Marijuana series looks at whether pot’s moment has arrived
In November 1987, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Douglas Ginsburg was on the cusp of serving a long tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Appointed by President Reagan to replace retiring Justice Lewis Powell, Ginsburg was just 41 and would have been the first baby boomer to take a spot on the nation’s highest court. But there was just one complication — Ginsburg admitted that, like legions of his fellow boomers, he had smoked marijuana in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was forced to withdraw his name for consideration.
The scandal that consumed Ginsburg’s nomination seems laughably quaint three decades later, particularly after a bipartisan cadre of political figures ranging from former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum have admitted to marijuana use. The substance that derailed Ginsburg’s Supreme Court nomination is now legal for recreational use in 10 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada, has been decriminalized in others, and is available for medical use in even more, including Pennsylvania.
Marijuana, for better or worse, is now part of the American mainstream.
In response to the increasing acceptance of marijuana, both the 蘑菇视频 and the Observer-Reporter in Washington are collaborating on a three-part series that explores the issues surrounding marijuana’s potential legalization for recreational use in Pennsylvania. The time could be ripe for lawmakers to move forward on such an endeavor — a poll by Franklin & Marshall College taken in March found that 59% of Pennsylvanians supported legalizing marijuana for recreational use, although much of that support apparently centered around the Philadelphia area, and among millennials and Democrats.
When Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s statewide “listening tour” on legalizing marijuana for personal use came to Washington County in February, many residents spoke out in support of making marijuana available for personal consumption. They cited the fact that legal marijuana would be safer than what is available illegally, and would offer a break to individuals who have a criminal record as a result of a marijuana possession charge.
They also noted the tax revenue legalization would generate, and that argument has a backer in Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. His office released a report last summer that found making marijuana available for recreational use could bring $600 million or more per year into the state’s coffers.
“Just think what good you could do with that,” DePasquale said.
It is indeed time to think of the good we could do with that.
Turn the clock back 50 years, and the whole notion of legalizing marijuana would have been a pipe dream. For that matter, so would same-sex marriage, former Beatles being knighted and an African-American with the first name of Barack becoming president. Legalizing marijuana is an idea whose time seems to have come.
At the very least, don’t count on it to ever derail a Supreme Court nominee again.
Check out this past Sunday’s edition (April 14) for the first part of the series and this coming Sunday (April 21) for part two, with the last part of the recreational marijuana series publishing on Sunday, April 28.