Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, has now come out in favor of medical marijuana and that's a huge development in the fight to legalize pot nationwide.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came out in favor of medical marijuana Thursday in a Las Vegas Sun interview, becoming one of the highest elected officials in the U.S. government to give his support.
"If you’d asked me this question a dozen years ago, it would have been easy to answer -- I would have said no, because [marijuana] leads to other stuff," Reid was quoted as saying. "But I can’t say that anymore."
"I think we need to take a real close look at this,” he added. “I think that there’s some medical reasons for marijuana."
Although it remains illegal under federal law, polls show that most Americans supportmedical marijuana. And Attorney General Eric Holder announced in August that the Department of Justice would not interfere, at least at first, as states that have legalized weed for adults create their regulatory regimes -- a dramatic policy shift from federal authorities' targeting of medical marijuana dispensaries that were legal under state law.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also supports medical marijuana. Neither Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nor House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) does.
Americans are taking a big look at legalizing pot as states are lining up to pass new laws. The New Hampshire House just voted to become the first legislative body to legalize recreational use of weed.
The New Hampshire House became the first legislative body Wednesday to pass a billlegalizing recreational marijuana. The bill is modeled on the laws passed by ballot initiative in Washington and Colorado, and would legalize up to an ounce of possession, tax and regulate distribution, and allow individuals to grow up to six plants.
In a new Washington Post poll, D.C. residents now support legalizing marijuana big time.
Support for legalizing marijuana has expanded dramatically in the nation’s capital, with residents who were split evenly on the issue four years ago now favoring sales of the drug for personal use by a ratio of almost 2 to 1, according to a new Washington Post poll. Washingtonians of every age, race and ethnicity — teenagers and seniors, blacks and whites — registered double-digit increases in support of legalization. Overall, 63 percent are in favor.
When seniors are starting to favor the legalization of pot, you know there's no stopping its passage. It'll be interesting to see how the federal government goes about handling this in the future since pot is illegal to the feds. If a Republican gains the White House in the future would any of them consider ever making the feds back off from criminalizing it? I doubt it.
