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Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell
In a meeting before local lawmakers the head of the Indiana State Police said that if it was up to him, he would personally choose to legalize and regulate marijuana. From WFPL:
When asked about the drug in a budget committee meeting, [Indiana State Police] Superintendent Paul Whitesell said he’s spent some 40 years trying to enforce various marijuana laws.
“It’s here, it’s going to stay, there’s an awful lot of victimization that goes with it. If it were up to me, I do believe I would legalize it and tax it, particularly in sight of the fact that several other states have now come to that part of their legal system as well,” he said.
The speed at which both public opinion and the politics surrounding marijuana legalization have changed in the past several years amazes even me. Not too long ago a frank admission like this from a top law enforcement official in a Republican-leaning state would have been almost unheard of; now it barely registers as a news story.
In a relatively short time marijuana legalization has gone from a fringe idea to a legitimate policy option. When voters in Colorado and Washington State chose to adopted marijuana legalization, it gave politicians and officials around the country political cover to openly discuss it as a serious option. Whitesell directly citing the recently approved initiatives in his testimony shows what an important role these measures played in changing the national discussion.
7 Comments
They seem to be trickling in one at a time, these random indications of sanity after all these years. Let’s hope it continues.
Nice to see you here.
The people fighting against pot legalization are not going to win. Some things are just going to happen no matter what. It’s about time.
IMO it doesn’t bode well for States that have an intelligent response to marijuana usage. Holder and Obama love the drug war, with the DEA and other law enforcement/industrial complex backing them. Add international treaties the International Narcotics Control Board (UN) want to enforce, it looks to me as another never ending and expensive war. Maybe we’ll soon see blue helmeted solders bailing out of C130′s in concert will the DEA et al to destroy pot fields in CO and WA.
The state of Indiana is only arresting about 3% of marijuana users anyway.
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hello! Illinois … ??
so much for color designations – Illinois is only blue in so far as it is run by (heavily entrenched and heavily corporate) dem bosses
..not even purple – more like a baby blue polyester snuggie worn to cover up the crimson.consciousness of IL Pols
Nice.
RetirinInFive, I think the sanity has always been there. To me, it seems we’re more witnessing the inability of the DC crowd to drown it out much longer.
That tipping point really fascinates me, particularly how few Democratic leaders even today refuse to accept the utter demographic destruction of the drug war presently underway.
A critical part of the reform Rubics cube is pressuring the Feds to Let The States Regulate. Given the fact that the states are in desperate financial straits, it might be sooner than later.