Like Most Progressive Ideas, Marijuana Legalization Is Just A Matter Of Time

Posted by | November 13, 2010 16:41 | Filed under: Top Stories


Gays will one day soon serve openly in the military. They’ll eventually be able to marry anywhere in the United States. And marijuana will one day be legal. Like most progressive ideas, it’s just a matter of time. We’ll look back upon these struggles as archaic; as archaic as the fight for women’s right to vote and the right of blacks to serve in an integrated military.

Backers of California’s Proposition 19 are encouraged that the measure got 46% of the vote, more votes than losing gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman received.

We’re going to win,” said Aaron Houston, the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a nonprofit group in Washington. “And we’re going to win a whole lot sooner than anybody thinks.”

But for all that heady talk, proponents of legalization still face a series of stiff challenges, including winning over older members of the electorate — who overwhelmingly rejected the measure — as well as wary elected officials from both political parties. And while most advocates say that Proposition 19 was a high-water mark for the movement, many admit that the road to legalization will also require new campaign ideas, more money and a tighter, more detailed message to overcome persistent cultural concerns about the drug.

Younger voters are more open to legalization, just as they are more open to equal rights for gays.  That is another indicator that it’s just a matter of time.

…many activists saw the campaign as worth it, saying that Proposition 19 helped educate voters and brought the issue of legalization into the mainstream. And in Denver, several speakers said a victory at the ballot box — either in California, Colorado or another state — was just around the corner.

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Copyright 2010 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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