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Marijuana backers courting conservatives
AP via SFGate ^ | 10/16/12 | KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press

Posted on 10/16/2012 9:45:44 AM PDT by SmithL

DENVER (AP) — It's not all hippies backing November's marijuana legalization votes in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

Appealing to Western individualism and a mistrust of federal government, activists have lined up some prominent conservatives, from one-time presidential hopefuls Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul to Republican-turned-Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

"This is truly a nonpartisan issue," said Mark Slaugh, a volunteer for the Colorado initiative who is based in Colorado Springs, which has more Republicans than anywhere else in the state.

"States' rights! States' rights!" Slaugh cried as he handed out flyers about the state's pot measure outside a rally last month by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Quite a few passing Republicans took the flyer.

"It's fiscally prudent. It would be taxed, regulated, monitored. It makes a lot of sense to Republicans," he said.

Most Republicans still oppose legalization.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cannabis; drugs; drugwar; marijuana; statesrights; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
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1 posted on 10/16/2012 9:45:47 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL
"It's fiscally prudent. It would be taxed, regulated, monitored. It makes a lot of sense to Republicans," he said.

LOL! Anyone who believes that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to talk to you about.

2 posted on 10/16/2012 9:49:52 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (This is America! Being dead is no excuse not to vote!!!)
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To: SmithL

Marijuana backers courting conservatives

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They’re wasting their time. They may certainly win over libertarians. But not conservatives.


3 posted on 10/16/2012 9:50:09 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: SmithL

Its funny. My brother is a raving, DU-type, conspiracy theorist Lib who thinks Bush started the Iraq War to line his pockets. I’m conservative. Yet we both agree that pot should be legal. Personally, I don’t see it as any worse than drinking. Libs advocating legalization are their own worst enemies. They start off OK but then the argument turns to some conspiracy about how the CIA wants to keep pot illegal to fund its death squads.


4 posted on 10/16/2012 9:50:18 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
Yet we both agree that pot should be legal.

Proving stupidity is genetic?

5 posted on 10/16/2012 9:55:20 AM PDT by tbpiper
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
I’m conservative. Yet we both agree that pot should be legal. Personally, I don’t see it as any worse than drinking.

Neither do I.

-----

Libs advocating legalization are their own worst enemies. They start off OK but then the argument turns to some conspiracy about how the CIA wants to keep pot illegal to fund its death squads.

LOL! That's the main problem with libs. The longer they talk the dumber they sound.

I prefer to look at it as a Constitutional issue.

Does the Constitution say the federal government has the authority to tell the People what they can consume? No?

Then it's an issue for the individual States.

Unless, of course, one believes in a 'living' Constitution.

6 posted on 10/16/2012 9:57:39 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am a Person as Created by the Laws of Nature, not a person as created by the laws of Man)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

I can think of a million and one reason’s not to legalize/regulate it but it’s plain to me that the cure is worse than the disease.


7 posted on 10/16/2012 10:02:50 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie
It would be taxed, regulated, monitored.

Here in Arizona, they've already figured out ways around the above. It just ain't happening. If they want it legalized, just legalize it. They need to knock off the goofy charade.

8 posted on 10/16/2012 10:07:19 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (This is America! Being dead is no excuse not to vote!!!)
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To: SmithL

Said it before many times to legalization libertarians— have several friends in the tobacco industry that told me and anyone who will listen, that there are warehouses of aging bales of marijuana in Central America. The warehouses are owned by RJ Reynolds, Lorillard,American Tobacco (the Dukes) and others.
So “legalization” for the benefit of a new taxable cash crop to support the continuing liberal socialist agenda..just like the demonrat controlled CA legislature is advocating to “save” CA.... is all ready to go.

Camels made with hashish, no filter. Great. More cancer causing natural ingredients in the crop then that found in natural Nicotiniana (or proprietary additives and flavors). Lord, save us from the pestilence of Progressives and Statists.


9 posted on 10/16/2012 10:09:28 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: SmithL

Libertarian and conservative thought intersects often. I want less government interference in my life. I support reform of marijuana laws to allow individuals to decide for themselves.
I oppose prohibition of alcohol, gambling, smoking and food in the same spirit of freedom for individuals. Regulations can be enforced to limit the exposure to nonpartakers and for public safety.


10 posted on 10/16/2012 10:13:25 AM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
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To: SmithL
Early in the financial crisis I predicted that pot would be made legal in an effort to raise revenue, and I am still surprised that it hasn't happened yet. But now there is a gigantic new obstacle.

"What is the law against marijuana if it isn't the Nanny State telling you what you can do and what you can't do to your body and with your body?" asked Tancredo

The movement is fighting the last war, trying to adopt the pro-choice logic of the previous generation. But that logic no longer applies. Pro-choice is now pro-force.

When the federal government owns our bodies and is able to allow or deny medical treatments, why would they allow drugs to become legalized and harm their property? Why would a state accept a neighboring state allowing drugs and higher medical costs, which would be a tax transfer to the other state for higher drug abuse treatments?

