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I'd say its legal in most states within the next 10 years. But who will profit most from this?

The legalization movement will keep trending and we'll see medical mj everywhere w/i 5-7 years. You'll still have your hardline republicans that will keep their heels dug in but I see the party shaping more into what Rand Paul is looking for, at least on this particular issue. I bet the marijuana industry keeps rising exponentially as Bitcoin has and will continue to do. Cannabis does for the mind and soul what Bitcoin does for your finances. That said, I have no personal use for cannibas other than to potentially invest in future operations as it will be the cash crop.

The future of Marijuana in America is this: The government will regulate and tax it heavily, and we will end up paying 100 bucks an 1/8. Fucken bullshit, and its coming.

It's growing rapidly and nationwide view on its legality is finally changing. I saw them discussing cannabis on the Dr. Oz show for godsakes. It's becoming accepted by the mainstream and will see legalization in a majority of the bigger states in the next 5-10 years.

Colorado is making a fortune off of the legalization. California is in desperate need of those funds.

Not only will it make our states money. It will take money out from under these murderous cartels.

More states will continue to legalize, obviously. Public opinion is changing. The days of reefer madness, are over.

Not only does it have massive recreational potential that is both safer and less incapacitating than alcohol, but cannabis is also perhaps one of the most medicinal plants on the entire planet, period.

The industry will be huge - for both recreational, and medical purposes.

The cannabis industry and the bitcoin industry are similar in that they both have MASSIVE potential for growth, job creation, and investment opportunities.

Anyone who gets into either industry can stand to profit in a big way.

I would just like to point out that your activity is 420  :)

lol :)

I disagree with both of these statements. I think that states legalizing marijuana is only occurring because of the liberal mindset of the Obama administration and the administrations willingness to look the other way in states that make weed legal. Once a president with half a brain is elected, the federal drug laws will be enforced in these states again and other states will likely not pass similar laws.

Weed can be safer then alcohol however using weed often will lead to the use of "harder" more harmful drugs. Weed is considered to be a "gateway drug"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_drug_theory

The future is huge money for anyone in that game and doing it right.

This trend is only occurring in very liberal states. I think once people see how bad of an idea this is and the problems they ultimately create the trend will eventually reverse itself.

I'd say the sky is the limit and the future is whatever people can imagine.  Enough people wanted to see weed legal and it has begun to happen.  Years ago If you had said that was going to happen I'm not sure I would have 100% believed it.  I'm leaning towards hemp products becoming more used in the future and more concentrated and healthier ways to consume cannabis will be more popular in the future.

I disagree with your prognosis. The laws are changing because people are finally waking up and realizing that the government has lied to them about the dangers of Weed.

Any president that is elected will be careful how they deal with the issue of weed becoming legal because to crack down on it entirely will create a lot of unpopularity for their government. You don't want to alienate 50% of americans, which is pretty close to the percentage of americans that now favor legalization.

I don't know what the exact numbers are now, but the majority of americans now favor less strict marijuana laws and at least medical pot programs. The polling has shown this.

The gateway drug theory is a massive joke. What you said makes no sense. Alcohol use may be far more harmful than cannabis (no shit, alcohol kills hundreds of thousands of people every year) but somehow using Cannabis is more likely to get you to want to do hard drugs? Nonsensical bullshit.

Except it creates no problems other than in the minds of soccer moms who are all brainwashed by that one simple phrase "But but think of the Children"!!!

The trend is clear - cannabis has massive potential in the recreational and medical industries. It is safer than alcohol or tobacco, and it's chemical profile has shown to have potential healing benefits for almost every ailment from cancer to diabetes to seizures to chronic pain... it has the potential to be a more effective painkiller than opiates for example, without the potential for overdose, chronic addiction and death.

Also for these reasons legal pot has a lot of enemies. It threatens many existing industries.

Because prohibition of alcohol was such a success, right? Recreational drug use is, has been, and always will be, how large numbers of the human species choose to alter their minds, for fun and, often, enlightenment. Problematic recreational drug use should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal one.

Education, not indoctrination. Because 'drugs are bad' is ignorant mantra, not useful information.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20140204/fatal-car-crashes-involving-pot-use-have-tripled-in-us-study-finds


Define safer...;)

Define 'involved'.

