Posted on 01/03/2009 6:54:45 PM PST by Bill Dupray
Of course they did. It's Massachusetts. The voters passed a ballot initiative that made possession of less than an ounce marijuana a civil violation with no criminal consequences. And since Massachusetts is run by libtards, the law has shockingly caused a whole lot of problems. For starters, the police have given up - they won't even bother to write the ticket.
More . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotroom.com ...
Second, the "amount inhaled" is NOT under someone's control - except for the first hit. My point is that there are no potency labels like there are on a bottle of alcohol, so many inexperienced dabblers won't know what they're getting and experienced "heads" can get blind-sided by laced pot. A toke from one batch may give you a headache and cough. A single toke from another batch might make the room dance for several hours. There is a HUGE difference in THC levels from one batch to another of street weed ("medicinal" pot can be standardized) and it's not labeled - so you absolutely do NOT know how much THCs (or other added ingredients) you are ingesting. If you argue otherwise, I know you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
Say for instance you have a teenager who drove over to a friend's house (maybe your teenager). The kid is offered a bong hit of "something special" before taking off for home (just one for the road to reduce boredom). Having dabbled before with another friend's stash, and being a know-it-all teenager lacking common sense (fairly typical), the kid takes a hit - and lands on the moon. The kid, lacking discretion and maturity in the first place (having decided to ingest an illegal drug), needing to get home right away, is probably not going to display the common sense to "take a nap" and they're certainly not going to call home for a ride. Chances are they'll wait for a bit, then will attempt to drive home. I can think of another 100 scenarios like this - especially as the drug become readily available in homes, on the street, in schools, at work, etc.
And lastly, don't underestimate the amount of carcinogens inhaled from smoking pot. Last time I checked, one joint = 1 pack of cigarettes.
To summarize - alcohol can kill you in more ways then pot. It is much more likely to make you do stupid / harmful things to yourself and others. It can be very addictive, it can give you a hangover, it reduces productivity, and prolonged use will shrink your testes.
Smoking pot can increase your estrogen levels (facilitating man boobs), give you cancer and other lung diseases, you give off second-hand smoke, it causes lethargy, can cause mild paranoia or erratic behavior, may cause hallucinations, and reduces physical dexterity (e.g. reduced reaction time while driving).
Either one in moderation, used at home, are not likely to cause problems. Conversely, either one can cause great harm to yourself or others.
Bar owners in Boston deeply saddened.
As I recall, the DEA is a Federal agency; enforcing Federal laws. How does a state making pot legal help if nabbed by a Fed?
Pure nonsense. Don't you have the capability of controlling how deeply and how much you inhale? I always have. It helps when running or swimming or pretty much anything involving breathing.
I was reacting to this...
But, the science behind growing cannabis is exceptionally advanced now and it's easy to go way beyond a "buzz" with just a couple of hits. It's extremely impairing, if not incapacating.
As I said the first time; that's baloney.
I’ts interesting that the state should get a citizen-backed law decriminalising pot, and then immediately extend it to hash, hash oil, and apparently pure THC, without legislative input or due process. It's funny, too, I think, that they perceive a problem with public use of something that will get you a $100 ticket, so they need to “tighten up” public pot use laws, like it's OK to smoke anything anywhere anyway (tobacco). That's why I posted that article.
As for excluding or not excluding salvia, goes to show it's a War On Some Drugs.
The whole thing is quite amusing.
Other articles I dredged up but did not post related to evaluating whether citizen-based initiatives should be allowed, since this was one of them, and Prop 8 here in CA was, and what if the people in MA were allowed to vote on gay marriage?
lol pass the popcorn!
The idea that it takes a lot of experience to know the difference between strong pot and weak pot is nonsense. You don't have a clue what you're talking about. First of all inexperienced smokers usually don't get high at all no matter how potent the pot is. Secondly if the pot is strong it doesn't make the "room dance."
Do you believe in Global Warming too? Do you think the Israelis are terrorists and palestinians are poor innocent victims? It's all propaganda.
