Not to mention the fact that it makes food taste reallllllly good! Plus, you get to see some awesome visual rushes, when you go to a fireworks show (try DC on the 4th of July, with the smoke-in across from the Lincoln Memorial)...
Posted on 05/10/2005 2:33:54 PM PDT by bassmaner
As the nation's "drug czar," John Walters is supposed to be saving us from the ravages of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. At least that was the original sales pitch for the "war on drugs" in the 1980s. But the war has evolved into largely a fight against marijuana, which no one has ever claimed is a hard drug. Walters is nonetheless committed, Ahab-like, to arresting every marijuana smoker in the country whom law enforcement can lay its hands on.
It used to be that drug warriors denied that marijuana was much of a focus for them, because they understandably liked people to think they were cracking down on genuinely dangerous, highly addictive drugs. No more. We are waging a war on pot, a substance less addictive and harmful than tobacco and alcohol, which presumably friends of Walters enjoy all the time with no fear of being forced to make a court appearance.
According to a new report by the Sentencing Project, in a trend Walters heartily supports, annual drug arrests increased by 450,000 from 1990 to 2002. Marijuana arrests accounted for 82 percent of the growth, and 79 percent of that was for marijuana possession alone. Marijuana arrests are now nearly half of all the 1.5 million annual drug arrests. Marijuana-trafficking arrests actually declined as a proportion of all drug arrests during this period, while the proportion of possession arrests increased by two-thirds.
Has the use of other drugs declined, prompting the focus on marijuana? No. According to the Sentencing Project: "There is no indication from national drug-survey data that a dramatic decrease in the use of other drugs led to law-enforcement agencies shifting resources to marijuana. Indeed, there was a slight increase in the use of all illicit drugs by adult users between 1992 and 2001. Over that same period, emergency-room admissions for heroin continued to increase." Drug warriors simply think it's a good thing in and of itself to arrest marijuana smokers.
Their crusade bears little or no connection to law enforcement. Crime generally has been declining from 1990 to 2002, even as pot arrests have increased. Are we to believe that crime is at its lowest rates in 30 years, but the nation is beset by rampaging marijuana smokers who are kept under minimal control only by ever-increasing arrests? Every major county in the country, except Fairfax, Va., saw an increase in marijuana arrests during the past 12 years. That Washington, D.C., suburb has not been notably overrun by hemp-crazed hordes.
The fight against marijuana isn't even working on its own terms. According to the Sentencing Project, since 1992, the price of marijuana has fallen steadily, declining by 16 percent. In 1990, 84.4 percent of high-school seniors said it was easy to get marijuana. In 2002, 87.2 percent said it was easy. Daily use by high-school seniors tripled from 1990 to 2002, going from 2.2 percent to 6 percent — the same level as in 1975.
As Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the pro-decriminalization group NORML, puts it, "Increased arrest rates are not associated with reduced marijuana use, reduced marijuana availability, a reduction in the number of new users, reduced treatment admissions, reduced emergency-room mentions, any reduction in marijuana potency, or any increases in the price of marijuana." Besides that, the war on marijuana is a smash success.
Marijuana is not harmless, and its use should be discouraged, but in the same way, say, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day should be discouraged. The criminal-justice system should stay out of it. Twelve states have decriminalized marijuana to varying degrees, fining instead of arresting people for possessing small amounts. They recognize that — as the authors of a new study for the conservative American Enterprise Institute argue — "the case for imposing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana is weak."
John Walters, of course, will have a ready answer for the ineffectiveness of the war on marijuana. It's the answer drug warriors always have — even more arrests.
ever have one of your 2 kids drive you home.
well if them taking me out to dinner and a cocktail for my 55th birthday counts THEY are 29 and 27 respectivley, then i must truthfully answer yes. if you mean because i was wasted and they were underage then the answer is no.
besides i don't do bars and neither do they ,they are health freaks. the oldest is an iron man competitor and the youngest just swims and run marathons.
they asked me to start jogging and my answer was.
a turtle lives to 200 years old, a turtle does NOT jog. :)
"As far as auditory and/or visual hallucinations are concerned, I don't know what you've smoked in the past, but it sure wasn't straight up marijuana."
Cannabis may not typically produce the sort of complex thematic hallucinations associated with LSD, etc. but it certainly can and does produce visual and auditory hallucinations.
"Marijuana is, in my observation, more of an inward thing, yourself and close friends."
How much of this is because of the nature of the drug itself and how much is due to social and legal implications of using the drug?