Chronic users of marijuana will usually test positive even if they are not actually high, or impaired, at the time.

So it's one of them:
-either 1 in every nine americans is a pot smoker
-pot smokers are far more likely to be involved in a fatal crash even when not high

Oh niothor...

Anyone with any kind of experience in life knows this very simple, obvious truth.

I'll give you a hint - people who get stoned don't black out and drive their cars into other people. People who get stoned don't get belligerent and start fights. People who get stoned don't ever kill their livers and die of cirrhosis. People who get stoned don't pass out and then choke to death on their own vomit. Need I go on?

Alcohol is a poisonous substance that kills you if you take in too much of it. Cannabis is a healing herb without a single recorded overdose death..

Also, webmd is a terrible source.

There is another thing I would like to bring up that I forgot about. The hemp industry also has huge potential for explosive growth. Hemp does not contain any significant concentrations of any psychoactive substances, and yet it has dozens of industrial uses - it can be used to create clothing, paper, textiles, rope, biofuel, and the seeds are an extremely nutritious superfood (they contain all essential amino acids) and yet, despite hemp not containing any psychoactive substances, it was similarly banned with cannabis.

Legalizing weed brings in millions of $$$ of revenue in a state. They will not continue to ignore the dollar signs.

Please quote a source then to back up your own claims then...
As for what people do after smoking MJ , I had a friend who had a panic attack after smoking MJ and that scene was enough so I won't try weed ever.

They use the fact that 1 out of 9 people that tested positive for marijuana was involved in a fatal crash.  Doesn't mean they caused the accident or had used marijuana very recently.  Then they say non-alcohol drugs will overtake alcohol related deaths.  They are basically lumping cannabis with other drugs like prescription drugs..  This article is more a propaganda piece to demonize cannabis to those who aren't aware of the facts.

As I said, just because they would test positive for having used marijuana recently, regular users would test positive even if they hadn't had any for several days. Would you criticise someone for driving after having had three beers a week ago? It is also dishonest to use this statement to imply that 1 of 9 drivers who tested positive were responsible for the fatal crashes, when they could equally have been the innocent victims of a reckless driver, you know, the sort that drive drunk.


 
It is also dishonest to use this statement to imply that marijuana use will cause an increase in impaired driving incidents when, actually, this statement merely refers to non-alcohol drugs, which includes prescription drugs, AND, what is more, if the number of alcohol-related driving deaths is decreasing, then the number of impaired driving incident related to non-alcohol drugs would, of course, eventually outnumber the alcohol-related ones.

It is quite possible that decent drug-education, including that for ethanol, the world's number 1 drug of choice, will see the incidents of impaired driving reduce across the board as drugged-driving, like drunk-driving, becomes viewed as socially unacceptable. Unlike a generation ago when having a few 'brewskis' and driving home was perfectly fine.

In case Marijuana becomes legal within the next 10 years, most of the drug cartels around the world will lose their main source of income.  ;D

Also, the national parks within the United States will no longer be cut down to plant hemp by the Mexican drug cartels. Also, the state and federal governments will benefit a lot, in terms of tax money.

If they legalized Marijuana and Cocaine, the cartels would be out of business.

Legalize cocaine? Yeah , I just want to see the country where this will become legal.
Pure curiosity , would you want to live there?

Pretty sure Portugal legalized ALL drugs, and they have only seen positive results.

What are the negative aspects of this? Illegality leads to impure forms of cocaine and even crack cocaine. Not to mention that massive waste of tax dollars that goes to the failed war on drugs.

The drug policy of Portugal was put in place in 2000, and was legally effective from July 2001. The new law maintained the status of illegality for using or possessing any drug for personal use without authorization. However, the offense was changed from a criminal one, with prison a possible punishment, to an administrative one if the amount possessed was no more than ten days' supply of that substance

Every year, Portuguese law enforcement bodies confiscate several tonnes of cocaine, with a record amount of more than 34.5 tonnes seized in 2006. A regular increase in quantities of cannabis resin seized could also be observed over recent years, though there has been a recent decline between 2008 (61 tonnes) and 2009 (23 tonnes)

Not really seeing any negatives.

Isn't it true that addiction has decreased in Portugal?

The same action here in the US would slash a huge portion of the Mexican cartel's income. Also, our jails wouldn't be so overpopulated with non-violent drug offenders

Drugs , any kind of drugs are illegal in Portugal. You claimed that they are legal
What the hell are you talking about ???

