\nGallup's 50% of last year.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why are we still arresting people for pot? Do we need to feed the private-prison-industrial-complex that bad? Nobody here profits by this racket (at least we hope they don't) other than illegal drug dealers. It's time to legalize, tax, and regulate. Paul Armentano wrote for AlterNet 10 July 2012, There's Been a Tectonic Shift on […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,140,1113,49,2,72,20,21,22],"tags":[8736,8744,8817,8721,8701,8699,8730,8702,8710,12,7,8711,8712,6],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-alec","category-cca","category-elections","category-government","category-incarceration","category-law","category-planning","category-politics","tag-activism","tag-alec","tag-cca","tag-elections","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-incarceration","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-aV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b016768854301970b-pi.gif\")
<\/a>\nNever in modern history has there existed greater public support for\nending this nation's nearly century-long experiment with cannabis\nprohibition and replacing it with a system legalization and\nregulation. Moreover, state and local politicians beyond the\n\u2018Beltway bubble\u2019 for the first time in many decades are responding\nto this sea change in public opinion, even if their colleagues in\nWashington are not. From Rhode Island to Texas, from New York City\nto Chicago, lawmakers are finally acknowledging that being pro-pot\nreform equals votes. The question is: Why isn't Washington getting\nthe message?\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n