Pat Robertson: "It's time we stop locking up people for possession of marijuana..."

Reason ^ | March 6, 2012 | Mike Riggs

[MetaThought]

Pat Robertson, America's longest-serving eschatological bigot and spiritual leader, took to the airwaves of the 700 Club last week and denounced the war on weed, as well as liberals, all of whom write laws in a "punitive spirit." Putting aside the fact that Robertson has, on occasion, invited God to smite people people of abominable politics and preferences, this time he is making (some) sense:

We here in America make up 5% of the world's population, but we make up 25% of jailed prisoners...

Every time the liberals pass a bill -- I don't care what it involves -- they stick criminal sanctions on it. They don't feel there is any way people are going to keep a law unless they can put them in jail.

[jmacusa]

And quite a number more are not ‘’parasitic.’’ If you want to make it a spitting contest I was a whole lot worse than ‘’parasitic’’ when I was drinking. There’s nothing wrong with the current legal system, per se and I’m not sure I follow your lurch into the penal system and ‘’house-maid’’ correction officers.

[Revolting cat!]

Hasn’t it been scientifically proven that marihuana leads to harder drugs, which lead to even harder drugs, which lead to the hardest drugs of all?

[RC one]

war can get confusing.

[Antoninus]

This guy has been making statements as if he were high for years. This doesn't surprise me.

[Antoninus]

This is an honest question. Do you really think any significant number if people avoid smoking marijuana because it is illegal? Really?

If you don't think so, you are simply ignorant. Legalize drugs, and you are simply providing another cultural impediment for people who want to raise their children to be productive, upstanding citizens.

I can't wait for the reefer commercials on TV and in magazines. Or will advertising the stuff be illegal in Doobtopia?

[Antoninus]

in the Gobi Desert

This guy was probably of proto-Gothic extraction--also known as a "barbarian" steppe nomad. When he wasn't raping and pillaging, he was probably sitting in a ditch poking berries up his nose.

[AnTiw1]

" This guy was probably of proto-Gothic extraction--also known as a "barbarian" steppe nomad. When he wasn't raping and pillaging, he was probably sitting in a ditch poking berries up his nose. "

apparently they've been finding a lot of european mummies in the gobi and along the old desert silk road in china...a civilization of traders

men women and children...many with blonde or red hair, and blue eyes

[Leto]

Hasn’t it been scientifically proven that marihuana leads to harder drugs, which lead to even harder drugs, which lead to the hardest drugs of all?
_________________________________________________________

Most junkies started out with Cigs and alcohol. Those are the real gateway drugs..... shall we make those illegal? It wouldn’t impact me since I do none of the above, but making plants illegal isn’t any of their business.

Different situation that synthetic drugs that don’t exist in nature.

[muir_redwoods]

I ask you an honest question and you give me an insult for an answer. You’ve identified yourself for what you are. Clearly, most people are better human beings than you are.

[GunRunner]

Then you make it illegal to drive stoned. The kind of prior restraint that requires you to ban a plant because some idiot might drove stoned makes about as much sense as the Volstead Act, and has been just as successful.

The Drug War's most nefarious effect has been to help increase the police powers of the federal government and contribute to a War that has cost hundreds of billions and doesn't work.

[Antoninus]

Indeed. But you shouldn't call such people "European" as they never lived in Europe. Their distant descendants may have moved there, but these people were steppe-dwellers with a long reputation for being raiders.

The Gothic History of Jordanes is a good place to read about them and their semi-mythical history.

[Antoninus]

I ask you an honest question and you give me an insult for an answer. You’ve identified yourself for what you are. Clearly, most people are better human beings than you are.

You'll notice in my response that I wasn't addressing you personally--but the point of view that says that legalizing drugs is a good idea. It's not and that point of view is based on pure ignorance and lack of foresight. If you find that comment to be a personal affront, I would advise you to be less sensitive. If you can't take the heat, don't post your opinion.

[Yaelle]

Anything that hurts the mexican drug lords can’t be all bad.

