Legalized Marijuana in the South?
Hi all, new poster here. Got a topic of personal interest here.
Being from Louisiana, I'm constantly disappointed in my home state's lack of progress in moving forward, but this might be a bit of good news...
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/louisiana-lawmakers-to-discuss-marijuana-legalization/
Looks like a state House Committee will be discussing legalization on the 21st. And with poles trending strongly in favor of ending oppressive laws, maybe there is some outside chance that some real progress can be made here?
Knowing the political attitudes of so many people down there, I see it as highly unlikely that anything substantial happens quickly. But at least the conversation is being had and hopefully Louisiana can find a way to be a leader for something positive for once in our history.
And as a more fun/interesting thought as opposed to simply wishful thinking (which I admit, this probably is), anyone want to make guesses on which southern state is the first/last to legalize marijuana? I'm personally going Kentucky first, Texas last.
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The state's financials (like so much else) are a huge mess right now. However, I'll still be all for it. Sounds like a win-win 
Florida will be the first. 
Alabama may be last.
Florida has a pretty effective organization in place, it looks like, retiree activists who have been building a case in the public's mind. And Florida has a large tourism industry, so, after seeing what is happening in CO - maybe. Crist, the robo-dem, supports mmj while his teabagging opponent does not.
Last year someone in the LA house tried to introduce leg. to reform sentencing for mj, iirc, I posted about it in this forum.. but it didn't pass.
At the least lawmakers could look at revising sentencing. In Louisiana, you can spend life in prison if you are convicted of possession three times b/c of the three strikes law.
Someone should name it the Louis Armstrong Memorial law... 
Hemp is good as phytoremediation. Takes heavy metals out of soils. oil.
http://www.hemp.com/2012/06/soil-contamination-phytoremediation-with-hemp/
That way we can see what leg. is up and how it goes.
Since the Southern Baptists are so powerful (hdqtrs of the SBC in Nashville) first going the medical route might be best to appeal to their basic decency in regard to people like the children with Dravet's epilepsy.
But since tourism is such a big deal in Memphis, Nashville and the Smokies area - even to Johnson City's Storyteller's Guild, etc... it's sort of weird not to just legalize, since music is such an important part of the TN economy. But then again, I'm not right with gawd.