meaning the fullest extent of the drug war comes back in full force. Not just with the laws and the politicians supporting it, but the general public as well. Attitudes about marijuana harden. Marijuana becomes more stigmatized and indistinguishable from crack and meth Support for legalizing marijuana drops like a rock into the single digits. All the marijuana rights won becomes threatened by recriminalization. Pot activists and its supporters become marginalized like NAMBLA. In the 70s people thought it was inevitable that marijuana was gonna be legalized for the whole country and at the federal level any day. All the positive things when it comes to laws, politics and public opinion around marijuana now was happening in the 70s. Then came major blowback and the marijuana reformers faded in the 80s. What if that same blowback happens again? Right now its a different world. But do you think things will start heading in that direction, especially with these new anti marijuana groups. They have brilliant new strategies to deceive the public and get them to support marijuana prohibition..
It could, but we have more scientific proof now of how good the herb is, which wasnt as prevalent before. I dont know about full legalization, but i doubt that weed will be seen as the same as hard drugs by many people ever again
We have 2 things that make me believe that wont happen. 1) the Internet(unlimited knowlage) people are more aware now. 2) Colorado and Washington. Once people see how much dough those 2 states rake in from pot taxes, many more states will be "going green"
You're already seeing the "re-branding" of pot in so many ways. "Just say NO" campaigns will never work again. But... big pharma is still busy convincing everyone that they cannot be trusted with whole plant cannabis. The government has been so fully infiltrated by corporations, they just set their agendas into law. Not much of a public "campaign" needed to do so. I think its so ironic how the mantra used to be "it will KILL you!" They were SO sure of themselves. Now? "We don't yet know enough about this plant..." Riiight....other than its valuable and no one is supposed to have it. I don't see us returning to the 80's. But the new prohibition is already in full swing.
I can foresee one more small wave of resistance before we achieve full legalization. The fact that there is such strong support for cannabis now means that the issue will eventually reach a full scale public debate. There is also the fact that a large percentage of people are still blinded by 80's style anti-everything crusading. Programs like DARE may look absurd to some people but sadly they still successfully brainwash a lot of kids into thinking pot is evil. And above all corporations still run this nation and if they say no pot then it is going to take every god damn ounce of effort from supporters to push this forward. Public opinion is rapidly changing in favor of marijuana and it is no longer accepted as a hard drug by a majority of people. That said there are still those who are dead set to keep it illegal, and it seems that those people have a lot of power.