Why Is Marijuana Legalization Not Covered in Mainstream Media?

One of the things I have said so often in speeches and written about is that the best two word explanation for marijuana prohibition is bad journalism. You’ll hear that again, and again.

There are so many examples of that. Don’t get me started.

I remember, for example, when I was at NORML, there was a really terrible article in The Washington Times which tends to specialize in articles about marijuana in particular. So I called up the reporter and said, “Could I send you some material that contradicts the party line?” She said, “Oh, I’d love to see it, but that, you know, there’s really no point in it. I was just given this assignment. I probably will be writing about it again.” But what I had to do was to call the drug czars office and get them to say something. And that was journalism dealing with marijuana, as you just call it, drugs out of the office and get him to say something. You know, it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. And this went on for decades.

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https://www.sfexaminer.com/marketplace/why-is-marijuana-legalization-not-covered-in-mainstream-media/

Does the FDA Regulate CBD? Could they be doing a better job? (Hint: F&*# Yes)

The FDA is now late on making some sort of statement about CBD. In their normal procedures, if anyone or anything makes a claim about a particular product, a medical claim about a particular product has to have some justification for it in the opinion of the FDA, the FDA is a really interesting example of what libertarian economists call regulatory capture. The reason that the FDA was created was that pharmaceutical companies (drug companies) were in fact selling products that had either no medical value, or were actually poisonous, literally poisonous. There needed to be some sort of regulation.

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https://www.sfexaminer.com/marketplace/does-the-fda-regulate-cbd-could-they-be-doing-a-better-job/

We Must End Marijuana Prohibition For Economic Recovery in a Post Pandemic World

Los Angeles Can Be A Model For What Needs to Be Done

In the midst of the pandemic, there is much uncertainty about almost everything, but one thing does seem certain. America is going to be much poorer. Or, to put in a global perspective, America and a few other countries will be much less rich and the rest of the world will be much, much poorer, and no wall or welfare program will protect us.

In Los Angeles, the global center of the entertainment industry, the unemployment rate is already around 50%, and many jobs and businesses are gone forever. The sheer scale of the problems will almost certainly lead to social unrest which will be visible to the world. But so will the solutions, because the world really does look to “Hollywood” for imagination.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/marketplace/we-must-end-marijuana-prohibition-for-economic-recovery-in-a-post-pandemic-world/

On 420 California Must Demand That the Federal Government Respect the State’s Laws and the Rights of its People and End Marijuana Prohibition NOW

The Coronavirus crisis has accelerated the conflict between Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic Governor and President Trump. Newsom has referred to California as a “nation state” and Trump has asserted that he has complete authority over the states. While Newsom was speaking figuratively, Trump was not.

Of course, Newsom knows that California is only a state, but he also knows, as Trump apparently does not, that the Tenth Amendment says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In short, the President doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to open or close a state, but the conflict goes much deeper.

In fairness to Trump, the Tenth Amendment does not come up a lot in Washington, because it is truly “more honored in the breach” — to misinterpret Shakespeare, but it is inherent in our system.

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https://www.sfexaminer.com/marketplace/on-420-california-must-demand-that-the-federal-government-respect-the-states-laws-and-the-rights-of-its-people-and-end-marijuana-prohibition-now/

Marijuana Prohibition Racism and Real “Social Justice” From Los Angeles to New York

The racist origins of marijuana prohibition were never hidden, and the racial disparity in the enforcement of the laws was generally seen as a ¨feature, not a bug¨, because law enforcement generally was, and too often still is, racist in its operation.

It is also important to note that this is not just a relic of the past in the ¨Old South¨. The fact that cannabis-hemp is known by the Mexican slang term “marijuana” is further evidence of the racist origins.

And then Nixon blamed ¨Jewish Psychiatrists¨ for wanting to legalize marijuana.

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https://www.sfexaminer.com/marketplace/marijuana-prohibition-racism-and-real-social-justice-from-los-angeles-to-new-york/