping that Armentano and NORML will adopt the MERP Model. But from their actions it appears that what they are really working toward is a highly regulated tax and regulate system where the Government ultimately becomes you new "drug dealer" selling you Marijuana for $300 to $500 an ounce

. . . when you could be growing your own for FREE! That is what MERP would allow!

If you go to their conference please distribute information on the MERP Model. It is time for a real change . . . not just more of the same incremental change the takes us NOWHERE!

The MERP Model for Re-Legalization will destroy the Mexican Drug Cartels and much, much more. Please visit and post the following link far and wide. This subweb is both for understanding MERP and implementing MERP. We need everyones help on this. Get on the mailing list now! Let's Re-Legalize Marijuana in 2009 World Wide.

To get on the list:
http://www.newagecitizen.com/EmailListSignUp.asp

MERP Headquarters
The Marijuana Re-Legalization Policy Project (MRPP) = "MERP"
http://www.newagecitizen.com/MERP.htm

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Re: 9/11/09 AP article "Marijuana Farming Rebounds In Economic Hard Times"

"...people hard-pressed willing to risk their freedom to improve their standard of living." BUT there are ..."helicopters constantly crisscrossing in the summer months.."
Troopers and co-workers "sweat dripping from their brows trudged up mountains as steep as they were remote to search dense Chinese silvergrass and expansive patches of thorny blackberry briars to find typically small scattered patches."



RELAX maybe a decent homegrown crop of precious herb will reach market NEXT YEAR for ready and willing MJ connaisseur consumers.

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Aren't we all getting a little tired of this 'marijuana reefer madness' nonsense ?? Some people like it, others NEED it for medicine.

If you're a registered Florida voter sign this petition to legalize medical cannabis in the sunshine state. Go to PUFMM.org and make a legal exemption for medical marijuana.

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O.K., we all know that certain elements of law enforcement, i.e. the narcotics division, justify their existence through marijuana busts. Obviously without arrests of marijuana users many narcotics officers would have to go back to real police work. We can't have that, can we?

Also in states that have for-profit corporations running the penal system marijuana arrests and convictions keep the inmate population up, therefore profits up.

And of course there is the rehab complex which, like their friends on the narcotics squad, sees marijuana as a justification for their very existence. Without the bugbear of marijuana as a "gateway drug" what's the point of "smart-kids-don't-do-drugs" campaigns?

There is, however, a forth element on the political landscape who do not what marijuana legalized, young, suburban, white, professionals, of a decidedly libertarian/Ayn Rand-cultist streak, who deal pot for nontaxable income.

I have been hoping to see legalized marijuana since the Seventies. Even my pot-dealers want legalized marijuana though it would mean an end to their income stream. Perhaps the only way to get marijuana legalized is to publically humiliate some anti-pot politicians with photos of them with a joint twixt their lips.

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I was busted when Nixon / Reagan decided to go after those "hippy" protestors in the late 60's. I was not a hippy or a protestor or a drug dealer, I was a college student in Maryland but got set-up by someone I knew to provide pot to a couple of police cadets because, "they couldn't find any".

I was sentenced to a 5 year sentence in a Maryland dungeon, not for sales but for possession. I was portrayed as a major 'dealer' on college campus and my story is not unique; there were 17 adults arrested that night and a juvenile, which led the newspapers to blare out, "MAJOR DOPE RING STOPPED. BS.

I was in prison with murderers who had barely more sentence in some manslaughter cases than I had.

Probably the worst thing I had to deal with over the years has been fits of manic-depression.

I finally finished college at 27 years old, went on to a broadcast career in radio and did pretty well, no thanks to Nixon's 'system'.

While I was serving my sentence, Spiro Agnew's (governor of MD at the time) daughter was arrested for drugs and his son, Teddy was arrested for being a peeping tom. Nothing happened to them.

I'm retired now in one of the biggest sinsimilla growing areas of the World in N. California and still smoke dope several times a year at 59 years old.

I'm not an activist but am pro-legalization.

