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Locked on 01/15/2014 11:23:33 AM PST by Jim Robinson, reason:
Enough already! |
Posted on 01/13/2014 11:39:29 AM PST by Kaslin
Right now, China and Russia are having a great laugh at America’s expense. For a once proud country with strong moral character and intellectual ambition, we have become a nation intent on destroying itself from within. The publicly sanctioned and widespread celebration of indolent potheads toking themselves into oblivion in Colorado is only the latest example.
We have come a long way from Nancy Reagan’s largely successful “Just Say No” campaign to educate students on the dangers of drugs and their consequences. Call it “You Can Say Yes. “
In the minds of many conservatives, the lines are becoming quickly blurred on the legalization of mind-altering substances as well as the punishment of drug offenders. Libertarians are taking up the cause to push for universal legalization of marijuana around the country. Some are doing this because of Americans’ growing fear of our government’s intrusion into our private lives while others are doing it because of easier access to their favorite recreational pastime. Indeed, the latter motivation seems to be so popular, that it quickly turned into one of the most popular battle cries amongst the young adults for the election of Rep. Ron Paul in the 2012 Republican Primary.
Unfortunately, many traditional Conservatives are also getting on the drug bus because they have bought the Democrat lie that the money collected by drug users could be fiscally beneficial. In the most recent year, Colorado generated $9.1 million in retail sales tax from the sale of medical marijuana. This figure is bound to grow with the introduction of recreational sales and the additional 25% in excise and sales taxes since becoming legal on January 1st.
Looking beyond just the tax revenue, the industry generates millions of dollars every year for the state from licensing and application fees. To apply for and obtain a license to run a medical marijuana facility serving more than 500 patients, for instance, the necessary application and license fees alone approach $40,000. Colorado has agreed to take this new revenue and use it for the education of its children and construction of new schools. Does this mean at 18 every high school graduate will be handed their diploma and a doobie with the instructions to get addicted in order to help fund future generations’ educations?
We are now seeing a very odd mix of bedfellows. One of my favorite Tea Party Senators, Mike Lee of Utah, and one of the most odious liberals in the Senate today, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, both are now in agreement to reduce the mandatory jail sentence time on non-violent drug offenses in hopes of reducing prison expenses. A federal inmate’s yearly cost for one inmate ranges from $21,000 to $33,000 depending on the prison's level of security. Because of the current system, about half of the nation's more than 218,000 federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes with virtually all of them subjected by some form of mandatory minimum sentencing.
Am I living in the twilight zone right now? Has our country become so ignorant that we have abandoned one of the few positive goals of eliminating substances from our cultural landscape? Drugs that have reduced the productivity, health and advancement of our society? Don’t think drugs have a negative effect on the community? Just look to Washington State, where within the first 6 months of pot being legalized, 745 drivers stopped by the police tested positive for marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient THC and over half of those tested were over the state’s legal limit of 5 nanograms. This means there are more impaired drivers on the roads of Washington and now Colorado driving alongside families on their way to school and people on their way to work. Please tell me how a price can be put on their safety or tell me that drugs cannot hurt innocent bystanders? Please go ask a family who has lost a loved one to drug use or more importantly whose family was affected by someone under the influence.
We are witnessing the steady decline and intentional corrosion of America’s social structure. This is the ultimate goal of leftists: total control of the state that would make middle and lower class its feudal subjects. What better way to destroy a culture then to encourage mind altering substance use by the general public?
Ronald Reagan often quoted John Winthrop’s shining “City upon a Hill” but ultimately under these types of legislative policy, we might suffer more the fate as predicted by Alexis de Toqueville who said “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Drug use has caused all this excrement we are dealing with since the 60’s.
Is just snowballed.
Drugs are what did in our nation.
It is one of the symptoms for sure.
The left has dumbed down this country to the point where everything EXCEPT decency and standards are acceptable to the masses
Nope. Sorry, you still Fail.
You could not win your argument by staying on topic, so you introduced a new “bait and switch” diversionary tactic to try and build up your weak arguments.
Here try this: It doesn’t work either, but stamp your foot - call me a doody-head and tell the teacher on me.
Its all the same.
I'm very curious by what standard "Just Say No" could be deemed a success? If it was the lowering in price and the heightening in potency, then it was a great success!
The worst consequence of JSN was that it treated all drugs equally. Marijuana was just as bad as heroin which was just as bad as crack. When the children of JSN grew up, went to college, smoked weed and didn't see their lives instantly destroyed, they knew they had been lied to. And if marijuana isn't that bad, maybe heroin isn't that bad either? And heroin would make a resurgence in the early 90s with devastating consequences.
By lying to kids about the dangers of drugs it taught them not to trust the government. That’s about the only success I can think of.
And I did that where?
Tell us. What else do you hate? Tea Parties? The Constitution? Freedom of Speech?
Since you bring up the Constitution, where exactly in the Constitution do you see the authority for Government to regulate what people put in their bodies?
Alcohol causes physical sickness, lost productivity, car accidents, broken families & on & on. Would you be OK with alcohol prohibition?