It already is and has been readily available for at least 40 years. The drug war has only increased availability by making it lucrative.
There was already a huge criminal operation supplying pot to people in Massachusetts, just like everywhere else. They didn't legalize possession, they just decriminalized it. It's still against the law. They're just going to write tickets now instead of wasting time taking people in for nothing other than pot. Several states have already decriminalized simple possession of pot and if you look at the pot use statistics for the states you'll see that states that have decriminalized have similar per capita pot use rates to the rest of the country. It doesn't really make a difference in the number of people who will smoke pot.
Think about it. Most pot smokers never get caught. As long as they are reasonably careful, the chance that they'll get caught is minuscule. They're transactions where they buy their pot are behind closed doors, most of the smoking is down behind closed doors. No doubt better than 99.9% of the time if a “pot smoking” has occurred the police know nothing about it. Those daily and near daily pot smokers who smoke for years will do it thousands of times and most of them will never get caught. And if they do get caught, it's not the end of the world. It's a misdemeanor. In all likelihood they won't get a jail sentence. They'll basically get a slap on the wrist, and even in states where it is not decriminalized often it's possible to keep it off your record or at least be able to get it expunged in a year or so. I'm a lawyer in the South in a state where they are pretty hard on people for drug crimes but most of the time if I have a client with a marijuana arrest I'm going to be able to work something out that keeps the conviction off his record, or at a minimum I'll get it such that it can be easily expunged if after court he stays out of trouble for a year, sometimes less. He'll pay a fine and have to spend Saturday morning watching anti-pot films and might have to report to a probation officer a few times, but that's it. The far remote possibility of getting caught and getting what is basically a slap on the wrist can't be much more of a deterrent than the far remote possibility of getting caught and having to pay a small fine. One is a little more of a nuisance than the other but the chance of getting caught is so slight that people don't really care. If you are one of the few who wants to smoke pot but won't because of the remote possibility of getting caught and getting arrested and getting what is basically a slap on the wrist, you're probably going to be deterred by the remote possibility of getting caught and getting a ticket for it too. There really is little difference in the deterrent effect of the laws in states that have decriminalized and those that have not, as is clearly evidenced by the lack of difference in the per capita percentage of those who use marijuana in states that have decriminalized compared to those that have not.
In 35 years I have never seen one heavy pot smoker get "man boobs."
...give you cancer and other lung diseases, ...
There is no peer reviewed evidence of that. As I sit here puffing on a Macanudo I realize it is my choice how to live my life. No one else's.
...you give off second-hand smoke, ...
Oh geeze! Not that nico-nazi horse crap for pot too? Never proved for tobacco and who is going to be exposed to second hand pot smoke that hasn't chosen to be there?
...it causes lethargy, can cause mild paranoia or erratic behavior, may cause hallucinations, ...
It can if you let it. Its effects are pretty much overcome by even a little willpower.
...and reduces physical dexterity (e.g. reduced reaction time while driving).
Actually there was a study done in Britain that showed people who had smoked pot drove better.
I think we'd see just the opposite. If we legalized pot and sold it from licensed stores, these businesses would be no more likely to sell drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin than liquor stores are today. That's one of the big problems with marijuana today. The same drug trafficking organizations that sell marijuana sell the other far more dangerous drugs. Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. Because so many smoke marijuana, the distribution networks for it reach every corner of America. These existing networks make perfect conduits through which the drug trafficking organizations can move their other far more harmful drugs. When we legalize pot millions of marijuana users and sellers at the low end will no longer be participants in the black market for drugs. This will make it harder for drug trafficking organizations to reach end consumers. End consumers will buy their marijuana from licensed shops that check IDs and do not sell illegal drugs, so marijuana users won't be given opportunity after opportunity to buy or use other drugs from those they buy their pot from, as is the case today. Minors won't be able to buy pot from licensed stores, but they won't be nearly as likely as they are today to go to drug dealers that sell other drugs to buy their pot. That's not how they get their alcohol today. No doubt even if legal and restricted to people 21 and older minors will still get pot, but they're going to be getting it the same way they get their alcohol today and not from drug dealers who will offer them drugs like meth and cocaine and so on.
