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Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

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Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#121
post #53
post #25

For those not familiar with US society, this is huge. Mississippi is generally regarded, true or not, as a conservative state, perhaps even reactionary. Its government was a staunch defender of slavery, the later Jim Crow laws which mandated racial segregation, Negro voting disenfranchisement; the last to repeal alcohol prohibition; still frequently challenging abortion rights; among other such. Mississippi is kind o…

What in the hell kind of analysis is this? I’m betting $1000 that OP has never stepped foot in Mississippi. “Negro voting disenfranchisement”?

[deleted]

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#122
post #25

For those not familiar with US society, this is huge. Mississippi is generally regarded, true or not, as a conservative state, perhaps even reactionary. Its government was a staunch defender of slavery, the later Jim Crow laws which mandated racial segregation, Negro voting disenfranchisement; the last to repeal alcohol prohibition; still frequently challenging abortion rights; among other such. Mississippi is kind o…

>That Mississippi of all places legalizes marijuana means that it will probably be legalized in all 50 states within a year or two. I highly doubt it. And at a Federal level it will never be legalized. The Biden administration has no plans and the folks involved are just playing games and never had any intention of fulfilling their promises.

"Never" is a long time. I am willing to bet that marijuana will at least be federally rescheduled to class 3-5 before 2035.

A bottle of good Spanish wine, claimable somewhere in Central Europe, if you win :)

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#123
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynical analysis is Democrats can motivate voters to get out every year while it remains illegal, at the cost of ruining peoples lives.

Exactly. Democrats: vote for us for universal healthcare, weed, etc. Republicans: vote for us for gun rights, freedom, etc. Neither plans to actually do anything at the national level. They want these carrots kept around to dangle in their constituents' faces.

Gun rights are mostly in hands of SCOTUS now and Republicans did exert a lot of effort to get their candidates there, though in a context of a more general power struggle.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#124

When will we start seeing legislation forbidding employer discrimination against legal cannabis users in the form of drug tests? No one cares if you've had a drink over the weekend, on your own time, as long as it's not affecting your on-the-job performance. Some companies have parties where alcohol is served, and going for drinks after work is quite common. Yet so many companies require you to take drug tests before…

The key issue we have is that there are somewhat accurate-ish tests to check for acute and past alcohol usage, as well as defined impairment levels, but for THC we have neither breathalyzer-style tests nor impairment level standards. FWIW it's not even clear if blood should be tested for active THC, for byproducts or waste products. That makes dealing with MJ impairment a bit of troublesome for companies... I agree t…

I get it for machinery, but I got tested when I got a SWE job a few years ago at a BigCo. Like yes I get that you have a portion of your workforce on the ground and you need to drug test them, but come on I'm some dude sitting in his living room coding, I don't think safety is applied the same way in my "workplace"

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> At 20-something he switched to pills, a few more years later - heroine. As someone who never used marijuana, used to be strongly against it but now think we should consider legalizing it[1], isn't a major reason for this that because of laws against marijuana anyone buying it has to establish relationships with illegal drug dealers? Wouldn't this be much less of a problem if marijuana was sold over the counter in a…

> 1. the war against drugs has been useless

How do you define uselessness? What's the metric?

> 2. it even simplifies the lives of criminals

In which sense? Weed has massive margins. Legalization means less competition, lower prices. It will simplify the process of selling, but nobody's in this "business" just for fun. They want to make money.

Legalization will indeed raise the gov's budgets due to taxation.

> Wouldn't this be much less of a problem if marijuana was sold over the counter in a pharmacy?

No. When a substance is allowed for everyone, but someone (eg school students), then it's even a bigger problem. Marijuana usage in public US schools is a massive problem. Teens find ways to buy and sell the drug. Legal marijuana will only worsen their fragile brains. It's a cultural problem, after all.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#126

You can buy THC gummies and THC vapes in certain Alabama gas stations now as well. I have no idea how this works legally though because it was only relatively recently legalized for medical use here. Must be something to do with some CBD-adjacent regulation that snuck in during COVID.

It's usually either CBD or Delta-8. It's legal because of the Farm Bill a few years back that legalized hemp, making CBD and D8 legal in the process.

Just to be clear though, this stuff won't get you high like weed. You might feel a little more relaxed because of the CBD but that's about it.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a voter-led initiative and the state legislature tried to ignore it in last year’s legislative session. The governor was not a fan either. There were some other leaders who tried to challenge it in court. So I wouldn’t make that strong of a claim that you’re making…it’s still a tough fight here and very conservative. In good news, the vote for the initiative was like 70% for it. Context on the state leg last…

> was a voter-led initiative and the state legislature tried to ignore it That this was a grass-roots initiative makes it more durable. It also means challengers can use it as a wedge issue, at the state level and federally.

True, but my educated guess as an observer of Mississippi politics... The US will legalize recreational marijuana at a federal level and then give the states the ability to legalize it or not. The state will not legalize it, and if they do, then they'll leave it up to the counties to decide. Most of the counties will not legalize it because it's a very conservative state where Christianity informs the politics more than personal freedoms.

And the grassroots efforts will have a hard fight because of how the power dynamics work in Mississippi. I'm very cynical about progressive politics in Mississippi because I've been a part of the grassroots movements and seen what actually happens. 100+ years of white supremacy is very effective at keeping the power structures in tact, because a lot of the voters are disenfranchised, gerrymandered out of having much power, or have moved away.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#128

Cannabis should be regulated no differently than tomatoes and cucumbers. It's great to see this baby step, but unfortunately a lot of medical states still gatekeep access way too aggressively. Everyone deserves access to this medicine. The rigid control framework ends up making it hard for producers too, and ultimately only the wealthiest investment groups are typically able to license/survive. Support your local car…

Listen, I'm a big legalization supporter, but comparing cannabis to tomatoes is silly and disingenuous. Tomatoes don't get you high.

Doesn’t matter at all in the context of freedom. Live and let live.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was a voter-led initiative and the state legislature tried to ignore it That this was a grass-roots initiative makes it more durable. It also means challengers can use it as a wedge issue, at the state level and federally.

True, but my educated guess as an observer of Mississippi politics... The US will legalize recreational marijuana at a federal level and then give the states the ability to legalize it or not. The state will not legalize it, and if they do, then they'll leave it up to the counties to decide. Most of the counties will not legalize it because it's a very conservative state where Christianity informs the politics more t…

> I'm super cynical about progressive politics in Mississippi

If cannabis legalisation gets branded as a progressive issue it’s DOA. In Mississippi as well as in most states.

Re: Mississippi is 37th state to legalize medical marijuana

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a voter-led initiative and the state legislature tried to ignore it in last year’s legislative session. The governor was not a fan either. There were some other leaders who tried to challenge it in court. So I wouldn’t make that strong of a claim that you’re making…it’s still a tough fight here and very conservative. In good news, the vote for the initiative was like 70% for it. Context on the state leg last…

> was a voter-led initiative and the state legislature tried to ignore it That this was a grass-roots initiative makes it more durable. It also means challengers can use it as a wedge issue, at the state level and federally.

Why haven't Democrats full-throatily supported legalization? I understand why Republicans haven't, but this seems so popular it seems crazy a major political party hasn't jumped on board.
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