Ok.........Decriminalization. That is close to legalization.


Why are you splitting hairs?

What are the negatives of this situation?

Decriminalization doesn't make the legal. Drugs are still illegal in Portugal. Yet you stated that Portugal legalized drugs.
FALSE.
End of debate.

Cocaine is a horrible drug. It is generally considered to be a "hard" drug as it has very serious effects on you and your body. Any government that seriously considers to legalize cocaine is just crazy

LOL you are a nit.

What are the negatives of drug decriminalization? Deflect some more

Have you ever done cocaine? Or heroine?
Or do you have at least one friend who is addicted to that stuff?

Why is it considered hard and why is it horrible? Because people abuse it?

Cocaine has been used medicinally, ceremonially, and recreationally since the pre-Columbian era. Pope Leo XIII carried around a flask of cocaine-laced wine called Vin Mariani. The 1886 recipe for Coca-Cola included coca leaves. Sigmund Freud even wrote about its use for exhilaration and lasting euphoria. It wasn't until 1903 that the American Journal of Pharmacy wrote about its ability for abuse by "degenerates".

The point of decriminalization is to get help for abusers instead of jail time and to take money out of the pockets of illegal gangs/cartels that profit from it. Most of the time through extreme violence. Any government that doesn't seriously consider decriminalization is just crazy.

The reason that cocaine is considered to be a "hard drug" is because it is so easy and so common to get addicted after using it for recreational purposes just a few times (if not the first time). Help is already available to people who abuse cocaine and other hard drugs, it is just that if they are caught with a certain amount of it they will also face criminal charges. The criminal aspect of it will likely cause people to not try it (and not get addicted to it) in the first place.

Wishful thinking at best.

All Prohibition does is create an extremely lucrative black market for people to profit off of.... and create an equally lucrative for-profit private prison complex. There are billions of $ to be made. Do you really think people are going to stop doing it because of a silly law they don't even agree with, infact a law that they look down upon?

Millions of people still end up doing coke despite the law. Out of those millions, maybe 3-4% actually develop hardcore addictions. It's not as high as you think, but you are conditioned to think it's higher due to the propaganda.

Cocaine after all is a stimulant not that much stronger than coffee unless you take a large amount of it in its most purified refined form.

Asian immigrants would chew coca leaves before going to work before it was made illegal, this allowed them to work longer and harder than their white counterparts.

If you dig deep enough, you will find that prohibition has much of its roots entrenched in racism.

But anyway.. enough of the history lesson..

The future of the marijuana industry is looking brighter and brighter and safer and safer thanks to recent legalizations and changing cultural moreys of the US West Coast states.

For the folks who were asking if I would live in a place with legal cocaine---absolutely!  In our world everything has a price and when you make something "illegal" all you're really doing in artificially inflating the price.  In the case of cocaine, prohibition is supporting all kinds of evils from the destruction of traditional ways of life in the Andes (coca farmers who are not producing cocaine) to the murder and violence of drug raids and smugglings.  And why?  People who want cocaine still pay the price to get it.

Ah but you see they have!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cocaine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cocaine)
They haven't gotten worse since they legalized them, Czech Republic is pretty nice ;)

This logic is ridiculous.

What about prescription drug abuse that is so rampant in this country? Are those considered hard drugs because they are easy to get and are extremely addictive?

People break their own legs/arms so that they can get these prescription drugs.

The idea that the criminal aspect will make people not try something is completely laughable. Illegality contributes to black market sales which contain chemically unsafe products and many of these drug deals end in violence.

I agree, the reason one drug or another is made illegal usually has more to do with monied interests or racism than any concrete evaluation of what's actually dangerous.

Sounds about right honestly because they legalized these type of drugs in Latin America
It's making its way up the chain to other places pretty much even The USA admits it funked up this one pretty badly and needs to reconsider its approaches.

The question now becomes will it happen to cocaine once Marijuana falls
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-nadelmann/colombia-decriminalizes-c_b_1638395.html

Also can we live in a society where we don't need to worry so much about money laundering because most drugs are legal or prescription only (except for the really really bad stuff)

___

Colombia's move is part of a growing trend in Latin America. After decades of being brutalized by the U.S. government's failed prohibitionist drug policies, Latin American leaders are saying "enough is enough."

