I've been in the thick of the thread, and he said what I wanted to. Congress could have rescheduled, jimmy's right about that, instead of this... this... what do I call this? It's a platitude is what it feels like, in the face of scheduling. Ya feel me there?
I mean, when I found out that several mechanisms exist for rescheduling, I've been pretty fuckin' pissed off about it ever since. It's like no one wants to make a decision, yet they have the power and the will of the people, so we can only surmise a very few reasons for the recalcitrance here.
Rescheduling is totally not required to end law enforcement harassment. It is fully possible to put together a piecemeal state regulatory system based on federal non-enforcement. Look no further than The Netherlands. While we don't currently inhabit an America where the comparison holds water, there's nothing to stop us from getting there if we actually WANT to collectively as a nation.
Beyond not being required, rescheduling (in any way but removing completely from scheduling or significantly downgrading the schedule below what is likely to happen) can introduce a number of potentially very murky legal situations.
Medical would certainly be in safer times, the safest of times even, but recreation might have an even larger response. It could have implications regarding mandatory minimums (in many states marijuana has been specifically written out of mandatory minimums for Schedule I but importantly NOT II).
Either we'd have stateswide sweeping changes in law, or potentially it could fuck some people who were previously doing A-OK.
I think the real answer is to take this type of piece-wise approach, because focusing more on one thing vs. the next typically ends up as piecemeal as the last thing. Changing language on the books isn't necessarily enough but neither is changing the schedule.
Eventually if we can get shit to happen in concert then the scales tip in favor as stigma fades over time. If you look at The Netherlands essentially the only thing keeping them from full legalization is that they are a signatory to the anti-drug treaties primarily underwritten by the US. Once the US tips over, a large portion of the world will--from there this shit is irreversible.
My fear? That we're not asking for enough. I think the isssue isn't pot is good, pot is better than this or that so therefore by the transitive property of not-that-badness the government shouldn't get to tell me what to put in my body. I think we're doing a big song and dance to basically tell the government that they don't get to tell us what to put in our body, full stop.
Is heroin bad? Yes it is. Notwithstanding the fact that the drug war makes nearly everything about heroin WORSE than it would be without it--there still is this fundamental issue of we are trading our liberty for safety. We don't like the idea of junkies around so we feel justified in removing someone elses choice by force. Well, buddy, guess who's next?
Prohibition in all of its forms (censorship et al included) is the slipperiest of slippery slopes.
If you want to make a prime example of what a slippery slope is metaphorically--this is your go to. If we run around saying you can't have this you can't have that--pretty soon its your shit that's not allowed to be had.
I think we can use sense and pick and choose what things make sense to prohibit and what don't, but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed--like what can I consume or grow. Like maybe we should prohibit or limit ownership of tanks and apache helicopters for instance. I'd say guns but I don't wanna even have that argument right now. The point is even if you love your guns, you should be for heroin legalization and regulation. If we don't apply the logic evenly the entire thing underwriting our argument here just burns away. Functionally you don't get to "let me have pot" without "I have a right to put it in me if I want to". Without that the government can always find or define whatever justification they want to use. It needs to be a right or its meaningless. This isn't a right that comes because a plant makes a certain chemical a certain way. It's just a right because it is, because you get to make these decisions for yourself.