As for "laced pot," booolsheet.
No offense, but your fantasies bear no relation to any reality I have noticed. that's quite a long lecture for someone with, apparently, little first hand experience. I'm getting sick of all the moral authoritarians telling me what pot use is like. It's really pretty silly.
First off, the feds hardly ever make any simple possession arrests. They only make a tiny percentage of the total number of possession arrests made in the country every year. Almost all marijuana possession arrests are done under state laws.
Moreover, Massachusetts did not legalize pot. Understand that there is a difference between legalization and decriminalization. Decriminalization just means that they remove the threat of jail and in most instances where states have decriminalized it is no longer considered a criminal and doesn't leave people with a criminal record. It's still illegal, but when police nab someone for simple possession of a small amount for personal use it is handled more like a traffic ticket. They don't have to arrest the guy and take him to the jail and book him in like they would in most states where it hasn't been decriminalized. It has already been decriminalized in several states, and most that decriminalized did it in the 1970s. Decriminalization has not been a problem for the states that decriminalized. Per capita use of marijuana is about the same in states that have decriminalized and those that have not. This new law in Massachusetts is no big deal.
Similar laws have been working fine in several states since the 1970s. The sky hasn't fallen in states that decriminalized. Per capita pot use isn't even higher in those states. These police and prosecutors just need to grow up and get over it. They lost. Sixty five percent of the population wanted simple possession of pot to be decriminalized and punishable by a ticket with a small fine. These yahoos want to whine about it, try to get the legislature to overturn the new law, which they can do in Massachusetts, so they're using scare tactics, painting these “sky is gonna fall in” scenarios. That ticks me off because I don't think cops and prosecutors have any business screwing with laws like these. Their job is to enforce the laws. They need to shut up and enforce the laws. That's just my two cents worth.
“I think the cops and prosecutors in Massachusetts are whining though.”
I didn’t think of that- I thought that the state guidelines suddenly included hashish and oil and THC because they wanted to decriminalize cannabis in general. You may be right.
There are cops who won’t enforce the new law, but those articles said that they just won’t issue citations, making pot legal, at least in some MA towns.
Once they see a way to make it a “revenue stream” they’ll be out busting people to collect the $100 plus any “outdoor violation” fees and whatever else they can think of.
Once a “posessor of less than an ounce” looks like an easy $200 or so with minimal paperwork, it’s an industry!
Great! Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile.
I always LOL when I hear the "let's legalize it so we can collect taxes from it" argument.
Like anyone is going to walk into a PDQ and pay $8.00 for a pack?! HA!
If it's legal, people will just grow and roll their own.
Licensed-to do thy neighbor harm,
Licensed-to kindle hire and strife,
Licensed-to nerve the robber's arm,
Licensed-to whet the murderer's knife,
Licensed-like spider for a fly,
To spread thy nets for man, thy prey,
To mock his struggles, crush his soul,
Then cast his worthless form away (Lee, 1963: 34-35).
If it's taxed, the DEA will turn enforcement over to BATFE and they'll run a huge Drug War on illegal growers, just like they do with people who distill mash into whiskey without paying. People could simply make their own distilled spirits, but they don't. It's legal to make your own beer and wine, but few do. A cake from scratch tastes better than from a mix, but supermarkets have lots of boxes of cake mix. people will pay $8 for a pack of 5 commercial MJ cigarettes, or $5 for a box of 15 MJ chocolates or a cannabis lollipop for a couple bucks. Once it goes commercial the weed in a baggie will be gone.
If we taxed planting and growing pot, or selling pot regardless of source, we'd still have a neverending WOsD, but with tax revenue being the driver rather than Saving the Children and confiscating their parent's house.
“We need an immediate no-knock warrant for 1818 Cactus Wren Street in Covina, they bought a growlight and some potting soil...”
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