Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

Try and pay attention!

On November 6th (6/11/12) the United States of America will hold it's final day of voting in it's Presidential election. However voters will also be going to the polls to elect a number of federal Senators along with a host of State-wide Governors, Representatives, Judges and Police Chiefs. They will also be asked to decide on a variety of voter initatives. The three most interesting of these are Colorado's Amendment 64 (A64), Oregon's Measure 80 (M80) and Washington's Initiative 502 (I502) which will all legalise the recreational use of marijuana and make a distinction between the narcotic marijuana and the cannabis plant allowing for the agricultural cultivation of hemp. Although all of these initiatives differ slightly - A64 allows people to grow their own for example - if passed they will give Colorado, Oregon and Washington some of the most relaxed marijuana laws anywhere in the developed world being even more tolerant then Amsterdam's famously liberal attitude towards marijuana. However due to a legal principle known as dual sovereignty and the fact that marijuana will remain illegal under US federal law I suspect these initiatives are more likely to provoke a lengthy, long running and complicated legal argument about the relationship between the states and the federal government rather then suddenly turning Colorado, Oregon and Washington into some sort of stoners paradise. In fact I would go so far as to say that the campaigns behind these initiatives have been getting a bit of help getting on the ballot in order for the issue to be used as a way to stick pins into my Twitter wife although I think her life is far too extra-ordinary to be much use as a guide for national drugs policy. However in the interests of plastering everybody else's private business all over the Internet I should take the opportunity to point out that I don't think Rihanna has a drug problem even if she does still insist on smoking blunts. Instead I think she's still very young (only 24) and needs to learn where the edges are on a whole host of subjects including marijuana. However this is most certainly not the same thing as having a drug problem.

Having said that it should come as no surprise to learn that I fully support A64, M80 and I502 and encourage voters in Colorado, Oregon and Washington to vote "Yes" on them. However my main reason for supporting these initiatives may come as something of a surprise. Probably more then most I know and understand that along with alcohol there are people who use too much marijuana and this over-consumption can cause them problems ranging from mild lethargy right up to serious psychological problems including schizophrenia. However I also think that the fact that marijuana is illegal actually makes these over-consumption problems worse. Apart from the obvious fact that it's always too easy to do too much of something that feels good as it is illegal in order to get hold of marijuana you need to build a relationship with a drug dealer. This person will obviously have access to large amounts of marijuana and will often purposefully use too much of it themselves in order to support a personal use defence to narcotic distribution charges. Obviously being around this sort of person will encourage you to use more marijuana because no-one wants to tell their supplier to stop. Also in order to avoid detection and prosecution drug dealers frequently change their cellphones so in order to stay in contact you need to speak to them and buy from them on an almost monthly basis. This encourages you to buy and therefore consume more marijuana.

So I actually think that if all that could be replaced with simply going to a shop most people would find it much easier to manage their marijuana consumption in much the same way that the vast majority of people successfully manage their alcohol intake.


Oh and just to clarify Rihanna is my Twitter wife, Bristol is my gay wife, Natalie Portman is my Jewish wife and Alexis Bledel is my Jewish mistress. Do you ever get the feeling my script in support of the Mormon candidate is being written for me?

00:20 on 22/10/12.