Last night I attended the fall fundraising benefit for the Marijuana Policy Project at Philip Williams Posters in Tribeca. The guest of honor was Montel Williams, who lobbies tirelessly for medical marijuana. Also in attendance were the governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin (D.) who favors decriminalization, and Libertarian veep candidate, Judge James Gray.
Paul Ryan, my veep candidate, said earlier this month that he was in favor of letting states decide medical marijuana policy, then backed off. This was sad, but not surprising. Politicians at the national level are notoriously timid — Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both former marijuana users, have between them done as much to reform the marijuana laws as Eugene Bull Connor. For the foreseeable future, progress will come at the state level, generally in referendums — voters being ahead of the politicians on this issue.
I said my piece here.