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

Skip to comments.

Mr. Prager, You are Wrong on Marijuana
Townhall.com ^ | March 18, 2013 | Bruce Bialosky

Posted on 03/18/2013 7:39:49 AM PDT by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next last
To: Monty22002
“Non-toxic? I guess if you skip the IQ and schizophrenic and so on effects.”

Show me a single study that proves more than just correlation. There are nearly identical studies that show diagnosed schizophrenics and bipolars are several times more likely to use cigarettes/alcohol than the average population. These studies do NOT prove using hemp, cigarettes or alcohol causes mental illness. It only proves a correlation that mentally ill people are more likely to abuse ALL substances.

On the other hand, alcohol abuse has been 100% PROVEN to cause irreversible physical damage to the brain and liver. Alcohol abuse can easily result in deadly poisoning. Withdrawal from alcohol addiction can result in death. These are 100% proven medical facts and you can observe the damage during an autopsy. You can go to a detox clinic and find guys with inflamed livers sticking out of their side.

I'm talking about alcohol ABUSE, not “a few drinks”. Both alcohol and hemp are safe in moderation(as most things are) but abusing alcohol is far more damaging than abusing hemp. We have countless dead bodies, dead livers and direct physical brain damage with 100% proof of causation. Alcohol actually rots every single organ in the body but liver failure comes first and is usually a death sentence.

“Not to mention severe psychological addiction.”

One can become psychologically addicted to almost anything. Even if it is dangerous and interferes with their lives. Compulsive behavior is a natural part of human nature. Should we ban all inanimate objects that contribute to compulsive behavior?

61 posted on 03/18/2013 6:39:12 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: dennisw; rawcatslyentist
He's right. Each sailing ship required many tons of hemp. Pretty much all paper and fabric was made from hemp (including our founding documents). The nations that controlled the most hemp ruled the world.

In America's early days, Thomas Jefferson went on a mission to buy the best Chinese hemp seeds from a smuggler in France. China kept tight controls on their hemp since it was so valuable for military and commerce. The first law regarding hemp in the Colonies MANDATED all farmers to plant some due to its military value.

So what happened? The cotton gin made cotton a cheaper source of light fiber but hemp was still used for heavy shipping applications. As the hemp requirements for ships went down, the hemp industry came up with their own “gin”, the decorticator, in 1936. It was going to revolutionize the textile industry. Then in 1937, “reefer madness” propaganda and the crooked stamp tax conveniently stopped it for the cotton industry.

Then once again in WW2, the government promoted growing hemp due to its many practical uses. Find the video “hemp for victory” from the federal government. Hemp produces the most fiber and renewable oils per acre per year.

62 posted on 03/18/2013 7:03:47 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: varyouga

Hemp is not marijuana


63 posted on 03/18/2013 7:07:33 PM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing --- Joe Pine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
It is the same exact species of plant. Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica or a hybrid of the two. Even industrialized hemp has psychoactive tops that were often made into medicine. In the years before the ban, drug makers like Bayer, Merck and Bristol were patenting many hemp-based medications. Due to the new technology, hemp preparations were now affordable for the masses and began to threaten the opium industry.

“Marihuana” was a evil-sounding Mexican slang word picked up by the anti-hemp lobby to outlaw hemp under the radar. Read the text of the 1937 Senate debate on the “marihuana stamp act”. Most of the people that read about the bill had no idea it was hemp. The testimonies on “marihuana” were obvious lies based on what we know today. For example, the government's narcotic expert testified that he “injected” numerous dogs with the “active ingedient in marihuana” and most of them died. We now know there is no deadly dose AND the fat-soluble chemicals cannot be made into an inject-able form. He also testified that one puff made someone psychotic for life. Obvious 100% lies.

Numerous medical and industrial experts testified on the benefits of hemp so a “compromise” was reached to tax rather than outlaw. Due to the rise in hemp production and more advanced chemistry, its medical use was also increasing.

The only problem was the government never issued tax stamps so all hemp became illegal except during WW2. The government shut down a whole industry by simply refusing to accept taxes on something that must be taxed.

Crony capitalism at its finest. It's sad to see so many so called FREEpers falling for it...

64 posted on 03/18/2013 7:48:30 PM PDT by varyouga
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: varyouga

You are preaching to the wrong person. Marijuana is the most stupid and insidious drug you can take because so many think it is benign....so party on Garth! I smoked some in my youth but have not touched since I was 21 years old. If you want to be stupid then keep smoking it....

Matter of fact I know a spaced out older fellow who smoked it for years. And he is very liberal too. If you want a permanent Democrap majority then legalize marijuana and have an illegal alien amnesty


65 posted on 03/19/2013 2:19:35 AM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing --- Joe Pine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: oneamericanvoice
Mr. Prager states “Legalizing marijuana is foolish because it leads to far more use of the drug and the availability of ever more potent forms.” Unfortunately, this is wrong on so many levels. We don’t have any idea whether usage will really remain higher in the future or whether the new legalized marijuana will replace the use of alcohol or the misuse of legal medications. If the latter happens that would be a good thing. As for the potency, legalization will standardize the potency and allow customers to know what they are smoking which can only also be a good thing. Apparently, Mr. Prager did not stop in a marijuana store during his world travels to Amsterdam. My friends using medical marijuana in California tell me for the first time in their lives they know what they are buying.

