Posted on 11/30/2014 6:03:08 PM PST by Olog-hai
… The data coming out of Colorado is exhibit A on why voters should reject legalization efforts. Even the Democratic governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, said that legalizing marijuana in Colorado was “reckless.” As I have written at Heritage, pot-positive traffic fatalities have gone up 100 percent since voters legalized pot in Colorado. This is true despite the fact that overall traffic fatalities in Colorado have gone down since 2007.
A report by a federal grant-funded agency in Colorado found seven specific negative side effects that pot legalization has caused in Colorado:
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.
What I did wish at times in my life was to be one of those people whom I saw all around me that make it through the trials and tribualtions of this world without needing to alter themselves via drugs.
I mean, I really did wish hard that I could be a normal person, but that was not going to be the road I walked on, that’s for sure.
But at least now that I am older and maybe just a bit wiser than I was before, I am closer to that wish being a reality.
I still don’t handle life as well as others. bad wiring I suppose. But, whatever mistakes I am making these days, I am making with a clear head, and I thank God for that.
The good times and joy that I have known in more recent years have truly made my life worth living.
“If there used to be a whopping TWO mary-jane related fatalities and it increased to FOUR, that would be a 100% increase from danged near nothing to still nothing.”
My thoughts exactly. Control-freak “news” from the Hypersensitive Crowd. The people who support Mooche’s lunch programs and go berserk over 16 oz. Soda cups.
Contrary to the endless sarcastic comments in the news from Fox to local, there aren’t millions of stonies wandering Colorado like the Walking Dead.
It’s isn’t highly addictive.
Wanting to be high on pot all the time is not the same as you must do this drug right now or your are very likely going to die of withdrawl.
That is what a phsyically addictive drug can do.
The MJ addict behaves the way you describe simply because they like the buzz so much they want to experience it all the time.
But if they all of a sudden ran out of supply, they would be fine, might be grumpy for a while, but they certainly would not die.
Marijuana is highly addictive. Psychologically. This explains the well stated comment that it’s a quasi-religion.
Just try to say anything negative about pot to a pothead, they get very emotional about it. You won’t see this with crack, meth, heroin, alcohol, tobacco or synthetic hallucinogens.
If it went from 1 to 2, and 50% of drivers test positive, there must be like 4 cars on Colorado.
Drug make for funny logic and lots of excuses.
I can’t argue that it isn’t psychologically addicting, but that in no way at all compares to phsycal addiction.
Physical addiction is a chain with a ball as big as planet earth attached to it, and it is truly hard to free oneself from it.
Now I am a former pothead, a heavy user in fact, and I believe that while pot is not a drug that is just going to kill you if you use it, as cocaine and heroin certainly can, and certain combinations of pills can, I do also believe that pot is indeed a bad drug.
It is my belief that people are much better off not using it.
There is no altered state that is really desirable.
What I would tell those people, and what I told myself was that I cannot run from what is haunting me. What I must do is deal with the problem like a man, because attempting to run from it via drugs is not only futile, all I am going to achieve is running to even greater demons than I had to start.
Alcohol, MJ, pills, coke, acid, heroin, meth...those are not your friends, not at all. What they all are, in truth, is poison.
Gee, how's all that "weed is harmless and marijuana users never hurt anyone" talking point working out for our libertarian and liberal friends?
First, it was still illegal in 2012. Second, if the pot-positive fatalities went up from 39 to 78, but the *overall* traffic fatalities dropped from 555 to 474, then where is your case against pot? http://www.coloradodot.info/library/traffic/traffic-manuals-guidelines/safety-crash-data/fatal-crash-data-city-county/Colorado_Historical_Fatalities_Graphs.pdf/view
What years are those figures? (can't get pdf on my device)
- RICO laws that were only intended against organized crime used against pro-life demonstrators
- Asset forfeiture laws used more to line police pockets than stop crime
- Militarized police forces that used to only be in highly urban areas that are now popping up in rural areas as well
- SWAT teams that are now easily manipulated by pranksters to "SWAT" innocents because they otherwise would spend most of their time sitting around doing nothing
- Large prison populations that are exploited as cheap labor by the same business owners that look the other way with regard to illegal aliens
- Continuous supply of drugs even during the height of the WOD that only led to higher prices, more thievery to buy drugs, and more money in the pockets of drug gangs and drug cartels
- Bloody turf battles between Crips and Bloods that resulted in thousands of deaths. More turf battles to come if the Crips don't play nice with MS13
- National and State Parks trashed to grow illegal crops and made unsafe for the public to visit
It is still OK to smoke and drink and eat fatty foods and sit around doing little or no exercise.
