Popular political blogger/statistician Nate Silver says that this post about marijuana legalization was his second most-read piece ever. He became famous for his presidential election polling, but the success of that one marijuana post just shows the intense public interest in reform, especially on the web.
Everywhere you look, even the mainstream press is picking up on the fact that people want to talk about this. Just look at NPR's The New Marijuana series, which has churned out more marijuana stories this week than I have time to read. CBS has been doing the same thing with Marijuana Nation, CNBC had a big hit with Marijuana Inc., and even Fox News has recruited John Stossel and Judge Napolitano to trash the drug war on Rupert Murdoch's dime.
If you think I'm exaggerating what's going on here, just look at the Google Trends results for the search term "marijuana legalization":
It's incredible to see our progress displayed so vividly, and anyone who doesn’t want legal marijuana in America should think twice about wasting their time trying to stop it. More people are scanning the web for news about marijuana legalization than ever before, and the media is working hard to give them exactly what they want, which results in yet more people reading and searching for news about marijuana legalization.
The whole process cascades and feeds on itself, spontaneously turning longtime observers into voices for reform, and literally creating more news by emboldening activists to launch new campaigns. It's awesome, and it absolutely won't stop until our marijuana laws are fixed forever.
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