Alex Seitz-Wald reviews progress made against prohibition:
[W]hile difficult to quantify, there is a marked shift in the media coverage of the issue. No longer does every story on marijuana get snickering treatment and puns about the munchies or Bob Marley. Google Trends shows an enormous spike in news coverage of medical marijuana and legalization around the election, matching a jump in general web searches. There were 2,830 news stories written and broadcast about legalization in the past year, according to Nexis, up from just 812 in 2011.
He goes on:
2012 was the year that Pat Robertson, of all people, said, “I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol.” It was also the year that Bill Clinton, a leading drug warrior in his time in the White House, said the drug war “hasn’t worked” and called for dramatic reform. At the same time, it was almost impossible find pundits or other voices who strongly opposed legalization. The silence was almost more surprising than the support.
The Dish 