I'm going to bed, and expect the FReepathon to be over by the time I wake up. Next Thursday. ":^)
Posted on 03/05/2016 9:11:55 PM PST by Ken H
Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn't: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels' profits.
The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009.
The data supports the many stories about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well said.
This will be the case until the whole thing can be taken out of the shade.
Still it is an example of moving in a hopeful direction. Let the usages of drugs be a public health and morality issue. Trying to ban them by sheer force is probably a doomed enterprise.
I think this is backed up by common sense observation as well. Drugs tend to become a plague among those whose lives have been perceived to have become meaningless.
People who have ample reason to believe their lives have meaning, won’t want to spoil them with the abuse of drugs or any other excess. If they use drugs they will keep their use to sane medicinal proportions.
And God looms very large in such a picture. If God seems small, who put Him at the wrong end of the telescope?
You put all things under his feet. For in making man the ruler over all things, God did not put anything outside his authority; though we do not see everything under him now. Hebrews 2:8 Bible in Basic English version
Just something I picked up over the years. Relevant to your post, maybe? Genesis 1:29
Previous post maybe a stretch... Thoughts?
I'm going to bed, and expect the FReepathon to be over by the time I wake up. Next Thursday. ":^)
True... when as Christians we pray “Thy kingdom come” we should match our efforts to our prayers.
In general, bringing a gospel view of the creation to as many people as possible, will also mitigate issues of abuse of the creation.
It’s an old hobby horse of mine, but I really do believe the modern church offloaded things to Caesar it never should have. In fact, it should have offloaded those things to Christ, with prayer.
But this situation is still not too late to remedy. To pray to God for help with a national drug abuse problem is exactly what we should be doing, even if we are only doing it now as a “last resort.” Better late than never.
I question this. Illegal pot costs lower than legal pot. Why would a non-wealthy user pay more when he/she can pay less?
Sounds to me like stretching in exactly the right direction.
God has provided us with many resources for influencing affairs to the good. They’re no secret, they’re right there in the bible.
Just because something might not be under much divine help today, doesn’t mean it won’t be that way tomorrow. The bible has other promises to this effect e.g. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan beneath your feet.”
The armies of God can achieve victories that the armies of earth never can, and they would be foolish to refrain from trying. But, they should try in godly ways. Otherwise we get ridiculous amalgams of church and Caesar such as what we knew as Prohibition. The bible said, do not get drunk. Caesar could only say, never drink alcohol. It should not have needed a spiritual PhD to know this was a recipe for disaster.
Well, the same reason why liberals go for fair trade coffee, etc.
If people know the choices of their dollars make a difference, they frequently do choose according to those criteria.
Also, this is the first blush of a free market.
When the green eyeshade folks have a chance to get involved, prices could quickly shut out the illegal operations.
Notice the cheerleading about states getting rich from revenues from the narcotic? Feast your eyes on this.
State of Colorado Debt Clock
http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-colorado-debt-clock.html
Does that say the debt is over $54 billion? Very small population for that kind of debt.
The cartels will simply move on to harder drugs and start marketing them to get their profits up. Then what are you going to do, legalize those too? The more sin and debauchery you allow, all you do is move the goalposts. Marijuana will become mainstream and widespread, while the addiction, crime and problems with other drugs simply get bigger and increase. You have more and more people pushing themselves down towards the next gateway drug and the cartels given every incentive to market harder drugs.
Legalization is absolutely STUPID, SHORTSIGHTED policy. Drug legalization is a SIN, it’s destructive to human life and the economy, it’s wrong, it’s evil.
I believe the main benefit would be indirect, and indeed not through direct tax revenues.
Fewer law enforcement resources would be wasted chasing after a medical and morality problem.
Nobody sees this in a budget; only in future years’ budget projections based on actual incurred needs.
No it isn’t a SIN.
However, the misconceptions driving the current approach ARE SINS.
And I notice that only you could hoot explicitly at compassion — it’s right there in your tag. I haven’t noticed anybody else doing that.
Drug abuse is not a standalone problem, nor is it a problem without context. And many of the fingers pointed from it, point uncomfortably accurately to things the church hasn’t been doing.
It’s an herb, therefore...
Poisonous Herbs
http://home-and-gardening.info/2010/09/16/poisonous-herbs/
Yeah. Right.
And none of these have the power to jump down anybody’s throat, either. Herbs do tend to be slow-moving things.
If someone wants harm, they will get that harm in one way, if not in another way.
Drug abuse exposes a bigger problem. If people got a rash that bespoke cancer, would you prescribe band-aids put on all such rashes? That would indeed be “rash.”
Oh, well. Never mind.
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