By Jorge Rolón Luna
In 1875, the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco (USA) issued a ban on opium dens, marking, perhaps, the initiation of an offensive model against consciousness-altering substances that is still in force today. 147 years later, the same country that initiated, promoted, globalized, and escalated to limits of irrationality without parallel in history “its” war on drugs, partially passed a bill that was unfathomable only a short while ago. Through the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2020 la Ley de Oportunidad, Reinversión y Expugnación de Delitos Marihuana, the bastion of the warlike approach to a human trait, all too human, such as overcoming the state of consciousness – the Spanish philosopher Antonio Escohotado dixit in his now classic General History of Drugs – is one step away from legalizing marijuana at the federal level. Soon, it seems, the US will remove cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act, which will allow states to legalize cannabis, its production and sale, without federal interference. As of today, 37 U.S. states have already legalized medical use and 19 (18 plus the District of Columbia) have legalized recreational use of cannabis.