Video: Voting to legalize marijuana

>>> voters in three states, three will decide next month on whether to become the first states in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. doing so would put colorado , washington state and oregon in direct conflict with federal law . in the meantime former federal officials in washington state are supporting the effort to legalize pot. joining me now is ryan grimm. he's the author of "this is yuour country on drugs." this would put in conflict with federal law . we know that the doj hasn't come out strongly yet and perhaps won't on this. we're in a credible point where you have three states to legalize pot for rec use.

>> they're smarter about this time. in 2010 it was the closest a state came to legalizing marijuana when california went for it. they got hammered by opponents towards the end of the election. look, if you pass this initiatives, the roads will be filled with zonked-out stoners. in washington they thought about that and put in an impairment standard so cops can try to figure out if someone is driving stoned or not. also in oregon , colorado and washington , they ear mamark the revenue, some to the general fund and education and substance abuse things and things everybody supports. these are smarter initiatives and it's smarter to run them in a presidential year when you have a lot of young people voting rather than at midterm in 2010 where the elderly folks that come out are strongly anti-pot.

>> some of the latest polling shows 50% in colorado and washington support legalizing pot for rec use while 37% in oregon support legalization. ryan, you suddenied this and wrote about it. talk about our mindsets have changed perhaps even since the '80s. is it because, for example, under federal law possession of one personal joint is a misdemeanor but punishable by up it to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. do people think we have bigger things to worry about, or marijuana is not the scary demon some saw it as earlier on?

>> all the hysteria works in reformer's favorite. you have problem finding revenue? here's revenue. tons of people are smoking pot . let's go ahead and tax it. i think more importantly in places like oregon , washington , and colorado , you had medical marijuana legal there for a long time. the drug czars and drug warriors said if you do this all of our children will smoke pot and the sky will fall. that didn't happen. in most states where they legalized medical marijuana , the teen pot shoeking rate went down. i'm not sure why that is. it becomes medical and it becomes uncool. whatever it is, all of the warnings that the drug warriors gave the public didn't come true. so now they're out there saying the same things, and it doesn't stick to the wall like it used. a bunch of drug warriors had a conference call today in colorado . former drug czars are coming out against the constitutional amendment out tlchlt the media asked do you think obama is getting drug money laundered to his campaign? they wouldn't say no.

>> what?

>> the huffington post was on the call. wait a minute. are you really not willing to say that the president of the united states is not funding his campaign with drug money? they said, we're not going to comment on that. so, you know, they've kind of descended into this desperationhysteria. i think it would be washington and colorado , and i think oregon will probably fail. if it doesn't happen this time, i think 2016 you'll see it a few places for sure.

>> bizarre conference call and interesting topic. thank you very much, brian grimm.

>>> just within the past few hours the fak stanny teenager had you noted down and shot in the head by the taliban, now she's in the uk for the critical treatment she is in need

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/49420731/

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