Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis has devoted many years and millions of dollars to reforming marijuana policy. Below, in his own words, he tells FORBES why hell keep battling drug laws. This story is featured in the latest FORBES 400 issue, newsstand date October 10, 2011.
Our marijuana laws are outdated, ineffective and stupid. Im not alone in thinking this: Half of Americans believe we should stop punishing people for using marijuana. And not coincidentally, more than half of Americans have used marijuana themselves. I am one of those Americans, and I know firsthand that marijuana can be helpful and that it certainly isnt cause for locking anyone up.
My story is fairly simple. I grew up after college in a world where social drinking was the norm but marijuana was hidden. When I was 39 I tried marijuana for the first time. I found it to be better than scotch. But it wasnt until I had serious medical problems that I realized how important marijuana could be.
When I was 64 my left leg was amputated below the knee because there was an infection that couldnt be cured. I spent a year after the amputation in excruciating pain and a year in a wheelchair. So during that period I was very glad I had marijuana. It didnt exactly eliminate the pain, but it made the pain tolerableand it let me avoid those heavy-duty narcotic pain relievers that leave you incapacitated.
I am a progressive by birth, by nature, by philosophythats the name of the insurance company I ran as well, which is coincidentalbut I am a small p progressive. I dont believe that laws against things that people do regularly, like safe and responsible use of marijuana, make any sense. Everything that has been done to enforce these laws has had a negative effect, with no results.
Its become sort of a central philanthropic interest of mineby no means my only interest. But Im pretty clear. Ive thought it through, and Im trying to accomplish something. My mission is to reduce the penalties for growing, using and selling marijuana. Its that simple.
Ive been conducting a great deal of research on public opinion on marijuana. Change in this area is inevitable, much like the movement toward equal rights for gays and lesbians. An ever shrinking fraction of the country resists changing marijuana laws, largely for moral reasons. But change is coming. Its just a question of when and how we get there.
When you think about all the people who have used marijuanafrom political leaders to sports stars to corporate executives to people from every walk of lifeone way to win this battle is for people to just be honest. If everyone who used marijuana stood up and said, I use this; its pretty good, the argument would be over.
Im amazed that anyone could oppose marijuana for medical use. Its compassionate. Doctors recommend it. But the federal government is so hung up on its war on drugs that it refuses to even allow medical research on marijuana. So Ive *supported changing the laws state by state, and Ill *continue to do so.
On legalization beyond medical use, we may be some years away, or we may find that we suddenly reach a tipping point, much like the end of alcohol prohibition in the last century. Im supporting innovative ideas to move toward a system that would regulate, control and tax marijuana.
Im retired; I have time to work on this, to treat it with the same seriousness that I treated my former work running a large corporation. I care deeply about it. I deeply believe that well have a better country and a better world if marijuana is treated more or less like alcohol.
This is like convincing whirlpool they shouldn't make washers and dryers anymore... It's a HUGE source of revenue for the government, and like it or not taxing it won't pay the DEA and ATF to continue to stay staffed up.
Won't happen, ever. Government is too hung up on keeping everything the same and generating money. I'm all for MJ legalization and partake every once in a while myself, but I don't see this happening ever.
I could see it being legalized as a last ditch effort to boost the economy, but that is just a ridiculous claim.
Edit: What would help, IMO, is if the white collar users came forward to show it isn't the drug they think it is. Glad this is being published in Forbes.
The breakthrough will take place when the chief executive of a major pharmaceutical company comes out and admits that he used marijuana for therapeutic use after an illness. On second thought, if that happened his handlers would quickly retract his statement and insist that he must have temporarily lost his senses.
He said he smoked pot to alleviate the pain of having his leg amputated; I don't think he's doing much walking these days.That is cool. Guy gets stoned off his ass and walks around his mansion probably like whoa. lol. I wonder what kind of crazy shit he's bought or ordered while being high.
He said he smoked pot to alleviate the pain of having his leg amputated; I don't think he's doing much walking these days.
LOL.yet another "yes it will!" "no it won't!" "yes it will!" "no it won't!" "what's wrong with pot?" "it's EEEVIL" "it kills fewer people than alcohol" "but but but" "blah blah blah" "whine whine whine" thread
yet another "yes it will!" "no it won't!" "yes it will!" "no it won't!" "what's wrong with pot?" "it's EEEVIL" "it kills fewer people than alcohol" "but but but" "blah blah blah" "whine whine whine" thread
You realize they said the same thing 40 years ago right?Of course marijuana will be decriminalized or legalized. It's already happening across a number of states and countries. Marijuana is viewed as a dangerous narcotic by old people who set policy
All of those drugs should be legal. And people should be severely punished for committing crimes while high. Anything can be abused, including alcohol, coffee, and fast food. But what a person puts in their body should be their business.You realize they said the same thing 40 years ago right?
It seems like people get dumber as they age. They forget about things like evidence and published research and instead rely on TV. Quite a few of the older people I know admit to being hippies in their younger days and enjoyed the experience but are still against making them legal. All of the old people on this forum and all of the parents of the young people on this forum have done LSD or mushrooms at least once. They didn't go crazy or start killing people, yet they insist "someone else" might do it.
What the world needs, more dope heads.
Nobody that has ever done LSD or mushrooms would say that.
Some of the research coming out about mushrooms is especially telling. Many of the people they're researching put their first experience with mushrooms as the most profound event in their entire lives - and they aren't studying teenagers.
It's a good thing to expand your mind.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html
Indeed. And women first got the idea that they should have the right to vote in the mid-1800s, roughly 70 years before it actually happened. People were arguing that slavery should be abolished during the founding of the US, but it took another 90 years for it to become law. The temprance movement took well over a century to get alcohol banned in the US, and the collective desire of everyone in the country to get blasted out of their gourd took only a further 14 years to get it overturned... The point is, major legislation can take a long, long time. That's why I questioned whether we'd see legal marijuana in our lifetimes in my earlier post. But I think it's pretty clear that it will be completely legal at some future date.You realize they said the same thing 40 years ago right?