Anyone concerned about a conservative backlash in regard to MMJ

I think the only way we can legalize it is a stoner cival war

but we'll get back to you on that...

 

I vote we start the civil war after these bong loads...


and food. We definately need food before a good civil war.

 

Not at all concerned, in every state where this has passed by referendum it was passed with votes from conservatives and liberals. Marijuana is not as much a political party thing as it is a generational thing. The torch is being passed to the generation X crowd. We grew up in the seventies and have seen the harm this war has done. What I worry about is that the D.A.R.E generation will come along and fuck it up because their heads got filled with shit (present company excluded, obviously).

 

looking at it politicaly, true republicans/conservitaves/libertarians would be for legalization. They dont want big govt telling them how to live, what they can and cant put into their bodies. Im a libertarian and know many of republicans who would like to see us stop wasting tax dollars on enforcing drug laws. As for the "dare generation" I was one. I am 23 now and remember taking dare classes in elementary and middle school. I dont think dare is even around anymore another waste of tax dollars, spreading propaganda. Kids (i.e. me, my friends) saw through that crap

 

What just happened in mass?

 

after like 30 years of kennedy they voted in a conservative republican

 

All DARE did was make kids curious. I remember seeing DARE everywhere when I was a kid, it was such a joke.

 

the election of scott brown..

i'm starting to worry, but you never know...it may turn out differently, we have a lot of support lately for MMJ going around.

 

it's funny because they are starting it in kindergarten here, trying to get them arly, kids walking around here with "say no to drugs" stickers and pencils....no joke

 

Completley true a lot of Republicans have lost their way when it come to MMJ.

 

As a republican and a MMM patient from Michigan, I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents here. (I'm really a libertarian, I just got sick of dealing with people who had no idea how to run elections and kept fighting with each other. So be it.)

Most republicans, especially the younger generation, are all for legalization. The problem is that for the most part the RNC is run in a very top-down, old fashioned way and the Neocons and the religious right control the whole thing. It's a perception issue, these dudes associate marijuana with hippies and people who don't want to work for a living (not my judgment mind you, but this is how they view it), they see pot smokers medical or not in a stereotypical manner representing everything they hate about society. Most people on the ground couldn't care much either way, especially here in the Detroit area where the biggest worry is jobs, jobs, jobs.

What was sated is right, this is definitely an issue of states rights and the feds need to back off. That's the way most of the party activists at the lower level feel.

Case in point, last year my house was raided by the police and my pot was taken. They waited around till we all left for work, went in, left no warrant, and tore the place up. This was about a month or so after I lost a local election by only about 100 votes. I posted something on my Facebook explaining the situation in full detail to dispel any kind of rumors about what may or may not have happened. After coming out and publicly admitting my pot use (before I was a certified patient) I received an out-pour of support from GOP activists, local party leaders from the tri-county area, all with their advice, well wishes, a handful offered me up legal contacts as well. After that I said "enough of this" and go my medical card so I'm good to go. But the bottom line was that they all felt that this was a gross abuse of police power that should have been spent on other things. Like stopping arson, rape, robbery, etc.

To this day I have felt no backlash, no awkwardness or anything else from the party. it doesn't matter to them. Nobody has stopped talking to me or anything like that.

As far as at the national level, the candidate will basically do what they want. Although since we've seen such a dramatic shift (and quickly) with independent voters and how fast they can turn on you (I went to Mass to work the Scott Brown election, so I saw first hand how pissed off people can get), I don't see anyone really focusing on something like this unless some asshat like Newt Gingrich is elected. I can't even imagine someone as batshit stupid as Palin coming in and instituting policy like this.

 

Although the MMJ movement is much further along than in the 70's, we should be studying and learning from history, lest we repeat the failures of our past. The MMJ/420 movement had support all the way up to Pres. Carter for nationwide decriminalization and ending the war....then some IDIOT chose to abuse drugs and get caught (I believe it was a cabinet member using cocaine, IIRC) - and the conservative backlash resulted in the Reagan/Bush drug war of the 80's/90's.

So while everything is looking good, and indeed there are many States either currently allowing or considering MMJ, lets not FUCK UP and blow it this time!! If you don't really have a medical justification, skip going to the "Pot Doc" just to get a MMJ rec. It's the obviously healthy and young "patients" that are drawing the most attention and scorn from the anti group. There are plenty of other methods to get your bud - I know I used the black market for MANY years (even with a SOLID medical justification) because I was leery of the potential for a backlsh.

Just my $0.02

 

I don't think there will be too much of a conservative backlash. I'm conservative and I'm all for legalization. Even my father who is a hardcore conservative wouldn't mind seeing marijuana legalized and an end to the drug war, and that surprised me.

 

When I was elementary school I was in a DARE program. I got a certificate, T-shirt, and all but that never stopped me from doing drugs. The most I've done though is Ecstasy, Meth ONCE, and weed (although I dont really consider weed a drug).

 

You say that, and even now, California is feeling some of the "backlash" from the rapid growth of the dispensaries/collectives here - just a small sample of recent happenings:

LA - just passed an ordinance limiting the number of shops and also forcing patients to only use one dispensary. This will force the closure of some 300-600 dispensaries
Fresno - closed all dispensaries.
Red Bluff - banned dispensaries.
City of Redding - severe limits on zoning for home growing (both indoor and outdoor) and also a series of VERY strict requirements for dispensaries (location, record keeping, permitting fees, etc).
Shasta County - recent strict ordinance regarding zoning for home grows (only 1 grow per parcel of land - regardless of the size of the property - so no collective gardens.......size restrictions yielding an area too small for the legal limit of 6 plants....etc).
Yreka - Banned dispensaries
Mt Shasta - current moratorium on dispensaries

Again - while we are making progress, let's not get too comfortable or hasty in our actions. I see both sides of this war - living in Shasta County (just 1 county east of the "Emerald Triangle"), there is lots of support for MMJ, however, there is also the conservative "good old boy" network up here. Just gotta remember forward progress- even if it is 2 steps forward, and 1 step back.

Just my $0.02