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It's Time to Rethink Marijuana Laws
Philadelphia Enquirer ^ | July 9, 2007 | Kathleen Parker

Posted on 07/09/2007 7:21:35 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084

WASHINGTON -- News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was busted for pot and assorted prescription pills has unleashed a torrent of mirth in certain quarters.

Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view the son's arrest and incarceration as comeuppance for the father's shortcomings. Especially rich was the fact that young Al was driving a Toyota Prius when he was pulled over for going 100 mph -- just as Papa Gore was set to preside over concerts during a 24-hour, seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise awareness about global warming.

Whatever one may feel about the former vice president's environmental obsessions, his son's problems are no one's cause for celebration. The younger Gore's high-profile arrest does, however, offer Americans an opportunity to get real about drug prohibition, and especially about marijuana laws.

For the record, I have no interest in marijuana except as a public policy matter. My personal drug of choice is a heavenly elixir made from crushed grapes. But it is, alas, a drug.

Tasty, attractive and highly ritualized in our culture, wine and other alcoholic beverages are approved for responsible use despite the fact that alcoholism and attendant problems are a plague, while responsible use of a weed that, at worst, makes people boring and hungry, is criminal.

Pot smokers might revolt if they weren't so mellow.

Efforts over the past few decades to relax marijuana laws have been moderately successful. Twelve states have decriminalized marijuana, which usually means no prison or criminal record for first-time possession of small amounts for personal consumption. (Those states are: Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon.)

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: addled; algore; algoreiii; confuseddopers; davesnothere; drugaddled; gotmunchies; idontunderstand; marijuana; mrleroylives; potheads; waitwhat; warondrugs; waronsomedrugs; wod; wodlist
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To: Hemingway's Ghost

hehehehe Game, Set, Match... Once again HG!


181 posted on 07/11/2007 1:11:02 PM PDT by Lord_Baltar
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To: SoldierDad
Delusions of Grandeur. But then, marijuana use is known to cause delusions.

You serve a very weak brew of tea, my friend.

182 posted on 07/11/2007 1:16:14 PM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: SoldierDad
Marijuana Statistics

Do you have diarrhea of the mouth? Why post this DARE rubbish to me?

183 posted on 07/11/2007 1:19:12 PM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: DreamsofPolycarp

Post #101 ROFL!


184 posted on 07/11/2007 3:01:55 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Hemingway's Ghost

So simple, yet recreational drug worshipers still can’t get why everyone laughs at them in remarks all over the conservative FR threads.


185 posted on 07/11/2007 4:01:42 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: A CA Guy
Recreational drug use is behavior of the lowest kind deserving of no respect. Most people know that IMO.

Drinking alcohol is recreational drug use. So I doubt most people agree with you.
186 posted on 07/11/2007 5:05:32 PM PDT by microgood
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To: microgood

Not really, pretty much everyone on FR would call recreational drug users losers and would consider people who drink a little no issue at all.

Good try though...


187 posted on 07/11/2007 7:29:57 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: A CA Guy
pretty much everyone on FR would call recreational drug users losers and would consider people who drink a little no issue at all.

Have any evidence for these claims? I think you think too little of your fellow FReepers' grasp of reality, i.e., the reality that marijuana is less of a public problem than alcohol.

188 posted on 07/11/2007 9:44:22 PM PDT by Murray the R
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To: SoldierDad
Today’s marijuana is 10 to 15 times stronger than it was in the 60’s

Evidence?

There have been over 7,000 published scientific and medical studies documenting the damage that marijuana poses. Not one study has shown marijuana to be safe.

Have any studies shown skydiving to be "safe"? If not, should we ban that?

Data has shown that people high on marijuana show the same lack of coordination on standard “drunk driver” tests as do people who have had to much to drink. [...]

Marijuana is the second most common drug, after alcohol, present in the blood stream of non-fatally and fatally injured persons.

Both good reasons to restrict alcohol at least as severely as marijuana. Do you support that policy?

189 posted on 07/11/2007 9:50:27 PM PDT by Murray the R
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To: SoldierDad

I thought marijuana use was known to cause users to listen to negro jazz music, and rape white women.


190 posted on 07/11/2007 11:29:34 PM PDT by Nate505
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To: toddlintown
“Pot’s not dangerous.”

Correct. Hell, I just boiled some hot dogs in one.

Just to show how dangerous I really live; I would never boil a hotdog I slowly fry them in oil. I do use olive oil though. ; )

191 posted on 07/12/2007 5:17:39 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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To: jwh_Denver

LOL But it’s so much fun.


192 posted on 07/12/2007 5:20:05 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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To: SoldierDad
My being a professional psychologist working in the field of mental health and having worked with and around those who use illegal drugs, including marijuana, for the past 11 years probably gives me a little bit of validity on this subject, thanks.

Frankly I don't know what could cut your credibility more. I have seen the results of your professions handiwork a few times over and it ain't pretty.

193 posted on 07/12/2007 5:23:47 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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To: bajabaja

I was thinking of the CDC but there is another gov agency also, NIHS? National Institute of Health Statistics? Maybe it’s not a gov agency.


194 posted on 07/12/2007 5:28:57 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

I was going to respond to this thread three days ago,

but I forgot.


195 posted on 07/12/2007 5:30:12 PM PDT by ovrtaxt (The FairTax and the North American Union are mutually exclusive.)
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To: TigersEye

Can’t fault you for that! Sometimes it’s a gas and then there’s total brain dead.

Just an observation. I’ve noticed there are far less knuckleheads after the Rudy fiasco that happened what a month ago? FR really needed a purge.


196 posted on 07/12/2007 5:30:29 PM PDT by jwh_Denver (In the Rise and Fall of United States I hope the Fall part is more than one chapter.)
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To: jwh_Denver

I have mixed feelings about the Rudy Purge but it does make sense that the level of cognitive dissonance is lower now.


197 posted on 07/12/2007 5:32:45 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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To: ovrtaxt

When did this thread get to 190 posts? I have to read this.


198 posted on 07/12/2007 5:33:45 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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liberal CA Guy and soldierdad have apparently gone to town.


199 posted on 07/12/2007 5:35:58 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: philman_36
About 28 percent of violent crimes involved an offender who was perceived to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Thanks, philman. That's a far cry from the bridge we were being sold here.

200 posted on 07/12/2007 5:41:01 PM PDT by TigersEye (My heart is broken but my conscience knows its cause.)
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