Nevada marijuana legalization gets official OK for 2016 ballot

http://www.thecannabist.co/2014/12/08/nevada-marijuana-legalization-2016-ballot/24954/

by remotorboater • 11 years ago

93 30 11 years ago

Meowmore7• 11 years ago

Remember when this site was about tech?

SwellJoe• 11 years ago

No, actually, I don't remember that, at all. It's been about business, science, startups, tech, and anything interesting to someone with a hacker mindset from the very first day (I was around then, I have absolute confidence that this article is not all that far from HN's traditional wheelhouse).

Personally, I think there's a lot of interesting startups that will be enabled by legalization of marijuana...if you can't see the opportunities for tech in a burgeoning multibillion dollar industry...well...I dunno. I think it's an interesting change in the world; the kind that entrepreneurs love to spot early.

seattlegal• 11 years ago

If you think this doesn't relate to Tech, you must have never worked with programmers on the west coast.

Carrok• 11 years ago

Or more generally, the insane amount of Tech now being developed around marijuana cultivation and distribution. Like the highly customizable automation system I just designed and installed in a legal grow house.

ddingus3• 11 years ago

Totally.

Sevzinn• 11 years ago

Neat--it will be interesting to see how all the states go along. There won't be the constitutional issue of gay marriage, so it looks like it's a matter of the federal government leaving it up to the states eventually. Even ethanol had a constitutional component (as opposed to just statute).

stevesearer• 11 years ago

It seems like marijuana legalization is the inevitable outcome at this point, but I do wonder what will be the fate of people incarcerated in the time between now and whatever point it happens in the future.

ddingus3• 11 years ago

A lot has to depend on how quickly things go. If it takes 20 years to really solidify the new direction, many of them will have served their time.

Say it takes 5 years? Could happen!

I think it will go more quickly for economic "land grab" type reasons. Those who move early will gain advantages over those who move later. I know Oregon was thinking growth in industry right along with savings from unproductive corrections.

In that kind of scenario, movements are very highly likely to form to do release advocacy. Some States may be active about it too. I suspect Oregon will do this once the law is settled and working.

Tenhundfeld2• 11 years ago

I see two interesting things about this story:

1) There's no mention of tourism in that article. Vegas seems like a natural fit for marijuana legalization, as a party destination, and while I don't have hard data on this, I do wonder if they are/fear seeing a negative impact on tourism as people seek out more "green friendly" destinations.

2) The utter lack of surprise about this. Another state legalizing/decriminalizing marijuana, ho hum, whatevs. The issue has reached the point where it feels inevitable. That's still a bit shocking for me (in a good way).

I don't mean to equate the substance of the issue, but in my mind it feels similar to the march of progress on marriage equality (AKA "gay marriage"). They're both areas where I've long thought our society needed obvious reforms, but as the years marched by, I began to expect not to see any substantive changes in my life.

Now I sit here in my 30's, and by the time my daughter is an adult (~15 years), she'll live in a society where (probably/hopefully) most states have some form of marriage equality and marijuana is at least decriminalized. That is amazing to me.

P.S. For those who think it trivializes marriage equality to compare it to marijuana legalization, I'll remind you that this issue isn't about making it easier for people to get high. It's about the millions of lives hurt by a drug arrest, over 11,0000,000 arrests for marijuana possession from 1996-2012 – and the unequal enforcement of drug laws. For example, in California, a black person is 10 times more likely to serve prison time for a marijuana arrest than a non-black offender. And across the US, black offenders are 3.7 times more likely than white offenders to be arrested for possession. Even ignoring the unequal enforcement, about 12% of prisoners are serving time due to a marijuana-related offense. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

grecy• 11 years ago

she'll live in a society where (probably/hopefully) most states have some form of marriage equality and marijuana is at least decriminalized. That is amazing to me.

Welcome to the majority of developed countries on the planet now.

One day, you might even see universal healthcare!

