Posted on 06/30/2005 2:51:57 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri has vetoed a "medical marijuana" bill, saying it would encourage marijuana use and criminal activity. His veto comes as an anti-drug group has released dramatic video footage of a marijuana activist declaring that he uses dope for a health problem that he doesn't really have. The bottom line for this activist, Ed Rosenthal, is that "I like to get high. Marijuana is fun." The video has the potential of dealing a major blow to the "medical marijuana" movement, largely funded by billionaire George Soros.
The video footage, posted at the website http://www.sorosmonitor.com, gives the lie to the claim that we often see in the media that smoking marijuana is a legitimate medical treatment for people with diseases. Rosenthal, who was associated with High Times magazine for many years, is shown speaking to dozens of marijuana activists. "With all the talk about medical marijuana, I have to tell you that I also use marijuana medically (laughter)," he says. "I have a latent glaucoma, which has never been diagnosed (more laughter). And the reason why it has never been diagnosed is because I've been treating it (laughter) But there is a reason why I do use it. And that is because I like to get high. (cheers, applause). Marijuana is fun."
The video proves that "medical marijuana" is a joke to those on the inside of the pro-pot movement who realize that getting the public and the media to accept the notion that smoking marijuana alleviates health problems is a major step down the road to complete legalization of dope.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
It is a thoughtful remark, but it doesn't answer the question of whether the crime that would be defined out of existence by the legalization of the act drug dealing/production, would be replaced by more crime and together with the consequences of large scale mental inebriation.
Drugs were legal in the USA until the 1930s and we didn't go to hell. Moreover, drugs are just as available now as they would be if they were legal - hell, ask any schoolkid and they can tell you where to find whatever you want. Furthermore, there are legal prescription drugs which are functionally no different, that are also widely used recreationally (can you say Oxycontin?).
If you have a real beef with intoxication, why don't you apply it where it will do some good, and protest against the massive child abuse occurring under the guise of psychiatry - Ritalin and its cousins?
LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE.
lol, Love that pic.
That is about the level of discussion you are capable of, isn't it? It's no wonder you are so against drugs - if you ever did any, the first dose would kill off every brain cell you had.
If you find a kid using drugs, put them and the parents through a program together.
Very representative of their crazed minds and all the bloody damage they do to others IMO.
Now that's a real cause to which you can devote your efforts and do some real good! Leave the willing self-intoxicators alone and put that effort into protecting the millions of unwilling children being zombified by Ritalin.
Yeah, I know he's on my list of people not to depend on when freedom is on the line. He's a totalitarian just like Hillary Clinton, simply with a different set of rules he'd like to impose by force on Americans.
Thanks.
Char :)
I think he's probably a user himself and that his intent here is to make WoDies appear as stupid as possible. He makes it look easy.
I don't think he's aware that people get just as inebriated now as they would under total legalization... legal drugs won't make a person with good character become evil, and prohibition doesn't make a person of poor character responsible.
My argument doesn't rely on the claim that someone's liberty is infringed when another person smokes a joint. That's what one may call, a strawman argument. You build him up and then you burn him down, claiming that it is the argument of your opponent.
On the other hand, your argument, "Drug use and possession harms no one but the willing user" is short sighted to say the least. I say this because there is also drug dealing and production as well as marketing that would be involved here. Something addictive that inebriates the mind and promotes selfishness WILL cause more problems than we already have to deal with. But you see punishing drug-dealers and users as the problem, because supposedly they don't harm anyone but the user. When I saw the guy from High Times, and I suppose that he was a "positive example" of a drug user, I didn't get the impression that his drug-compounded mental problems benefitted society, exactly. If more adults become as childish as that guy, I absolutely can't believe that we will be better off. I don't fear for my personal liberty with regard to drugs, I fear for the future of liberty itself because of people like that. I fear for those lives that would be negatively impacted by the consequences that follow the "it doesn't harm anyone but the willing user" campaign for the legalization of drugs.
"Leave the willing self-intoxicators alone"
"Leave the willing self-intoxicators alone"
Many people don't even try drugs, just because it is illegal. If they were manufactured and sold legally many more people would get into drugs. I found it interesting that you said that "people are just as inebriated now" but not "just as many."
All you're doing is making an argument for making alcohol illegal. If you don't agree that should be the case, then your logic is not sound. So do you think that alcohol should be illegal?
The good-citizen role-model types who smoke pot won't jeopardize themselves by advertising it publicly, thus your only identifiable examples are the bottom of the barrel. I personally have seen doctors, policemen, and even legislators smoking pot. Why would any of them risk arrest, seizure of property, and loss of their careers to be truthful about this matter?
A lot more people drink alcohol when they might instead be doing something that is safer but now illegal.
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