Neither Barack Obama or Michael Phelps are out in the streets protesting for the legalization of Marijuana use, but let's face it, when the most gold medal winning human and the most popular president in decades both have cannabis use in their history, it's hard to argue that weed is bad for you and will f*ck you up. When ultra-achievers have a record of inhaling, it turns the whole "evil marijuana" narrative upside down.

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You don't have to be a pothead to see that the writing is on the wall, that the end of pot prohibition is near.  

Neither Barack Obama or Michael Phelps are out in the streets protesting for the legalization of Marijuana use, but let's face it, when the most gold medal winning human and the most popular president in decades both have cannabis use in their history, it's hard to argue that weed is bad for you and will f*ck you up. 

To the contrary, when ultra-achievers have a record of inhaling, it turns the whole "evil marijuana" narrative upside down. 

 

image from flickr byJD Lasica/ socialmedia.biz. 

The massive coverage being given to Michael Phelps bong photo, the continued sponsorship by most of his sponsors, the election of confessed inhaler Barack Obama-- these add up to a change in the weather when it comes to the national conversation about marijuana criminalization. 

and actually, Obama has advocated for the decriminalization of maryjane.

The mainstream media is totally ignoring it, but the buzz on twitter and in the blogosphere is growing. The hypocrisy, the bigotry and racism, the insane societal costs of criminalization are all adding up to the time being ripe for a major change in the archaic laws that Harry Anslinger, the nutcase from the 30's through 50's who sold the story of the "evils of marijuana" scared American into passing.

Now, one can easily argue that making ganja illegal exposes USERS to pushers selling harder drugs. One can argue that we are spending billions surveiling, arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating mostly minority users and small time dealers-- engaging in marijuana prohibition not unlike the alcohol prohibition that preceded the last great depression. 

Some will argue that Phelps and Obama have set terrible examples by inhaling. But the truth is, it is far more terrible to destroy the lives of millions of mostly black and latino and teen smokers. 

Maybe it's time. No. It is definitely time to re-visit marijuana laws. If weed was legalized and sold like alcohol and tobacco, we'd go from spending tens of billions on criminalizing it to creating an industry that would create at least a million jobs. Think about it. At least 40% of Americans have reported using marijuana. If just 5% of them were to use it legally on a regular to occasional basis, that would be 15 million users. The jobs created would entail growing, processing, packaging branding, advertising, retailing and then there would be those luscious state and even federal and municipal taxes. I can't imagine the industry being less than $3 billion a year, and probably, it would be a lot more, closer to $15-$20 billion. 

Sure, states could maintain laws against it, but they would probably, to enjoy the taxes, quickly get on the Bong Bandwagon. 

And if federal legislation included taxes that would help pay for the bailout AND create a million or more jobs-- well, it's hard to imagine Barack who inhaled Obama vetoing such a bill.

Frankly, it may start with opening up medical marijuana access, then decriminalization, like Massachusetts recently  passed.

And Michael Phelps? Screw Kellogs. I guarantee you the liquor, music and entertainment companies that will probably get into the business will jump to offer him hookah-tastic sponsorship offers. 

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Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

He is the co-founder of the Arc of Justice Alliance a platform designed to help organizations and individuals working for justice and a better world to discover each other and share resources and strategies, with the hopes that this will build their power.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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