The federal “War on Drugs” has not only been a massive failure and done more harm than good, it is unconstitutional. Nowhere does the Constitution give the federal government power over an individual’s choice to take drugs.
All the ‘war on drugs’ has done is send people to jail for having harmless fun, raising the cost of pot because it is illegal, and cause crime to GROW because there is MONEY TO BE MADE in illegal pot.
As a FORMER smoker (and also a FORMER drinker) I can say from experience it is far less harmful than alcohol - everything in moderation.
So, the HIGH powered recreational marijuana the potheads are now selling in Colorado and Washington is “medical marijuana” too? (As is implied in the first paragraph). Well, as long as the politicians “tax the hell out of it”, who am I to complain? Everybody’s Happy Happy Happy.
End the WOD and end the government tyranny.
Brave New World of legal drugs, open borders and sex with kids is coming.
Libertardians...
There seems to me to be a superb solution in permitting large scale hemp production.
First of all, hemp grows in marginal farmland, so it would not be like the ethanol disaster, displacing quality cropland.
Second of all, known products made from hemp, especially paper and cloth, would be worth billions to the US economy every year. The paper industry could adapt to hemp paper production, instead of wasting valuable lumber in making pulp. This would drive the price of lumber down which would stimulate construction. Hemp paper is pH neutral, and can last hundreds of years, not just decades.
Importantly, the quality of marijuana is based on the quality of the pollen used to fertilize female plants for seed. But when female plants only are grown, their growers do not want them to be fertilized, because they then stop emitting the resin that contains the drug.
So a profusion of hemp pollen impacts marijuana production in two ways: it fertilizes female plants, ending their production of resin; and then they produce inferior seed that makes much less potent marijuana.
The bottom line is that hemp production is terrible for marijuana production. Over the course of years, unless the marijuana is grown indoors, its quality will continue to decline.
So what’s not to like? A new industry that makes lots of jobs, while reducing the potency of marijuana.
Great! Rand Paul agrees with Obama on foreign policy, amnesty, gay marriage and dope. Definitely a non-partisan type of guy. And that’s exactly the vote he will get.
Far out, man. Rand Paul is a stone groove!
This kind of crap is not welcome here on Free Republic. We Freepers stand for small government. Small enough to lock you up for smoking a plant, and no smaller. Which is pretty big, actually.
What’s interesting is doctors could lose their license over prescribing scheduled pain killers. I know many doctors who no longer prescribe them due to that threat. So now politicians want doctors who are cautious of prescribing pain medicine to prescribe marijuana!