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Sensible people have known for years this "War on Drugs" is nothing more than another bureaucratic colossal failure. It has ruined far more lives than cannabis ever has or ever will, too many people are imprisoned that are productive, working citizens of America. Marijuana has so many medicinal properties. But, the government can't make money off of people who are smoking pot instead of taking Prozac, Xanax or any other "Drug" prescribed legally. When are we going to stop lying and admit the truth. Legalize it and tax it and let all people benefit from it.

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Actual, literate input from nearly everyone on a subject, minus an anarchist or two. When's the last time that happened?

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A pamphlet entitled "10 Things Every Parent, Teenager and Teacher Should Know About Marijuana" produced by the Family Council on Drug Awareness tells us marijuana is not physically addictive. The 1980 Costa Rican study, the 1975 Jamaican study and the 1972 Nixon Blue Ribbon Report all concluded that marijuana use does not lead to physical dependency. The FBI reports that 65 to 75 percent of criminal violence is alcohol-related. On the other hand, Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry Anslinger testified before Congress in 1948 that marijuana leads to nonviolence and pacifism.

In a message to Congress on August 2, 1977, President Jimmy Carter insisted: "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Law Judge Francis L. Young wrote on September 8, 1988: "Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

After years of suppression by the government, the truth about medical marijuana is finally coming out. Dr. Tod Mikuriya, former director of marijuana research for the entire federal government, wrote in 1996: "I was hired by the government to provide scientific evidence that marijuana was harmful. As I studied the subject, I began to realize that marijuana was once widely used as a safe and effective medicine. But the government had a different agenda, and I had to resign."

Tobacco kills about 430,700 each year. Alcohol and alcohol-related diseases and injuries kill about 110,000 per year. Secondhand tobacco smoke kills about 50,000 every year. Aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs kill 7,600 each year. Cocaine kills about 500 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Heroin kills about 400 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Adverse reactions to prescription drugs total 32,000 per year, while marijuana kills no one.

A November 4, 2002 Time/CNN Poll found that eighty percent of those polled felt marijuana should be legal only for therapeutic purposes. 72 percent felt recreational users should get fines rather than jail time, which is essentially decriminalization. The complete legalization of marijuana was favored only by 34 percent of respondents, but this figure is twice as large as it was in 1986. Marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, and our drug laws should reflect this reality.

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According to a 2003 Zogby poll, two of every five Americans say “the government should treat marijuana the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal for children.” Close to 100 million Americans, including over half of those between the ages of 18 and 50, have tried marijuana at least once. Military and police recruiters often have no alternative but to ignore past marijuana use by job seekers.

In 1996, California voters passed a law to regulate medical marijuana within the state. In 2000, voters in California approved an initiative allowing people who are arrested for simple possession of drugs to go through a rehabilitation program rather than through the court process that would result in prison. Since the program began, most agree it has been very successful. It results in less recidivism and is considered cheaper than imprisonment.

Richard Posner, Chicago's chief judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and one of the nation's leading legal scholars, says marijuana use should be legalized as a way of reducing crime. Posner, a Reagan administration appointee once described by American Lawyer magazine as “the most brilliant judge in the country,” explained his views on marijuana in The Times Literary Supplement, a British publication, and in later interview:

“It is nonsense that we should be devoting so many law enforcement resources to marijuana," says Posner. "I am skeptical that a society that is so tolerant of alcohol and cigarettes should come down so hard on marijuana use and send people to prison for life without parole.”

Posner is the highest-ranking judge to publicly favor the repeal of marijuana laws. Several judges of the federal district court, a level lower than the appeals court, have made similar calls, including Robert Sweet of New York and James Paine of Florida, both Carter Administration appointees.

New York University law professor Burt Neuborne said it's significant that “one of the leading intellectuals in the judicial system recognizes that the laws don't seem to be working well.”

Posner and other federal judges have complained that sentencing guidelines force them to give unjustly severe prison sentences to relatively minor drug offenders. Says Posner: “Prison terms in America have become appallingly long, especially for conduct that, arguably, should not be criminal at all. Only decriminalization is a sure route to a lower crime rate. It is sad that it appears so far below the horizon of political feasibility.”

