21st Century Cultural Shift Towards Legalizing Marijuana In United States
Author: Vas Blagodarskiy
Some states say that using marijuana for medical purposes is allowed, while the federal Drug Enforcement Agency enforces the nation-wide ban on pot in all states. Many medical marijuana clinics in California, for example, have been raided by the DEA, who seized hundreds of pounds of their inventory, despite the fact that medical marijuana is approved in California. This caused an outrage in the cannabis smoking society, and it heightens the overall hostility between citizens and the government when the issue at hand is legalizing weed.
Medical marijuana is currently legal in the following states: California, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Minnesota, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Certain states have also decriminalized it, which basically means that there is little to no punishment if you're arrested with the substance on you. Interstate commercialization of marijuana in smokable form is a federal crime, and has severe consequences to it. The hemp industry, however, is legal, and can be done between different states.
Doing research about your state and states around you is highly recommended. Any pot smoker should know the consequences of being caught by the police. If you're a student, your college or high school likely has no-tolerance policies addressing the substance, so make sure you're aware of those, as well; being caught with weed at school is not only going to get you in legal trouble, but it will go down on your permanent record for your entire academic life. Even if marijuana is legal in your state, you should still check your educational facility's rules and regulations, as well as disciplinary policies.
If you want to have an impact on cannabis legalization in your state, there are certain things that you can do. One, you can contact your local county representatives or city councils, inquiring about any marijuana drug law reforms that they might be considering. For all you know, there might be a bill under review already that you don't know about. Two, you can contact your Congress representatives over the issue, urging them to take steps towards drug law reform. You want to write / call / email your Congressman from the House of Representatives, because the Senate doesn't deal with domestic issues as much as international ones. Third, it's never a bad idea to personally meet with government officials, like your state governor or a county representative, if at all possible. Go to town council meetings. Find an appropriate time to bring this topic up. And make sure that there's a right time for everything - don't interrupt an ongoing meeting just to be heard. There's a right way to do things, and there's a wrong way to do things, and a sensitive topic like marijuana reform can't be ignored, OR done wrong. It's a slow process, but you can be a part of it.
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