Sort of. They might be ending but they're not over yet. I watch a lot of videos by producers who monitor police brutality and expose police misconduct by posting videos on YouTube.

In very many states in the US, especially in the South, police routinely engage in pretextual stops to search for marijuana. (As in, you didn't come to a full stop at the last intersection. Can I have your license and registration? I smell marijuana. Step out of the car. Now.)

Police routinely brutalize and jail people for processing small amounts of marijuana. I watch it happen nearly every day.

So, things are getting better, but we seem to have a very long way to go yet.

I'd like to point out a medical benefit that a lot of people have forgotten since the AIDS epidemic was brought under control with effective treatment. Marijuana can be a very effective appetite enhancer for people who are ill and nauseated either because of their illness or because of side effects of treatment.

Many of my friends living with HIV and AIDS ended up emaciated even before their t-cell counts dropped so low that death from opportunistic infection was likely. They were dealing with nausea, often because of life-saving medication, but their nausea could prevent them from eating enough to stay even minimally healthy.

Marijuana could often turn that around. I have friends who are alive today because smoking weed let them eat and gain weight while they waited for the antiviral treatment breakthrough that eventually arrived. Doctors would often advise AIDS patients to smoke, though of course they gave that advice on officially and didn't include it in medical records.

I don't know much about cancer treatment in chemotherapy from personal experience, but I've heard it said that chemo patients are often advised to smoke so that they can eat.

Just thought I'd add that to your excellent article. Thanks!