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The Failed War On Pot Users
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/20/2005 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 10/20/2005 7:51:19 AM PDT by cryptical

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To: cryptical
IN 2004, law enforcement officials arrested 771,605 people for marijuana

Cops get the best dope!

81 posted on 10/20/2005 10:46:19 AM PDT by WhiteGuy (Vote for gridlock)
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To: boulderite20
I actually don't mind giving cheap shots at people that contribute to the dumbing down of America via advocating Pot use.

If your not apart of that then you shouldn't be offended.

82 posted on 10/20/2005 10:53:17 AM PDT by april15Bendovr
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

"Do you want your kid's teachers ________ every day"

If we are talking abuse you can fill in the blank. If we are talking occasional use I could care less. What type of use are we talking about? Blanket statement is worthless without clarification. We don't want our populace drunk, high, sleepy, lazy, fat every day of the week.


83 posted on 10/20/2005 10:56:05 AM PDT by zek157
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To: april15Bendovr

Can you correlate how advocating the use of Marijuana is somehow dumbing down America as a whole?


84 posted on 10/20/2005 10:56:34 AM PDT by boulderite20
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To: cryptical
The question should be asked why this many Americans feel they are entitled to break the law - and for something as stupid as the desire to smoke pot.
If we were talking about some great civil injustice such as de jure segregation, one could understand the desire to violate the law, but we are talking about smoking a substance that is known to be harmful.
And don't tell me it isn't because I've spent too much time around dedicated pot heads and seen the decline in their mental faculties.
If pot heads want to legalize pot, they should agitate through political or legal channels. If not, they should accept the punishment the law.
85 posted on 10/20/2005 10:57:22 AM PDT by quadrant
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To: Ecliptic

Is someone proposing that we make a law that says the Chief of Police has to get high every day? Help me understand your issue.


86 posted on 10/20/2005 10:59:20 AM PDT by jayef
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To: Joe Beerman

"Humans like to get high. Beer is the foundation of civilization. Every civilization in history that has tried to prohibit intoxication has collapsed in tyranny.
Pot passes the beer test. It should be legal."


I am human. I dont get high. I dont drink, smoke, no drugs. Never did never will. I am living proof a child can be raised to reject these things. Beer is not the foundation of anything. Wife beating? crime? alcoholism? drunk driving deaths? Unwanted pregnancies or catching an STD? Yeah alcohol is a big contributer to those things.

I know people love beer ok? They nearly *worship* it. It aint going away. It never will go away.

But people can grow up to not drink or do drugs. I am proof. Am I an anomoly? probably. I do not walk the path that most walk. My parents were not over bearing or religous. I simply chose not to do these things, my choice. my sister as well, My two older brothers did get into pot for a while, that was the seventies. They grew out of it.


87 posted on 10/20/2005 11:10:11 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: boulderite20
Why not try and figure that out on your own by studying the side effects and do it objectively by using the sites I have posted.

If you must than you can compare and contrast your own info wherever you might find research.

When you can present you findings on the effects of marijuana lets further discuss how the side effects contribute to the dumbing down of America.

In other words present to me what you already know and have learned about the side effects scientifically.

I would like to answer your question with a question. How can the side effects of marijuana not cause the dumbing down of America?

88 posted on 10/20/2005 11:19:46 AM PDT by april15Bendovr
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To: Ribeye

ok, ok...maybe I went a little overboard. But, check this out...in the past several years Montana has changed from a strictly conservative state to rapidly becoming a liberal state. We Republicans used to control both state houses, one US Senate seat and our one lone US House seat and the governor's mansion. In 2004 we lost the state house, we lost the state senate majority (now tied), we lost the governorship and a very concerted effort is being made to throw out our lone Republican US Senator, Burns, by 2006. The vast majority of incoming immigrants are from California---coincidence? Not bloody likely.


89 posted on 10/20/2005 11:43:09 AM PDT by GunnyHartman (Allah is allah outta virgins.)
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To: april15Bendovr
... How can the side effects of marijuana not cause the dumbing down of America?

The side effects of the drug warriors arguments is certainly the dumbing down of FR.

