Posted on 04/03/2009 5:15:06 PM PDT by sdcraigo
For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp...I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead." A fantasy, I suppose. But, beneath the furious roil of the economic crisis, a national conversation has quietly begun about the irrationality of our drug laws. It is going on in state legislatures, like New York's, where the draconian Rockefeller drug laws are up for review; in other states, from California to Massachusetts, various forms of marijuana decriminalization are being enacted. And it has reached the floor of Congress, where Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter have proposed a major prison-reform package, which would directly address drug-sentencing policy. ...The hypocrisy inherent in the American conversation about stimulants is staggering. But there are big issues here, issues of economy and simple justice, especially on the sentencing side. As Webb pointed out in a cover story in Parade magazine, the U.S. is, by far, the most "criminal" country in the world, with 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners. We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Treat it like booze, just don’t tax me for tokers’ healthcare later!
They have to replace those lost tobacco revenues and the the trial lawyers will need some new green pastures to harvest.
Not only that, but I also hear that Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice.
Have you heard that, too?
And access to marijuana is a pressing issue for some reason?
******************************************************
I’d just like to see it decriminalized so that we can put millions of incarcerated people back to work, cut the police budgets and size of the police forces and put some of the Mexican smugglers out of business ... you can’t expect the NORML people to pass up an opportunity like this can you?
Exactly. Legalize it ALL and take the enormous profits out of the business and away from organized crime.
The weed-heads will “munchie” themselves to death and the hard-druggers will kill themselves; cheaply and efficiently.
Quit jailing them; let the fools drug themselves to death.
Good points, and just before elections be sure and give out a lot of it free!
It took a while to address all the extremely violent criminals that were educated during the prohibition of alcohol.
I don't do anything about my neighbors, some of whom I know use pot. But I would be quite willing to drop a dime on them if they were kidnappers or home invaders.
Are you in favor of criminalizing alcohol as during prohibition? Why not?
Well if Obama/Pelosi/Reid get their way then we will probably all need to smoke it just to get through the remaining term...
I agree. While I'm happy to allow stupid people their right to do stupid things, that assumes that they will also be free to enjoy the consequences of their stupidity. I have no wish to pay for someone else's stupidity. If you want to spend your money to fry your brains, then you should foot the bill for whatever damage you do.
This thread is now on the verge of making sense. A rational consideration of this topic may well transpire.
I think that, as always, we must look to the Constitution.
The Eighteenth Amendment was seen as necessary for prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of the chemical we call ‘alcohol.’ Yet the wild herbiferous ecosystem participant which neo-prohibitionists call ‘marijuana’ was banned only by Congress. Yet the deadly but common native crop which everyone calls ‘tobacco’ has never been banned in American history.
Maybe the Ninth Amendment applies here? Maybe some rights are retained by The People, not enumerated in the Constitution, which have nothing to do with emanations from penumbras.
Tax revenue.
It was a skit on the Big Bambu Album .It’s been years so I kind of forgot what went on except that it was an interveiw with Mr.Roachclip about legalizing pot and he was so stoned,he couldn’t think of what to say so he goes on like”For those of you who..uh... don’t think marijuana should be..uh,uhm,legalized,uh,uhm,uh,well..then you’re all f**ked.”Then you hear”CUT,CUT!!”in the background.
LOL!
No, it wasn't. It was just seen as being less susceptible to repeal than legislation.
Gov cannot support religion and pot smoking is a religion to some.
Could you reefer me to a scholarly paper with a rolling summary that doesn't zig-zag through the facts?
I never used to believe that marijuana was part of a socialist plot to destroy America, but I guess this proves it.
Controlling other people is a religion to some too.
That's the problem, surfer. This is no time for complacency. I like to get buzzed up as much as anybody else, but I worry about the ulterior motives of the socialists who want to make that easier for everybody.
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.