Posted on 03/31/2011 7:50:40 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
On his MSNBC show this evening, Cenk Uygur argued in favor of decriminalizing marijuana since, 74 years after the feds made it illegal, people continue to smoke it, or as Cenk put it, the War on Drugs is unwinnable.
Yo, Cenk: Cain killed Abel more than 5,000 years ago. Murder has been illegal ever since, and yet people continue to commit it. By that logic, since the War on Homicide is also unwinnable, should we decriminalize murder?
Be sure to view the video here. Not only will you hear Cenk make his nonsensical argument, you'll see Dem Rep. Jared Polis. On the one hand, the congressman went on to make a number of better arguments in favor of decriminalization. On the other, not to be unkind, but the man from Colorado looks like he's been on a few Rocky Mountain highs himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Your comments demonstrate that you have absolutely no idea what marijuana does to a person and are instead going off of assumptions pieced together from 1970’s era after school specials.
I think that lying to kids by lumping marijuana in with drugs like cocaine and heroine does our country a real disservice because it sends the message to kids that drugs are not as bad as adults make them out to be.
They see their friends smoke pot with no visible damage and they think that adults are also exaggerating the effects of cocaine and heroine (which makes them more incligned to try the latter.)
Why not legalize marijuana and then free up like 60% of our “war on drugs” budget to concentrate on border security (which would also help keep the truly bad stuff from coming across the border).
By the way...anyone that “gets high and leaves the stove on...burning down the building you are in” is not going to be dissuaded from doing so because it is a class C misdemeanor...no matter how much better you are sleeping at night.
If your aim is reduce all risk, at the point of a gun, you have that opinion.
I believe that freedom entails some risk. And requires a citizenry willing to protect themselves, and not rely on government outlawing a plant, on the theory that it causes rapes, attacks, house fires, child neglect, elder abuse, sniper attacks, and littering.
/johnny
Sure it is...but it's not pretty.
All federal drug laws are unconstituional. As is much that the Fedgov does.
/johnny
“Your comments demonstrate that you have absolutely no idea what marijuana does to a person and are instead going off of assumptions pieced together from 1970’s era after school specials.”
No, my comments stem from personal experience.
We were attacked and assaulted by a neighbor who smoked pot regularly and suddenly decided we were an enemy.
“By the way...anyone that “gets high and leaves the stove on...burning down the building you are in” is not going to be dissuaded from doing so because it is a class C misdemeanor...no matter how much better you are sleeping at night.”
No, but making drugs illegal makes them used less.
And the fewer people who are stoned, the fewer will do stupid and neglectful things.
“I think that lying to kids by lumping marijuana in with drugs like cocaine and heroine does our country a real disservice because it sends the message to kids that drugs are not as bad as adults make them out to be.”
I did not lump them in; I said that harder drugs should get harder penalties.
“Then you are fine with outlawing liquor as well. And people that drive while tired.”
I am fine with outlawing drunkenness.
As for people that drive while tired, tired is not bought and sold or possessed as an object, so it is not prosecutable.
I’d make it illegal for people with, say, untreated sleep apnea to drive, sure.
“You mean, like alcohol? We tried that, and afterward it seemed like such a terrible idea we undid it. Alcohol makes people insensible, irrational, lethargic, and some paranoid and a very few, hallucinate. All of the above. “
No, excess alcohol does the above. Adults who take in moderate amounts of alcohol (accounting for body weight etc.) are actually not significantly impaired.
I oppose drunkenness. It is generally illegal anyway.
I’ve never touched it, but fully support legalizing it.
I agree completely! States should decide the issue for themselves.
The issue for me has always been one of abuse by very young minors. As it stands, pot is much easier to acquire than say... beer. Teens will also point out...it’s no more illegal for them to smoke, than for you or I.
don’t generelize... substance abuse follows the ten percent rule. Meaning 90% of users of any substance, are fine and are not chronic abusers. I’m not including heroin in this equation.
The effects of smoking pot, are short lived... unless you are in contact with a chronic abuser. Most people who smoke aren’t paranoid, irrational or lethargic... either you’ve watched too many stoner movies or you know a stoner.
Absolutely the correct, Constiutional and logical solution.
(And now, because of my user name, I will be accused of being a druggie, hooker-lovin', low-tax liberal atheist running around in my hemp pants and anarchy shirt)
“don’t generelize... substance abuse follows the ten percent rule. “
That in itself is a generalization, isn’t it?