90 posted on 10/20/2005 11:52:46 AM PDT by 68 grunt (3/1 India, 3rd, 68-69, 0311)
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To: Names Ash Housewares
I am human. I dont get high. I dont drink, smoke, no drugs.

That's great. You are obviously of a higher moral caliber than the rest of us. I wish you nothing but success and happiness.

Beer is not the foundation of anything

The earliest civilization had to stop hunting and gathering to grow barley...for beer.
If not for beer, we would still be hunting goats with speers.

Wife beating? crime? alcoholism? drunk driving deaths? Unwanted pregnancies or catching an STD? Yeah alcohol is a big contributer to those things

Yes, you're right. Many people should not drink alcohol. Individual responsibility is the key, and always has been. We are not all created from one blueprint. Some people enjoy peanuts. Others will die from eating a peanut. Many would be better off if they used pot instead of alcohol.

I encourage those who have a drinking problem to find an alternative that they can safely use. Prohibiting the safest alternative to alcohol does not lower wife beating and drunk driving. Prohibition encourages the behavior you despise.

I know people love beer ok? They nearly *worship* it.

The followers of the goddess Ninkasi are many. Have they not the same freedom of religion as you?

It aint going away. It never will go away

Marijuana has been illegal for 68 years. It has not gone away and it will never go away.
.
91 posted on 10/20/2005 11:59:12 AM PDT by Joe Beerman
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To: april15Bendovr

Alright.

You state that marijuana is "dumbing down America", which I assume you are talking about all of American society, culture , and all of its citizens.

Currently a realitively small portion of people in the U.S. use marijuana regularly, aside from medicinal cases, which is even more miniscule. The subculture which surrounds marijuana use is also realitively small compared to society as a whole. By advocating its use, all that is being said is that people who wish to use it recreationally should indeed be able to do so without fear. Most of society and the majority of its leaders and producers choose not to use marijuana or other drugs because they are professional people that are concerned with their professions and the idea of living a healthy lifestyle. This is great and should be encouraged. However not all people choose this lifestyle.

Effects of marijuana use can be summed up to an imparement of short term memory during use as well as decreasing the users ability to retain new information while intoxicated. Studies have also shown that several months after ceasing to smoke marijuana cognitive abilities were not permanently impared or altered by former chronic use. Claims of permanent damage to brain cells have also been disproven numerous times; one claim that alcohol abuse can not hide from.

Let me also point out that marijuana has been shown not to be physically addicting, and evidence of psychological addiction is extremely hard to quantify from a scientific point of view.

Basically, the amount of current users in the U.S. is no where close for the claim that marijuana use will "dumb down society". If the majority of the population used marijuana this claim might hold some truth but the fact is the number of people using would in no way effect society on a large scale.


92 posted on 10/20/2005 12:19:07 PM PDT by boulderite20
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To: april15Bendovr

Alright.

You state that marijuana is "dumbing down America", which I assume you are talking about all of American society, culture , and all of its citizens.

Currently a realitively small portion of people in the U.S. use marijuana regularly, aside from medicinal cases, which is even more miniscule. The subculture which surrounds marijuana use is also realitively small compared to society as a whole. By advocating its use, all that is being said is that people who wish to use it recreationally should indeed be able to do so without fear. Most of society and the majority of its leaders and producers choose not to use marijuana or other drugs because they are professional people that are concerned with their professions and the idea of living a healthy lifestyle. This is great and should be encouraged. However not all people choose this lifestyle.

Effects of marijuana use can be summed up to an imparement of short term memory during use as well as decreasing the users ability to retain new information while intoxicated. Studies have also shown that several months after ceasing to smoke marijuana cognitive abilities were not permanently impared or altered by former chronic use. Claims of permanent damage to brain cells have also been disproven numerous times; one claim that alcohol abuse can not hide from.

Let me also point out that marijuana has been shown not to be physically addicting, and evidence of psychological addiction is extremely hard to quantify from a scientific point of view.