Last week, the government of Uruguay announced that it will submit a proposal to legalize marijuana under government-controlled regulation and sale, making it the first country in the world where the state would sell marijuana directly to its citizens. The proposal was drafted by Uruguayan President José Mujica and his staff and requires parliamentary approval before being enacted.

Friday's judicial ruling in Colombia represents yet another important step in the growing political and judicial movement in Latin America and Europe to stop treating people who consume drugs as criminals worthy of incarceration. It is consistent with prior rulings by Colombian courts before former president Álvaro Uribe sought to undermine them, and also with rulings by the Supreme Court of Argentina in 2009 and other courts in the region. The Colombian Constitutional Court's decision is obviously most important in Colombia, where it represents both a powerful repudiation of former president Uribe's push to criminalize people who use drugs and a victory for President Juan Manuel Santos' call for a new direction in drug policy.

_
Sooner or later this might not become a crime per say with jail time but something that gets treated in therapy instead.

lol... most of the cocaine consumed in the Czech Republic is mopped up by the Germans, who travel to that country in order to buy (semi)legal cocaine. In my opinion all recreational drugs, whether soft or hard must be legalized. An individual should have the freedom on what he should do with his body. The state has no control or responsibility here.

I agree with bryant.coleman.  But I'd add to your argument the facts about all the evil perpetrated in trying to control these things.  Not only are states and gov't wrong to try, they commit major atrocities when they do try.  And in the end, the fact that these drugs are basically available everywhere in the world shows they aren't even succeeding by trying.

Everyone will profit except for criminals, some parts of the tobacco industry, the alcohol industry, a few pharmaceutical companies, prisons, and some local, state, and federal police forces.

I agree. But the problem is that after decriminalization
state will be tempted to repair its ailing finances by taxation
of these drugs. Which implies monopolistic control of them.

So the ideal solution is decriminalization coupled with moralistic
mainstream attitude towards drugs on the general public level,
that makes it hard for the state to interfere. We then have a
thriving underground culture that benefits everyone  ;)

The government of Uruguay has taken the right step in this direction. There, the government has made weed available for less than $1 per gram. Here the consumers are getting benefited, as they are getting quality weed for so cheap, while the government is also saving money, by not having to spend its tax funds on police operations against the drug smugglers.

Well said. I think this is the no. 1 reason why pot is still illegal these days.

I don't think this is totally accurate.  For me, I'd prefer a system where commercial marijuana is taxed and regulated (just like commercial food production) but allow people to grow and barter their own on small scales without interference (again like cottage industry food production).

Fair enough although the market will need to adjust
But what I see is medicine pharmaceuticals and smoking traditional type being affected but curious what else, assumes healthcare I guess but not really threatening but just substituting some smokers from cigars to marijuana etc.

Oregon, Alaska and Washington D.C. are all voting on full out cannabis legalization in November.

All three of them stand a very good chance of passing. It is like dominoes, more and more states will succumb to the allure of millions of tax dollars and less money spent on imprisoning people. And even if only one of them passes, it will still make a big wave.

Florida is voting for MMJ in november also.

Every time a state goes medical, it's a small step in the right direction.

The trend is clear - Pot legalization will go mainstream given enough time.

Now, let us patiently wait to see what happens in november.

Mysterious Men Dropping From Helicopters To Chop Down NorCal Marijuana Grows

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/09/12/mysterious-men-dropping-from-helicopters-to-chop-down-norcal-marijuana-grows-mendocino-county-lear-asset-management/

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/162942-2014-09-14-mysterious-men-dropping-from-helicopters-to-chop-down-norcal-marijuana.htm

:)

I don't think it is the right direction when harmful drugs can be consumed legally as per state laws.

I think one thing all the people who are investing in weed dispensaries is the fact that weed is still a schedule 2 drug based on federal law and anyone selling it faces time in federal prison. The US constitution provides that federal law overrides state law. As of now the Obama administration is ignoring the federal laws (they tend to do what they want) but there is a good chance that once a Republican is voted into office that the federal drug laws will be enforced in a manor that congress indented for them to be enforced (and how they were written).

I agree, alcohol really is an awful drug.

