Posted on 11/27/2017 12:47:57 PM PST by fwdude
This week marks the fifth anniversary of Colorado's legalization of the commercial marijuana trade, and the reviews aren't good.
An editorial in the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, "Five years of retail pot coincide with five years of a homelessness growth rate that ranks among the highest rates in the country. Directors of homeless shelters, and people who live on the streets, tell us homeless substance abusers migrate here for easy access to pot."
The paper says, "Five years of Big Marijuana ushered in a doubling in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes who tested positive for marijuana, based on research by the pro-legalization Denver Post. Five years of commercial pot have been five years of more marijuana in schools than teachers and administrators ever feared."
(Excerpt) Read more at 1.cbn.com ...
Yes! FReepers be smart!
“I live in the Springs. I am telling you that homelessness in the Springs just a few years ago was not that bad (I have donated time / money to the CS Rescue Mission in the past). Now I literally see fights between homeless to camp out at their favorite intersections begging. It is getting real bad”
I live in the Springs too and I can confirm what you say. The camp under I-25 on Nevada is toxic waste dump, I can’t imagine how bad it must be down by the river.
I saw a video on Yemen and what happened there, it is telling.
All the people there are like, why are you telling it is bad now, it is too late, we are all addicted.
I want to show you something profound, and I hope you have the wisdom to understand it.
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
-Edmund Burke-
I hate tobacco, and I can't stand cigarette smoke. It is a substance that is highly addictive and I would like to see that industry destroyed.
Only problem is that it has been allowed to be legal for too long, and it cannot just be summarily wiped off the face of the earth.
I am in favor of gradual changes to the system. I think sudden changes are unfair and create counter reactions that are detrimental.
I think the process currently being used to destroy tobacco is working, and so we should just keep doing what we are doing in regards to tobacco.
Society existed over 100 years with no drug prohibition till someone got mad at Chinese using opium in SF and NY. Alcohol prohibition created organized crime and street gangs. We spend billions fighting human nature and we lost but kept pouring money down the rat hole. Freedom is risky, scary to some, but it beats the other considerations. Edmund how do you like our war on drugs and imprisoning people.
— ——Morphing Libertarian 2017
Then ya said Californians are nuts because of their wealth. Right?
A very crude attempt at a summary, but close enough for the purposes of this goofy discussion.
You don't seem to be making any effort to understand my point, so I don't see any reason to waste a lot of time with it.
Did you not know CA politics were liberal prior to them ever legalizing pot? Do ya see where your argument is headed?
I'm getting the impression that you don't realize my rebuttal is going to be along the lines of "the one thing is a consequence of the other."
Why would you expect a conservative state to legalize pot? Of course it's the sort of thing a liberal state would do.
And CA is going down the tubes since they spend billions on illegals and crap and normals and businesses are fleeing from CA as from the black plague.
But it has a very nice climate. :)
Yeah, since freedom means no laws, bring it on! No legislating morality! That’s why the Libertarian Party wants all kinds of porn (originally they included child porn), prostitution, all drugs and abortion legal!
And heck, to carry this noble sentiment to its logical conclusion, people are still raping, murdering and committing assault, right? Why legislate morality? It infringes upon peoples’ freedom, and they’re doing it anyway! Get rid of laws against those things, too! And all the other hateful laws legislating morality.
Freedom!!! yeah!
It’s quite amazing how libertarian dopers get so insanely riled up and cannot tolerate any difference of opinion when it comes to their precious dope!
“I believe you would see a 50% or greater drop in gun violence within five years of complete legalization.”
I’ll take that bet! Say $50,000? Double or nothing @ 10 years?
One of my VERY favorite quotes!
You exaggerate. No one said no laws. If you have to exaggerate and resort to hyperbole your argument is devoid of any logic.
It was the Civil War that primed the nation for rampant drug addiction. So much Opium and Cocaine was used as pain killers for war injuries that it caused a demand for product. Product eventually moved into the civilian sector.
Had we not stopped it, we would have logistical growth of addiction, just as China did.
It's the sort of thing a state which wasn't hysterically knee-jerk Prohibitionist would do.
Alcohol is the worst drug on the face of the earth—by several orders of magnitude.
And yet it was absurd that nanny-staters succeeded in criminalizing it for a time.
It's equally absurd—if not more so—that someone who calls himself a conservative (who supposedly believes in minimal government) would ever support prison sentences for possessing one of God's own plants. It is to laugh, and it's precisely the kind of emotional arbitrary Law that so many on the Left embrace with their pet Tyrannies.
The Prohibitionist Mind—and the rationalizations that it's willing to engage in to justify such overt Tyranny—is truly a wonder to behold.
The only thing worse than decriminalization is Contraband Law, and the ever-expanding police state necessary to enforce it—not to mention the trampling of Constitutional Rights.
No thanks. If it's not real crime—infringing on someone else's rights—I'll take actual Freedom, with all of its challenges and inconveniences.
Education and rehabilitation—not incarceration—is the only valid option for a Free country, in the absence of an actual crime...
It is odd how Libertarians always tend to focus on drugs, isn't it? It seems to be the only "libertarian" issue of which they speak. :)
The two of you are not aware of the basic concepts of freedom and the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. you lack an understanding of how prohibition creates an underground economy and enriches criminals. You may realize burglary and DUI are already illegal. So here’s how it works. You get high at home and injure no one, no violation. You steal to buy drugs, you go yo jail. You steal again, prison. You steal a third time three strikes sayonara. You kill someone DUI sayonara.
Stop spending my tax money to stop people from getting high.
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