Brick Top
New Member
As I said, the nation is center-right, it is at least mildly conservative and it is not ready to forget decades and decades of government propaganda about the evils of marijuana and say WE WANT IT AND WE WANT IT NOW!I agree that we suffer from an image problem but I think there's much more to it than that. This is one of the most divisive issues of our time. It won't be solved overnight and the solution isn't as simple as some people would like to believe. If the failure of prop 19's passage didn't teach us that, I'm not sure what will.
We basically said the same thing in the late 60's and in the 70's about how it was an important issue of the time and that we had to fight for it and fight for it now and that if we screamed loud enough we would be heard and listened to. We did not realize at the time that the government has selective hearing loss.
At a time I was positive that by the mid 80's, or early 90's at the very latest, marijuana would be made legal because by then Congress would have many members who toked in high school and in college and who could look at what they achieved in their lives and fully understand that it is not something bad .. and that likely by then we would have a president who had also shared the same experiences.
I was totally wrong in my prediction of my believed outcome and rough time frame. I am sure those people exist in Congress, and likely the last three presidents, Obama, Bush and Clinton all toked at least a little and they still managed to become the president.
Now I doubt I will live long enough to see marijuana legalized, or if I do by then I will be locked up in some old folks home suffering from dementia and won't be able to remember that I once loved the stuff and not be able to enjoy the new found freedom.
Once in government politicians learn they have to play the game, they have to go along to get along, they have to give up what they believe in to retain their positions. Most likely enter Congress telling themselves they will bring about positive change and do what it right for those they represent and for the nation as a whole.
Soon they are making deals in hallways or back rooms trading their vote, on something they really do not support or believe in, to get the other member or members of Congress' support for something they want so they can look good to their voters and remain in office. In time they are total sellouts, they lose their souls, they lose their humanity and they become part of the machine, part of the government entity and always puts itself first and foremost.
A neighbor of my ex-business partner is a DC lobbyist. His nickname among members of Congress is "The Mailman." He earned that nickname by showing up on a very regular schedule handing out goodies, all expense paid trips for the member of Congress' entire family to some exotic local where a fifteen minute meeting with the third undersecretary for the collection of dog waste, or some similarly worthless position, would be set up so the member of Congress could claim they went on a fact finding mission or a trade mission. He also hands out fat envelopes with green pieces of paper with pictures of presidents on them. In return for such niceties the members of Congress are expected, and almost always do, support the legislation the lobbying firm "The Mailman" wants supported.
Those are the real politicians that make up the U.S. government. Until we can fight fire with fire and outdo people like "The Mailman" at what they do very well or present an argument that is so compelling that the government cannot ignore it and canot refuse it, nothing will ever change on the Federal level.
Legal marijuana has to be made to look like too good of a deal to the government for it to pass it up. Until that happens, do not expect any major changes. I have waited for them for 42 years now and they have not come to pass. Unless a totally new approach is taken, a completely different route is chosen where there is a major push, but one that proves to the government that it would be in its best interest to legalize marijuana, in the future all of you will be saying the same as me ... that you have waited 42 years for a change to occur, but it hasn't.
