[Vision2020] For Winder, marijuana laws will never, ever change

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 2, 2013) Lewiston Tribune.

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For Winder, it's never, ever going to change
Marty Trillhaase 
Marijuana will never be legal in the state of Idaho.
Not ever.
So confident of that assertion was Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, and 28 of his colleagues that they put it in a resolution and then passed it.
Five Democrats, including Moscow's Dan Schmidt, voted no.
"There is an effort nationally going on to legalize marijuana, not only for medical purposes, but for recreational purposes, and Idaho is one of those targeted states," Winder asserted.
"Suddenly we're supposed to say, well, everybody's doing it so it must be OK, and we're supposed to ignore some of the other problems, like increased mental illness problems, both temporary and long-term," added Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell.
Didn't their mothers warn them about absolutes?
Repealing Prohibition in the late 1920s was so unthinkable in Idaho and elsewhere that the law's author, Morris Sheppard, said there was a better chance "for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail."
By 1933, Prohibition was finished.
Remember when Idaho would never, ever allow liquor sales on Sunday? Check out the state liquor stores.
Do you recall how Idaho would never, ever permit gambling? The state constitution banned it. Voters changed the constitution in 1988 and launched a lottery. In 2002, they approved a pact allowing tribal casino operations.
An an openly gay person would never, ever hold elective office in the state of Idaho. Then Boise voters sent Nicole LeFavour to the Legislature, where she served two terms in the House and two more in the Senate.
Never? Not ever?
Has Winder missed how 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed medicinal marijuana laws since 1996? Has he ignored the fact that most of them are in the West? Or that many of them are Idaho's neighbors - Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington?
Is he unaware of the flurry of bills liberalizing pot laws now emerging in Congress, including one - backed by Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul - that would legalize the production and sale of hemp?
Washington voters last fall endorsed legalization by nearly 56 percent. And even in conservative Asotin County, the measure garnered 49 percent support. A similar measure passed in Colorado.
Does Winder think Idaho voters are immune to the logic that appealed to their neighbors?
Has he missed how national public opinion has swung behind allowing the states to pursue plans to regulate, tax and sell pot? A Gallup poll showed 64 percent opposing federal intervention against state legalization efforts. Meanwhile, the firm of Public Policy Polling says 58 percent of voters think marijuana should be legal - or at least recognize the futility of arresting, prosecuting and punishing adults for using it.
How has Winder missed the demographic curve? Legalization is more popular among younger people. Time is on their side.
What makes him so certain that the change sweeping not only across the nation but nipping at Idaho's borders is not already taking place within his back yard - or even within the Idaho Republican Party, given its libertarian streak?
If Winder's successors in the Legislature don't eventually yield to an emerging consensus, Idaho voters may follow the pattern of their neighbors and change the law by initiative.
When it comes to marijuana in Idaho, there's only one absolute: Winder and his cronies will not have the final word. - M.T.
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Think about it . . . 


Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 
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