UNREASONABLE, ARBITRARY, AND CAPRICIOUS:" THE UNITED STATES’ SECOND CIVIL WAR

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2018-07-18

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Abstract

Unreasonable, Arbitrary, and Capricious1 brings into cold relief the hypocrisy of the war on drugs, specifically the war on cannabis, by tracing the history of cannabis prohibition in the United States from the early days of Reefer Madness and Harry Anslinger’s proverbial witch-hunt, through the 1960s-1970s, to the current surge in efforts to decriminalize on state and local levels. Making the argument that the war on non-violent cannabis users is unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious and has done far more harm than good, the focus then moves to chronicling the struggles to bring sanity back to the drug policy of this country by Washington, Oregon, and Colorado in the election of 2012, and the success and early implementation of the laws in Washington and Colorado. Although cannabis remains a schedule one drug under federal law, the successes in Washington and Colorado have led to several smaller victories, each of which tug at the remaining shreds of integrity of the arguments for continued cannabis prohibition. With the medical cannabis industry having operated with a large amount of freedom under the Obama administration, the 2016 election of Donald Trump brought with it an immense amount anxiety for all. However the will of the people in regards to cannabis was also to be noted that evening as Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and South Dakota all passed medical cannabis initiatives, while California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada passed laws that allowed for adult consumption of cannabis very similar to those of Colorado and Washington.

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Keywords

Drug War, Decriminalization, Cannabis, Colorado, Washington, Oregon

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