WND readers want pot legalized

The final tally of respondents was 56 percent pro and 43 percent con with variation among those answers. An unqualified yes hit the charts at 32 percent. One percent answered "other."

While not scientific and prone to problems, the response didn't surprise me much. There has always seemed a receptive attitude regarding changes to our current drug policies among WND readers. Since my first column on the subject, I've received overwhelmingly positive feedback to criticism of current policies and recommendations for change.

Reader Joel I. Hunt, for instance, fired off this missive to WND when he saw the results of the poll:

I was shocked when I voted on the poll then saw that most people voted in favor of legalization. What really shocked me was the fact that the readers of WND voted this way. I thought that WND readers for the most part are Christian, conservative, reasonably intelligent people. This may not mellow Hunt's shock, but there is nothing incongruous with wishing drugs legalized and one's Christian confession, being conservative or reasonably intelligent. In fact, I think the opposite is closer to true – a fact about which a majority of WND readers seem savvy.

There is nothing in Scripture, for instance, that particularly plugs prohibition. While it says nothing specific about narcotics, Holy Writ is adamantly against drunkenness and dissipative abuse of alcohol. If we want a biblical approach to drugs, we must apply Scripture's cautions about booze to other brain-meddlers, as alcohol is but one of many psychoactive substances around.

If we do this, we will see that the Bible distinguishes between sin and crime here. While strongly condemning drunkenness and dissipation, God doesn't provide a lot of support in Scripture for criminalizing them. Like lying, jealousy, refusing to help widows and orphans, these are sins, yes, but not crimes. If the concern is about some of the ill effects stemming from some drug abuse (property theft, abusive behavior, etc.), legislation actually sanctioned by Scripture already has those bases covered.

If not supporting draconian drug laws is the mark of a non-Christian, then the Bible isn't very Christian.

The American right seems very confused on this one at times. Conservatives are opposed to big government, are in favor of states' rights, and laud the Constitution. But perhaps no single set of policies since the New Deal have so totally undermined these things as the drug war.

Antidrug legislation has drastically inflated federal police powers. Federal drug laws – for which there is no provision in the Constitution – have run roughshod over the rights of states to set their own policies regarding matters left unspecified in the Constitution. And drug-war tactics have brutalized the Bill of Rights' protections of life, home and property.

Further, by its constant escalation, the drug war has pushed drug traffickers to trump police in firepower, the resultant gun crime providing ammunition in the ongoing liberal war on the Second Amendment.

Besides being a low blow, any charge that holding a position unfriendly to drug prohibition is a sign of unintelligence is simply stupid. Thomas Sowell, Charles Murray, Milton Friedman, Walter Williams – these men aren't "reasonably intelligent"?

Drug prohibition hasn't eliminated drug use. It's pretty hard to measure if it's had much effect at all on curbing use. I think it has, but I don't consider all use damaging to society, so I'm not wetting myself over the prospect of slightly higher drug intake if dope were legalized. Regardless of the law, millions of Americans regularly use drugs, especially pot.

Drug prohibition hasn't helped stem crime. By pushing the market underground, it has in fact helped encourage crime – and more violent crime, to boot.

Drug prohibition hasn't boosted the nation's morals. The opposite might be true, since instead of promoting and persuading correct moral decisions in people we use the wrench of the state to force it. This is just bandaging cancer. Using government as the main inculcator of virtue instead of churches, families and communities is a monstrous mistake. On the other hand:

Drug prohibition has given the U.S. the free world's biggest prison population – many of those behind bars being nonviolent drug offenders. Spending on prisons is up, up, up.

Drug prohibition has provided terrorists with the necessary economic conditions to pad their purses with aims of attacking American citizens.

Drug prohibition has – and this is perhaps more damaging to the country than much of the above – harmed the legal and constitutional system in the country, as it has permitted police tactics that spit in the founders' faces. The Bill of Rights has become void where prohibited by drug laws, which means the constitutional shield used to shelter the assumed innocent has become a battering ram to assault the assumed guilty. Supporting such a policy seems a much better mark of the lack of reasonable intelligence, rather than vice versa. Unless, of course, all those things are the actual intent of drug warriors. If so, they're not unintelligent – just evil.

Contra Mr. Hunt, the fact that WND readers so strongly oppose this terrible policy shouldn't be shocking. It should be encouraging, if not outright refreshing.

If you stay within the posting guidelines you have nothing to fear from the mods.

