I told those stoned fuckers not to do that
From this, written by me, some time before the election:
It’s different now. There is a very straightforward path, and a very doable one, to make it legal in Minnesota soon. Governor Tim Walz supports legalization. The DFL-controlled House is fairly chomping at the bit – they know damn well what a winning issue this is with young voters in particular. We just need the MN Senate…
There could be other hitches as well. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking we need at least a five-vote majority in the Senate, to be pretty comfortable with legalization getting done. Please please please don’t help screw it up by wasting a perfectly good vote in a hopeless cause, just because you love your weed as much as I did.
Actually, I don’t think that most of the votes that went to the legalization parties would have gone to DFLers, otherwise. Rather, they’re from people who did a ballot in order to vote against Trump, and then went for a minor party to show their disdain for both major parties, and the system in general. I certainly understand the motivation, there. Many of those voters probably don’t smoke dope, and don’t consider legalization a huge priority in any case.
But in practical terms, the way to get things like legalizing it done is through a progressive takeover of the Democratic Party, nationally and in the states. Which on the whole will continue to be a long and tortuous process, with setbacks. But also with victories along the way: this election worked out well for drug issues in general. And it would have in Minnesota, too, if people had been smarter. As in, held their noses as needed and voted for DFLers, regardless.
That said, is legalization in Minnesota really dead for at least the next two years, as some would have it? From the article just linked, voters in South Dakota (where the presidential vote was Trump + 26%), and Montana (Trump + 17) legalized it via referendums. With results like that it shouldn’t be inconceivable, that enough GOP support can be picked up for a referendum in 2022, if it can’t get done in the legislature.
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