I don’t buy that statistic.
People either try pot and decide it’s not for them (generally no harm done)
Or they decide the like it, and smoke it more and more.
The more and more often they smoke it, the more useless, paranoid, lethargic and irrational they become.
Without fail.
As for knowing some stoners, of course I do, don’t we all? And I don’t know any who have done well on it.
I have known those who tried it or used it for a while and then stopped. They are fine as far as I know.
I dont’ know any adult stoners, or substance abusers of anything other than alcohol, and I can’t say I’m close to the functional alcoholics either. Sure when I was in college, there were a few stoners... but none of the ones I knew are stoners today. I do know people of all ages who casually smoke, drink or whatever holds their fancy. The idea that these people function at a lower level is ridiculous... quite a few are extremely successful type A personalities... who enjoy the slower pace of being high.
I honestly don’t know ANYONE who tries “said substance” and just ups the ante to “more and more”. I’d argue that people who tend to over imbibe have other issues going on. They probably wouldn’t be highly functional regardless of what they were or were not doing.
The ten percent rule...can even be reduced... I round up from 9. whatever. That’s a broadly known percentage that event the feds work with.
“I dont’ know any adult stoners, or substance abusers of anything other than alcohol, and I can’t say I’m close to the functional alcoholics either. Sure when I was in college, there were a few stoners... but none of the ones I knew are stoners today.”
Well, I know just about hundreds.
Some are close family members; some distant; some friends; some acquaintances; some old school mates; some work related; some even at church, although the ones at church who are members have quit, so far as I know. Although some have residual damage, including one dear man who actually has drug-induced schizophrenia. A couple more I think went the same way, although I have never heard an official diagnosis on either of them (one killed himself in a literal funeral pyre. He was a very close friend of mine, and was eccentric but sane before he started using).
I hope I am clear in that I am NOT saying that everyone I knew who ever used or tried drugs or alcohol fell apart.
You can drink alcohol without getting drunk. I don’t think that’s detrimental to you. Many people I know and have known who drink regularly - WITHOUT GETTING DRUNK - do fine.
You can’t smoke pot without getting high. Not these days, anyway. But, I do believe that the trier or very occasional user also gets through that ok.
I am talking about people who used or use pot regularly or heavily. And other drugs as well, harder drugs.
I am about 50. I don’t know your age. I wonder if you are young and have not lived to see the eventual results. Or, you live in a very different family and community than I do.
“Legalize” = more lawyers, more taxes
I don’t support any legalization of marijuana that includes police state powers to tax the stupid weed.
Let people grow it like a tomato in their garden if they want to. Let people grow opium poppies in their flower beds if they want to, just keep the government employees out of my yard...
The difference between murder and cannabis use is that murder is using force against another. Cannabis use is voluntary.
Yeah, well whomever smokes the weed, smoke it outside my house or whatever other indoor place where myself and whomever else shares the air without dispersion.
Yeah, but Cenk gives the weak logical point that because the law isn’t followed, we should get rid of it. That’s rediculous logic by itself.
He would do better to argue that if we treated marijuana with the same restrictions as smoking tobacco (keep it outdoors, don’t start some fire with a misplaced joint, put your ash in the right place, etc.) it’s not really a problem.
He could also simply argue that there are about over 100 times as many accidents from someone driving over the legal limit for alcohol as from someone who was stoned.
But his argument that because people break a law makes it not worthwhile is rediculous. Give it more substance than that, because just about every law gets broken by someone, but we keep most of them up and running.
I agree with another poster here that we should leave substance legalization/illegalization of drugs up to the states and not the feds, it makes a lot more sense to let them handle it out themselves, plus it’s also more in line with the constitution.
I’m close to your age... smoked every day before school when I was 14. I had art and english the first two periods of the day, so it went unnoticed. After 9th grade, I didn’t smoke again until college, and then only a few times.
Over the last 30 years I guess I’ve smoked a handful of times... I do know people who still smoke regularly, but not daily.
If there are people around me who use harder drugs, I honestly wouldn’t know. I really only notice hard drinkers...and don’t know many. I live between Baltimore and DC in the burbs... I suppose most people are professionals around here. Not sure that makes a difference though.
Again, I’m not referencing abusers... I think there is a vast difference, and most people I know who drink will get tipsy on occasion.
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