Excellent rebuttal to just one of Prager's idiocies - others are found in responses to Prager's screed at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2996034/posts.

Dennis Prager is one of the foremost minds whose honesty, clarity, scholarship, and thoughtfulness is beyond the pale. In no way can be Dennis be described or have his ideas and views attributed to those of an idiot.

Idiotic is as idiotic does, and however stellar his other writings, the one in question included a number of idiotic arguments.

Dennis was instrumental in my conversion from Liberal to Conservative.

And I'm sure he loves his mother, too - but none of that redeems his idiotic arguments in the essay under discussion.

66 posted on 03/19/2013 7:09:16 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Monty22002
the IQ and schizophrenic and so on effects. Saying the blatant non-lethal effects are meaningless when they are so severe and so universal to the users.

"Universal"?! LMAO! The studies you refer to explicitly show that IQ and schizophrenic correlations are FAR FROM "universal."

67 posted on 03/19/2013 7:48:36 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
If pot was legal in 1776 we never would have driven out the British.

There were no laws against pot in 1776.

68 posted on 03/19/2013 7:51:07 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: dennisw

hehe

There are places that classified marijuana as poison as early as the middle 1800s. The real criminalization didn’t start until the very early 1900s and the final say didn’t happen until the feds got involved in the 1920s. Which just happens to be about the time of Prohibition, brought about by the Progressive Movement.


69 posted on 03/19/2013 8:01:15 AM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Youngman542012

Dopers can’t face life so they make their own world they can never be trusted with anything.


70 posted on 03/19/2013 8:52:29 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: jjotto

Pot was not illegal back then because no one was dumb enough to smoke it. The only pot puffers were some marginal people on the fringes such as jazz musicians, some arsty types, a few blacks and a few Hispanics. The white population was at 90% back then and did not touch it


71 posted on 03/19/2013 10:10:02 AM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing --- Joe Pine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I think all drug use should be legal. However, I also think it should be damned difficult to find a job, obtain custody to children, operate certain types of machinery (cars, boats, etc.), run for public office.

I think it ought to be difficult to buy insurance if you use it. I think lenders should be able to test and either not loan users money, or charge them higher rates (higher risks mean higher rates).

Use it in the military, lose a stripe and some cash. (destruction of government property - just like a hangover before movement or a sunburn that puts you in sickbay). I think colleges ought to be able to test for substance use before giving students admission (again, higher risk means higher drop out rate).

I think it should be taxed. I think those people selling it without paying the tax, or buying it without paying the tax should have a lien put on their personal property.

Let the free market discriminate on the basis of risk, and don’t sue them for it. The science is pretty clear, so let the actuarials reign and let the courts protect the businesses (this is the weak part in the argument).


72 posted on 03/19/2013 10:38:06 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
Pot was not illegal back then

So your claim, "If pot was legal in 1776 we never would have driven out the British" was nonsense.

73 posted on 03/19/2013 1:30:23 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: Vaduz; Youngman542012
Dopers have a stereotype...and it fits..what this law does is make it easier for kids to get it...and for the all day long crowd to get more of it....the smoke before school or work..then more at lunch..and afterward too...can´t be straight ever in their minds....and there are many of them....I know a few...zoned out all of the time..it does affect them..the stereotype....

Dopers can’t face life so they make their own world they can never be trusted with anything.

At least some of them know how punctuation works.

74 posted on 03/19/2013 1:32:29 PM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: JustSayNoToNannies
You are a bit excitable, a bit manic and your logical processes are very deficient
75 posted on 03/19/2013 5:40:23 PM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing --- Joe Pine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
>" If you want a permanent Democrap majority then" keep on being fascist.

Disgusting how deep the brainwashing on both sides goes.

>Either we are free, or we are slaves!

76 posted on 03/19/2013 7:22:26 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist ("Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one," Jeremiah 50:31)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: JustSayNoToNannies

NoToNannies


77 posted on 03/20/2013 7:48:50 AM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
Pot was not illegal back then

So your claim, "If pot was legal in 1776 we never would have driven out the British" was nonsense.

your logical processes are very deficient

Thanks for the morning laugh!

78 posted on 03/20/2013 7:56:52 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: JustSayNoToNannies

Legalize pot and get million more Obama voters...Not that you care. You just want it legal so you are not paranoid about the police anymore. Pot makes you paranoid


79 posted on 03/20/2013 7:59:44 AM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing --- Joe Pine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: dennisw
Legalize pot and get million more Obama voters

So your claim is that millions who now vote Republican would if pot were legalized start voting Democrat? Can you give any reason for anyone to believe this surprising claim?

...Not that you care. You just want it legal so you are not paranoid about the police anymore. Pot makes you paranoid

It's not "paranoid" to worry about the police when in violation of a law - unless you think USSR circulaters of dissident literature who worried about the police were "paranoid."

80 posted on 03/20/2013 8:09:52 AM PDT by JustSayNoToNannies ("The Lord has removed His judgments against you" - Zep. 3:15)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next 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