Rufus King, a Washington, DC lawyer who has served on the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, calls the drug war, “A worthless crusade.” According to King, drug use is a social problem, not a law enforcement problem. He observes: “Cigarette use is declining through changes in cultural values in the population. Like most smokers and alcoholics, most users of illegal drugs poison themselves because they want to be intoxicated. No human force can do them much good until they want help.” King is optimistic that the current anti-drug hysteria will subside, and responsible and reasonable drug law policies will be adopted.

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Anyone who thinks it's all government keeping these laws on the books needs his head checked. There's a universal force that makes people turn into reefer-madness-bots and it's called parenthood. I work in a small newspaper office where I have expressed time and again my displeasure with drug laws and nearly everyone disagrees with me -- including those Americans who have in the past and probably still do smoke marijuana (I don't really care for it). The problem isn't just the institutionalization of prohibition by big gubment, it's the Mr. or Mrs. sitting next to you in your office.

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Remember there are 300,000,000, not just 250,000,000 Americans. Therefore, if 102,000,000 people reported using marijuana, that is only 34 percent, not 41 percent. If it were 41 percent, that would be 123,000,000.

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feds coming to the door like that from disinformation city, brainwashington, ask em if they have any good drugs on em.

41% of a population of 306 million is over 120 million americans. also should be noted that according to the wall street journal, not a radical liberal rag, cocaine has been one of the major growth industries in teh USA since 1970 and has had an annual growth rate of sales averaging 3% a year over the past year. the only dip in that to date has been registered in the past 2 years with 1/3 less sales due to the economy, which also goes to show just how 'addictive' it is.

heroin, as the world's largest cash crop... why the USA was killing milions in vietnam/cambodia/laos/thailand and still protecting burma's junta... doing what senator frank church called the golden triangle war... and the real reason for the 1980s and current war in afghanistan...

mind you, the name cocaine was trademarked by merck in 1867 and heroin was trademarked by ig farben, makers of aspirin, in 1897. the drugwar from prohibition on has been about two things: profit and control, certainly not about our health. my great-grandfathers general store in the 1890s sold 2 ounces of 'merck's pure powdered opium' (aka heroin), for 75¢, today that would be about $10,000. on the front of the beautifully ornamented can it said, 'it'll get you through the winter.' on the back it said, 'the old folk's friend.' i have a 1920s magazine ad for cocaine gum and mints to give children for toothache tells you how dangerous that was thought to be.

with legal pharma killing 12-20x more people than all the illegals combined and drunk drivers killing 15,000+ a year and marijuana not killing anyone... the 14th amendment 'guarantees' equal treatment under the law, haha... police-prison-state, baby. whatever happened to OUR life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. it went to the brewery and pharma phactory.

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One big hint that something's shady in US is how pot is classified as schedule 1, which technically says no acceptable medical use and more potential for abuse than cocaine. It makes it hard to even study it unless you're a big pharma with corporate government blessing. That's obviously a lie.

I'm not trying to take this one out on the democrats. I am saying that both sides keep voting for representatives that lie by default about the reasons behind the war on terrorism against the world and the war on drugs against the US population. We sometimes do fight wars to give certain corporations control of resources, install puppet governments for who knows what, and the CIA did kind of start the crack epidemic by covering for the flood of cheap cocaine to fund the Nicaragua contra war after all.

Why did we do that anyway?

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I always imagined that once pot were legal it would be cheap. An 1/8 of an ounce of good pot costs around $60, in Michigan where it is still very illegal.

I have a friend in California with a medcard. For him pot is basically legal. He can go into any number of clinics and take his pick. Funny thing is the price. Its around $60 an 1/8.

What most people propose is changing from one drug dealer, to another. Dont buy pot from JoeSmo, buy your pot from uncle sam.

Or just grow your own.

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If the Bugs Beck Boneheads can gather to make complete asses out of themselves, why not a giant toke-in at the same place?
Now, if we could only get Cheech & Chong and/or Bill Maher interested in backing this......

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the FBI or a corporation to blackmail an employee to 'do their bidding' or face the consequences in employment, social prestige or lose their healthcare insurance

or

for the local police to get a 'no knock' warrant on someone's house...

or

determine that someone should have to spend big money on a lawyer...

or

REMOVE LIBERAL VOTES from the electoral rosters!

or

set a whole society in anticipation of REALLY LARGE PRISON INDUSTRY EXPANSIONS! whoo HOO! the ECONOMY IS SAVED!

