Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words

30 Million US Potheads Pledge to Vote for Johnson, "If I Can Find That Place Where You Vote, Man."

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson Pledges to Legalize Marijuana

Yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion, man." Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski

In the United States, 30-50 million people use cannabis daily--fully 10% of the U.S. population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug). If you're one of them, you believe you need the green cure to go to work in the morning, and chill-ax in the evening. Your biggest fear is that one day, Federal Imperial Stormtroopers will break down your door, and take away what you need to exist.

From whence cometh our salvation, man? The DEA just announced they won't move Cannabis to Schedule II, despite a petition from 21 Governors. Clinton? Forget it; not on her agenda, and Bill was a big Federal Mandatory Sentencing guy. Donald Trump will be too busy deporting your gardner. But there is a Moses who promises to lead us out of the wilderness of Nixon Era Marijuana scheduling.

TAOS, New Mexico - Gary Johnson reiterated his pledge to make Marijuana a Schedule II drug today, essentially legalizing cannabis products such as THC.

Speaking to CNBC, Johnson described how he was a long distance biker, an "endurance athlete," who won the New Mexico governorship in 1994 on a national Republican victory night. While Johnson is a fiscal conservative, he became disillusioned with the big government aspects of social conservatism.

Johnson and his VP candidate former Massachusettes Gov. William Weld are both former Republicans whofavors smaller government, with less intrusive social policies. They are both in favor of legalizing marijuana

In 2005, Johnson says, he was almost paralized in a paragliding accident. He fractured his back and was in terrible pain. "I lost an inch and a half in height on that accident from the fracture in my back. And it took me three years to fully recover - although six months after the accident, I did bicycle from Santa Fe to Napa Valley."

"It was really painful and I have an aversion to painkillers. I'm laying on the floor and someone comes by and they said, "You know, you want me to get you some marijuana for this?" And I thought, "Yes, I do. Please." And I think that it absolutely helped me through this period that was really, really difficult."

From there, Johnson became the chief executive of a marijuana growing company. "The fact that I got to be the CEO of a publicly traded company in the marijuana space, that was something that was completely unexpected. But very quickly, marijuana products medicinally compete with legal prescription drugs that statistically kill 100,000 people a year. There's not been one documented death due to marijuana."

"Then on the recreational side, I've always maintained that legalizing marijuana will lead to less overall substance abuse because people will find it as such a safer alternative than everything else that's out there, starting with alcohol."

"The president of the United States, hiring the surgeon general, can de-schedule marijuana as a class one narcotic. And that would open up the research and the development. I would want to do that. Yes." said Johnson

Not to be confused with the Libertarians, The United States Marijuana Party (USMJParty) has also endorsed Gary Johnson. USMJParty is a cannabis political party in the United States founded in 2002 by Loretta Nall specifically to end the war on drugs and to legalize cannabis. Their policies also include other socially libertarian positions. Local chapters have been formed in 8 states, and they are affiliated with a number of international cannabis political parties.

In 2015, almost half of the people in the United States had tried marijuana, 12% had used it in the past year, and 7.3% had used it in the past month.These numbers are similar to the Johnson Weld ticket's national poll numbers, and that is not a coincidence.

In 2014, daily marijuana use by US college students reached its peak level since records began in 1980, rising from 3.5% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014 and had surpassed daily cigarette use.

In the US, men are over twice as likely to use marijuana as women and 18-29 year-olds are six times more likely to use as over 65-year-olds.[24] In 2015, a record 44% of the US population has tried marijuana in their lifetime, an increase from 38% in 2013 and 33% in 1985.

Marijuana use in the United States is three times above the global average, but in line with other Western democracies. 44% of American 12th graders have tried the drug at least once, and the typical age of first-use is 16, similar to the typical age of first-use for alcohol but lower than the first-use age for other illicit drugs.

While there is no poll of daily marijuana users, it's a good bet that, to the extent they vote, they will be voting Johnson Weld this November.

 
 

Reader Comments(1)

SebasJanssen writes:

I think the article accidentally missed the paragraph of data supporting the claim (not a coincidence) that all who have used marijuana in the last year will support Johnson. Nor does it link to the study that shows 30 million marijuana users have pledged their support for Johnson.