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Marijuana’s march toward mainstream confounds feds
Associated Press ^ | Jun 29, 2013 8:33 AM EDT | Nancy Benac and Alicia A. Caldwell

Posted on 06/29/2013 7:52:35 AM PDT by Olog-hai

It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of “Reefer Madness” to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of “Just Say No.”

The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously “didn’t inhale,” to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did.

And now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug—for medical use and just for fun. …

Washington policymakers seem reluctant to deal with any of it. …

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: atf; cannabis; clintoon; didntinhale; federallaw; marijuana; obama; obamainhaled
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To: Gay State Conservative

You see, we have this pesky document called the Constitution. From my reading of the same, it was to keep a central Federal gov’t small while keeping the Citizens Rights intact.

Upon further review, I cannot lay my finger upon the verbiage that allows the Federal gov’t to declare a War on Drugs, let alone War on Poverty, Dept. of Education, or a host of others....I guess my copy is lacking somewhere/how.

Now, what other vices are allowed in public in this same park? ‘Reading’ porn? Drinking (coffee, tea, alcoholic)? Smoking?

What does one do after partaking? Violent, murderous rampages? Wanton destruction?

Are these same people prosecuted for the wrongs they do upon others the same as they would if they did NOT partake in these vices?

It’s amazing how those, even here, purport to be for small gov’t and Freedom, while feeling so morally superior, or more intelligent/knowledgeable, to KNOW how others shall live...by force of gov’t.


21 posted on 06/29/2013 8:24:37 AM PDT by i_robot73 (We hold that all individuals have the Right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives - LP.org)
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To: cherry

People drink and drive. Young people drink and their lives are ruined. Maybe we should ban alcohol. Young people blow off fingers w/fireworks on the fourth of July. Ban fireworks. And holy cow have you seen the size of young people today? Walking heart attacks, some of them. Ban sugary drinks and fatty foods. And who can forget the tragic firearms accidents we read about in the papers? We need to ban guns right now!! FOR THE CHILDREN!!!

Can you see a link here? And the underlying subtext that what matters in a FREE SOCIETY is a balance of personal responsiblility and parental involvement...which has been eroded at an avalanche’s pace with the growth of the NANNY STATE.


22 posted on 06/29/2013 8:26:49 AM PDT by To Hell With Poverty (Ephesians 6:12 becomes more real to me with each news cycle.)
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To: Junior_G
Driving down highway 99 in Seattle is simply surreal now with all the marijuana dispensaries.

And let's not forget all the titty coffee stands.

23 posted on 06/29/2013 8:28:04 AM PDT by NurdlyPeon (It is the nature of liberals to pervert whatever they touch.)
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To: Olog-hai
As with homosexual "marriage" once the boundaries begin to crumble they crumble fast. Ordered liberty is disintegrating into a disorganized mess before our eyes.
24 posted on 06/29/2013 8:29:38 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Olog-hai

The war on drugs was federalized by Nixon who thought it was a good way to target the hippies, and as a result of his creation of the DEA and providing it and other agencies with vast rule-making authority to evade Congress that RINO did more for big government advocates than any Democrat. We still are enduring the nightmare leftover from Nixon, and the war on drugs is Exhibit A.


25 posted on 06/29/2013 8:36:18 AM PDT by AtlasStalled
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To: rstrahan
The government loves laws against legalization, because it allows for seizures of cash cars, property without due process, all in the name of the war on drugs.

Yep - they need as many "criminals" as possible to explain why they need to keep putting their feet on the necks of the People. Great shades of Ayn Rand.

26 posted on 06/29/2013 8:38:19 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“Ordered liberty is disintegrating into a disorganized mess before our eyes.”

Should personal moral violations — and I think getting high could legitimately be construed as such — be treated as crimes against society? I’m not a proponent of drug use but I’m not sure criminalizing the behavior is the answer.


27 posted on 06/29/2013 8:38:23 AM PDT by AtlasStalled
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To: Olog-hai

I am not keen on marijuana legalization. That being stated, it is way below in importance compared to the debt, infanticide, sodomy, and foreign humiliation being heaped upon the USA by B Hussein Obamugabe.


28 posted on 06/29/2013 8:43:05 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: NormsRevenge
Monsanto will patent the hemp genome and armies of lawyers will destroy anyone
who dares to grow it without their permission replacing the FedMob goon squads.
29 posted on 06/29/2013 8:55:03 AM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: AtlasStalled

Bravo!

Exhibit B is the BATF
Exhibit C is the EPA
Exhibit D is the final abandonment of the gold standard
Exhibit E is the NHTSA and the national 55 mph speed limit

True conservatives and libertarians recognize what “moderate, electable, progressive” blue state Republicans really are. That is why so many either stayed home or voted for alternatives in 08 and 12.

