Posted on 09/16/2014 3:01:44 PM PDT by Ken H
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval endorsed the legalization of marijuana last week, saying the drug should be regulated and taxed, with revenues used to fund treatment programs for harder drugs.
The comments came during an interview with the State Journal Wednesday about data showing African-Americans in Madison were arrested or cited for marijuana offenses at about 12 times the rate of whites in the city.
Koval called efforts to enforce laws against marijuana an “abject failure,” and said the same about the broader war on drugs. “We’ve done such an abysmal job using marijuana as a centerpiece of drug enforcement, that it’s time to reorder and triage the necessities of what’s more important now,” Koval said.
(Excerpt) Read more at host.madison.com ...
“have yet to see a punch up bar fight over a football game between two stoners”
Well, you’ve lived sheltered life.
Yet that is an example of your conflating physical, ie dangerous, with harmful to society or to an individual
“Hell, half my company, (Comm Bn, 1st Mar Div.), were stoners. No big deal”
Actually 40 years on, we can see it was a big deal.
How do you think we got where we are?
Self-licking ice cream cone
It wasn't because of Vietnam vets, it was the ones who stayed home and hated those who came back.
Consider this: When we came home, we were smuggled back into the country. The deal was to fly us back into the country, scheduled for 05:30 landing at Travis AFB, so that they could bus us over to KSFO by 06:30, so that they could have 1,000 military personnel flown out and scattered all over the country before the protestors got out of bed.
We just went back to work, kept our mouths shut, and without a welcome home parade, got on with our lives. We were aware that college was meant as a final trade school, not a reason to hide from life for four more years. This was when being in the military was considered an admission that you had no chance in civilian life.
Personally, I'd very much like to round up all the civilian dodgers, Liberal arts majors with student deferments, Democrat voters and...
They could be the new math teachers...
Then in what way is marijuana use much more harmful to society than alcohol use?
This chief is not only an arrogant classic bureaucrat, but pathetically ignorant, too.
If the tobacco debacle is a true template, expect the cost of the goodies to increase 1000%, and little or none of the increased taxes going to actually dealing with the original problem, in the frenzy of spending on everything but...
Another pothead heard from. Probably born after the same scam was sold about tobacco.
How did that work out, skippy?
Another pothead heard from. Probably born after the same scam was sold about tobacco.
Tobacco used to be illegal and legalizing it didn't make black market tobacco unprofitable?
If they don't reasonably regulate marijuana, the underground market will retain a high percentage of the total market. The more wisely they regulate, the smaller that percentage will be.
Alcohol is an example of a well regulated market. Taxes and restrictions are reasonable, and the underground market is relatively small; certainly not enough to support a large criminal organization.
Medical and recreational marijuana is a multi-billion dollar industry. So far, they seem to be following the alcohol template rather than tobacco.
Another daddy-statist heard from.
Sorry. I have never used pot in my life. In fact, once upon a time, I was pro-drug war.
Nowadays, I’m just more worried about civil liberties than I am about potheads.
Of course not. Have you seen the taxes on cigs? Lots of profit margin there...
I’m an old fart.
Cigarettes are highly taxed and have been for decades, so I really don’t understand what you’re talking about.
There is a black market in cigs in those metro areas where the taxes are highest; the lesson is, as you said, to keep taxes lower than that (and regulation low enough for the legal market to meet demand).
Heck, if I had time and connections, I might be smuggling cigs. Nothing more entertaining that undermining urban tax collections.
The “sin tax” that is built into the cost/price of beer/wine/liquor are high. Maybe not as high as cigarettes.
Yeah, and they’re (the powers that be) bloody schzoprhenic about. On one hand they’re teaching kids to regard cigarette smokers like the scum of the Earth but at the same time when the bastards need some quick revenue they up the ‘’sin tax’’.
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