with Tamar Todd, Senior Director of the Drug Policy Alliance‘s Office of Legal Affairs. Todd also directs the work of DPA’s Marijuana Law and Policy Unit, which focuses primarily on medical marijuana, marijuana decriminalization, and the implementation of marijuana legalization and regulation initiatives across the United States.
David Downs, a journalist and author who covers cannabis for several outlets. he writes the column Legalization Nation in the East Bay Express. He is the author of the book The Medical Marijuana Guidebook: America’s First How-To Guide for Patients and Caregivers.
and Tim Blake, founder of the Emerald Cup, Northern California’s annual medical marijuana competition. He is based in the Emerald Triangle.
Cannabis has been in continuous use by humankind for over 5,000 years. Before “Reefer Madness” began cannabis was widely used for recreation and medicine and was well understood for its many medicinal benefits and properties. Pharmaceutical companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly used cannabis in medicines widely sold in U.S. pharmacies to treat epilepsy, pain, insomnia, migraines, glaucoma, and rheumatism. Between 1840 and 1900, U.S. scientific journals published hundreds of articles touting the therapeutic benefits of cannabis.
Cannabis is completely legal again in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Washington DC and the sky hasn’t fallen, and these cannabis legal states still function as they always have with some notable exceptions . Instead of drug cartels and gangs getting billions of cannabis dollars legitimate responsible business is handling the funds providing new jobs for thousands of citizens. Teen use is either unchanged or down. These states are getting a healthy chunk in new taxes. Gangs and drug cartels are moving out to places where cannabis is still illegal. Multiply the success by 50 states. Millions of new jobs, BILLIONs in new tax revenue and NO MORE DRACONIAN POLICE WAR on folks for cannabis consumption. Enough with the lies just Legalize!