Just look at the mess from W’s NDAA-Patriot Act-NSA-Homeland Security debacle should a later example be desired.


30 posted on 06/29/2013 8:57:55 AM PDT by noprogs (Borders, Language, Culture....all should be preserved)
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To: cherry

We have everything you described now. We must choose between organized crime and drugs, or regulated legal sales of drugs. Reducing use by force of law fails every time, while trashing the 4th amendment.


31 posted on 06/29/2013 8:58:34 AM PDT by SpeakerToAnimals (I hope to earn a name in battle)
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To: GenXteacher

They might not be happy with productivity...true stoners I have known are not very productive and become less so if they stay stoners.


32 posted on 06/29/2013 9:00:58 AM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: Olog-hai

In the old Soviet Union drunkenness was rampant as a way to ease the pain of communist tyranny. In the USA it looks like Mary Jane will be the plebeians Lady of the Evening.


33 posted on 06/29/2013 9:01:10 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: hinckley buzzard

Ordered liberty is a contradiction of terms. If the FedMob orders it you ain’t free.


34 posted on 06/29/2013 9:03:02 AM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: AtlasStalled

“The war on drugs was federalized by Nixon who thought it was a good way to target the hippies, and as a result of his creation of the DEA and providing it and other agencies with vast rule-making authority to evade Congress that RINO did more for big government advocates than any Democrat. We still are enduring the nightmare leftover from Nixon, and the war on drugs is Exhibit A.”

BINGO! Someone give this man a cigar. Before Nixon’s war on drugs the Republican party held a credible balance between social conservatism and personal liberty. This “war” was the first salvo in the feds war on our liberties. Look where it has led us.


35 posted on 06/29/2013 9:09:17 AM PDT by rsobin
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To: DownInFlames

” Instilling cabinet heads and czars does not eliminate the need for a LEADER.”

We don’t need leaders, we need representatives. Following and believing the “leader” is how we got into this mess. IMHO of course.


36 posted on 06/29/2013 9:10:13 AM PDT by dljordan (WhoVoltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.")
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To: To Hell With Poverty

We would have to legalize all illegal drugs, not sure I am willing to do that...even then criminals are involved in much that doesn’t involve drugs...completely legalizing marijuana would have an effect but there is too much other crime on the border and in the inner cities for it to be a cure.

If marijuana had not been criminalized to begin with I think things would be better today, I don’t think the whole “war on drugs” would have had support. I could be wrong but that is how I see it.


37 posted on 06/29/2013 9:12:08 AM PDT by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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To: Olog-hai
While it might confound them, it's not confusing if you understand human nature and how people handle double standards and being lied to in what was once advertized as a free country.

Whatever their reasons and fears, when the PTBs took their reefer madness lie to a population of free humans who enjoy alcohol and recreationally altering their consciousness a bit from time to time, they were doomed to fail.

From such a recreational point of view, in low doses, alcohol and pot are about the same impairment wise, just different in experience.

And, either are gone the next morning, from that user's point of view, enough to go about his/her day and function satisfactorily.

So, since a significant and growing segment of the population has known this for a fact since sometime before graduating high school, they begin to think, hmmm...why is one okie dokie and the other a prison sentence, when both are naturally occurring, in nature without any human contribution what-so-ever, like, you know, even from God, some would say?

Why, indeed? Especially after all we went through with Prohibition and supposedly learned from the experience.

Yep, this was inevitable...especially in a world ever more damaged, broken and out of harmony with natural law, where we start out in broken homes, spend most of our waking hours of childhood in a broken education system of indoctrination and then take that preparation out into the world.

In such a world, people go from occasional recreational use to pain relief.

And, quite clearly, we are a world in pain.

Nope, not confounding or confusing at all. What is confounding and confusing is why are we doing this to ourselves? The answer holds the key to all of our problems.

38 posted on 06/29/2013 9:14:35 AM PDT by GBA (Our obamanation: Animal Farm meets 1984 in A Brave New World. Crony capitalism, chaos and control.)
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To: i_robot73
It’s amazing how those, even here, purport to be for small gov’t and Freedom, while feeling so morally superior, or more intelligent/knowledgeable, to KNOW how others shall live...by force of gov’t.

Bingo

The WOD Warriors here illustrate the hypocrisy of pushing limited govt while supporting govt coercion for controlling citizens in the manner they wish. Its all about wanting to control others and in this regard the WODs are no different than the progs.

39 posted on 06/29/2013 9:36:59 AM PDT by corkoman
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To: i_robot73

Your copy of the Constitution is probably not living and breathing. Check for a pulse.


40 posted on 06/29/2013 9:38:57 AM PDT by Zuse
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