Posted on 04/07/2014 6:07:55 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The debate over legalizing marijuana for medical and even recreational purposes is blurring conservative and liberal lines.
With polls showing a slight majority of Americans now supporting the legalization of the drug, especially younger voters, and billionaire campaign financiers such as George Soros funding the pro-pot movement, a number of candidates are finding themselves at odds with their own party's positions.
Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, called marijuana "a sleeper issue," in the upcoming campaign and noted its trickiness, telling The Wall Street Journal, "All of a sudden the ground is shifting, and it's uncomfortable and complicated. Marijuana has become an issue that candidates have got to pay attention to."
Attention is on Maryland, where the state House of Delegates voted April 5 to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot. That leaves Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, the onetime tough-on-crime mayor of Baltimore, with a difficult decision.
O'Malley has said he is "not much in favor" of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, and called the drug "a gateway to even more harmful behavior," according to The Washington Post.
O'Malley is not alone in bucking the push by Democratic activists to follow the leads of Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana use.
According to The New York Times, California Gov. Jerry Brown has said his state "ought to kind of watch and see how things go in Colorado" before approving a similar measure. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, meanwhile, said of his state: "Quite frankly, I don’t think we are ready, or want to go down that road."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Thanks for the ping!
“Whose” society?
Their society or the society the Founders envisioned and intended?
Well I done neither alcohol nor Mj for many years, IMO alcohol is more dangerous and causes more problems. People with addictive personalities will destroy themselves with whatever is available.
Same as with Guns people are the problem not the thing.
This is just another push to ban guns. You use pot ONCE, you and your entire household become prohibited persons, unable to buy a gun from a federal firearms dealer, and if the JBT’s ever find out you do have a gun, woe be unto you and your house.
no it doesn’t. It may blur the line for libertarians but no conservative is of legalizing yet another mid altering substance that reeks havoc on the lives of families.
Another is anything sexual except abnormal homosexuality.
Like smoking...tobacco!
Damn, people, can't we get it through our heads that smoking is bad?
Um, I mean except for smoking MJ.
Good for the lungs and all...
Oh YEAH? MY leaves are awesome! YOUR leaves are bad!
We'll crucify you for smoking YOUR leaves.
MY leaves?
That's to be celebrated and accommodated.
“Single issue voters are idiots.”
It may be a single issue but some people see it differently and and take it more seriously than the others who just like to misrepresent and ridicule.
Enforcement of drug laws has effectively destroyed huge segments of the African American community. Jail time for simple possession has destroyed countless lives. The same with mandatory minimum sentencing. Prison time condemns young black men to a fairly bleak future. Nobody wants to hire a felon regardless of the crime. Most never rise out of it. They end up unemployed and on welfare. Or a criminal. By the millions. For the rest of their lives.
The WOD has cost over a Trillion dollars. That doesn’t take into account what it has done to the black community. So what is the cost to society for that?
Boy that alcohol really expands your mind, eh?
For the record, I favor decriminalization of marijuana, not legalization. However you cannot compare voters who won’t vote for politicians who support infanticide and legalized murder to voters who won’t vote for politicians who will not legalize all drugs.
One of those issues is a bit more important in the grand scheme of things. Too bad you can’t see the difference.
I am dealing with an Alzheimer's patient who is exactly like that. What you describe are symptoms of dementia, not marijuana use.
Of course, there was the reek of marijuana.
And I do remember college -- as I watched her, she sure seemed stoned.
The people who want to smoke it are smoking it NOW".
Fred's got it figured out.
It's not like somebody who wants it can't find it. It's about whether the person who uses it oges to jail.
And it's about whether we want a SWAT team in every little township in America looking to increase their take.
You could be right that she was using medical marijuana for pain management or other medical problem. It won’t do anything for Alzheimers, but co-existing conditions such as joint pain or what have you certainly could be alleviated with marijuana.
Oh wow < / humor >
Do you think the Founders would approve of fedgov using the Commerce Clause to trample the Tenth Amendment and impose nationwide prohibition on marijuana?
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