Basically, the amount of current users in the U.S. is no where close for the claim that marijuana use will "dumb down society". If the majority of the population used marijuana this claim might hold some truth but the fact is the number of people using would in no way effect society on a large scale.


93 posted on 10/20/2005 12:20:49 PM PDT by boulderite20
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To: april15Bendovr

I would never think that.


94 posted on 10/20/2005 12:21:59 PM PDT by md2576 (Don't be such a Shehan Hugger!)
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To: Joe Beerman

_I am human. I dont get high. I dont drink, smoke, no drugs._

"That's great. You are obviously of a higher moral caliber than the rest of us."

jeezus no dude, just a data point ok? Just that it is possible.


95 posted on 10/20/2005 12:28:07 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Wolfie; All
A person is robbed, beaten, raped, had money embezzled from them or other violation of their individual rights or property rights. The person has a high probability of convincing an impartial jury the facts that prove they were harmed by the defendant. And the extent they were harmed so that the victim may gain restitution for their pain and suffering.

On the other hand a person that thinks they have been harmed by their neighbor doing drugs would have very low probability of convincing an impartial jury they were harmed by the act of their neighbor possessing drugs.

A person that was imprisoned for drug possession would have a high probability of convincing an impartial jury that being imprisoned caused them pain and suffering. And if they had a family the pain and suffering would extend to them too.

Duped facilitator enlists government agents to initiate pain and suffering on innocent people. How? By championing the WOD and voting to support the laws and government officials that wage the WOD.

Drug prohibition laws are akin to the other 3,000  new laws and regulations passed each year by congress and regulators -- politicians and bureaucrats. The proclaim that people and society will run headlong into destruction without the new laws and regulations.

Yet people and society increasingly prospered last year and decades prior without this years 3,000 new laws. Like wise, people increasingly prosper this year without the 3,000 new laws that will come next year and the year after that and the 30,000 new laws that will come in the next decade.

To the duped facilitators: ignorance is not bliss.

96 posted on 10/20/2005 12:42:22 PM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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To: glorgau
What about those of us who fit both categories? ;-)

You work in a circus? Coooooooool.
97 posted on 10/20/2005 12:49:40 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: md2576; Extremely Extreme Extremist; headsonpikes

Barf all you want. The fact remains that the law is the law.

There are plenty of good reasons for decriminalization, but saying "everyone's doing it" is not one of them. (Wait until your kid tries that "reason" to get a swastika tattoo on his forehead then think about how sensible it is.)

How about if I point out the flaw in logic that this argument relies upon? Here goes: Open the borders wide because so many people have crossed over illegally. (We can all agree that only a DU troll will support a crap idea like that.)

Yes, I happen to believe (from firsthand experience) that it is infinitely less dangerous than alcohol. Yes, I realize that once it is legalized the quality will go up and the price will go down (until the Dems tax it). Yes, I'm a firm believer in personal liberties rather than state control.

That being said, try to sell folks on the idea of it being less harmful than previously believed (see the RAND report). Getting on the bandwagon with 100,000 DU members just won't convince people. It merely cheapens what needs to be a legitimate argument, especially to people who agree with decriminalization and who understand that breaking the law is a bad thing.


98 posted on 10/20/2005 12:54:34 PM PDT by Triggerhippie (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)
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To: quadrant
The question should be asked why this many Americans feel they are entitled to break the law - and for something as stupid as the desire to smoke pot.

Maybe it's because so many people keep making the mistake of thinking that they are free people, rather than wards of the federal government. Do you really believe that every law is just?
99 posted on 10/20/2005 1:01:03 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: Triggerhippie

It is my oft-posted opinion that the consumption of marijuana or any other vegetable matter by citizens ought to be considered by reasonable men to be beneath the dignity of the State, whose responsibilities are far more grave.

Frankly, the current tangle of drug laws is a wonderfully good example of the futility of utopian and 'progressive' social engineering. The fact that these laws are virtually unreformable ought to give pause to even the most fervent enthusiast for 'the law'.


100 posted on 10/20/2005 1:13:37 PM PDT by headsonpikes (The Liberal Party of Canada are not b*stards - b*stards have mothers!)
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