(Really, though, it's clear on the War on (Some) Drugs threads you're just a troll so I'm not waiting for any keen insights or answers from you).
More legal marijuana means more dumbass Obama voters. All the narcotics out there (illegal drugs) is part of the reason Obama and the Democrats have the upper hand.
It’s called an analogy. It’s got nothing to do with “bait and switch”. I provided a direct analogy and it is apt one.
By the way, it was you who resorted to name calling, not I.
And the same kids who were lied to by Nancy Reagan are now adults and voting to legalize marijuana.
You didn’t answer the question which tells me you are knee jerk reactionist and not someone that rationally thinks through such issues. Liberals do that. I don’t.
Drug use was far higher in 1900 and somewhat before. We were am fine nation then without nearly the loss of freedom and liberty we have today.
Looking beyond just the tax revenue, the industry generates millions of dollars every year for the state from licensing and application fees. To apply for and obtain a license to run a medical marijuana facility serving more than 500 patients, for instance, the necessary application and license fees alone approach $40,000. Colorado has agreed to take this new revenue and use it for the education of its children and construction of new schools. Does this mean at 18 every high school graduate will be handed their diploma and a doobie with the instructions to get addicted in order to help fund future generations’ educations?
ROTFL!
Great summary. Bookmarked.
They don’t want to wait until 18, and it won’t just be pot but meth, cocaine, heroin.. you name it
Check out the comments. People are telling Drug Warriors to get stuffed.
With respect, I can right now off the top of my head, think of at least three middle-aged lifelong recreational pot smokers with whom I have often discussed politics over the years, who are at least as Republican/conservative anti-liberal anti-Obama as we are, you and I.
With respect ... vote fraud is the PRIMARY reason Obama and Democrats have the upper hand. In my long experience with recreational pot smokers as well as recreational boozers, about EXACTLY the same proportion are liberal as are conservative. The choice of "high" has zero to do with their politics.
It is counterproductive to assume otherwise.
Bee Ess.
LSD, MDMA hadn’t even been invented.
Pot smoking was little known outside certain subcultures.
Cocaine was known and abused as were opiates via smoking (rare) or in patent medicines which was common and that’s what I figure you are referring to.
Remember that song Wooly-booly? About Hadacol Haddie?
And what activities might those be?
I've never used marijuana, but I've worked with or around people who did, and from this I learned several things.
Marijuana stays in the users system much longer than does alcohol. The effects of Marijuana use will remain in the users system and affect his motor skills for over twenty-four hours, and alcohol's effects will usually be gone in no more than eight hours. As usual, I earned this one the hard way.
During the Vietnam War, I was making a heliborne assault on a mountainside when the pilot suddenly lost control and crashed the helicopter. There was a thorough investigation into the accident, and it was found that the helicopter crew had been smoking marijuana the night before and the pilot was still affected by it the following afternoon.
We learned the hard way in Vietnam that there might be a few things a person may be able to do after smoking marijuana but flying helicopters isn't one of them.
Prohibition encouraged crime,
During prohibition, there were drive by shootings,
organized crime flourished during prohibition,
The Mafia quickly discovered a new source of income; bootlegging, which quickly became the primary focus of their operation. The American Mafia flourished in the Twenties.
The prohibition Era is where some of the nastiest syndicates and the most powerful bosses arose. Well known Mafioso such as Al Capone, Bugs Moran, The Purple Gang and the Chicago Outfit.
Fights like the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre occured. The "drive-by shooting" was invented during the twenties as well.
Supporters of the Temperance Movement believed that the men of early 20th Century were neglecting their families by spending all of their money on alcohol instead of important things like food.
Supporters also believed that drunkenness was a major source of crime. Most supporters were women (especially women who also fought for suffrage), churches and factory owners (who supported the movement in hopes that less men would come to work intoxicated and hinder production in the factory).
The passage of the 18th Amendment proved to be a mistake. Instead of reducing crime the ban on alcohol actually increased crime and created a more ominous form of organized crime. The mob was created and the American gangster was born. Gangsters like Al Capone made a fortune as bootleggers in which they transported and distributed illegal alcoholic beverages much like drug dealers do today.
Not only did they supply the local speakeasy with boozes, but they also used excessive "pressure" and force to make sure the their customers remained their customers and customers of other bootleggers became their customers. This ended badly for many saloon owners who were torn between two competing mobs that did not care for his personal safety
Prohibition ended in 1933 with the passage of the 21st Amendment which repealed the 18th Amendment. It received great support due to the state of depression of the U.S. at the time.
Organized crime, however, did not end. Prohibition began in order to make the U.S. a safer, better place. It failed miserably, but gave birth to a new problem before its demise-the mob in which still functions even today.
There are so many ignorant people today that actually believe the "War on drugs" is gonna make these united states safer, a better place. Can you believe that?
And, for the same reasons involving "the common good," do you support banning alcohol and tobacco? If not, why not? Again, there are many more deaths from alcohol and tobacco than from marijuana.
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