However, the government has made it quite clear that they believe that smoking is always bad, drinking in excess is bad, eating too much fat or doing too little exercise is bad.
They are not saying "Smoking and drinking and fat and lethargy are OK!!"
Legalizing marijuana is not the same as the government advocating its use. If it turns out that the marijuana sold today is much more potent than "our grandfather's marijuana" and that it is indeed dangerous then it can be properly regulated by the FDA or the Ag Dept.
I strongly believe that the legalization of recreational pot use is an utter stupidity, but...
Manipulated numbers, capitalizing on the stupidity and utter ignorance of the ordinary voter, as whatshisname asserted, is just as reprehensible as the pro-illegal drug crowd.
Every one of those seven so-called (unsupported) statistics are cherry-picked, manipulated or fraudulent.
Perhaps all three.
Without the data (actual numbers, with supporting source) on which the claims are based, they are meaningless.
No, but it can severely punish those who actually kill others, accident or certain consequence, doesn't matter.
Ya.
So?
Maybe 12 is 1/5 the legal limit in Missouri...
Yeah, but I don’t think anyone is arguing that the drunk driver, for instance, shoudln’t be charged with a crime if he in fact hurts or kills someone while driving in that condition, yet the substance itself remains legal to purchase.
And even with those just laws, people still drink and drive and hurt and kill others.
Those laws do not save people from that action, they provide a method of jailing that perp after the fact, but the damage is already done.
But that being said, of course I support such laws. A person’s addiction is theirs to contend with, but if that person lets that addiciton get so far out of hand that physically damages another, then it’s off to prison, and rightly so.
i think any drug product that has no medicinal value to it at all, that creates an instant addiction to it the first time it’s used, and destroys a person’s health, i have no problems with government - ie all of us/society, voting whatever restrictions on that product we deem appropriate.
all the hard street drugs, coke, crack, meth, someone mentioned krodokil, i have no problems with them being classified illegal. they have no redeeming qualites any way you view them.
i already mentioned prior pot in certain forms has medicinal properties that should be explored and evaluated for those purposes.
we are already seeing the results of recreational legalization of pot and the negative results are hardly unexpected. but perhaps you don’t mind the increase in negatie consequences that prove potheads don’t just harm themselves but inevitably harn others because they don’t live in confined cages under total isolation from the rest of us.
you tossed out the prior lame argument that thers do harmful actions to other when not on drugs. the essence of the products they take are the big factor that screws up the drug person’s brain into doing sh1t they wouldn’t normally do on the damn drug. but you don’t seem to get that. why give people access to drugs we know screw up sensory perception and the decision-making governors in their heads, just because all they give ash1t about is how good they want to feel, and screw everyone else?
there are many drugs that hook you the first time you take them.
i have never met one person who became an instant alcoholic after their first drink.
that’sthe difference. while there are alcoholics, it’s a known fact most people who drink do not become alcoholics. you can find social drinkers. you cannot find social meth-heads. you cannot find moderate crackheads. you can’t find i only inject krokodil when i play cards, people.
there was just a study that came out shortly after colorado’s legalization that shows pot smokers’ brain volume decreases over usage and that the shrinkage starts right away. it doesn’t take a long time to notice the changes.
different tangent, but i totally agree. this was just an excuse to do this. if swat was used how it was sold to us, they’dbe raiding known drug houses, killing gangbangers, busting up drug gangs and groups. they dont use swat like this, as they explained they would.
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