Posted on 05/06/2003 10:09:33 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A Superior Court judge sharply criticized the drug war and renewed his call for the decriminalization of marijuana at a pro-marijuana rally Saturday.
Judge James Gray of Orange County, Calif., said the drug war has cost billions of dollars and resulted in the United States having the world's highest incarceration rate - with no end in sight to rampant drug abuse.
The former federal prosecutor said he has never smoked marijuana, but supports the strictly controlled distribution of pot to adults.
"We have made an illness into a plague. (This is) a failed and hopeless system," Gray said.
"I believe people should be entitled to do what they want to their bodies, but that they should be held accountable," he added.
Gray, 58, a lifelong Republican until he became a Libertarian earlier this year, has been a judge for 19 years. He's the author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It."
More than 60 people attended the "Rally for Cannabis Liberation" at Reno's Idlewild Park.
The rally was sponsored by Cures not Wars, a pro-marijuana group that was to hold similar rallies around the country this weekend.
Group spokeswoman Michelle Buck of Reno said the purpose of the rally was to raise awareness that tens of thousands of Americans are in prisons for non-violent drug crimes.
Of particular concern, she said, are thousands who have been arrested for legally or illegally supplying medical marijuana.
Some people held signs that read "Free Ed Rosenthal." The Oakland, Calif., man's arrest last year was among a string of federal raids of medical marijuana suppliers in California.
A 1970 federal law does not recognize any medical purposes for marijuana. A federal judge refused in January to allow Rosenthal to tell jurors he was operating under state law.
Jurors convicted Rosenthal. When they learned the details they were not told during the trial, several jurors said they regretted their verdict.
"We're here to show our support for people like Ed," Buck said. "Marijuana is not the evil drug the federal government has made it out to be."
In November, Nevada voters rejected a measure to legalize possession of up to three ounces of marijuana by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.
Gray, appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian to the bench, was the keynote speaker at a Libertarian Party of Nevada dinner Saturday night in Virginia City.
Hey, that's a brilliant analogy. By your reasoning, we should legalize jaywalking and driving on the sidewalk. Remove all speed limits. Such "logic" exposes you as one of those "all traffic laws are unconstitutional" Libertarians.
Game over. Your superior intellect wins, again.
Show how my reasoning leads to that conclusion.
And you're STILL evading my question:
"Should we ban drugs---including the deadly and addictive drug alcohol---for ALL adults (including those with no spouses or children) because SOME adults with spouses and children who use drugs neglect their obligations?"
Yes, and those are two completely different statements. There are victims as a result of actions which have no direct correlation with drug use. Whether or not someone evades their responsibilities is a completely seperate question from whether they are using an illegal substance. Some people do both, some do one and not the other, and some do neither.
This whole thread is reinforcing my belief that there is no more important thing to teach in our schools than the rules of logic. Though in this era of government schooling, I fear that we'd soon have tests about whether a woman weighs as the same as a duck.
They tried that statement recently in Nevada. Turns out that crime has been going down in Nevada over the last decade without changing the drug laws.
Tell your Miss Cleo she's wrong.
This is me. MrLeRoy is white on the right side.
"As Cheronians, both are black on one side and white on the other -- and they have little regard for anything other than arguing their own case of injustice versus oppression, lawlessness versus order."
Sure did.
Only the ones that do it to alter their states of consiousness.
You just changed the subject too. Look at the original question, which I answered well therefore Leroy, and you it seems, keep changing the subject.
We've already done that dance. It ends with you saying LSD is morally equal to communion wine and that 1/3 people who ever had a sip was at one time dependent on it. This is where reasonable people realize that you are not one of us.
They tried that statement recently in Nevada. Turns out that crime has been going down in Nevada over the last decade without changing the drug laws.
Voters don't want crime to decrease even faster?
So for lack of arguments, you've resorted to lying about me. Is that what your copy of the Bible teaches?
By accusing me of lying about you when I'm not, you lie about me, I thought YOU were a Christian. We had the discussion. It was the one with your goofy numbers, maybe it was 1/6, I forget. It was the one where you imagine people using LSD responsibly as if it was a beer after work. If you were a Christian we wouldn't be having this debate.
I quoted the Institute of Medicine figure of 15%, contrary to your "1/3" lie.
It was the one where you imagine people using LSD responsibly as if it was a beer after work.
I said nothing about "moral equivalence," contrary to your lie.
If you were a Christian we wouldn't be having this debate.
Says you---cite chapter and verse on imprisoning drug users.
If you were a Christian you wouldn't ask for it. Why not ask for the word Trinity in the bible.
BTW more important "orgainzations and people" than that will tell you there is no God.
BTW more important "orgainzations and people" than that will tell you there is no God.
The IOM won't---they stick to facts backed by research, such as the fact that of all those who have used the drug alcohol, 15% became dependent.
We'll never know because they weren't asked that question. They were mislead by the statements that "real" crime would be reduced (not reduced faster) if pot were legal.
Reduced faster? C'mon, you're reaching. What if I were to say the WOD is a success because without it illegal drugs would be entering the US "even faster"? Yeah, you'd laugh.
Laughable. So much so it ruins your credibility. You could argue your point much better if you'd stick with reality. Atleast you now seem to realize that when a person ruins his life with a drug there are victims. So the question you keep asking is, what's the difference then between LSD or alcohol. The only reason you can ask the question is another fiction of yours, that some huffers and some LSD addicts are in total control of their lives and are completely functional, even more than the percentage of alcohol users. Since you can't discern reality on yourself and you hide behind false numbers, I can't help you.
Laughable.
Laugh all you want---rational people know the Institute of Medicine has much more credibility than you on this matter.
So the question you keep asking is, what's the difference then between LSD or alcohol.
Another lie---I've never asked that question.
another fiction of yours, that some huffers and some LSD addicts are in total control of their lives and are completely functional, even more than the percentage of alcohol users.
Yet another lie. You're really on a roll now.
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