In her excellent book, “Team of Rivals,” historian Doris Kearns Goodwin reveals one particular area of genius of Abraham Lincoln, his extraordinary sense of timing.
Urged by his often combative cabinet to move on one measure or another as the Union executed a bloody and initially unsuccessful war while maintaining a delicate political balance between powerful conservative and radical factions, Lincoln proved masterful at sensing the precise moment at which public opinion would align with policy decisions. In doing so, he managed to keep the border states from joining the Confederate cause while staying true to the then radical concepts that swept him into office.
That preternatural sense of timing was one of the distinguishing features of Lincoln’s presidency.
This week, a group called “Mississippi for Cannabis” filed a petition seeking a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in the state. The group hopes to get the issue on the ballot in the November 2016 election.
If approved by the secretary of state’s office, organizers will have 12 months to collect the 110,000 signatures of registered voters necessary to have the proposal added to the election ballot. The group intends to target voters under the age of 31.
Given the conservative nature of Mississippians, it seems unlikely this is an idea whose time has come. Opponents still use the arguments that have been largely refuted — marijuana is a gate-way drug, marijuana causes brain damage, marijuana leaves young people listless and unmotivated. Those arguments still resonate with many Mississippians despite studies that prove them wrong.
Proponents, on the other hand, advance often overstated arguments of the many benefits to legalized marijuana, touting its medicinal qualities as well as the economic impact that the state will derived from taxing marijuana’s production and sales.
Ultimately, though, neither arguments for or against marijuana will decide the matter. It will be decided as a matter of personal preference.
Mississippi voters aren’t likely to legalize marijuana in 2016, but based on my own observations, there is little doubt that that day is coming, probably within the next 10 years or so.
There are two factors that suggest this: First, states are already moving toward legalization. Colorado has legalized marijuana while other states have decriminalized it, relaxed existing marijuana laws or amended laws that make marijuana more legally obtainable, most notably for medical uses.
As more and more states lift those sanctions, Mississippi will be swept along with the tide, mainly because of the practical realities associated with trying to enforce marijuana law that carry no weight in most other states.
The second factor is even more important: An awful lot of young Mississippians use marijuana.
In the spring of 2012, I worked at a Starkville convenience store near the Mississippi State campus while finishing my degree.
Being somewhat of a neophyte, I couldn’t understand why so many young people were buying little cigars at our store. A more worldly co-worker explained that people took out some of the tobacco, mixed it with marijuana and smoked it.
That was quite a revelation and I begin to make a mental note of the people who were buying the little cigars. I concluded that marijuana use, based on the sales of the cigars, pretty much defied being associated with any specific group. Blacks bought the cigars. So did whites. Poor kids bought them as did rich kids. Males bought them. Females bought them. Athletes, cheerleaders, students, workers, you name it. There was never a person under the age of 25 who walked into the store that I could say with confidence would not walk up to the counter and ask for the cigars.
Aside from beer and cigarettes, the little cigars were our biggest sellers.
Today’s young people clearly do not share their parents’ prejudices against marijuana. Someday soon, these young people will be the voters who make the decisions in our state.
And when it comes to legalizing marijuana, there is not much question how they will vote.
The timing for putting the matter on the ballot is not right. Public opinion has yet to galvanize in support of it. But that time will arrive.
The 2016 election will simply be a progress report and how close we are to that inevitable day.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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