So, yesterday the big news was that the White House sent a memo out to the attorneys general in all the states where it’s legal to use medical marijuana. You might be thinking that if you’re not sick it doesn’t affect you, but you’d be wrong. It’s a step in the right direction, and every baby-step counts, people!

Besides the estimated 28 million people in this country that smoke pot (legally and otherwise), there’s a growing number of Americans who are waking up to the fact that marijuana isn’t the dangerous drug that they’ve been brainwashed into believing. In fact, a slim majority of Americans now believe that alcohol is a more dangerous drug than weed. Think about that.

Ultimately, public opinion is what will eventually make marijuana legal. If more and more people (whether they’re users or not) are realizing that pot isn’t a dangerous drug, then it follows that eventually more and more people are going to get fed up with seeing their tax dollars spent on fighting a losing battle. Even the White House gets this, based on this passage from yesterday’s memo:

“…prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.”

In other words, the Obama administration thinks it’s a waste of federal dollars to fight medical marijuana – and it knows that most Americans think so too.

We should all let our government know that we support its decision regarding medical marijuana. Maybe it isn’t much, but it’s also one more way to let them know that the tide of public opinion in general is changing regarding marijuana laws.

Want to say “thank you” to President Obama? NORML has set up a page on their website that makes it easy to do just that. All you have to do is fill in your name & contact info (I suppose so that they can see what district you’re from).

To send an email to the White House, go here: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=14205391

And while we’re at it, we should give NORML a big shout out too. It’s organizations like theirs that keep the fight moving forward.

This story broke in my home town of Seattle, which is known for its progressive laws and attitudes. The state ACLU is partnering with a guy name Rick Steves from that area. In case you’ve never heard of Rick Steves, he’s a travel writer who has had his own TV show on PBS for years, among other things. Rick has publicly stated that he smokes pot whenever he’s in Europe (where it’s legal in many places), and now he’s appearing in some informational programs that the Washington state ACLU chapter hopes to air on TV stations and the Internet.

But to me, the big news is that the Washington state ACLU chapter received its funding for this project from the national ACLU organization. So, they’re definitely doing more than just sticking a toe in the water on this issue, and hopefully we’ll see other state chapters launch similar projects. Since the ACLU’s mission is to uphold The Bill of Rights, I’m not sure where this fits in with that. All I know is that The Bill of Rights is the reason why I can legally tell people how to pass a drug test. So, thank you ACLU!

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