Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol

Associated Press ^ | Thursday, Mar. 8, 2012 | MICHAEL FELBERBAUM

[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.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

As if the rot in our culture isn't pervasive enough, we want to make it even worse by taking the drug culture mainstream.

The drug culture already is mainstream. The drug prohibition is treated like the 55mph speed limit used to be - it's ignored by everyone except law enforcement.

The War on Drugs is costing us unconscionable amounts of money in law enforcement efforts and prison costs. It's resulted in any number of bad laws infringing on individual freedoms and led to the ongoing militarization of police departments in the US. And yet drugs are everywhere. Our last three presidents are either confirmed to have used or credibly suspected of having used illegal drugs in their younger days. Anyone who wants marijuana can get it - usually in less than an hour and without the age checks that accompany a purchase of liquor.

Anyone who believes that the War on Drugs is accomplishing anything beyond providing price supports for illegal drugs to enrich drug lords isn't playing with a full deck.

[AlmaKing]

The same anecdotal horror stories are used by the Left to argue for gun bans.

[garjog]

“There was no widespread plague of kids doping out to this degree before the marijuana bans.”

So, you are arguing for legalization?

While I would prefer to be libertarian and let people choose to mess up their lives if they want, I think that Marijuana has a more serious effect on the brain than most people realize, especially on teens and people in early twenties — who are making decisions that affect their whole lives and impact the nature of our culture and economy.

Pot consumption should not be endorsed by government.

When you legalize anything, you encourage it’s use. When advertisers start pushing it usage will double.

“Hey, want to smoke some pot? It’s legal so it can’t be that bad, right?”

[entropy12]

Rat poison IS legal....can buy it at any garden supply stores.

[PMAS]

Not true, there are plenty of doctors that will write the prescriptions just so they can collect the copay for the visit.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Uncle Sam watches this like a hawk today (though political machinations in the Obama administration may have made a temporary glitch in it).

[SoDak]

Completely agree with him.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Legalization takes a product into the sunshine, out of the underworld. There, scrutiny is more honest, less laden with lies that render it unbelievable — and more importantly it takes the financial incentive away from pushers. Pushers got to be called pushers for a reason — not servers, not providers, but pushers.

[PMAS]

They are true stories, look it up yourself - search Newsday newspaper in NY.
These are not the “same anecdotal stories used by the left” - I am watching family and friends struggle with the addiction for years now and watching their lives fall apart.
So why don’t you STFU about things you obviously know very little about.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You are a case of being unable to see a forest for the one tree your nose got jammed into.

[PMAS]

Unfortunately, they are only just starting, the laws are on the books, but no one is enforcing them.
Plus, the addicts jump from doctor to doctor because there is no database on how often a person is getting a prescription of a certain drug - they also use multiple drug stores.

[PMAS]

That’s bullshit, I have seen many people fall apart over this - maybe it’s common for you being a RedNeck

[Mariner]

"While I would prefer to be libertarian and let people choose to mess up their lives if they want, I think that Marijuana has a more serious effect on the brain than most people realize, especially on teens and people in early twenties — who are making decisions that affect their whole lives and impact the nature of our culture and economy."

First, your statement is conflicted and contradictory.

That aside, I get it. You are opposed for what you perceive would be the effect it would have on society.

You care what happens to other people. So do most of us other humans.

But you can't fix stupid and you are not your brothers keeper.

The prohibition of alcohol and it's ill effects on society were worse than the "demon alcohol" itself. Same with pot.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This may be an artifact of the same two faced Obama administration that went to shut down the California medpot farms, which don’t substantially provide his political support, whereas richer doctors do.

Nontheless, the Bush administration was more serious and it provoked many, many complaints from legitimate pain doctors who couldn’t even give a terminal cancer patient enough morphine to quell his suffering as he or she died — we’re talking about someone who would end up dead addiction or not.

Better to let a handful of idiots ruin their own lives, I say, than to condemn hospitals full of legitimate patients to horrible suffering.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Maybe you associate with the wrong kind of people.

[ansel12]

As Western civilization is colonized we will see more Cannabis use.

[garjog]

“Legalization takes a product into the sunshine, out of the underworld.”

OK, so legalization eliminates the pushers and deflates illegal trade. There could be benefits there.

But, legalization promotes social acceptance, mass marketing and increased usage.

If you don’t think pot is a big deal, that it doesn’t really damage young people’s brains, then guess there is no reason to keep it banned.

But, if it is harmful, then it should be discouraged. http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/a/blnida050110.htm

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’m sure there is a reason prominent politicians have run on a Prohibition ticket years after it was rescinded.

Why don’t people smoke all manner of other meadow weeds? Because they know it is stupid. Not because some nanny tried to ban it.

[fr_freak]

Pot consumption should not be endorsed by government.

When you legalize anything, you encourage it’s use.

Good God, do you even realize what you're saying? You're putting government in the position of being the all-knowing god of what is and is not good for you. If the government says it's ok, then it must be ok? Who, but a subservient sheep, would believe such a thing? All things that are not to be encouraged should be illegal? That is the most tyrannical attitude regarding the role of government I have seen in a long, long time. You must be a big fan of the "Anything that is not forbidden is mandatory" school of governmental thought.

I'm beginning to think that what some others have said is true: that the true battle is not between Left and Right, it is between statists and free men.

Anyone recall this meme that went around the 'net a while ago?

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants them made illegal.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk radio host, he doesn't listen to him.
If a liberal doesn't like a talk radio host, he wants him banned.

Etc. etc. etc.

Now fill in the blanks:

If a free man doesn't like to smoke pot, he doesn't _____.
If a statist doesn't like to smoke pot, he wants _______.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

I’m amazed that cocaine and heroin were used medicinally at one point. If you had a cough you could go to Sears (back in the 1800’s,that is)and get a syringe and a tincture of heroin. If you needed a “pick-me-up” you could go to a doctor and get some cocaine.

Hell,they even had water with coke in it!