On April 20, 2018, New Mexico junior senator Martin Heinrich announced, via social media, a divergence apparently marked by compared to his former opinion on the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. The senator's tweet, which simply said, "It's time to legalize marijuana," quickly met with a deluge of support from Heinrich's (largely Democratic) supporters. Heinrich then solidified his image as a proponent of marijuana law reform by co-sponsoring the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, a bill that, if passed, would pave the way for legally regulated cannabis sales nationally and writing a congressional report on the economy. benefits of legalizing marijuana. Heinrich's strong support for marijuana reform surprised many who followed his 2012 Senate campaign, during which he expressed ambiguous feelings on the subject (Oxford, 2018). After careful review of this essay, it becomes clear that Heinrich's decision to publicly support marijuana legalization in 2018 was part of a shrewd effort to maintain support from his Democratic base in light of recent polling by public opinion regarding marijuana and Gary Johnson's decision. to join the 2018 Senate race. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Over the past century, the legality of the sale and possession of cannabis in the United States has remained a controversial topic. Until the late 1800s, hemp was grown prolifically throughout America. The plant was used both for its strong fibers, which could be made into rope or fabric, and for its medicinal properties. Hemp was even used as legal tender in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.1 However, American opinion on marijuana changed dramatically in the early 1900s, when the Mexican Revolution led to an influx of Mexican immigrants entering in the United States. Anti-immigrant sentiments rose in concert with the anti-drug campaigns associated with Prohibition; Soon the two issues were wrongly conflated, leading to the idea that Mexican immigrants were eroding the moral fabric of white America by smoking and distributing marijuana. In 1930, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created to address the nation's problems with opiates and cocaine, but the institution also had great influence over cannabis laws. The office's appointed director, Harry Anslinger, vehemently opposed marijuana use, believing it to be the cause of violence, psychosis, Satanism, and racial unrest (Adams, 2016). Anslinger's crusade against marijuana led to the passage of laws such as the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and the Boggs Act of 1952, which made the plant illegal and imposed increasingly harsh penalties for cannabis-related offenses. Since the 1950s, support for legal marijuana has gone through several phases. . During the 1960s and 1970s, the nation's opinion on drugs was highly polarized, with Nixon attempting to impose harsher penalties for marijuana possession and sale, while liberals campaigned for legalization. During the 1970s, Congress repealed many of the marijuana-related mandatory minimum sentencing policies of the 1950s, and 11 states decriminalized marijuana possession. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, the country experienced an era ofconservative drug policies, reinstating mandatory minimum sentences and launching national advertising campaigns to discourage young people from using cannabis. In recent years, Americans have developed renewed enthusiasm for legalizing the use of marijuana for medical and recreational purposes. According to Gallup polls, the number of Americans who believe marijuana should be legal has increased steadily, from 25% of the adult population in the mid-1990s to 66% in 2018 (McCarthy, 2018). Marijuana has been fully legalized by eleven states and the District of Columbia, decriminalized by 15 additional states (including New Mexico), and legalized for medical purposes in 21 states (including New Mexico). Despite these numbers, marijuana remains federally classified as an illegal Schedule I substance. This conflict of laws remains a point of contention between the federal and state governments, with each claiming jurisdiction over overlapping territories. Marijuana law reform is a controversial issue that has affected all Americans in one way or another. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “marijuana-related arrests now account for more than half of all drug-related arrests in the United States.” Additionally, more than $3.9 trillion is spent each year in the United States to enforce marijuana laws. Given these numbers, every American who pays taxes or uses public services is affected by our country's current marijuana policies. In his landmark article, Congress: The Electoral Connection, David Mayhew asserts that “Members of the American Congress want to be re-elected. – in fact, in their role here as abstractions, interested in nothing else” (Mayhew, 1974). These words ring true when considering the motivations behind Martin Heinrich's decision to publicly support marijuana law reform in 2018, as well as his decision to refrain from issuing a decisive public opinion on the issue in 2012. When Heinrich decided to run for U.S. Senate in 2012, he undoubtedly knew he had significant advantages from the start of the race. He was vying for an open Senate seat – a seat that was vacated by a fellow Democrat. New Mexico, once considered a swing state, voted for Obama over McCain in 2008 by a margin of nearly 4 percent, signaling to many that New Mexico had become a safe Democratic state. Early polls continued to show Heinrich in the lead against his opponent, Republican Heather Wilson. Heinrich probably felt quite confident in his ability to be elected to the Senate in 2012. A national poll taken in 2012 showed that the country itself had mixed feelings regarding the legalization of marijuana. Gallup polls showed that at the time, almost exactly half of the country supported legalizing marijuana. Given his consistent lead in the polls and the estimated level of public support for marijuana law reform, Heinrich had everything to lose and little to gain by taking a strong stance on marijuana legalization. When asked about the topic in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal in 2012, Heinrich said, “I certainly support states being able to use medical marijuana with a doctor's prescription, there's no question about it. I wouldn't say I'm knowledgeable enough on the issue to make a commitment beyond that. » Six years later, in 2018, Martin Heinrich was an incumbent senator running for re-election. In early 2018, Heinrich's initial tweet expressing support for reform of the..