Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol
Associated Press ^ | Thursday, Mar. 8, 2012 | MICHAEL FELBERBAUM

Posted on 03/08/2012 9:21:14 PM PST by Mariner

RICHMOND, Va. -- Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government's war on drugs has failed.

The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of "The 700 Club" on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He said people should not be sent to prison for marijuana possession.

The 81-year-old first became a self-proclaimed "hero of the hippie culture" in 2010 when he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-176 last
To: Proud2BeRight
Never met a dope smoking dope that I would hire or associate with.

Hire- no, but associate with? They can be entertaining in a fun-to-watch kind of way when they're high!

161 posted on 03/09/2012 11:52:50 AM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Legalize drugs and watch what happens to this country. It will be uninhabitable by decent people.

Plenty of large cities and suburban areas already fit that description, and will continue to do so, drugs legal or not.

162 posted on 03/09/2012 11:58:20 AM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Wrong. Millions of people have never tried drugs or become regular users simply because there is a societal/legal sanction against it.

The people who are prone to abusing legal substances that can affect your judgement and/or mood can already easily do so. And many do - they kill over 10,000 of their fellow Americans every year and injure God only knows how many more. That's more dead Americans in one year than we've lost in both Iraq and Afghanistan in total over the last 8-11 years.

Society sanctions? I got a pretty good chuckle out of that. Some of our top movies, TV shows, and the celebrities who star in them openly celebrate illegal substances. Look at how many celebrities in our society get in trouble for abusing drugs, both legal and illegal, and they suffer no real harm. Sure they go through "drug rehab" and they avoid prison unlike the peasants like you and me, but their images aren't destroyed, they don't lose their audiences.

And if they die due to their drug abuse, does society harshly criticize them? No, they hoist them on our shoulders, put them on a pedestal, pretend that they were just incredible human beings who were "misunderstood" and "troubled".

Legal sanctions? Oh please, there are already legal sanctions against abusing legally-obtained substances that can alter and impair your judgement and mood, and that doesn't stop Americans from abusing them.

There are some really bad drugs, I will not disagree with that, but the drug war, which we've been fighting for four decades, is a failure. Well, if you like the idea of the government having more and more power as the years go by and destroying our Constitution in the process, and if you like the idea of your local police department equipping themselves as if they are going to patrol the streets of Baghdad, then I guess it's a huge success.

And the drug war and the legal powers the government has been amassing in its name are going to destroy this country long before the drugs themselves do.

I would rather see more drugs legalized and the drug war scaled back than to continue seeing our Constitution shredded in the name of "protecting" people from themselves.
163 posted on 03/09/2012 1:17:18 PM PST by af_vet_rr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: BuckeyeTexan
"No government has a right to the disposition and function of my very flesh and bones."

They decided that they did with Terri.

You just made my point. Thank you.

164 posted on 03/09/2012 1:43:36 PM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 158 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Millions of people have never tried drugs or become regular users simply because there is a societal/legal sanction against it. Take that away, add in the fact that it will then be legal to advertise and make drugs easily available to everyone, and you've got a scenario for a societal breakdown like what existed in Opium War-era China.

I would like to ask - how much do you think the government should be involved in protecting people from themselves?
165 posted on 03/09/2012 3:39:15 PM PST by af_vet_rr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus
Mainstream is a Hashish Bar on Main Street.

What makes you think there will no longer be zoning laws?

Mainstream is a billboard for Chico's Sophisticated Crank on the I-95. Mainstream is commercials for Stoner's Pot Palace on TV.

Have you seen any billboards or TV ads for cigarettes recently?

Mainstream is a pop-up ad for high-quality needles on Yahoo.com.

It sounds like your biggest concern is having your delicate sensibilities offended.

166 posted on 03/09/2012 3:41:43 PM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 148 | View Replies]

To: tbpiper

Define “drug”.

Many painkillers directly source from plants.

If a person raises those plants and refines the painkiller compound from them, is that a “drug” that Big Government must control?


167 posted on 03/09/2012 3:48:23 PM PST by DNA.2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: dragnet2
"cheer your keen perception!"

Warning to all: Marijuana ingesting impairs ability to refute arguments without resorting to ad hominem attacks.


168 posted on 03/09/2012 4:18:03 PM PST by garjog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 155 | View Replies]

To: garjog
X (fill in the blank of a legal, harmful thing) is more dangerous than smoking pot, and X is legal, therefore we should be consistent and legalize pot. We should not make our society worse for the sake of consistency.

Between federal, state, and local, the government is spending $40 billion dollars per year fighting this drug war. Police departments are becoming equipped as military units. Our rights are being trashed in the name of this war. The prohibition of drugs makes criminal operations to supply the drugs incredibly profitable, and the more control the government exerts the greater the profits. The profits flow not only to the drug suppliers but also to all the government employees that are corrupted. The cost of the actual raw materials lost is minimal so they don't lose much when the police do catch somebody. The costs just go up in bribing and threatening enough people to be able to stay in operation.

Tens of thousands of people are dying as a direct result of this drug war and it becomes more clear every year that it is futile. You're not going to stop all the people from using drugs or even a majority of the percentage of the population that would use drugs if they were legal.

All you accomplish is making the government more oppressive all the time and raising the resistance of people to that oppressive government. Sure, we get annoyed when the government tells us we have to use curly lightbulbs, but we eventually comply because making the change really doesn't affect us that much. Make a $40 billion effort to take away from some poor ghetto dweller one of the few things that he sees that makes his miserable life tolerable from day to day and he'll do everything he can to do battle against the society that does that.

169 posted on 03/09/2012 5:27:59 PM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 154 | View Replies]

To: BuckeyeTexan

I hope you can find some relief, FRiend. God bless you.


170 posted on 03/09/2012 7:09:50 PM PST by unkus (Silence Is Consent)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 157 | View Replies]

To: BuckeyeTexan

That’s crap.

I live on the periphery of a pot-growing region of BC. Many older people use the stuff for relief of chronic pain.

Its certainly cheap enough - $50 for a quarter pound of trim is normal for locals. That’ll last a while!


171 posted on 03/09/2012 7:32:11 PM PST by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 157 | View Replies]

To: DNA.2012
If a person raises those plants and refines the painkiller compound from them...

Typical pothead question.

172 posted on 03/10/2012 6:41:14 AM PST by tbpiper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 167 | View Replies]

Comment #173 Removed by Moderator

To: CaptainKrunch
Go take another bong hit genuis. The separation between you and everything that is right and good will only continue to increase.

It's been over three decades since the last time I used any drugs that the government considers illegal.

By the way, I notice you didn't try to actually refute any of that "garbage logic".

174 posted on 03/10/2012 8:31:03 AM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 173 | View Replies]

Comment #175 Removed by Moderator

To: CaptainKrunch
Much better.

I'd expect that you feel like you're accomplishing more now too by presenting your side of an argument than simply responding with the equivalent of "Oh yeah? Well, screw you!!"

If you can actually state some reasons for your position like this to your son I'd bet he'd understand your point and steer clear of drugs, regardless of their legal status. A lot better chance that way than expecting him to avoid them by just screaming "EVIL!! EVIL!!".

176 posted on 03/10/2012 10:34:34 AM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 175 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-176 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson