My mama’s favorite rapper (seriously, she loves Snoop) probably bookmarked this on his computer today.  Esquire reports on the possibility of legal marijuana ’round these parts.

 

 

Apparently, the magazine is not the only ones anxious to know if they can puff puff pass without fear of retribution

two weeks ago, when the Obama team asked the public to vote on the top problems facing America, this was the public’s No. 1 question: “Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?” [Esquire.com]

 

Obama, a former pot-head himself, and his team has flat out denied the possibility of an Amsterdam-like United States, but insiders say that decriminalization is more likely.

In July, Obama told Rolling Stone that he believed in “shifting the paradigm” to a public-health approach: “I would start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives — it’s expensive, it’s counterproductive, and it doesn’t make sense.”

 

Snoop is probably eating this up.  But all jokes aside, the decriminalization of marijuana might save the country a lot of money.  The Esquire reporter talks about how over 300 economists have agreed that it could do for the country what the end of prohibition did to the economy in 1933.  More jobs anyone?

 

Obama has already recognized that the current war on drugs is an abysmal failure (although it’s hard to tell with Rahm Emanuel around) so it will be interesting to see how his administration tackles yet another problem.

 

Let’s just hope he continues to stay away from the “Maui Wowie” while he’s vacationing in Hawaii.

 

Tags: Barack Obama, Decriminalization of Marijuana, Esquire, Kid Cudi, Marijuana, Maui Wowie, Rahm Emanuel, Snoop Dogg, War on Drugs