Stoned: How Colorado's 5 Years of Legal Pot Is 'Devastating Communities'

CBN News ^ | 11-21-2017 | Dale Hurd

[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."

[morphing libertarian]

nice job stopping drug use in society. I have the same comment about stopping drugs by making them illegal 150 years ago as I do now.

[DiogenesLamp]

Read about China, then get back to me once you are better informed.

[simon says what]

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!

Judging by the responses in this thread and others that I have read in the past, getting insanely riled up is not limited to the "libertarian dopers." There are plenty of crazy anti-dopers that are equally clueless when it comes to tolerating differences of opinion on the subject.

[DiogenesLamp]

The two of you are not aware of the basic concepts of freedom and the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

You believe that you do. You are unaware that your ideas only lead to anarchy. You can't have a functional system based on total freedom, and most especially not based on a freedom to consume mind altering drugs.

You do know those are plant toxins evolved to kill or disable predators? The plants are punking you, and you people are stupidly falling for a plant trick.

That stuff kills people because that is exactly what nature has evolved it to do.

[DiogenesLamp]

There are plenty of crazy anti-dopers that are equally clueless when it comes to tolerating differences of opinion on the subject.

People who are better informed do get weary of hearing the same uniformed opinions repeated over and over again. It's like talking to someone about economics when they keep repeating "Why don't we just print more money?"

It doesn't work the way they think it works.

[morphing libertarian]

Freedom does not lead to anarchy. Do you not know the founders believed int and didn’t think e had anarchy. You may have heard of the declaration of independence, which I quoted earlier. You are on the wrong side of history, meaning, and totalitarianism. Freedom leads to less oppressive government and a thriving economy. Lawlessness leads to anarchy. I tire of trying to educate you on remedial principles. Good night and I won’t return to this redundant hopeless anti-freedom thread.

[dragnet2]

You think only liberals and leftist smoke pot? Really?

[simon says what]

I’ll take that bet! Say $50,000? Double or nothing @ 10 years?

If and when all illegal drugs are legalized in this country, and dependent on my net worth at that point in time, I will be happy to make that bet with you.

[simon says what]

People who are better informed do get weary of hearing the same uniformed opinions repeated over and over again.

Your argument from analogy aside, sometimes people who consider themselves better informed are the very people that are the most clueless.

[sargon]

Ain't it funny how the Authoritarian Left and the Authoritarian Right each use the same nanny-state, hyper-emotional "reasoning" to justify their Tyrannical Law? As if every Individual's Right to pursue happiness is subject to their narrow-minded dictates.

Wrong. An individual's concept of "The Pursuit of Happiness" is up to them—not any other individual or mob.

It truly does speak to a completely distorted concept of Liberty which these authoritarians embrace. It's as if they're not even aware of the hypocrisy and contradiction.

In the absence of directly infringing on someone else's Rights —through force, fraud, or gross negligence—all other law is arbitrary.

It's comical to watch right wing authoritarians decry the Left's abuse of Law—all while using the identical techniques to justify their own abuse of Law. And where does it end? At the "least common denominator" of Freedom, inevitably. It ends with criminalizing someone sitting in their own home smoking a joint. It ends with criminalizing a restaurant or bar—a private business, mind you—for allowing smoking. It ends with Tyranny.

That's not particularly compatible with being the freest nation on Earth, wouldn't you agree?

[NobleFree]

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.

You mean education and persuasion? I'm all for it - for tobacco and for other drugs, whose illegality has their use holding steadier than that of tobacco.

[sargon]

Read about China, then get back to me once you are better informed.

I'm quite informed about China's resort to Tyranny, as well as the United States' emulation thereof.

There are plenty of authoritarian regimes to be found that are willing to trample Liberty for a little temporary safety, all in the name of Order. The United States shouldn't be one of them. Such rationalizations will never make it right...

[Flaming Conservative]

The pot heads will argue to the death, the benignity of the stuff, and deny it’s harmful in any way. Except for medical marijuana, it’s dope, whether they want to admit it or not.

[DiogenesLamp]

Your argument from analogy aside, sometimes people who consider themselves better informed are the very people that are the most clueless.

I know well the arguments of my opponents. They hardly understand mine at all.

[Flaming Conservative]

Hmmm. If that’s so, I wonder why experiences like #20’s is happening?

[DiogenesLamp]

I'm quite informed about China's resort to Tyranny, as well as the United States' emulation thereof.

We did the exact opposite thing that China did. We banned drugs. They collapsed. We survived.

Their dictator was a consequence of their collapse. Their collapse was a consequence of legal drugs.

[simon says what]

The pot heads will argue to the death, the benignity of the stuff, and deny it’s harmful in any way.

Is it possible to have a position on the issue and agree to some degree of harmfulness? Or should all harmful products / items be criminalized? Should we outlaw soda for example because it's harmful? Cell phones? Plastics? Alcohol? I think it's quite possible to argue for the legality of something based on the irrational reasons it is criminalized.

[cherry]

common sense, which isn't very common, would tell us that legalizing a strong mind altering drug for general use is insanity...

some of you people out there who were all for this....congratulations, you did Soros's dirty work....he's been pushing for pot legalization for decades...

[Flaming Conservative]

If enough people decide a thing’s ok, then it’s ok, huh? No actual standards, just do whatever’s popular? Gee...what could go wrong?

[Kickass Conservative]

Can’t wait for the Left to start Protesting “Big Weed”.