If one is pro-pot, I think they have to be anti ObamaCare, which would have to be repealed before drugs could be legalized.

11 posted on 10/16/2012 10:17:25 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: SmithL

We conservatives are not potheads, just as conservatives were never feminists or other self-described “progressives.” Members of the socialist, political/regulator class...well, we know what they are.

Avoid buying anything that you don’t really need. Become more self-sufficient each month, and learn to manufacture something useful as a hobby for now. Starve the B.


12 posted on 10/16/2012 10:18:45 AM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in a thunderous avalanche of rottenness smelled around the earth.)
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To: outofsalt

There is a lot of libertarian in the Tea Party movement. Tea Party supports in general want the government to return to its consitutional role. That means:

1) smaller government
2) limited government

It’s very easy to make the case to a Tea Party supporter that drug laws are outside of the proper role of the federal government.


13 posted on 10/16/2012 10:24:12 AM PDT by Brookhaven (The Democratic Party has become the Beclowning Party)
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To: SmithL

A MSM attempt to get libertarians to waste a vote and have Obummer take CO.
Colorado needs to see what legalizing Pot has done to CA and OR.


14 posted on 10/16/2012 10:32:50 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: Brookhaven
I would consider myself fully supportive of the TEA party as integral to the conservative movement. I worry that the republican party is alienating conservatives and that the media is using this to create friction within our ranks.
15 posted on 10/16/2012 10:37:48 AM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
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To: SmithL

William F. Buckley Jr. - the founder of National Review when there was no Conservative magazine in the country and a leading Conservative thinker, in his own time and now - would be proud.

Social Conservatives need to re-authenticate their support for true Liberty; they must either committ to the ideal of small and limited government, for all, not just so big government only leaves them alone, or quit mouthing the position that they are against big government, only when it suits them, and then matching the Liberals tit-for-tat when they want big government themselves - for promoting their own social engineering agendas.

It is irrational to think that support for decriminalization of marijuana means support for “dopers” who are “high” on the job, on the road, or in the schools. It is irrational because it irratioanally suggests that anyone is asking for drunks to be accepted, on the job, on the road or in the schools. No one is.

Alcohol is legal, but it is not legal to be drunk while driving a motor vehcile, and not legal to be drunk while engaged in certain jobs, and not accpetable to be drunk on most any job and not acceptable to be drunk in most any school. Why would the same laws, and social prohibitions, be any different toward a “doper who was high” just because marijuana was decriminalized? The fact is, they wouldn’t.

The end of prohibition was not affected so is to encourage either public drunkiness or alcoholism. It follows that it is irrational to think the intent or purpose of decriminalization of marijuana is to encourage behaviorial abuse of, or addiction to marijuana.

Marijuana addicts and abusers of marijuana use are no greater portion of all marijuana users than are drunks and alcoholics to all those who drink alcoholic beverages.

Legal prosecution belongs to behaviors of abuse that threaten public safety, constituting an abuse of Liberty that threatens the Liberty of others.

Legal consumption of recreational stimulants, when not abused, are not a threat to Liberty. Creation of criminal syndicates, under the benevolent big government guise of controlling the consumption of recreational stimulants, has proven each time to be a great and expensive threat to Liberty; imprisoning millions for their personal vices and creating conditions that result in murder and mayhem by those engaged in the illegal trafficking of a legally prohibited substance.

Tax the trade and spend the tax revenue on public education concerning substance abuse and addiction - in the schools in particular.


16 posted on 10/16/2012 10:39:35 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: SmithL; All

until they include automatic license suspension to those using “medical marajuana” this is still just a pothead issue.

Remember, there are ALREADY drugs with the requisite ingredients that avoid the entire smoking BS.


17 posted on 10/16/2012 10:45:32 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: SmithL

Libertarian are libertarians, not conservatives.

They brought us gambling, why not drugs?


18 posted on 10/16/2012 10:49:00 AM PDT by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: longtermmemmory
until they include automatic license suspension to those using “medical marajuana” this is still just a pothead issue.

This is hysterical nonsense. First, it is already illegal to drive stoned, same as it is illegal to drive drunk. There is no logical difference between the two. Second, there is no reason, whatsoever, to believe that if marijuana were legalized, there would be any more people smoking and driving. That is just a ridiculous argument used by people who are scared of the idea of limited government, or of personal freedom. We'd better have the government control everyone, or else people might do stuff that I don't approve of! Oh no!!
19 posted on 10/16/2012 11:01:14 AM PDT by fr_freak
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To: longtermmemmory
until they include automatic license suspension to those using “medical marajuana” this is still just a pothead issue.

Many medications warn 'do not drive after using' - how many of them lead to automatic license suspension?

Remember, there are ALREADY drugs with the requisite ingredients

Really? Name them.

that avoid the entire smoking BS.

Marijuana can be consumed via vaporizer rather than smoking, and thereby avoid the harms the come with inhaling combustion products.

20 posted on 10/16/2012 11:05:05 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies (A free society's default policy: it's none of government's business.)
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