Posted on 02/01/2005 10:22:25 AM PST by .cnI redruM
WASHINGTON — Pot. Cannabis. Hemp. Weed. Grass.
The herb takes many names. But in the nation’s capital, where the marijuana lobby (search) was once the recreational diversion of Playboy Magazine's Hugh Hefner, pro-pot special interest groups have crystallized the divergent issues behind the plant and gained a seemingly unified voice.
________________ Puff, Cough, Puff, Cough________________
"It’s a no-brainer. It makes no sense putting old and sick folks in jail for an herb that makes them feel better," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project (search), which was established in 1995 by Rob Kampia, a former mainstay at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the first pro-pot lobby in Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Really now.
"Oregon's medical marijuana program has a "very lax system of review and oversight," Magee said. "The law is riddled with loopholes for abuse." Qualifying conditions such as "severe pain" or "persistent muscle spasms" are so vague that they allow little rigorous control over misuse, he said."
More than 80 percent of the current cardholders cited severe pain on their applications. About 30 percent cited persistent muscle spasms, and 22 percent cited nausea. Applicants often give more than one medical reason."
-- www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331981/posts
Cancer? Hello? Where's all the cancer patients? AIDS? Glaucoma?
Hmmmm. Pain ... muscle spasms ... nausea ... wait a minute. Doctors have to take the patient's word for those. Aha!
I agree, I think it should be legalized. It would create a new market and at the same time drain the money of the Afgan warlords (that fund terror organizations by growing it and smuggling it into the US.) In my experience it's non habit forming, I usually go 4-6 months between using it. Also I don't recall ever hearing of someone getting so high and causing car accidents. And I've never heard the excuse "Yeah I had sex with that ugly fat guy/girl because I got too high."
Why would anyone go to the trouble of growing and cultivating if bags were available at the liquor stores? I don't see too many stills around these days 'cuz it's easier to buy jack than to make it.
"Marijuana Lobby Grows in Sophistication"...
if they could just remember whom they lobbied last...
Consistent with the disconnect from reality and rationality of dopers and their advocates.
There are no old and sick people in jail for using marijuana.
These guys are just like the liberals (well they are liberals) in their single minded obsession wherein a minor issue is put up as one of major importance.
The world revolves around them and their longing to get stoned.
If someone wants to do that, I think it's their right as free individuals. They should also accept the consequences of their actions. Once the glamor of these substances being illegal is dispelled, people will be able to see them for what they are, good and bad.
I think it would be good policy for Republicans to legalize marijuana...why do you think the so-called massive youth vote for Kerry evaporated on election day?
if they could just remember whom they lobbied last...
That's so funny I forgot to laugh... I think anyway. Oh look, a bird...
If these guys had the brains or guts to argue for legalization on the merits, maybe somebody would listen to them.
Exactly.
And so many who freeload and parasite on FR are thier hallelujah chorus.
Two extremely profitable industries that will resist change to the status quo are the current US tax system and the war on drugs.
Far too many laywers are making money off both to allow these cash cows to be taken from them.
Why do I single out lawyers?
Who make the laws in this country?
Because it was a fraud in the first place?
Heroin would be legal by your definition. Once somebody has used heroin more than once or twice, they are in no state to judge whether the stuff is bad or not.
Where is the power to criminalize the possession or digestion of an herb by the Federal Government enumerated in the Constitution?
If someone wants to kill themselves, the government shouldn't be taking money from you and me to try and prevent the inevitable. As you can see, prohibition isn't stopping anybody from doing heroin - it's actually encouraging heroin use, what with free government-provided needles and everything.
We don't incarcerate people who smoke to relax and enjoy life.
We incarcerate people who knowingly and willingly break the law.
"These guys are just like the liberals (well they are liberals) in their single minded obsession wherein a minor issue is put up as one of major importance."
I consider myself very conservative but I also smoke marjiuana on occasion but I guess that makes me a liberal now...
Ever hear about the barrels of LSD outside the dorm doors at Bizerkly years ago? True.
If they only killed themselves, I'd be enough of a callous prick to agree. Addicts to anything, Budweiser included, destroy their families, and pretty much wreck the lives of people all around them.
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