Today is April 20 or 4/20.
If I get a blank stare with that proclamation, then you’re among the millions of Americans who are outside of counterculture. You see, 420 is famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask) associated with the celebration of marijuana.
While there are dozens of theories about how the date came to have such significance, the most widely accepted can be traced to a group of teenagers from San Rafael, California. The group, nicknamed the Waldos for their favorite hangout spot (a wall outside of school), used to meet after school to smoke pot. The timing of their meeting, 4:20 pm, became a kind of greeting in the hallway, and the rest, as they say, is stoner history.
Nearly 40 years later, the use of marijuana has spread from high school age kids taking illegal drags behind walls to a more front and center movement. While still prohibited by federal law (possession can lead to fines and jail time), eighteen states allow the possession of marijuana for medical purposes. And even though it remains illegal under any circumstances under federal law, wow states, Washington and Colorado, allow pot to be regulated and taxed like alcohol: those 21 and older may smoke pot (restrictions apply).
The sentiment that states ought to be able to regulate – and tax – marijuana is growing. Even those that don’t believe that marijuana should be legal have concerns about states’ rights. According to a Gallup poll, as of December 2012, 64% of Americans were opposed to the federal government regulating marijuana when it contrasts with state law.
So why won’t the feds budge? Think of all of that revenue they could bring in if they, like Colorado, were to legalize and tax marijuana. It’s complicated.
It was the taxation of marijuana in the 1930s which led to the criminalization of marijuana in the first place. In the early part of the 20th century, during Prohibition, booze was illegal but marijuana was not. Under the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, there was a two-part tax on the sale of marijuana; one which functioned like a sales tax and another which was more akin to an occupational tax for licensed dealers. Violations of the Act resulted in serious consequences.
In 1969, Timothy Leary challenged his arrest for possession of marijuana under the Act; the case of Leary v. the United States made it to the Supreme Court. The Court invalidated part of the Act as a violation of the Fifth Amendment (against self-incrimination). The result was a new law, the Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970, which criminalized the possession or sale of marijuana.
Forty years later, the debate about the legalization of marijuana – and the right to regulate and tax it rages on. States see this as their opportunity to control and tax a substance already being sold on street corners. But the feds steadfastly refuse to budge, even for medical reasons. With nearly half of all states now legalizing the drug in some way, is that about to change?
