{"id":3012,"date":"2013-01-22T15:28:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T20:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2013-01-22T15:28:28","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T20:28:28","slug":"legalizations-biggest-enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/2013\/01\/legalizations-biggest-enemies\/","title":{"rendered":"Legalization’s Biggest Enemies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pot-weed\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The marijuana legalization initiatives that triumphed in Washington and Colorado this past fall faced surprisingly little organized opposition. Money tells the story: Washington’s pro-legalization initiative I-502 raised more than $6 million from supporters, while the campaign against it pulled less than $16,000. \u00a0In Colorado, meanwhile, proponents of Amendment 64 raised more than $2 million, outdoing opponents, who raised about half a million. The anti-drug lobbyist groups that came out en masse against California’s legalization initiative Proposition 19 in 2010 were hardly visible in either state, partly because the prison-industrial complex wields less political power there.<\/p>\n

So what happens now? The biggest immediate threat to legalization in Washington and Colorado is the federal government, but even the feds might be hard-pressed to stomp out reform. “While there are actions the federal government and its U.S. Attorneys could theoretically take to \u2013 in the short term \u2013 impede the full implementation of a legal retail cannabis market in Colorado, Washington, and potentially elsewhere, the reality is that federal officials ultimately lack the manpower, public support, and as a consequence, the political will to \u2013 in the long term \u2013 turn back cannabis legalization,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The genie is already out of the bottle, and it cannot be put back in.”<\/p>\n

But before marijuana legalization spreads from Washington and Colorado to other states, it will have to get past a group of hardened drug warriors, many of whom have developed a personal interest in maintaining prohibition.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Legalization’s Biggest Enemies | Politics News | Rolling Stone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The marijuana legalization initiatives that triumphed in Washington and Colorado this past fall faced surprisingly little organized opposition. Money tells the story: Washington’s pro-legalization initiative I-502 raised more than $6 million from supporters, while the campaign against it pulled less than $16,000. \u00a0In Colorado, meanwhile, proponents of Amendment 64 raised more than $2 million, outdoing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,17,22],"tags":[201,1621,1578],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3015,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions\/3015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/therationalprogressive.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}