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Policy makers ignore alcohol in drug combat
The Daily Herald (UT) ^ | January 31, 2003 | Rick Soulier

Posted on 02/03/2003 9:54:04 AM PST by MrLeRoy

As law enforcement lobbies members of Congress and state legislators coast-to-coast for more funds to finance the war against illicit drugs, Utah's Legislature considers liberalizing Utah's liquor laws.

As leaders obsess over how governments will help pay for the costs of medical treatment, Utah's Legislature is considering liberalizing Utah's liquor laws.

Someone should teach Utah's legislators that alcohol is the most abused drug.

Pretend for a minute that humankind had not discovered alcohol until Drexel distilled it in 2000. After years of testing, would the Federal Drug Administration allow it to be sold as a drink? At best, the FDA would place it under a restrictive prescription schedule, complete with a list of warnings against side effects and addiction potential.

Studies that tout alcohol's benefit on heart health illustrate that some "scientific" testing is actually designed to justify our habits. If Drexel had discovered alcohol and tried to market it as a heart medication, the FDA would have denied the proposal because of its dangerous and addictive side effects.

Ancient beers and wines had minor food value. In specific times and places, they were safer to drink than the waters. Through the ages, humans experimented with wines and spirits, not to improve their food value, but to increase their alcohol jolt.

The snobbishness surrounding wine consumption is misleading, for vintners are just as obsessive about high alcohol contents as are the distillers of whiskey.

Alcohol, with tobacco and marijuana are the big-three hypocrisies in the American war on drugs. Proponents of these substances would have us believe they are really good for us because they are (in the popular cliché) "natural."

This logic is laughable. Mankind has so hybridized the plants involved in wine and the various types of cigarettes that nothing is natural about any of the products.

For example, mankind has so thoroughly hybridized marijuana in the past four thousand years that the original plant probably does not exist anywhere on earth. People tinkered with it -- especially since the late 1970s -- to increase the psychoactive buzz, not its dubious medical properties.

Neither the war on drugs nor the medical crisis can be taken seriously when billions are squandered to treat conditions and illnesses caused by culturally accepted drug abuse. When we are really serious about decreasing medical costs and drug abuse, we will end recreational consumption of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: alcohol; boycottutah; drug; drugskill; wod; wodkills; wodlist
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To: MrLeRoy
"Pipe dream. They gave it almost 15 years---during the last several of which alcohol consumption rose."

On the contrary, they did not give it enough time. They also did not give it enough muscle, because as stated in post #159, the states 'stopped' enforcing it. In other words, they passed the law, but the law enforcers hearts were not in it. If they had 'muscled' the enforcers so that they actually enforced the law, it would have worked.

241 posted on 02/04/2003 1:49:04 PM PST by MEGoody
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To: cinFLA
I'm not doing your homework for you. YOU made the claim---that doctors who recommend smoked marijuana are not following medical guidelines---so the burden is on YOU to provide the evidence, or stand self-exposed as an ignorant blowhard.

You are the one supporting smoking mj. And YOU cannot even provide credible evidence.

Yes, I have---the IOM report.

MJ is ILLEGAL and you have the burden to change public opinion.

Apples and oranges; the forum of reasoned debate is not the forum of policy enactments.

You were the one that started with the "No doctor" logic

Wrong; that wasn't me.

now when I use it it is my burden to prove the obvious

If it's obvious it's easy to prove. People who claim 'it's so obvious I won't prove it' prove only that their claim is not true.

but also having to prove the negative as I could cite thousands of pages and you would always say that I have not cited everything.

Nonsense---just cite the portion of the "medical guidelines" that rules out recommending smoked marijuana, as you've claimed.

242 posted on 02/04/2003 1:56:02 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: cinFLA
Correct, contradictory to your foolish claim that "the degree of potential help is small."

Not so. If there was any observable benefit they would have not said "might".

As I said, "might" implies only lack of certain help, not magnitude of possible help.

243 posted on 02/04/2003 1:58:05 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: cinFLA
the jury saw him gloating about how the medical mj ruse was a bunch of bunk.

Yet another unsupported claim; I guess that's all you've got.

244 posted on 02/04/2003 1:59:04 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: MrLeRoy
Wrong; that wasn't me.

I will have to refresh your memory. Of course I would expect you to have forgotten since mj effects short term and long term memory. "No doctor will tell you to use commercially produced alcohol, meant for consumption, for any medical use."

