Posted on 01/02/2003 5:17:17 AM PST by Sparta
BENTON - Prosecutors around the country are being urged to take a stand against attempts to legalize or decriminalize controlled substances - in particular, marijuana.
“Those who support drug legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the media,” reads a Nov. 1 letter to prosecutors from the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks. “And they do not mind deceiving the American public as well.”
The letter warns of “incremental victories” by those in favor of legalizing drugs and notes the “key role” local prosecutors play in anti-drug efforts.
Included with the letter was an open letter also dated Nov. 1 from Scott M. Burns, deputy director for state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, urging prosecutors “to take a stand publicly and tell Americans the truth” about marijuana and warning of “deceptive campaigns to normalize and ultimately legalize the use of marijuana.”
“I think it would be a nightmare to legalize it,” agreed Scott County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Boyd. “It would lead to so many more people out there high operating machinery and other things.” Boyd will be sworn in as the next county prosecutor at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Of the 16 million drug users in America, 77 percent use marijuana and 60 percent of teenagers in treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis, according to Burns. “No drug matches the threat posed by marijuana.”
Marijuana, Burns writes in the letter, is not harmless but has risen as a factor in emergency room visits 176 percent since 1994, surpassing heroin.
Burns writes of the increasing potency of marijuana and its addictive properties in addition to being a “gateway drug” for many people.
“I would agree that marijuana is a gateway drug to hardcore drugs,” Boyd said. Marijuana is “the great seducer,” Boyd said, because “it breaks down a person’s defense to say ‘no’ to the harder drugs.”
John McMinn of Charleston, administrator for the Circuit 33 Drug Court, also agrees that marijuana remains a problem for the courts.
According to National Institute of Justice statistics on arrests, 39 percent of the males and 26 percent of the females test positive for marijuana, and 53 percent of male juveniles and 38 percent of female juveniles test positive. “Roughly 80 percent of adult offenders in the 33rd Circuit Court come in with some kind of a drug issue be it alcohol or some other drug,” McMinn said.
“More people enter drug treatment every year because of marijuana as their drug of choice,” he added.
McMinn said a 2001 study of students in grades 8-10 showed 20 percent of 8th graders had used marijuana and 9 percent were current users, defined as having used the drug within the past 30 days. By the 12th grade, nearly half of the students had tried marijuana and 22 percent were current users.
McMinn does think research on medicinal and therapeutic properties should be pursued: “There is still so much research left to be done regarding the use of marijuana - the good and the bad.”
However, “there are other drugs that will work as well as marijuana,” he added, with some of the alternatives being more addictive and others that are just as effective while being safer.
I repeat: You will only discuss the ends, and then only in perjorative terms, like "rampant drug use". You will not discuss the ends in objective terms, and you will avoid any discussion of the means, because you fear examining those means in the light of day.
"According to the United States Sentencing Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than 99 out of every 100 marijuana arrests are made under state law, rather than under federal law."
If BigTomato ever comes after my backyard garden (or BigBasil for that matter), I'm picking up my pitchfork. There'll be hell to pay, my man.
"I drive better when I'm stoned."
Yes, I've actually heard this. It's a weeping shame, but there are morons out there no matter what. This fact we've always got to keep in mind.
And how many of those arrests were made by state leo's assigned to, directed by, and is some cases paid for through one of the more than 200 DEA State and Local Task Force programs? Local badge, federal everything else.
Better a stoned moron driving 30mph in the slow lane than a drunken moron who think's he's A J Foyt.
No argument here, my friend. If one or the other, this one's definitely more preferable.
Golden Era:
60's hippies with flowers in their hair. or-
70's disco dancing in bell bottoms. or-
80's metal and punk with body piercings. or-
90's hip-hop/rap with hats on backward and pants around their knees.
Which golden era are we talking about? Myself, I'll take the Momma and Papas along with the British Invasion and whatever drug influences prevailed at the time to today's pathetic excuses for music and the police state/social services surrogate "families" thwarting personal responsibility.
You are correct in that it is utter B.S., but note the careful wording:
"marijuana as a factor"
Meaning...well...not much of anything other than more people come into the emergency room having smoked marijuana than having taken heroin, which is what any informed person would expect, given that a lot more people smoke marijuana than take heroin.
Note: that doesn't mean that the marijuana use is why they're in the emergency room.
It's kinda like those "alcohol-related traffic fatalities" that we hear a lot about. Contrary to popular belief, they aren't necessarily fatalities caused by alcohol; they're just a method of inflating the stats to make them more interesting or alarming.
It's fun and profitable to lie^H^H^Hmislead with statistics.
In most locales it takes an especially Herculean effort to actually get arrested for this, too.
Hey Roscoe, read the article: Included with the letter was an open letter also dated Nov. 1 from Scott M. Burns, deputy director for state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, urging prosecutors “to take a stand publicly and tell Americans the truth” about marijuana and warning of “deceptive campaigns to normalize and ultimately legalize the use of marijuana.”
Since when is the White House NOT FedGov...?
The drug cult has a pathological hatred for the facts.
Are you saying it takes a Herculean effort "to actually get arrested" for pot?
False; at no point did I say anything so stupid as that "the glorification of marijuana and the drug culture" is a "probability" or that "Hillary Clinton deomcrats" were somehow relevant to the alleged existence of a "Libertarian drug culture." Your post 181 was a mindless mess---even for you, and that's saying a lot.
MORE lies about me? Are you going for some kind of Drug Warrior dishonesty record?
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