Tenhundfeld2• 11 years ago

A man can dream...

dfgsdfgs• 11 years ago

"Majority" on this issue is high dependent on how you define "developed"

hippich2• 11 years ago

What are other countries where you are allowed to possess marijuana for recreational usage? Also, what about other substances, like lsd, psilocybin, or plants like peyote?

Igglyboo• 11 years ago

The majority of developed countries most definitely do not have decriminalized marijuana.

jgrowl• 11 years ago

It is strange how fast things can change. I remember thinking 10 years ago that even decriminalization was an impossibility.

I am not sure if I am willing to say that legalization is an inevitability yet though.

nsajko• 11 years ago

How can you call it equality if it still discriminates against the polygamous? :)

LesZedCB• 11 years ago

Take it one battle at a time.

vezzy-fnord• 11 years ago

How can you call it equality if it's a public institution?

Same-sex marriage is but a small part in the deceptively named "marriage equality". All people will be doing is playing whack-a-mole for decades (or likely longer) until all non-standard marriage configurations are finally enshrined into law. This is when they could simply privatize it and recognize marriage for what it is - a business/economic contract, and have marriage equality happen now.

at-fates-hands2• 11 years ago

>> in California, a black person is 10 times more likely to serve prison time for a marijuana arrest than a non-black offender. And across the US, black offenders are 3.7 times more likely than white offenders to be arrested for possession.

While these numbers are prtty shocking, when you look at WHY this is happening, it's pretty obvious why the numbers are so skewed.

Generally speaking cops tend to focus on high crime areas, which tend to be where low income, minority residents live. As such, the odds you're going to stop someone who's black and poor who just happens to have some weed on them grows exponentially.

Add in other issues like COMSTAT tracking and making police departments more accountable for their the cost of their resources to tax payers. They also have to prove they are indeed lowering crime means they're almost forced to arrest and convict low level offenders to prove they're doing their jobs. This then makes departments institute arrest quotas, and questionable tactics like stop-and-frisk.

The last point is also the federal government and their grants they give to high performing departments. If you're department is on the dole for federal money, you think they're going to do anything which would jeopardize that? The very nature of taking federal money makes them do anything to make it look like the tax payers money is doing some good.

All of these make the low-income minorities very susceptible to being arrested and then convicted by a system which is very much stacked against them.

shit_parade• 11 years ago

You explanation is not understanding the fact that when a cop stops a white and a black with marijuana it is the black who goes jail. When a black and a white go before a judge with a charge of marijuana possession it is the black who is convicted and given a long prison sentence.

What do you call a justice system that catches two people in the same 'illegal' act but only one of has their life ruined? Certainly not just.

Depending on the state, it costs over 20,000/yr and sometimes over 40,000 to house each inmate, state's tried to solve this problem by contracting out to private prison complexes, and often they would give the private companies large tax deals and even free or heavily subsidized land. Of course these private companies do what every private company does, took the generous offers from the state and plowed more money into politics to get even more generous offers, better deals, more pay, and more business.

ddingus3• 11 years ago

Just a comment here about how surreal this is.

Like many of us, pot has always been part of the underground culture, associated with serious trouble.

Now that it's normalizing rapidly where I live, I see many of us just sort of in a state of wonder. Very soon, it's going to be perfectly ordinary to have a BBQ or some other basic social event and see people light a few up, talk, code, game, whatever, and doing that will be as OK as drinking is.

Strange and wonderful times we live in.

anonbanker2• 11 years ago

and, just like the NRA had nothing to do with DC v. Heller (and in fact, filed a brief _against_ it when CATO filed), NORML has nothing to do with these victories.

the NRA was an elaborate way to milk money from gun owners whilst sabotaging the overall movement. I can't help but think NORML is the exact same thing from their track record.

RangerScience• 11 years ago

Man, I tell you, this'll have an impact on Burning Man. What, I don't know, but it's actually a kind of a huge point out there that "no, you can't just tote up". I couldn't tell you the arrest numbers for weed, but my anecdotal understanding is that it's the #1 mistake that gets you searched that reveals all the other stuff...

Nevada marijuana legalization gets official OK for 2016 ballot

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