Drug Czar on Anti-Marijuana Crusade

The Week Online ^ | September 20, 2002 | Phil Smith

[KDD]

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." --Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. ME 8:276

[dread78645]

Biographer: Carl Sagan Drew Inspiration From Getting High

Thank God I got out and exited the drug culture.

Good thing too, else you might have gotten myelodysplasia (preleukemia syndrome) like Dr. Sagan did.
Or does pot do that ?

[KDD]

You have the right to not do drugs.

I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual." --Thomas Jefferson

[Roscoe]

"This conduct consists, first, in not injuring the interests of one another; or rather certain interests, which, either by express legal provision or by tacit understanding, ought to be considered as rights; and secondly, in each person's bearing his share (to be fixed on some equitable principle) of the labors and sacrifices incurred for defending the society or its members from injury and molestation. These conditions society is justified in enforcing, at all costs to those who endeavor to withhold fulfilment. Nor is this all that society may do.

Did you read this before you posted it?

[Roscoe]

You have the right to not do drugs.

And you don't have the right to do illicit drugs.

[KDD]

I know many pot smokers. I even employ a few. How do these men smoking a weed in the privacy of their homes affect you? How do they molest or otherwise injure you?

[Roscoe]

I know many pot smokers. I even employ a few. How do these men smoking a weed in the privacy of their homes affect you?

Where did they buy it? Who do they sell it to? Do they have drivers licenses? What other illicit drugs do they use? How do you know?

[KDD]

The laws on marijuana will be changed Roscoe. If more people who thought like you aired their views, the laws would change quicker as people realize what kind of people support the WOD's. Walters ads will futher alienate our young people from the political arena. You and Walters and such ilk come off as moralists...something Americans will not stand for long. I do not drink alcohol or smoke pot but people with rigid moral values that they would force on people under threat of the gun cause me to ally with the targets of such police state mentalities. Let's see what happens in Nevada. In all of history, prohibition has failed without fail. Why do people like you persist?

[KDD]

Good night...busybody.

[Roscoe]

Let's see what happens in Nevada.

Let's.

[Zon]

In all of history, prohibition has failed without fail.

Simply because truth/honesty always outlives the lie/dishonesty.

Night KDD, I too am out of here.

[avenir]

Explain the discrepancy.

Alcohol is more disinhibiting of the animal side it seems. Any who have experience with it could tell you stories of watching a friend morph from Dr. Jeckyll into Mr. Hyde. I don't deny it is a powerful and potentially dangerous drug.

Would you support the re-instatement of alcohol prohibition. If not...why not?

No, I would not. Alcohol use (and abuse) is already established and we more or less have a framework for dealing with it. Pot use (and abuse) effects on a large scale are largely unknown, and frankly I don't see why we should risk trying to find out what the costs are.

[northislander]

i don't consider caffiene, nicotine, sugar, chocolate, etc. to be intoxicants...and i'd be happy to see alcohol outlawed.

[Dakmar]

Instead of outlawing all those substances, why not outlaw the practice of government stealing your money to enable destructive behavior?

Besides, if you don't think nicotine is psychoactive you should try to take a cigarette away from me first thing in the morning. You would see that nicotine addiction is very real, and manifests itself in a much more violent manner than any desire to smoke some cannabis flowers ever could.

[JediGirl]

i don't consider caffiene, nicotine, sugar, chocolate, etc. to be intoxicants...and i'd be happy to see alcohol outlawed.

Dude. No way. I was drinking 2-3 20 oz. bottles of diet coke a day up until Friday because on Thursday I was so jittery from the caffeine i could hardly sit still. The next day i didn't drink any. I had the most awful headache that not even Tylenol or asprin could relieve. I was lethargic. Caffeine is absolutely an intoxicant. I've stopped smoking marijuana for days, weeks and never had anything close to that happen. Stop caffeine for a day and I'm in for a treat. Same would apply to many people I'm sure.

[northislander]

I am defining an intoxicant as a chemical compound capable of producing narcotic effects broadly understood as drunkeness. I am not interested in discussing your particular reactions to common food substances or nicotine as those are not reasonably related to the subject of this discussion.

[Zon]

and i'd be happy to see alcohol outlawed.

That's a keeper. If alcohol was outlawed, what sentence do you think the court should hand down to a person caught with a case of whiskey? What about a person caught with an ounce of marijuana; what sentence do you think they should get?

[weikel]

I'd rather have a conversation with Carl Sagan then you Dane thats for sure.

[weikel]

Don't use pot but I occasionally use lotsa caffiene( I don't normally use any at all) to stay up for test and I'll agree. Use caffiene for one day then stop and you get a headache from hell.

[ThinkDifferent]

and i'd be happy to see alcohol outlawed

Umm, we tried that already. What makes you think the results would be any better today?