US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

Feels like they were keeping this card in their sleeves for when they needed a popularity boost.

It is a good thing for democratically accountable governments to do good things that the people want!

Yes, it's good for the government to not be tyrannical, but I'd argue that when the majority of people increasingly and collectively want things that are net negatives for society like recreational drug use, it's a red flag that society is in decline.

You seem to be conflating a distaste for demonstratively failed policy, like as prohibition, with an appetite for what you are calling "recreational drug use".

Do you acknowledge the failure of prohibition?

Tell that to all the people pissed off at Roe v Wade

> an unelected unaccountable panel of judges

Don't forget seriously corrupt who regularly accept bribes.

A panel of judges appointed and confirmed by elected officials. An electoral plurality did want it repealed. And based on current polls, there is not a majority who think it's important enough to change it back. Even if there's an opinion poll saying most people want abortion rights, that's effectively moot if they don't vote that way.

OK, but at the time of Roe v. Wade, I don't think the majority of people wanted abortion legalized, either. I'm not sure the majority of people wanted gay marriage legalized (at the time).

But even more: You don't want the judges to be focused on what the majority want. That's not the rule of law.

Yes, I'm objecting to the premise that "democratically accountable governments do(ing) good things that the people want" describes the process by which Roe v. Wade was repealed. It was not democratically accountable, and it was what only a subset of the people wanted.

The Supreme Court is not an example of democracy working, it's a purposely anti-democratic institution.

> based on current polls

Citation needed.

Current polls indicate that "[t]wo-thirds of the public, including majorities of Democrats (86%) and independents (67%), support a law guaranteeing a federal right to abortion."

Source: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/poll-finding/kff-he...

> Even if there's an opinion poll [...] that's effectively moot if they don't vote that way.

Weirdly, your own argument is rendered moot with that assertion. But I agree, it's important for people to vote.

This is a directional error. Roe protected liberty. Federal criminalization of weed impedes liberty. While ending both of these things returns policy to the states, one necessarily reduces liberty while one necessarily increases liberty.

I think recreational drug use is demonstrably good for society and part of all succesful civilizations. Take caffeine, sugar, alcohol and tobacco as the primary examples. All potent drugs and all taken habitually and en masse by all the most successful societies in the world.

By current polls, I mean the ones showing Trump even or slightly ahead of Biden despite him being directly responsible for Dobbs. If 2/3 of the public wanted abortion rights, Biden would have 2/3 of the popular vote, but he won't get anywhere near that. Hence, most people don't want Roe reinstated. QED.

"an unelected unaccountable panel of judges"

Who do you think approved Roe v. Wade in the first place that legalized abortion. An "unelected unaccountable panel of judges."

Edit: If someone can find a federal law that legalized abortion then please, I'm all ears.

>If 2/3 of the public wanted abortion rights, Biden would have 2/3 of the popular vote, but he won't get anywhere near that. Hence, most people don't want Roe reinstated. QED.

That isn't the way people work. Or voting. Or polls.

It is the only practical measure of true public opinion. You can also, by extension, infer that roughly 47% of Americans think sexual assault is acceptable and that democracy is undesirable. It may not be what they say or even what they think but it is reflected in what they do.

Abortion bans have been extremely unpopular in every state where they have gone on the ballot. Even deep red ones. I'd be curious to see what happens if every state holds a referendum on it.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Kansas_abortion_referendu...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2023_Ohio_Issue_1

The political group largely responsible for this has been consistently underperforming in nearly every election since it happened, so I’m not sure what point you’re driving at.

They absolutely were. Between 25% inflation, the student loan relief failure, two proxy wars and the current beating of college students across the country, the current administration would have been facing record low turnout in November.

I would be surprised if there is not some string attached to this that doesn't take place until after November. That's a good thing though, becuase it was seeming more and more like the current administration was sabotaging itself. The Democrats need the youth vote.

It isn't practical by any means, it's unnecessarily reductionist, even when one doesn't consider the numerous innate biases involved in polling.

People are multidimensional but American Presidential politics forces them into a binary decision. Yet there are numerous reasons why people who support abortion might not vote for Biden. They may support abortion but not believe Biden is a credible choice to defend abortion rights. They may support abortion but vote against Biden to punish the Democratic Party for their response to Dobbs. They may support abortion but reject the Democratic Party altogether. They may support abortion but find activism at the state level more effective, and find other things like Biden's support for Israel more objectionable. They may support abortion but also support Trump, because pro-choice Republicans do exist, and their only options will be to vote Trump or not vote and all. And most people won't even vote at all.

>It may not be what they say or even what they think but it is reflected in what they do.

No. It may be comfortable to see people in such black and white terms, but the premise that unless one votes for Biden, one doesn't support abortion regardless of what else one says and does, is ... not even wrong levels of wrong.

Which party is part of which decision again?

Yes, this is exactly the problem with our "representative" democracy. For example, one polarizing issue this year may be whether a voter is willing to accept a candidate who acts like a mob boss or not, regardless of any other issue that the candidates are trying to stand on. Worse yet, elected candidates then have difficulty knowing which of the multidimensional issues mattered to their voters because all the information has been lost by the polarizing election system.

You are making the mistake that people understand how our government works or are paying much attention at all. I've video of some voters blaming Biden for the overturn of Roe v Wade because it happened during Biden's term. If voters were properly informed across the board Biden, and most democrats, would win in a landslide. There are many active forces, foreign and domestic, which put serious effort and money into deliberately misinforming the populace, because they are incredibly selfish, and care only for their personal gain, regardless of how many are harmed, and to what degree.

Nobody cares about college protestors, even other young people. It's the second to least important issue in recent polls.

https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/47th-edition-spring-2024

Young people always have bad turnout anyway, so it doesn't matter if they find a new excuse to have it.

(Also they did do student loan reform via SAVE and have forgiven about 9% of loans IIRC. Probably shouldn't have though, it's inflationary, and as you can see from the above poll nobody even appreciates it.)

All the most successful societies have tobacco users, therefore tobacco is good for society. Logic checks out.

The people want to be undisturbed and untaxed by rampant mental illness too, but the average person won't acknowledge that recreational marijuana use (with today's potency levels) contributes to declining mental health.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2424288/

https://treatmentmagazine.com/cannabis-2020-this-isnt-your-d...

I understand that people are complex and can have subtlety and nuance to their personalities but I can only judge them on what they do. If someone kicks me in the shin, there could be 1000 reasons leading to them thinking it was a valid decision but ultimately they still just kicked me in the shin.

I'm sure 0% of Trump voters would tell a pollster they approve of sexual assault but their actions indicate they do.

That logic doesn't really hold. I'll speak generally and not about this specific administration:

If the <current government> was doing good things that the people wanted during the entire term, then they would not need to resort to moves like this alleged one when the vote is coming up. It's only if they're not doing good things that the people want that they would dangle something shiny to the electorate.

More like all the most successful societies value personal freedoms. Personal freedoms are clearly good for society and a big one of those is recreational drug use of which tobacco use is quite common.

Having a government which restricts personal freedoms too much for the sake of "societal good" may work in the short term or for specific issues but is clearly a negative in the long and broad terms. See the "west" of today for evidence of personal freedom combined with not-overly-restrictive-legislation being the most successful method of handling these things.