The reason pot is still illegal is because public opinion just shifted in favor of legalization last year, and the attitude among likely voters (skew older than the general population), probably is still against. See: http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports...
The real reason isn't lobbyists. The real reason is soccer moms and dads and baby boomers, who vote in droves, who are convinced that pot will make their kids sit around and mastrubate all day. The ones that hold monthly anti-drug assemblies in school where they shriek "just say no!" at the top of their lungs.
Voters don't decide anything. They don't vote for laws, they vote for politcians which after being elected have very little incentive to serve the voters and all the incentives in the world to serve the corporations. It's almost unseen for a politician to lose his job, and it's easier and more profitable for him to lie throughout his term than to do good for his voters.
However you wanted it to be otherwise, politics still obeys economic laws, and the incentive for a politician will always be in the wrong place.
The marijuana situation is a great example of precisely why that assertion is wrong. Public opinion shifts, and within a couple of years, places all over the country are decriminalizing. You think the corporations have let up in the last couple of years? What's the more rational explanation of the data?
And how long did it take? And how many staes is it legal in? Surely, at some point politicians have to bend in and go with the voters, but it takes such a long time and so many people suffer in the process, that you start asking yourself, is this democracy thing worth all the people to rot in jail for victimless crimes?
Read the Pew poll I linked. The attitude among the population as a whole only crossed over last year, and already its being legalized in several places. Moreover, remember, voters aren't the same demographic as the whole population. They skew older and more conservative. So its quite likely that even though 51% or something of people support legalization, the majority of voters in most places don't. My mom, my wife, and I all are registered in VA. My wife and I support legalization. My mom thinks pot will destroy your life. We don't vote. She always votes.
Tell this to people in jail. Anyone can change rather fast. You don't need government or political authority to change. The only thing a society has to change together is to realize that (quote from Leo Tolstoy): "without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions... it [anarchy] will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power."
I think this is an important point. Though it is worth considering where they get convinced of those things (and the answer to that is still more complex than "follow the money").
Comments
The reason pot is still illegal is because public opinion just shifted in favor of legalization last year, and the attitude among likely voters (skew older than the general population), probably is still against. See: http://www.people-press.org/2013/04/04/majority-now-supports...
The real reason isn't lobbyists. The real reason is soccer moms and dads and baby boomers, who vote in droves, who are convinced that pot will make their kids sit around and mastrubate all day. The ones that hold monthly anti-drug assemblies in school where they shriek "just say no!" at the top of their lungs.
Voters don't decide anything. They don't vote for laws, they vote for politcians which after being elected have very little incentive to serve the voters and all the incentives in the world to serve the corporations. It's almost unseen for a politician to lose his job, and it's easier and more profitable for him to lie throughout his term than to do good for his voters.
However you wanted it to be otherwise, politics still obeys economic laws, and the incentive for a politician will always be in the wrong place.
The marijuana situation is a great example of precisely why that assertion is wrong. Public opinion shifts, and within a couple of years, places all over the country are decriminalizing. You think the corporations have let up in the last couple of years? What's the more rational explanation of the data?
And how long did it take? And how many staes is it legal in? Surely, at some point politicians have to bend in and go with the voters, but it takes such a long time and so many people suffer in the process, that you start asking yourself, is this democracy thing worth all the people to rot in jail for victimless crimes?
Read the Pew poll I linked. The attitude among the population as a whole only crossed over last year, and already its being legalized in several places. Moreover, remember, voters aren't the same demographic as the whole population. They skew older and more conservative. So its quite likely that even though 51% or something of people support legalization, the majority of voters in most places don't. My mom, my wife, and I all are registered in VA. My wife and I support legalization. My mom thinks pot will destroy your life. We don't vote. She always votes.
The US has a population of 318 million. We would expect change to be slow.
Tell this to people in jail. Anyone can change rather fast. You don't need government or political authority to change. The only thing a society has to change together is to realize that (quote from Leo Tolstoy): "without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions... it [anarchy] will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power."
I think this is an important point. Though it is worth considering where they get convinced of those things (and the answer to that is still more complex than "follow the money").