Unfortunate History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States

legalized marijuana and other drugs, what effect it had on those countries, and are they happy with that decision.” He added, “I’m always for an open debate on it.” He isn’t the only prominent political figure to show some support for the cause. San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle whether legalizing marijuana was just a trick to increase the states revenue. (an estimated .3 billion annually) He replied, “It’s also about the failure of the war on drugs and implementing a more enlightened policy. I’ve always anticipated that there could be a perfect storm of political will and public support, and obviously the federal policies are leaning more toward states’ rights.”

There is still plenty more work to do because President Barack Obama is still strongly opposed to leaving marijuana legislation in the state’s hands. On March 26, 2009 the president offered to answer a few questions from the online audience. An overwhelming 3.5 million people voted to ask the president to consider legalizing marijuana to generate revenue. In response the president said, “Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation. And I don’t know what this says about the online audience but I just want — I don’t want people to think that — this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.” All we can do for now is continue to put the facts in front of our politicians and hope that they make the right decisions.

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