As for congress, are you that naive you believe all the misinformation and deceit some of them employ to make something positive sound as bad as possible in order to make it fit their own personal agenda?
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/18/3569325/cbo-projects-drug-sentencing-reform-would-save-billions-but-this-senator-doesnt-like-math/?

I'm guessing he's got an 'interest' in the private prison industry. Have you ever looked into that epic money-spinner? There is a reason why your country has the highest percentage of prison inmates per capita, and it ain't because they are all bad-ass criminals. It's one of the most profitable industries in the US, with income being derived from both government and the inmates themselves through cheap/free labour for factory-line production of goods they can sell for far less than a regular company, you know, that employs regular people.

So, perversely, the more people you throw in prison, the fewer jobs will be available for regular citizens because the prison industrial complex puts manufacturing companies out of business by using slave labour.

Weed is not a harmful drug. Quite the opposite really if you do any research at all...

I don't think the next president will crack-down on all the legal pot states. By the time 2016 comes around you will probably have 5 or 6 legal states. It would be a massive operation, disrupting the lives of millions of people, that would also make you look EXTREMELY bad and would hurt your popularity massively.

The jig is up. They can't continue the anti-pot charades any longer. People want their recreation, and people need their medication. Are these not the basics of freedom, something that America was supposedly founded on? Or is everything about this nation a complete farce.

It is the president's job to enforce the laws, not to rewrite them so their popularity will increase. When a president is sworn in, he swears to uphold the constitution and the constitution says that the executive branch (of which the president is the head of) will enforce the laws written by congress.

Studies have shown that there is a link between pot use and schizophrenia; if this is not harmful then IDK what is.

So it's the president's job to enforce fascist laws dictating the lives of others in terms of what they can or cannot put into their bodies, a personal fucking choice that does not cause any harm to anyone else? A group of laws that just so happen to enrich the prison-industrial complex with billions of dollars, no less?

Especially a harmless plant which is known to greatly aid in treating cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, sickness, nausea, nerve pain and hundreds of other medical ailments?

The link between pot and schizophrenia is pure bologna. The only cases in which it may be harmful is if you have latent genetic schizophrenia... (less than .1% of the population) DERP

Stupid fucking bullshit.

Millions of people have been imprisoned over a harmless plant that heals people... oh the irony.

No matter how BS a law is perceived to be by the public or by the president, the president took an oath to enforce all laws. If the president does not think a law is appropriate then he should ask congress to change it (the same applies to citizens). Even if he "thinks" a law is unconstitutional all he is able to do is file a friend of the court brief saying that the administration thinks the law should be overturned when a case about the law gets to the supreme court.

None of the rest of your arguments matter. It is not up to the president to determine if a law should be a low or not (only to the extent that he can veto a law that congress passes) 

The decades-old maryjane prohibitionist laws are clearly foolish at best, life destroying at worst. They offer no real benefit to society, drain the system, and fill up the prisons with people who don't deserve to have their lives thrown away.

And you really think the prez should mobilize tens of thousands of troopers and organize thousands of raids to shut it down, based on an old law enacted during an era full of racism and ignorance?

The oath of the president means nothing. Almost every president breaks dozens of laws, commits war crimes, and does all sorts of stupid shit. If they actually gave a shit about the constitution or about freedom we never would have gotten into this conundrum in the first place. This country was bought and sold for long ago, and the next president will do whatever is most politically convenient. Which definitely doesn't involve disrupting millions of $$ worth of trade in multiple states in a now quasi-legal industry that is positively affecting the lives of so many people. If the next pres tries to pull that shit, he's gonna have to wait til his 2nd term because he certainly won't get re-elected. A very high % of americans now support legal weed.

In our (US) next elections, expect to see several more states joining Washington and Colorado. I figure it'll be Oregon, Arizona and one of the New England states on the other side.

Don't look for ass backwards redneck inbred southern states to be anywhere but end/back of the line.

As for the taxation, I have to point this out - legalization of mj in this country effectively puts the skids on that entire market. Not other street drugs but pot specifically. Once it's decriminalized, it's not anything the government can tax because it stops being "drugs" and returns to being "vegetable" - a plant, so it's growing tomatoes, not growing drugs.

If you can grow your own, you're not buying it and the back door deals to get better product will be as unregulated then as it is now. They can't tax it anymore than they can stop bitcoin.