Believe me I'd love to verbally bitch slap you some more, but I know it's only a matter of time before you hit the abuse button. So, I'll just call it an ass-kickin,' and move on to a more challenging victim.

Bitch slap? Ass-kickin', victims ? Son, you should spend a little time growing up. As it is now, you detract from, not add to the site with your infantile nonsense. Did you get tired of your video games and hanging around the mall when you decided to hang around this site and disrupt it?

No Myth! It is fully documented. Hemp production was essential to a strong Navy. No ships could sail without the hemp for ropes which had to be replaced frequently. It was grown commercially all over the eastern seaboard before it was made illegal. I have a great 1920's encyclopedia showing fields being harvested by machine and detailed info on production.

RE: pro-drug legalization people will say anything in order to try to gain some measure of legitimacy for their "cause."

If anyone believes that 'load' after reading one of these threads then they should go back to elementary school to learn how to read. The relegalization group has consistently put across valid factual points which are either never countered or met with rediculous chastisement to fill the page with unreadable flap.
Finally, when the Cause is Liberty it - IS - legitimate!

Hemp is the world's strongest natural fiber. It has been used to make cloth and rope for over 10,000 years. Hemp was the first crop ever cultivated for textile production. Hemp cloth is stronger, longer lasting, more resistant to mildew, and cheaper to produce than cloth made of cotton. Hemp ropes are known for their strength and durability. The original Levi Strauss jeans were made from a hempen canvas. Even Old Glory was made from hemp fiber. A 44 gun frigate like “Old Ironsides” took over 60 tons of hemp for rigging, including an anchor cable 25 inches in circumference. Hemp can be used to make virtually anything that is currently made of cotton, timber, or petroleum. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. Until 1883, more than 75% of the world's paper was made with hemp fiber. In 1937 Popular Science magazine called hemp "The New Billion Dollar Crop." Then the big money people struck out to protect their interests. Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst led the crusade to ban hemp. Hearst owned millions of acres of prime timber land and a machine that simplified the process of making paper from hemp had just been invented. Hearst used his power as a publisher to create public panic about the evils of hemp and marijuana.

Your side does not have a monoply on the truth! Why don't we discuss the benefits of legalized drugs in Europe? I'll bet the subject would get changed real fast!

The fact is that this "issue" revolves around a bunch of selfish people that just want to get high, and demand the approval of Society at large. Sorry kid- some things are just wrong! There are moral absolutes and that's one of 'em.

I had fixed a break to be moved by the gate of my sawmill, which broke & beat at the rate of 200. lb. a day. but the inconveniences of interrupting that induced me to try the power of a horse, and I have found it answer perfectly, the power being less, so also probably will be the effect, of which I cannot make a fair trial until I commence on the new crop. I expect that a single horse will do the breaking & beating of 10 men. something of this kind has been so long wanted by the cultivators of hemp , that as soon as I can speak of it's effect with certainty, I shall probably describe it anonymously in the public papers, in order to forestall the prevention of it's use by some interloping patentee.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Letters, December 29, 1815 (To George Fleming)

RE:
The fact is that this "issue" revolves around a bunch of selfish people that just
want to get high, and demand the approval of Society at large. Sorry kid- some
things are just wrong! There are moral absolutes and that's one of 'em.

Wow, this may take some time, there are so many things wrong with your statement. You certainly must not have a real world perspective on this subject. Let me tell you about what I have seen. I first saw herb at 9 yrs old, hung out with smokers since, though I did not try it until well after High School. No 'kid' here, its been a long time since graduate school in New York but most everyone their smoked then. For the most part these people were all far better people than the elitist social drinkers of the club scene or the status quo 5hour a day TV watchers I have met. They're good people that stick together in social ways other groups simply don't. Moreover, none seek nor demand approval from Society because they see themselves as a subculture with a far more enlightened view of the struggle for freedom. As regards moral absolutes, my foundation is the Bible and I have pointed to particular scripture to support my beliefs. If you possess some greater source by which you judge others morality I would be quite surprised.

I'm pro-legalization, but you need a reality check.

First, while hemp is a good natural fiber, synthetic and natural/synthetic composites are much stronger, and in all likelihood cheaper as well. Hemp rope may have some use, but you are basically telling us how the horse transportation rules in the age of modern automobiles. Unless you tightly constrain and qualify that, it is essentially nonsense in the general case.

