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KWhite

We are seeing the end of the drug war. I really believe this to be true and I think much if it is due to the fact that many of those most against it are gone.

I'm forty four and soon my generation will be the granddad's (am) and grandma's of the world.

And there is no way in hell I'm ever going to accept this- My parents were willing to walk away from their own kids for using weed- I'm not. In their minds that was right up there with being a non christian, a feminist, a non white, a non American or a child rapist- it was a shame that was not to be borne, or so they felt.

I'm serious, my parents were very, very racist and bigoted.

They loved to have someone to hate, marijuana users- well, lets just say they agreed wholeheartedly with Nixon on the likes of us.

So, they are all retiring, the editors and journalists, the police chiefs and senior officers- old guard politicians.

Those not retiring are dying.


And now for the question.

Is this generational rollover the cause of the sudden swell toward acceptance and does it make the liberalization of drug laws inevitable?

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"Your mind is your own, your body as well, from the soul we need not speak, tend it well, making those decisions you deem worthy, aware all responsibility is in your hands when the smoke clears" Kelly L. White

"It is a principle of natural justice that when bad men make bad laws, or when unprincipled authorities compromise good ones, citizens are justified in protecting themselves from the very authority that compromised law and order." Gandhi

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sterbo

I agree.
This has been my premise for quite some time. While it's a broad stroke, I believe we are well into the transition that will result in the demise of the 'war against drugs' as we have known it.
And marihuana will be legalized, in my opinion, a lot sooner than many think.

The old guard is lost and dying: and with all due respect -
Good riddance...

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Jake

As a member of the "next in coming" generation, I have to admit I'm fairly excited to see the Baby Boomer's influence waning. Truth to be told, they're still going to be a formidable force in the political sphere for the next 10 to 20 years.

But don't be accept change as inevitable. Back in the Campaign of 1972, there was so much talk about the millions of voters who would vote for their first time. There was a lot of talk about a "quantum change" and in August, George McGovern won the nomination, defeating the entire "Old Guard" axis of Mayor Daley, Humphery, all of them. But the old guard stayed strong, and it turned out the the "kids" fell into the same voting habits as their parents, they played no pivotal role in the 1972 election, and Nixon won 49 states.

Whenever there is a paradigm shift, there will always be a large number of people who will scrape, claw and bite, trying desperately to hold on....

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SpiralArchitect

I clicked on Not really, mankind is becoming more "Rights" conscious as a whole.

But, technically Yes, the generational change is giving us a lot of advantage for allowing new minds and new ideas to spread. I also believe mankind is becoming a lot more considerate in concerns to individual human rights, not necessarily just in America but worldwide (although it greatly does vary). People are beginning to understand that if it's my body, it's my choice.

__________________
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm,
to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

JohnBoySmoker

You just might be watching history repeat itself.

Todays generation is too wrapped up in their video games and how far to pull their pants down in order to be cool to really be much of an influence. Grand Theft Auto has more appeal than US Politics to them.

 

ITG

I think the advent of drug legalization is not a generational phenomenon, but one of communication. There are old people and young people in the fight for legalization. Instead, I think we can attribute more to the power of free (not free financially, free speech free) global communication, such as the internet. We can now find out with ease how the system works in the Netherlands. Anyone, if they're determined, can find the facts on marijuana. We're no longer doomed to know only what "big" media is telling us.

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It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

Dark

End of the drug war? I'm sorry but I think I have to disagree with you there, I don't think we are even close to the end of the war on drugs.
War on marijuana? maybe ending soon, but the war on drugs will live for quite a while it seems, and if not in this country...than in the rest of the world...

All drugs were made illegal because of half truths, whole lies, and misconceptions of effects of the drugs. I think the change towards a more free society is simply because we are in a better age of science where it's easy to prove and disprove certain claims about drugs. We can prove marijuana is harmless. We can prove what exactly tobacco does to you or what exactly LSD or cocaine does to you.
People are just realizing half the things you hear about drugs are lies. Back in a day where it was claimed that marijuana made mexicans kill white women, I'd be weary of trying it too!

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rwb214

I feel pretty sure after reading the Congressional transcripts from that infamous day in 1937 that the methods and tactits that were used simply would not hold up these days. The only person who was opposed to the new law back then was a doctor from the American Medical Association (who probably knew more of what he was talking about that anyone else in the capitol building that day) and he was shunned and ignored for trying to interfere with the agenda of "saving america from the wrath of satan," in the form of a plant. American history has since gone through pivital times such as the civil rights movement and nowadays marijuana is farily commonplace on cable tv and more people know more about it than ever before in history, but that's still only about 50-60% of the populance that know's it is non-toxic. One one hand I see things moving in the right direction, but on the other hand I see things going in the wrong direction. If we want anything to happen in our favor we must get involved and steer things in the right direction. One way that we can all get involoved is to join and contribute to the lobbying organizations that want to reform the drug laws in this country. If more people even knew the history of how drugs became illegal they wouldn't support their prohibitionist oponion with the same confidence that they had. And until this movement has some real momentum the news media isn't likely to give it any attention. Here are the websites for a few of the organizations I'm talking about:

MPP Homepage - Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.drugpolicy.org - Drug Policy Alliance
Marijuana Law Reform - NORML - National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy - Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy

Everyone needs to join and support these organizations as they are probably our best hope. Wishfull thinking just isn't going to work.

Buzzby

I really don't see that much difference between the generations. They start out in adolescence and their 20s with all kind of radical ideas about the future. When they hit 30 and have to deal with kids and mortgages, they tend to become more conservative. This phenomenon seems to repeat with each succeeding generation.

I'm 59. When my generation ("Baby Boomers") were in our teens and 20s, we were the wild hippies, smoking and dropping anything we could find. Now our younger members are characterizing us as "the problem" in the Drug War and can't conceive of themselves ever changing. I find this hilarious.

People as they mature tend to become less interested in hedonistic activities and buckle down to the realities of building a future for themselves and their families. When I read reports of young teenagers being stoned all the time, it makes me wonder about the wisdom of legalizing drugs. Uncontrolled drug use is not a positive value and uncontrolled drug use by 13-year-olds is a scary proposition. This is why parents who used drugs in their own youth often change sides when they see the kind of world in which their children are growing up.

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rwb214

I completely see you're point, I'm 26 and just got married and bought our first house in the past year. We know that we're going to have to put it away before we have any children. Your argument is very similar to the argument to maintain alcohol prohibition in this country. We now see alcohol as an example of something that can be controlled and regulated by the government, with plenty of negative consequences that most people just look the other way on. And Because of this, It's a lot easier for most high schoolers to get their hands on a dime bag than a 6 pack. Sure there are 13-year-olds smoking/injecting/drinking everything they can find, legal or not, and the problem is that the parents are not there to point them in the right direction. It is not the government's job to raise our children and tell them what is right and wrong. That is the job of every parent whether they step up to the challenge or not.