Posted on 05/05/2009 2:27:27 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday it's time for California to study whether to legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use, though he's not yet advocating for such a change.
The governor was asked about a recent Field Poll showing that 56 percent of registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise revenues for cash-strapped California. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, has proposed legislation that would legalize the drug for recreational use, rather than just medical purposes.
"Well, I think it's not time for that, but I think it's time for a debate," Schwarzenegger said. "I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues, I'm always for an open debate on it. And I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana and other drugs, what effect did it have on those countries?"
He said his native Austria is revisiting some of its marijuana laws, for instance. The Austrian Parliament last year authorized medical marijuana.
"It could very well be that everyone is happy with that decision and then we could move to that," Schwarzenegger said of other nations' legalization policies. "If not, we shouldn't do it. But just because of raising revenues ... we have to be careful not to make mistakes at the same time.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
If the users in this country would grow some brains and get some responsibility there would be no market for Mexico and others to bring drugs and crimes here.
IMO drug users are even worse that the illegals in what they do to our country.
>>It’s retarded to legalize more drugs.<<
Like alcohol?
>>We already have problems as you say with alcohol, so why go open another can of poison?<<
Are you pro prohibition?
>>If the users in this country would grow some brains and get some responsibility there would be no market for Mexico and others to bring drugs and crimes here.<<
Yep. And if pigs could fly...
Yes, alcohol keeps getting mixed with the weed and other drugs in tons of crimes.
Based on what we ALREADY deal with regarding alcohol, it would be stupid to in addition add other substances to the OK list.
The genie is already out of the bottle on alcohol and as we learned (as you have said) from that, we shouldn’t find other stupid things to legalize.
Bill bradley said, many years ago that if you think we have a crack baby problem now, just wait ‘till we legalize drugs.
My response: Freedom has a price.
Freedom trumps security. It is “for the children” that is the battle cry of those who would create (are creating, actually) a rubber padded world.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may
at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good
will torment us without end for they do so with the approval
of their own conscience.” - C. S. Lewis
In a nutshell, my kids are none of their business and their kids are none of my business.
It's why we have noise pollution laws where if a car is blasting music down a residential area, they ticket them for disturbing the peace.
Just doing anything you want is anarchy.
I agree with you that alcohol is very bad. We have one bad thing and the answer to that isn't to add more bad things to the OK list, that's just simply retarded IMO.
We know we don't need to grow users.
If anything, jail them harsher the first time to give them reasons to be more responsible.
I would have no problem with a 30 day jail sentence for drunk in public or behind the wheel.
Same for drugs.
the world may never know
More from NHTSC documents:
"Yet, THC's effects differ qualitatively from many other drugs, especially alcohol. Evidence from the present and previous studies strongly suggests that alcohol encourages risky driving whereas THC encourages greater caution, at least in experiments. Another way THC seems to differ qualitatively from many other drugs is that the former's users seem better able to compensate for its adverse effects while driving under the influence."
"In summary, this program of research has shown that marijuana, when taken alone, produces a moderate degree of driving impairment which is related to the consumed THC dose. The impairment manifests itself mainly in the ability to maintain a steady lateral position on the road, but its magnitude is not exceptional in comparison with changes produced by many medicinal drugs and alcohol."
Actual marijuana driving test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3zou4F00Ic
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