Posted on 02/16/2009 7:45:30 AM PST by SolidWood
SEATTLE — Washington State law prohibits the possession of marijuana except for certain medical purposes. Hempfest is not one of them. Yet each summer when the event draws thousands to the Seattle waterfront to call for decriminalizing marijuana, participants light up in clear view of police officers. And they rarely get arrested.
“Police officers patrolling are courteous and respectful,” said Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
One reason for the officers’ approach, said Ms. Holcomb and others who follow law enforcement in Seattle, is the leadership of R. Gil Kerlikowske, the chief of the Seattle Police Department and, officials in the Obama administration say, the president’s choice to become the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the drug czar.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You want to debate by attacking me instead of my opinions.so we are done.
How does it feel to have the WOD fail?
God created man, along with plants, earth, and everything else. God created a gene in people that allows some people to enjoy mind altering substances.
Move along and go pretend to be a conservative somewhere else.
It isn’t the Constitution that I hold in contempt. There are those that debate via beating on others with words and attitude. We are done.
That sums up pretty much everyone of your posts on this thread.
Btw, I believe that there is no way to turn back the encroachment of the Fed except by civil war. How many Americans do you believe are up for that? I’d say a few.
U.S. Department of State
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, March 1997
Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
SINGAPORE
The GOS [Government of Singapore] nonetheless is concerned about the increase in addiction rates and recidivism among drug offenders who have undergone treatment. There are currently about 9,000 addicts undergoing rehabilitation in Singapore treatment centers, the same number as in 1995.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands has extensive demand reduction programs and low-threshold medical services for addicts, who are also offered drug rehabilitation programs. Authorities believe such programs reach about 70-80 percent of the country's 25,000 hard-drug users (in a total population of 15.1 million). Because of the focus on disease prevention and care programs, the health condition of Dutch drug addicts is relatively good. The number of hard-drug addicts has stabilized and the average age of addicts has risen to 31 years. HIV infection among addicts is relatively low because of an extensive needle exchange program. The death rate also is low.
--http://druglibrary.net/schaffer/GovPubs/ncsr/ (scroll down to the country of your choice)
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"Iran has the highest proportion of heroin addicts in the world and a growing Aids problem." [2004 BBC report]
--news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3791889.stm
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"There were an estimated 980,000 hardcore heroin addicts in the United States in 1999, 50 percent more than the estimated 630,000 hardcore addicts in 1992."
http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/794/heroin.htm
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Crunching the numbers, the addiction rate for Singapore was about 0.30% (population ~3,000,000 in 1996), vs about 0.17% for the Netherlands. Note that Singapore's numbers are only for addicts under treatment, whereas the Netherlands' are the estimated total number of addicts.
The US population in 2000 was about 280,000,000, so the rate of heroin addiction was about 0.35%.
So much for a REAL War on Drugs controlling addiction.
Thanks.
That encroachment was made possible by the elastic Commerce Clause, which gave the green light to the fedgov to control social issues, health, education, the environment, etc.
You support that encroachment when fedgov is acting on a policy that you agree with. And worst of all, you don't seem to care whether it is in keeping with the original meaning of the Constitution.
The contempt charge is upheld.
Gun grabbers make the same argument to justify a pre-emptive grab of guns. Gotta be careful here.
I came to the conclusion several posts ago that boredom is deadly. I do not intend to fight with you. The beauty of FR is that one can walk away from "over-enthusiastic" posters that become belligerent.
I truly hope your day is productive and peaceful.
Gun ownership is a right spelled out in the Constitution.
A limited federal government is also enumerated by the Constitution. If SCOTUS can ignore the latter, they can ignore the former. Be careful what you ask for.
Yet, you can't seem to walk away. If you're going to post on this thread, why not answer a basic, simple constitutional question?
The analogy isn’t equal. Guns are a right that is spelled out, drug use is not.
Once you can ignore the constraints of the Commerce Clause and the 10th Amendment to engage in a federal drug war, you can ignore the 2nd as well to grab guns. And both are rationalized in the name of public safety. That's the problem - you wish to unleash the federal beast when it suits you. But the beast can then be used for someone else's bidding when they get control of it.
Didn’t read any of my posts on states rights, did you.
Unless the feds happen to be doing your bidding in a particular instance. Which is why it continues to grow - there are always people who favor one particular flavor of usurpation when it suits their agenda.
Do you think the fedgov has the proper authority to overrule California's medical marijuana law?
"Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts."
If you brag about being a pothead your opinions become noise in my book. That is simply acknowledging a fact - admission of being a pothead, coupled with my opinion, that potheads have nothing to say worth listening to on this debate. If y’all take umbrage at that fact and opinion, hammer that abuse button and see what the mod has to say. My opinion won’t change and the facts of the self-admitted potheads identity won’t either.
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