It's been a battle. 

Though the Republicans are in charge, weed is still legal. And a growing group of pro-weed politicians are to thank for that.

The Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, was stopped from cracking down on legal pot by a Colorado Republican. The old Republican speaker of the house is now employed in the weed business. And most Republicans now support legalization.

For stoners, the defense of the plant is wonderful. 

But it raises the question: 

Where have you people been?

The people demanding that marijuana remain legal were nowhere to be found in the fight to get it legalized in the first place. Including Democrats.

When things were hard, they were AWOL. When dudes were going to jail, they were locking 'em up.

A few examples:

Eric Holder, the Attorney General during the Obama administration, is standing up to Attorney General Sessions, and asking him to reschedule cannabis.

Baller!

But where was he back in the day? When he was Obama's peer, and he had actual power to reschedule cannabis, he sat on his hands. No, worse. His justice department goons raided a number of medical marijuana operations in Colorado.

Kamala Harris, an up-and-coming Democratic senator from California, has a petition to legalize weed.

Sweet!  

But where was she back when? When she was California's Attorney General in 2014 and she was asked about legalizing recreational weed, she laughed in a reporter's face.

Colorado governor John Hickenlooper said Sessions's makes head fakes about shutting down the industry was a terrible idea and could eventually help the Mexican drug cartels.  

But!

Where was he during prohibition? As governor in 2012, Hick could have supported Amendment 64 to legalize it in Colorado. He didn't.

In fact, Amendment 64 had almost no support. Only a few members of Colorado's statehouse, and only one or two came out in favor of it.

When it mattered, the leaders were hiding behind bushes.

To be kind to these politicians, they are following the will of the people. As recently as 2010, a majority of Americans were marijuana prohibitionists. That's changed. In a new poll, 61 percent of Americans say "legalize it." Most of the only people left who remain pot prohibitionists are old-as-hell Republicans, the poll says.

Most politicians haven't learned their lesson. They're making the same mistakes today they made back then. They're not getting ahead of the public in supporting other drugs that deserve legalization, like mushrooms and LSD.

As a Denver group pushes to put magic mushrooms on the ballot, no city politician has come out in favor of it, and none are likely to.

We need you, politicians. Stop just wanting votes, money and status — do what's right.