245 posted on 02/04/2003 1:59:35 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: MrLeRoy
Yet another unsupported claim; I guess that's all you've got.

Are you saying there was NO tape, NO trial, NO conviction and he did NOT key he did NOT make fun of the "medical mj" argument?

246 posted on 02/04/2003 2:01:27 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: MEGoody
"Pipe dream. They gave it almost 15 years---during the last several of which alcohol consumption rose."

On the contrary, they did not give it enough time.

Prohibition had 15 years and failed; the War On Some Drugs has had 30 years and has failed.

They also did not give it enough muscle

Sure, anything can be enforced in a police state. Is that what we want for the United States of America?

247 posted on 02/04/2003 2:02:06 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: cinFLA
Yet another unsupported claim; I guess that's all you've got.

Are you saying there was NO tape, NO trial, NO conviction and he did NOT key he did NOT make fun of the "medical mj" argument?

I'm saying you haven't provided evidence for your claim that he made fun of the "medical mj" argument. And I'm right---you haven't.

248 posted on 02/04/2003 2:03:56 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: MrLeRoy
As I said, "might" implies only lack of certain help, not magnitude of possible help.

As I said, they looked for benefit and if there was any magnitude of affect they would have seen it. You continually ignore that they said smoked mj is not the way to go but focus on the statement of "might help".

249 posted on 02/04/2003 2:04:16 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: MrLeRoy
"Prohibition had 15 years and failed; the War On Some Drugs has had 30 years and has failed."

Laws against rape and murder have 'failed' to in that people continue to commit those acts. As I said, just because people continue to do something doesn't mean it should be legalized.

250 posted on 02/04/2003 2:04:52 PM PST by MEGoody
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To: MrLeRoy
I'm saying you haven't provided evidence for your claim that he made fun of the "medical mj" argument. And I'm right---you haven't.

Go watch the tape.

251 posted on 02/04/2003 2:05:09 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: cinFLA
Wrong; that wasn't me.

I will have to refresh your memory. Of course I would expect you to have forgotten since mj effects short term and long term memory. "No doctor will tell you to use commercially produced alcohol, meant for consumption, for any medical use."

I didn't post the text you quote. Of course I would expect you to have this problem since Drug Warrior mania adversely affects brain function.

252 posted on 02/04/2003 2:06:03 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: cinFLA
As I said, "might" implies only lack of certain help, not magnitude of possible help.

As I said, they looked for benefit and if there was any magnitude of affect they would have seen it.

Intelligent readers know you're babbling; I see no reason for me to further rub it in.

253 posted on 02/04/2003 2:07:20 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: MEGoody
just because people continue to do something doesn't mean it should be legalized.

No, but if people continue to do something that violates nobody's rights then it should be legalized.

254 posted on 02/04/2003 2:08:12 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: cinFLA
I'm saying you haven't provided evidence for your claim that he made fun of the "medical mj" argument. And I'm right---you haven't.

Go watch the tape.

Where is this alleged tape?

255 posted on 02/04/2003 2:08:51 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: MEGoody
The states stopped enforcing it because because it was a counter-productive law, not because their jack booted hearts were not in it (just as they are in current prohibition).

The cops needed prohibition to keep their jobs and more importantly their graft coming. Who says history does'nt repeat itsself.

256 posted on 02/04/2003 2:08:56 PM PST by Dinsdale
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To: bassmaner
I confess that I drink alcohol on occasion, and I don't use illegal drugs. As for running the risk of arrest and spending time in an "Anal Rape Camp," isn't that a risk that is voluntarily taken? Whether you agree or disagree with the War on Drugs, the fact that they are illegal is pretty easy to remember. Fight to legalize, if you like, but until then, recognize the risk of illegal use.
257 posted on 02/04/2003 2:19:06 PM PST by NCLaw441
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To: MrLeRoy
The mj community has flooded the internet with propaganda sites. It is no wonder that they (you) also take bandwidth on FR. How do you explain the links between communism and anti-american sentiment on the mj-ring on the net?
258 posted on 02/04/2003 2:24:49 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: cinFLA
Document the source of five who smoke federally subsidized pot!

Patient receives federal marijuana to quell chronic pain: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/804289/posts

259 posted on 02/04/2003 2:28:37 PM PST by MrLeRoy ("That government is best which governs least.")
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To: MrLeRoy
You keep good company. From the Socialist Party US presidential candidate:

"We would end the drug war and decriminalize marijuana."
260 posted on 02/04/2003 2:30:51 PM PST by cinFLA
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