Over a year after the first election of a President who openly admitted smoking cannabis, "I inhaled frequently, that was the point", the state of cannabis reform in America appears to be at a tipping point. As the Drug War rages in Mexico, fueled by the high demand for cannabis in America for medical marijuana users to the growing popularity amongst teens, past misleading "truths" are being done away with.
The growing acceptance is illustrated by a Mom & Son partnership to a so-called gourmet restaurant in Denver serving cannabis laced food, for medical patients, called Ganja Gourmet. This growing acceptance has led a conservative columnist to question the rational for medical marijuana, and if out-right legalization would not be better for society.
Nevertheless, with public approval of repealing restrictions on cannabis at an all-time high, the Justice Department announcing they will not prosecute cannabis use or distribution where legal under state law, some states are taking action. Some legislators in California have been advocating outright legalization, with even the Governor saying he is "open to debate on it", an initiative for legalization will be on the 2010 California ballot. Though Barack Obama disagrees, many have suggested taxation of cannabis could help financially struggling states cope with budget deficits.
New Jersey if poised to join the growing movement to legalize medical use of cannabis, partly as a result of a multiple sclerosis patient currently being tried for his personal use and cultivation of cannabis. This trial has been wrought with problems; the jury was not going to be allowed to hear testimony about his medical use of the plant, but when John Ray Wilson, the defendant, took the stand, he was allowed to say "I told them I was not a drug dealer and I was using the marijuana for my MS." This case might set the stage for a national debate on the medical benefits of cannabis. The outgoing New Jersey Governor has expressed his support of signing such legislation into law before he leaves office in January, which would make New Jersey the 15th state to have some form of legalized medical marijuana laws in place.
In recent study conducted on the overall dangers of 20 substances, cannabis was ranked 11, behind Alcohol and Tobacco. The AMA has asked the Federal Government to reconsider its classification of cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, suggesting they are open to the idea of the medical benefits. ABC's Good Morning America recently featured a segment where an Autistic child benefitted greatly from eating cannabis laced brownies. And with the myriad of positive medical and society benefits of a more lax policy towards cannabis, a new study shows that teens exposed to cannabis can have irreversible, long-term, negative effects on the brain.
A open, responsible, national debate is needed on this topic, so we as a nation arrive at an American solution for cannabis reform, instead of letting momentum take it where it chooses.