« What Opposition to "Legalization" Signifies, part 2 | Main | Anxiety, Dishonesty, and "Criminal" Drug Use »

February 19, 2012

Equal Justice under the Law?

The last entry described some of the inconsistencies and egregious unfairness with which the feds have enforced their ban on “medical marijuana” within California over the sixteen years since Proposition 215 passed. Just by chance, the San Francisco Chronicle (which in my opinion has done a terrible job of covering the initiative since 1996) surprised me a bit by reporting on the gross differences in the way the feds have handled the medical use issue in California and Colorado (to some extent, it may reflect the fact that Colorado had to amend its constitution in order to pass their law.

By the way, I also find it ironical that the Chronicle was bought by the Hearst Corporation, the same company that started as the San Francisco Examiner and grew into the most powerful newspaper empire in the US. Another example of what goes around comes around.

More than Ironic, to someone with a sense of history, is that William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain pioneered "yellow Journalism," and helped start us on the road to imperialism by agitating for War with Spain, it was also the source of sinister allegations that "dope peddlers" were selling cannabis to school kids, a major canard Harry Anslinger used in his push for the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. That the 1937 market was really quite small and primarily focused on adults in the music and entertainment industries is strongly supported by my population demographics, one of several points today's self-appointed policy "experts" either miss or are unable to understand.

Doctor Tom

Posted by tjeffo at February 19, 2012 05:24 PM

Comments