These VICE laws have NOTHING to do with 'crime' & everything to do with CONTROL by MONEY & POWER on the INDIVIDUAL


Ask Elliott Spitzer all about it...

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Marijuana is essentially legal in California, with registration a doctor's recommendation and registration for medical pot. But the recommendation can cost $50 to $100, and 1/8 can be pricey, (so they tell me) about the same as the street price. Still it all makes the pot smoker legal, and he can even grown his own.

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The government was wrong, they did not have the right to abrogate these natural rights, they presented fraudulent information that still stand today. That act of defrauding the people is the crime. I don't want my congress to correct their mistake, their unlawful act. I want my highest court in the land to listen to the facts, weight the evidence of this fraud and protect the rights secured to the people of this fine nation. These laws a unconstitutional and need to be dealt with forthwith by a class action writ to the high court signed by those 40 million Americans. Congress can't find it way out of a wet paper sack opened at both ends. Come on people wake up! They will outlaw your customs and liberty next.

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Alternet is usually full of anti-corporate types whom I generally disagree with.

Where are you now?

Only one person asked "who benefits from prohibition?"

Think DuPont: Natural cheap hemp vs. synthetic fibers...

Think oil companies: most synthetic fibers are made from oil

Think drug companies: Natural multi-purpose pain and nausea relief you can grow in any back yard vs. expensive man made drugs...

The liquor and tobacco industries...

Private prisons...(maybe a stretch?)

And finally the billions spent on Government programs like DEA... think they want to be unemployed like so many other Americans?

Legalize it, tax it and stop wasting money on anti drug enforcement and incarceration.

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Stoned out of my mind. Isn't life great?

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41% of a population of 306 million is over 120 million americans. also should be noted that according to the wall street journal, not a radical liberal rag, cocaine has been one of the major growth industries in teh USA since 1970 and has had an annual growth rate of sales averaging 3% a year over the past year. the only dip in that to date has been registered in the past 2 years with 1/3 less sales due to the economy, which also goes to show just how 'addictive' it is seropol5.

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God, how many times must we hear this same argument? Of course cannabis should be legal; of course it would decrease crimes, and make it more difficult for minors to get their hands on it. Of course it would raise billions in tax revenue, and with Hemp legal, too, we have a product that can replace paper, saving trees that are helping to save the planet from the green-house effect (Global Warming), etc, etc. But who is reading this E-zine, for the most part? People who already know this and, for the most part, agree with it. We've got to stop preaching to the choir and instead target the groups that are paying to keep marijuana illegal: the pharmaceutical corps, the paper industry, and the tobacco and alcohol industries.

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I have never met a person on marijuana that was not pleasant and in control of themselves. There are many people that use marijuana for illnesses and use a vaporizer to even further reduce health risks. Marijuana grows in the ground and I do not see the issue with something natural......especially if it is healthy for you unlike some meds with all the negative side effects. Legalize it already.

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If you ever had doubts about the way our representative democracy and elections functions (or doesn't), this law is a prime example.
Lose your doubts! Your elected representative apparently does not speak or vote for the majority of her/his constituency. S/He votes for major corporate campaign donors. And if those include Big Pharma, the Prison-Industrial complex, Big Insurance (the "fear" of the unknown "industry"), et al, so be it...
If _they_ don't want any "drug" legalized, including pot, it won't get legalized.
You can turn blue in the face and write letters to your Congressman but unless he sees demonstrators 24/7 (along with the letters and the calls) outside his/her office _demanding_ legal pot, expect no change.
"And that's the way it is!"
Only an obvious sea-change will sway these political cowards who are, ironically, _addicted_ to office.

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Marijuana buying and use is essentially legal in California, with registration a doctor's recommendation and registration for medical pot. But the recommendation can cost $50 to $100, and 1/8 can be pricey, (so they tell me) about the same as the street price. Still it all makes the pot smoker legal, and he can even grown his own.
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