In case you missed it, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana usage this past Tuesday on Election Day, two examples among many progressive reforms that were approved by voters across the country. However, while many were celebrating in the streets, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper ’74 warned Coloradans from indulging in their new rights too quickly. As Fox News reported the governor saying:
“The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will,” Hickenlooper said in a statement Tuesday night. “This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.”
In return, some supporters responded to the governor’s warning by sending him packs of the above-mentioned munchies snacks.
While Hickenlooper wasn’t down with legalizing MJ to begin with, the state’s Attorney General has said they will nevertheless move forward with implementing the law. Now one just has to hope that the Feds won’t come in to find those who take advantage of the new law. However, it could be that Colorado and Washington’s policy changes reflect a change in national trends regarding peoples’ attitudes towards drugs and a blow to the War on Drugs. This, in turn, could potentially result in a national-level change in the federal stance on recreational marijuana usage.
For more on John Hickenlooper, click here. For more on marijuana, click here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v_Raich
With the tens of thousands of deaths attributed to the War on Drugs across the Americas, and more than 50% of the revenue funding it coming from illicit marijuana sales inside the U.S., it is truly disgusting that this Wes alum would resort to such a dehumanizing joke concerning an urgent, serious political issue. Fuck Hickenlooper.
Dehumanizing? Who exactly is being dehumanized? Do you understand the scale of that word? Hickenlooper is making a light-hearted joke about marijuana users, in light of the fact that while marijuana is now legal in Colorado, it is still federally illegal. That is all. Have some perspective.
Who, you ask? How about everyone criminalized by the drug war who is NOT just a marijuana “user”! How about families loosing loved ones to the prison system for selling marijuana, or parolee’s sent back to prison for drug crimes? How about whole communities who are targeted by the police and assumed to be drug dealers/users, on the basis of race and class perception? By thinking of marijuana only on the “user” end, like you, and like Hickenlooper, we literally erase from view those peoples lives negatively impacted by the culture of marijuana, the violence of policing, or the coercion of the market. Those who bear the worst violence of the drug policies but who are not necessarily “users” themselves. That is dehumanizing, it is childish, it is ignorant. Fuck hickenlooper x2.
Hickenloop has absolutely zero power to do anything about this law and whether the federal government will honor it, hence him joking around. You should be thankful the voters in Colorado passed it in the first place. Calm down (or smoke some weed)
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/