"So, this attempt to create the appearance that I'm just some sort of easily-dismissed drug apologist doesn't hold water."
That wasn't my intent. Don't be paranoid, man! Actually, everything else equal, I personally rather encounter someone high on cocaine on the road rather than a drunk or a stoner.
"If you're opposed to all mind-altering substances on principle, that's fine by me I would hope that you could see your way past that opposition to understand that there actually are merits to this discussion."
Well, if I felt that way then I would not be participating. All I am trying to point out is that any comparision of marijuana and alcohol is very much limited by the current social and legal structures we have surrounding these drugs.
"but pot smokers eat all the rice crispy treats and drive soooo fast".
I like to eat fried chicken gizzards and not drive at all.
I was just trying to have fun with you on that one!
Once, my doctor asked me if I was a jogger. My answer? Not unless my butt's on fire!
not bs but it was 3 of us and in 1970 it twer only
105 bucks a pound
and from what i hear not near the potency of today.
i have been out of the loop for about 28 years.
and it was much easier to stop smokin' than it would be for this ol' tipster to give up my rot gut.
I understand the sentiment, here in Ireland we have nothing really right-of-center, let alone right wing, but most Irish conservatives look hopefully towards Fine Gael (main opposition party, formally a conservative party), and the Progressive Democrats (junior coalition party in the government, occasionally pays lip service to conservative ideology).
As for the largest Irish political party, Fianna Fail, which heads the government, it is, and traditionally has been, a left of center populist party, which is now blindly pro-EU.
Of course, though, anyone but Sinn Fein/IRA!!
" it certainly can and does produce visual and auditory hallucinations."
If music sounding fantastic is an auditory hallucination, then I guess I'll agree. But, it would seem to me to be more of an intensification. Which also jibes with food tasting so good and sex being so great... enhanced sensual perception. The typical paranoia fits as well, the flip side of heightened perception. But visual effects? No, I don't agree.
Not to mention the fact that it makes food taste reallllllly good! Plus, you get to see some awesome visual rushes, when you go to a fireworks show (try DC on the 4th of July, with the smoke-in across from the Lincoln Memorial)...
"Cannabis has no effect on reaction time. In large amounts it does have an effect on focus, but in smaller amounts it has the effect of strengthening focus."
Nonsense - cannabis most certainly does affect reaction time, not to mention many other motor skills/perceptual tasks required for the safe operation of a vehicle.
i agree with your assessment of pot.
we would have marathon ping pong matches and a good buzz really made me focus. although now after being away from it for sooooo many years and almost growing up.
my competative nature gets me to focus near as well.
just like my flask on the golf course today, i do relax a lot easier. i am a 5 handicap and that aint bad for self taught. playing 5 days a week helps also. sometimes i get in 36 to 45 holes. my most in the last year was 88 holes.
i hope to play 100+ someday.
Business took me to Dublin about twice per year up to the mid-nineties. I always loved to go up to Glendalough, weather permitting. I understand it's changed, for the better economically. Hope you're not overrun with yuppies now, LOL.
There are a few, the term 'SUV' has well and truly crossed the Atlantic!
Of course, I've never been there...
...though I did enjoy watching the park police removing COOLERS of BEER, since there were signs clearly saying that "Alcohol not allowed in the parks", but the clouds were hovering, and contact highs wee available for the walk!
This thread is missing the usual old-school reactionary rhetoric. We can't have that:
"Those dopers need to be thrown against a wall and shot...filthy anti-establishment hippies...why can't they drink their livers out like my generation...gateway drug...makes you grow breasts and shrinks your testicles...they keep that dam Ben & Jerry in business...if they don't like mind-addling pharmaceuticals they shouldn't have gotten cancer in the first place..."
Now isn't that better?
" the term 'SUV' has well and truly crossed the Atlantic!"
Be careful. As we all know in the US, the SUV is evil and has a mind of its own, often going berserk and injuring or even killing blameless occupants.
"Now isn't that better?"
Ah thank you, I was starting to think I was in the wrong forum
What doe it say about a "danger" when lies are needed to prove the danger?
A bit like guns!
Another point, if cannabis was a CNS depressant, wouldn't it have a lethal dose like other CNS depressants such as alcohol, benzos, barbituates, opiates, etc? Since no matter how much cannabis is consumed, your heart/lungs/brain still function..
(well, your brain might only be *semi-functional* for a while if you take *too* much ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.