Plus, the only thing worse than eating produce covered with insecticides and herbicides (begging for neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s) is SMOKING IT.

[Yaelle]

I would go as far as too say the METH Lab issue would disappear almost overnight if legit manufactures were allowed to make it. Actually they do and government schools push it off on our children.

---

How true that is. Look up Desoxyn.

[AnTiw1]

i didn’t call them european

the reporters scientists and the Discovery Channel are calling them european

direct your critique that-a-way

(in my little brain i’m calling them proto-vikings because it fits into my simplistic cosmologic menagerie quite nicely without too much cerebral heavy lifting...lol...give the few brain cells still intact after the 70’s a rest)

[muir_redwoods]

I can take heat, I'm just a bit choosy about whose ignorant opinion I opt to endure.

Perhaps you'd like to enumerate the many advantages achieved during the multi-billion, multi-decade "war-on-some-drugs" that has destroyed the nations of Mexico and Colombia, corrupted our police forces, given rise to the paramilitary character of law enforcement in our nation and has proceeded without any constitutional basis since the days of Nixon at least.

It would be better if humans used no recreational chemicals at all. I wish all people would make that choice. My only drug of choice is black coffee. I choose sanity over insanity whether chemically assisted or not. I am unwilling to continue to finance further futile attempts to protect fools from their folly; it's on them to be better people. That is a classical conservative position

The War-on-some-drugs is insanity. It has produced no measurable advantages unless you see the world through a fascist perspective and applaud the growth of government power, the destruction of the 4th amendment, and bankrolling of multi-national organized crime. 

[Antoninus]

The War-on-some-drugs is insanity. It has produced no measurable advantages unless you see the world through a fascist perspective and applaud the growth of government power, the destruction of the 4th amendment, and bankrolling of multi-national organized crime.

The argument here is ludicrous and could be applied to all crime, not just drug dealing/use. We spend billions of dollars fighting theft in this country. Yet people still steal. We spend billions of dollars fighting rape. Yet people still rape. We spend billions of dollars fighting murder. Yet people still murder.

Based on the logic of the drug legalization argument, we should simply legalize all of the above "intractable" problems and they simply go away. To an extent, that is true. Legalize drugs and the problem will go away--for drug users. The problems for the rest of society will explode, however.

BTW, have you seen this? Even the famously liberal Netherlands are retreating on their legal pot position:

[Antoninus]

The War-on-some-drugs is insanity. It has produced no measurable advantages unless you see the world through a fascist perspective and applaud the growth of government power, the destruction of the 4th amendment, and bankrolling of multi-national organized crime.

The argument here is ludicrous and could be applied to all crime, not just drug dealing/use. We spend billions of dollars fighting theft in this country. Yet people still steal. We spend billions of dollars fighting rape. Yet people still rape. We spend billions of dollars fighting murder. Yet people still murder.

Based on the logic of the drug legalization argument, we should simply legalize all of the above "intractable" problems and they simply go away. To an extent, that is true. Legalize drugs and the problem will go away--for drug users. The problems for the rest of society will explode, however.

BTW, have you seen this? Even the famously liberal Netherlands are retreating on their legal pot position:

Netherlands Marijuana Law: Dutch Government To Classify Marijuana As Hard Drug

[muir_redwoods]

I don't take constitutional guidance from Holland, thanks very much.

Your invideous analogy falls apart immediately. Crimes like rape and theft directly harm others; smoking or using poison, whether it's marijuana, crack or alcohol does not. Collateral damage can be dealt with within the legal system much as we do today with alcohol. The real gainers from prohibition are the fascists on the left who get to unconstitutionally expand government authority and power (a point you continue to ignore) and organized crime. Prohibition does not measurably affect usage; it only increases the cost.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

Even the famously liberal Netherlands are retreating on their legal pot position

Tiny Netherlands doesn't like the impact of 'drug tourism;' the USA is 230 times larger, so the impact here would be correspondingly smaller.