Posted on 01/19/2014 10:49:34 AM PST by Innovative
Speaking to New Yorker editor David Remnick, Obama said he still viewed pot smoking negatively – but that on the whole, the drug wasn’t the social ill that it’s been viewed as in the past.
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama told the weekly magazine.
The president said pot was actually less dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
I have seen the same thing many times myself. Good friends too. It sapped ambition for sure. Some of the heavier users didn’t care about much besides getting stoned. I was in a unique position to see it happening because I never felt a desire to get high myself, but was a non judgmental observer of the users around me.
An oversimplification.
/johnny
You misunderstand. When I say oversimplification, I am not disputing that the Constitution gives us the freedom to do what we want with our own bodies, including destroy them if that’s our choice. The ramifications of legalizing everything for everyone right now in our society in its current condition would be catastrophic. The average obama voter has become an addle-headed fool at making decisions for himself. I am looking forward to a return to a small government that stays out of my business, but in getting there, some changes have to be executed slowly.
That sounds like an excuse to maintain the unconstitutional status quo.
I'll take freedom, as detailed in the Constitution, and worry about the fallout if it happens.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
/johnny
It is a shame that you seem so determined to bash me because I think on most issues of personal freedom, we’d share a lot of common ground. You took my statement out of context and missed my point entirely.
It's a shame you see clear speech as 'bashing'.
/johnny
Of course pot is a gateway drug, if for no other reason that it introduces the user to the seedy underworld of drug distribution.
So do you think CO and WA should be able to carry out their marijuana policy per the Tenth Amendment?
I don’t know if most pot smokers remain pot smokers or not. To me it’s kind of like suggesting that beer is a gateway to liquor. This assumes that if beer didn’t exist that people would never try harder alcohol.
So we are surprised that people who are open to drug use have tried more than one drug?
I for one am tired of people telling other people what they can and can’t do. The fact that some people are going to make bad choices is the nature of freedom. It’s time that we decide if we really want freedom or not I the party.
The only thing that marijuana is a “gateway” to is the black market for drugs. So long as (and wherever) marijuana remains illegal, the only way to buy it is on the black market. The black market dealers (aka criminals) are likely to try to up-sell you to harder (and more profitable) addictive drugs.
End the prohibition, and the “gateway” closes.
Same could be said for oxygen.
Pot is no more a gateway then alcohol.
It might not be a gateway drug, but why would we want anymore mentally impaired drivers on our roads! Is there a test for being high on pot as there is for being high on alcohol? Whatever, I just know when you’re high you are not a good driver whatever the substance.
And alcohol, and sex, and......
Fact of the matter is all the things in life that are "tempting" bring eventual darkness.
Writing of law is what is in question, parameters become subjective.
I grew up drinking raw milk straight from the cow on the farm, that is no doubt the gateway drink that led me to beer, then whiskey and finally to wine. Who dould doubt it?
Yes. I believe in States Rights. Legalization on a Federal level would be wrong. The contentious Constitutionality of that original Federal ruling aside, doing a State by State “repeal” or upholding of it gives the voters a chance to decide for themselves.
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That is a brilliant observation. Have you ever seen a junkie or pothead who didn’t smoke cigarettes? Those cigarettes are a gateway.
“Bash” is gay code. Most people don’t use that word.
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