Side-note: I would have thought that the smoking is the problem. Regardless of whether you're smoking weed or tobacco, it's going to affect lung function.

As far as pot and lung function I'll answer that with a video post in a few minutes, it'll be from Dr Tashkin of the UCLA medical center, the same Dr Tashkin who is the source for most marijuana and lung function research in the US over recent decades.

As far as change it's been in reach for years, it's just hard to get people involved and get them to care. We always wonder how such a minority as the far religious right got to be so powerful but it's pretty damned simple actually. They started at the local level. They took over local political organizations, most are starved for volunteers and as their numbers grew so did their influence. That allowed them to first control who was elected at the local level then later who appeared on the ballots for primaries and so on.

Very few vote in off elections compared to normal ones but other than President everyone else is still on the ballot and that's half of where the nation is run from. Those who get involved in the off years have a MUCH larger voice than those who join the crowd in the busy ones. Stay home and they make the choice for you.

Real change takes time, but it also takes being there. We've got to quit asking when the politicians are going to do it and stop asking why we don't have better choices. If we want better ones we've got to put them there ourselves.