Snoop Dogg and Sir Richard Branson are teaming up to fight for your right to get high
Updated by German Lopez on October 2, 2014, 10:30 a.m. ET @germanrlopez [email protected]
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Joe Rogan, Snoop Dogg, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will appear in the crowd-funded documentary called the The Culture High, opening October 17 in limited theaters. In it, they explain their opposition to the war on drugs and their support for marijuana legalization. Branson shared this trailer for the movie in a post on Virgin's website on Wednesday:
<CENTER> One of the big questions raised by the trailer is why politicians are taking so long to embrace legalization and medical marijuana when both issues have so much support. (About 58 percent of Americans back full legalization, according to Gallup.)
</CENTER> When I posed the question to experts on social movements, they said marijuana just doesn't have the priority among the electorate or kind of fundraising potential that politicians need to take on an issue.
Politicians generally need a concerted movement "that will give [them] time and money and networks [they] can't get otherwise," said Daniel Schlozman, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, in a previous interview. "Without that kind of preference intensity, if you're [Senator] Bernie Sanders, you're going to want to talk about social democracy, and if you're [Senator] Elizabeth Warren, you're going to want to talk about the banks. There's no particular reason for you to dilute your core efforts to move the party."
But as the political pressure builds, some politicians are beginning to move toward public opinion on the issue. Likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton previously said "there's a lot of evidence to argue for the medical marijuana thing" and that she's open to letting the states act as "the laboratories of democracy" for full legalization efforts.
If Clinton's comments are any indication, prominent Democrats are at least preparing for marijuana to turn into a national political issue in the future.
To learn more, check out Vox's war on drugs explainer, marijuana legalization explainer, and 24 maps and charts that explain marijuana.
Card 1 of 21 Launch cards
What is the war on drugs?
The war on drugs is a decades-long campaign by the United States government to eradicate illicit drug use. It was formally launched by President Richard Nixon and Congress in the 1970s.
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<NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>
President Richard Nixon, who resigned over the Watergate Scandal, launched the war on drugs. (Hulton Archive via Getty Images)
"If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us," Nixon told Congress in 1971. "I am not prepared to accept this alternative."
Nixon inaugurated the the war on drugs at a time when America was in hysterics over widespread drug use. Drug use had become more public and prevalent during the 1960s thanks in part to events like Woodstock, and many Americans felt that drug use had become a serious threat to the country and its moral standing.
Over the last four decades, the US has committed more than $1 trillion to the war on drugs. However, the crackdown has failed to produce the desired results: the effort hasn't significantly decreased drug use, and it didn't cause drug prices to rise. The war on drugs is also blamed for several unintended problems, including the proliferation of drug-related violence around the world.
While Nixon began the modern war on drugs, America has a long history of trying to control the use of certain drugs. Laws passed in the early 20th century attempted to restrict drug production and sales. Some of this history is racially tinged, and, perhaps as a result, the war on drugs has hit minority communities the hardest.
Given the failures, unintended consequences, and racial disparities, many drug policy experts and reformers have called for reforms ranging from a larger focus on rehabilitation to the decriminalization and legalization of all drugs. But so far, few steps have been taken in that direction — and the US continues spending $51 billion on the war on drugs each year.
http://www.vox.com/2014/10/2/688230...-branson-will-appear-in-a-movie-about-the-war
Updated by German Lopez on October 2, 2014, 10:30 a.m. ET @germanrlopez [email protected]
Tweet Share on Twitter (96) Share Share on Facebook (1,421) +1 LinkedIn Share on LinkedIn Email Email Print Print
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Joe Rogan, Snoop Dogg, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson will appear in the crowd-funded documentary called the The Culture High, opening October 17 in limited theaters. In it, they explain their opposition to the war on drugs and their support for marijuana legalization. Branson shared this trailer for the movie in a post on Virgin's website on Wednesday:
<CENTER> One of the big questions raised by the trailer is why politicians are taking so long to embrace legalization and medical marijuana when both issues have so much support. (About 58 percent of Americans back full legalization, according to Gallup.)
</CENTER> When I posed the question to experts on social movements, they said marijuana just doesn't have the priority among the electorate or kind of fundraising potential that politicians need to take on an issue.
Politicians generally need a concerted movement "that will give [them] time and money and networks [they] can't get otherwise," said Daniel Schlozman, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, in a previous interview. "Without that kind of preference intensity, if you're [Senator] Bernie Sanders, you're going to want to talk about social democracy, and if you're [Senator] Elizabeth Warren, you're going to want to talk about the banks. There's no particular reason for you to dilute your core efforts to move the party."
But as the political pressure builds, some politicians are beginning to move toward public opinion on the issue. Likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton previously said "there's a lot of evidence to argue for the medical marijuana thing" and that she's open to letting the states act as "the laboratories of democracy" for full legalization efforts.
If Clinton's comments are any indication, prominent Democrats are at least preparing for marijuana to turn into a national political issue in the future.
To learn more, check out Vox's war on drugs explainer, marijuana legalization explainer, and 24 maps and charts that explain marijuana.
Card 1 of 21 Launch cards
What is the war on drugs?
The war on drugs is a decades-long campaign by the United States government to eradicate illicit drug use. It was formally launched by President Richard Nixon and Congress in the 1970s.
President Richard Nixon, who resigned over the Watergate Scandal, launched the war on drugs. (Hulton Archive via Getty Images)
"If we cannot destroy the drug menace in America, then it will surely in time destroy us," Nixon told Congress in 1971. "I am not prepared to accept this alternative."
Nixon inaugurated the the war on drugs at a time when America was in hysterics over widespread drug use. Drug use had become more public and prevalent during the 1960s thanks in part to events like Woodstock, and many Americans felt that drug use had become a serious threat to the country and its moral standing.
Over the last four decades, the US has committed more than $1 trillion to the war on drugs. However, the crackdown has failed to produce the desired results: the effort hasn't significantly decreased drug use, and it didn't cause drug prices to rise. The war on drugs is also blamed for several unintended problems, including the proliferation of drug-related violence around the world.
While Nixon began the modern war on drugs, America has a long history of trying to control the use of certain drugs. Laws passed in the early 20th century attempted to restrict drug production and sales. Some of this history is racially tinged, and, perhaps as a result, the war on drugs has hit minority communities the hardest.
Given the failures, unintended consequences, and racial disparities, many drug policy experts and reformers have called for reforms ranging from a larger focus on rehabilitation to the decriminalization and legalization of all drugs. But so far, few steps have been taken in that direction — and the US continues spending $51 billion on the war on drugs each year.
http://www.vox.com/2014/10/2/688230...-branson-will-appear-in-a-movie-about-the-war