Second, hemp is an INFERIOR fiber for a great many things you list, such as paper. Any paper engineer can tell you that the best general purpose paper base is soft fir pulp. You can make paper with lots of things, but in the real world soft fir pulp is a superior solution as a matter of science and engineering. Why the hell would anyone want to use hemp for paper today?

Lastly, you are essentially setting up your own little strawman to support the legalization of marijuana. Nothing you've written actually qualifies hemp as useful. If you wanted to make that argument, you'd lose by and large. The reason for legalizing marijuana has nothing to do with who grew it and what it was used for a couple centuries ago.

The point is that the pro-drug legalization people will say anything in order to try to gain some measure of legitimacy for their "cause." The same tactics have been used by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance. Nothing new here.

Cute. Not. I love how you folks love to tarnish and paint broad brushes, but never actually debate the merits.

Why did the constitution need to be amended to ban alcohol, which was previously legal, but didn't need to be amended to ban previously legal drugs on a federal level?

Why is hemp illegal? What if hemp farmers would be willing to have a government shchmo on their dime sit out in their fields all day and test their crop to make sure that they have a negligable THC level?

It is one of the greatest shames in history that we are losing so many books because of the switch from hemp to acidic wood pulp paper. A 200 year old book made from hemp fiber tends to be in better condition than a book 75 years old made from Hearst's folly. We have lost alot of our culture and history due to the insanity just on hemp alone.

Is there a co-relation between the violence of the bootleggers that started during prohibition and ended when it was over, and the same thing happening in the drug trade? Or do you all think that this is a coincidence? Seriously. Ya ban a drug people want, the prices skyrocket, unsavory people muscle in and use violence to corner the market, police are corrupted, the jails fill up, and you act shocked when this War on Drugs turns out just like the first one?

It's all just propaganda. There was a thread on Free Republic about 3 weeks ago that talked about a form of medicinal Marijuana that had the THC removed. Basically, you got the medical benefits of the Marijuana without the high. The thread died quickly, and it drew almost no responses from the great humanitarian pothead crowd!

The fact remains- it's all about getting high! None of you really gives a damn about all of these great benefits to mankind that are offered by Marijuana. You just want to get stoned, and you demand that Society recognizes and applauds you for it. Nothing more.

You just want to get stoned, and you demand that Society recognizes and applauds you for it. Nothing more

Again, the personal attack, when you lose the argument. It is a pattern with you WOD warriors. Let me reiterate my challenge I made to another one of you lot. I use no drugs. Not alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine, or marijuna. I occasionally will take aleve for a headache. I am 34 now, and did try marijuana 3 times when I was 17, but that was that. It is slander to call me a druggie. So quit it. Debate the issues.

RE: hemp is an INFERIOR fiber for a great many things you list, such as paper.

some of the history of hemp including the following can be found at http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et0199s11.html

"Hemp paper is naturally acid-free. The oldest printed paper in existence is a 100 percent hemp Chinese text dated to 770 AD. Thomas Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution on hemp paper.

Hemp's cellulose level is almost three times that of wood, so it makes superior paper and yields four times as much pulp per acre as trees. The hemp paper process also utilizes less energy and fewer chemicals than tree paper processing and doesn't create the harmful dioxins, chloroform, or any of the other 2,000 chlorinated organic compounds that have been identified as byproducts of the wood paper process.

Hemp is a sustainable, annual crop that is ready for harvest just 120 days after going to seed, compared to trees which take tens or hundreds of years to reach maturity. Further, harvesting hemp doesn't destroy the natural habitats of thousands of distinct animal and plant species.

Historically, hemp was an important source of paper fiber until the early 1900's when chemicals were developed to advance the wood paper pulp industry. Wood pulp paper rode the chemical revolution to its apex before the public health hazards of toxic chemicals were an issue and before the environmental consequences of clear-cutting forests were appreciated."

RE: The reason for legalizing marijuana has nothing to do with who grew it and what it was used for a couple centuries ago.

Relegalization needs no more reasoning than a reading of the constitution and a good look at alcohol prohibitions amendment issues. However, founding fathers point of view is certainly enlightening and those unwilling to learn from the past are bound to repeat its follies. Moreover, with respect to time, HERB has been with mankind since the beginning of time as evidenced abundantly from the Bible to sunken shiploads in the mediterranean, to the Hemp barrer of the Cherokee long before the white man came to this land.

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