You may not have noticed, but the movement to legalize marijuana is quietly picking up steam across the country. This fall, as many as half a dozen states could consider ballot initiatives allowing medical patients, and others, to smoke pot. Voters in California, which has already legalized marijuana use for the sick, will consider a referendum legalizing it for any adult. Polls show that nearly 60 percent of Californians favor the initiative, which is cannily being sold as a way to raise tax revenues for a state crippled by a massive budget deficit. The ease with which pro-pot measures are being approved suggests that more could be on the way: medicinal marijuana has so far been legalized in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
| 14 3/4. Reefer Sanity by Joshua Green |
7. Information Wants to Be Paid For by Walter Isaacson |
| 14. It’s Too Easy
Being Green by Kai Ryssdal |
6. The Kids Aren’t All Right by David Leonhardt |
| 13. Teachers Are Fair Game by David Brooks |
5. Bonfire of the Knuckleheads by Jeffrey Goldberg |
| 12. The Rise of the Drones by Martha Raddatz |
4. The Power of No by Michael Kinsley |
| 11. Obama Is No
Liberal by James Bennet |
3. Boredom is
Extinct by Walter Kirn |
| 10. The Triumph of
Free Speech by Jeffrey Rosen |
America Is No. 2 by James Fallows |
| 9. The Catholic Church Is Finished by Ross Douthat |
1. The End of Men by Hanna Rosin |
| 8. Deficits Matter by Megan McArdle |
PLUS: More Ideas of the Year From TARP to sleeping with Tiger Woods |
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/reefer-sanity/308153/
