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.
Sure this is what happens...but is it Right?! As for the insurance companies, why should they be required to pay damages when some drunk wraps his car around a tree?! If somebody's STOOOOPID enuff to drive drunk and gets in a wreck, he oughtta lose the protection he contracted for from the Insurance Company...whatever happened to Personal Responsibility?!
FReegards...MUD
BTW... ".08 is considered drunk regarding driving. It is only practicality that keeps them from arresting everyone as they walk out of bars."
Then the laws should be off the books, IMHO. If the cops have the ability to close down a particular restaurant by Arbitrarily Applying Justice outside that particular restaurant and not another down the road, then we've given too much Arbitrary Power to the Police.
How does Joe's drug use violate anyone's rights?
Then the stoney/drunk should be made to suffer the consequences resulting from those he/she impacts, not the Federal Leviathan. If you go to work drunk or stoned and can't perform yer job, it's the employer's responsibility to fire the bum or get him help if the employee's worth the trouble. Same way with the stoney/drunk's family, who should hold he/she accountable.
How the Federal Leviathan has insinuated itself into this equation is what I'm against...MUD
IMHO, #222, #237, #249, and #278 are reasonable and open-minded, even if I don't agree with everything that is being said.
"All I see is more wiggling than a bait bucket."
That's to be expected...the WOSD is indefensible when looked at rationally, IMHO and yers. However, BW has mostly kept the debate civil and that is something that we don't always get the benefit of.
FReegards...MUD
That's true of a lot of things. Why should my insurance company have to pay for all the sodomites aids medication. Why should medicare pay for a fake leg for my smoking diabetes ignoring motherinlaw. But we know better. You can't drive without insurance and if you get drunk and kill a bus load of kids your insurance pays. You also do the time. The insurance companies are only looking at the statistics and charts and trying to max profits. Same as everybody. And they do that be buying more and more laws. I did a lot of consideration of this when I had to pay 28 bucks for not wearing a seatbelt. THen there is the state that pays what the insurance companies which is another layer of the same thing.
FReegards...MUD
OK. (But what do you think of "We are not really that without liberty, and maybe the very slight risk makes it a little more fun"?)
SHEEESH and FReegards...MUD
Don't even get me started on that particular BigBrotherism...MUD
Which part of "OK" did you not understand? ;-)
I think you and I might deduce similar things, which is why I posed the question---more of a rhetorical one.
That's what we need to focus on changing, IMHO. In exchange for the SocialSecurity of an ever-expanding Federal Leviathan taking financial responsibility for our personal mistakes, we are apparently willing to forfeit our civil liberties to far too much of a degree than I am comfortable with. I'm almost 40 years old and have never been in an auto accident that was my fault, yet I choose to pay for auto insurance to protect my earnings from the other nutjobs on the road out there. I also tend to wear my seatbelt, despite the fact that it has never saved my life, but I reject the notion that I can be ticketed if I happen to slip it off fer a few minutes to grab my wallet or whatnot. That is my choice...how come I can't have the flexibility of making other choices in which I accept the responsibility for my own actions?
I believe Social Security is another thing that I should have the Right to Opt Out of...maybe I believe I can make the 15+% FICA tax go further towards my retirement than the Federales can...why can't I choose to do so instead of the Feds mandating that I use their retirement system? Same things with drugs, IMHO...pot may not work well for me, but I shouldn't be willing to give the FederalLeviathan the Power to imprison me if I get a wild hair some evening and smoke some weed that happens to be growing in my backyard!! And if I am allowed the freedom to smoke this weed, how can I--in good conscience--deny this FReedom to some 21-year-old dude who lives in the projects?
IMHO, the WarOnSomeDrugs is entirely indefensible and I respect yer ability as a debater to keep trying to do the impossible without resorting to the name-calling that usually results from these debates.
FReegards...MUD
It's true!! The Left's been had...
Took a bad man and made him Prez'dent.
You Lib'rals, you let Slick into yer heart...
Now we must start to make it better!!
Poltroons, don't be afraid...
Righteous shall just go out and GIT HIM!!
The minute we accept Bill's corruption,
Then Slick will win...we'll 've sanctified SIN!!
Yeah, Willie says, "I feel yer pain."
Poltroons, be sane!! Don't tell me The World Will End Without him!
And don't you know y'all look like FOOLS, you shameless TOOLS,
Repeatin' lyin' words...yer part in Slick's Spin!!
Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah...
Hey News, you let US down...
Bill's a Felon...let's go and GIT HIM!!
Leftist Medyuh, you shouldda known from the start...
Still, there's time to report, unless yer all blinded!!
So sing out loud about Slick's sins...
Poltroons...DIG IN!! We're looking fer someone to believe in!!
Folks, don't you know Bill Clinton's screwed?!
Networks, you too!!
Left's Template offends all Good Americans!!
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah Yeah...
Poltroons, don't look so sad...
Bill's a bad man, he'll go to Prison!!
You Lib'rals, you best be runnin' from Slick...
Or next election...will be a slaughter, slaughter, slaughter, slaughter,
Slaughter, slaughter...oooh!!
Yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh...dah dah dah dah...dah dah dah dah...
Poltroons...dah dah dah dah dah dah dah...
Poltroons....
Mudboy Slim (4 August 1998)
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