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Tales of Resistance and Triumph - MMJ Movement - Getting Our Asses Kicked Uphill [1]

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Date: 2024-11-11  

Of course we’re all in kind of a tailspin right now with the election results, hard to know what to make of the future. But as I’ve been trying to process it all, I was thinking back to around 20 years ago, when I got involved with the medical marijuana (MMJ) movement. California state law had legalized MMJ in 1996 under prop 215, but the state wasn’t actually following the law. In fact police, cities, counties, and the state were actively fighting it. And worse — it was (and is) still illegal under federal law.

So the DEA was raiding MMJ dispensaries and growers, prosecuting them, and many went to prison. Through it all we did our best to protest the raids in real time — the DEA was often annoyed to hear our chant of “DEA Go Away!” as they raided a dispensary. They had thought of themselves as heroes, not the subject of community scorn. In the long run I think all of the protesting and court support did help the cause, and some of the defendants.

At the same time, at city council and county board of supervisors meetings we just kept getting our asses handed to us. But each time we got a lot of media coverage, and more supporters, donations, etc. Not sure where I got this line from, but it felt like we were “getting our asses kicked up hill.” We were losing every battle, but building support towards winning the war.

And after many years, many sacrifices, and so much unnecessary suffering, the movement won. And moved on to recreational use as well, and spread to other states, which is great!

We face tough times now, almost certainly much worse than what I described above. But we have to keep thinking about how to resist, fight back, and maybe even get our “asses kicked uphill.”

Your thoughts?

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