A bill was introduced in the Senate yesterday, with bi-partisan sponsorship. It is an eminantly reasonable one. It would allow states to determine the legality of medical marijuana, strip the drug of its current Schedule I status (reserved for drugs such as heroin which have no medical value), free up banks and other lending agencies to fund medical marijuana businesses and, of course, set the stage for ultimate decriminalization.
It is not only sensible it’s a near perfect fit for gathering support from both sides of the aisle. It has a states rights component, a free-enterprise component, an individual choice component, and a pro-banking component. It diminishes the role of the Feds — a favorite meme of the Tea Party.
It also has obvious progressive elements in that it would lower incarceration rates, be a major move toward ending the idiotic “war” on drugs that’s been a sociopolitical albatross since Nixon’s day and be one more step toward eliminating sumptuary crimes.
I’ll just sit here for a time and wait to see how it gets screwed up. Betcha it’ll be the GOP’s krazy kaucus in the House. I so want to be wrong.