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Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot
AP ^ | 8/27/08 | By STEVE LeBLANC

Posted on 08/27/2008 2:26:50 PM PDT by april15Bendovr

Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot By STEVE LeBLANC – 1 hour ago

BOSTON (AP) — A measure that would decriminalize minor marijuana-possession cases is on the ballot in Massachusetts largely because of one man: billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros.

Of the $429,000 collected last year by the group advancing the measure, $400,000 came from Soros, who has championed similar efforts in several states and spent $24 million to fight President Bush's 2004 re-election bid. The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy needed about $315,000 of that just to collect the more than 100,000 signatures that secured a spot on the ballot, according to campaign finance reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

"All of us owe George Soros a great deal of gratitude," said Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: fundingtheleft; georgesoros; marijuana; norml; pot; potheads; soros; wod
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To: tacticalogic

Kind of

Metaphorically speaking when you see the wrecks first hand it changes your perspective.

The perception that this is a harmless drug is what bothers me the most.


21 posted on 08/27/2008 9:18:27 PM PDT by april15Bendovr (Free Republic & Ron Paul Cult = oxymoron)
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To: april15Bendovr

Of the ones your clinic treats or counsels for marijuana abuse, what percentage would you estimate are under some kind of legal supervision for a marijuana offense?


22 posted on 08/27/2008 10:16:44 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: april15Bendovr
Thats a myth

I work as a Mental Health Counselor and that is not at all what we observe.


That makes perfect sense, but is an extremely skewed view of the real situation. What group, among society as a whole, do you think are most liable to abuse drugs? Why, those with mental problems, of course. Did the drug use cause the mental/emotional problems, or did the mental/emotional problems cause the drug use?

Another question: how many of these pot smokers that come to be counseled also abuse other substances, to include alcohol? Why would you focus your blame on one substance, when most likely they are abusing several, which, of course, is a pattern of behavior which would indicate that the source of the problem is the person, not the particular drug?
23 posted on 08/28/2008 12:00:14 AM PDT by fr_freak
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To: april15Bendovr
I think it's a little more than seeing the wrecks first hand. It's seeing nothing but the wrecks.

There's very little, if anything that is totally incapable of causing harm to anyone, in any amount.

"Harmless" is a relative perception based on weighing the number of "wrecks" against the number of people who don't seem to suffer any apparent harm.

24 posted on 08/28/2008 5:12:25 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Beowulf9

He is a naturalized U.S. citizen.


25 posted on 08/28/2008 6:45:20 AM PDT by TKDietz
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To: tacticalogic
Harm can be happening to people but their defense and denial coping mechanisms wont let them see reality.

There is term called "protecting supply" we use a lot when treating addicts.

That term besides protecting the actual substance also means the user justifying and creating whatever means possible an ability in their own mind a rationality so they can continue to use.

In order to understand addiction you have to understand something called the Pleasure pathways in the brain. Here is an example

How Does the Brain Become Addicted?

Typically it happens like this:

* A person takes a drug of abuse, be it marijuana or cocaine or even alcohol, activating the same brain circuits as do behaviors linked to survival, such as eating, bonding and sex. The drug causes a surge in levels of a brain chemical called dopamine, which results in feelings of pleasure. The brain remembers this pleasure and wants it repeated.

* Just as food is linked to survival in day-to-day living, drugs begin to take on the same significance for the addict. The need to obtain and take drugs becomes more important than any other need, including truly vital behaviors like eating. The addict no longer seeks the drug for pleasure, but for relieving distress.

* Eventually, the drive to seek and use the drug is all that matters, despite devastating consequences.

* Finally, control and choice and everything that once held value in a person's life, such as family, job and community, are lost to the disease of addiction.

26 posted on 08/28/2008 6:47:54 AM PDT by april15Bendovr (Free Republic & Ron Paul Cult = oxymoron)
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To: zencat
“Shouldn’t be legalized, but I’ve no issue with decriminalization.”

I can't understand that line of thinking. If you are going to decriminalize, why not just go one step further and legalize and take all those billions and billions of dollars being made on the marijuana trade away from organized crime? That, and we'd separate marijuana from the hard stuff. The meth and cocaine and so on wouldn't be flowing through the same channels that marijuana flows through so using marijuana wouldn't increase exposure to the hard stuff so much. Is it because you think more people would use it if it was completely legal than would if it was just not technically a crime?

27 posted on 08/28/2008 6:57:33 AM PDT by TKDietz
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To: april15Bendovr
Harm can be happening to people but their defense and denial coping mechanisms wont let them see reality.

I understand that. The problem is that the argument is used to imply that everyone taking any drug with a potential for abuse or addiction should be assumed to be an addict - the fact that they don't feel like they're becoming addicted is held up as evidence that they are - the classic Catch 22.

28 posted on 08/28/2008 7:02:10 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: april15Bendovr
I work as a Mental Health Counselor and that is not at all what we observe.

Could be because your sample is tainted, i.e., made up entirely of people who needed your services as a mental health counselor. If you think about it a bit, you might realize the type of people who might need mental health services might also be the same type of people who would self-medicate with recreational drugs like marijuana.

Ever think about that? Probably not . . .

29 posted on 08/28/2008 7:22:14 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: tacticalogic

Just try to tell some of the people on this blog that they are not allowed to smoke their pot. :)

Guessing that this would be the a major voting issue if, at first it were legalized, and then prohibited.

Just try to take away their doobie.


30 posted on 08/28/2008 7:44:58 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345

Would you argue that everyone who voted against a county ordinance to ban alcohol sales was an alcoholic?


31 posted on 08/28/2008 7:53:52 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Ken H

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise — pot is self very destructive.

A brilliant kid can turn into a complete idiot on the stuff.

Initiative, ambition and self motivation are gone.

Life is put on hold. And the fear of facing the realities of life keeps them using. A life that is a bit of a mess because they are using. Compounds the problem. And they are probably exposed to other drugs.

Eventually, after years in a stupor, they stop and they find out that they have lost 10 years of their life.

Very important years that would have been spent going to college, getting a degree, and developing a career and starting a family.

Their lives are forever affected.


32 posted on 08/28/2008 8:17:48 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: tacticalogic
Actually, alcohol isn't as effective at “controlling people” as pot is.
33 posted on 08/28/2008 8:19:25 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: dhs12345
What a bunch of maudlin crap. You'd be better served to quit your job as a mental health counselor and start writing copy for those asinine anti-pot public service ads.

Save your boogey man pictures for the junior high school children, friend. They're the only audience impressionable enough to bite off on your silly rhetoric.

34 posted on 08/28/2008 8:25:23 AM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
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To: dhs12345

What’s your measure of “effectiveness at controlling people”, and where are the measurments?


35 posted on 08/28/2008 8:42:17 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: dhs12345
You dodged my 2 very simple questions. Would you please address them, or at least say why you won't?
36 posted on 08/28/2008 8:50:23 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: dhs12345
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise — pot is self very destructive.

A brilliant kid can turn into a complete idiot on the stuff.

Are you relying on nobody being able to figure out that "can happen to someone" doesn't mean "will happen to everyone"? If that's the kind of argument you have to rely on you don't have much of a case.

37 posted on 08/28/2008 9:11:13 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Ken H
Okay...

Seems that your are suggesting that alcohol is bad. I agree.

So, the solution is to make another nasty drug, pot, available to the masses?

Two wrongs don't make a right.

38 posted on 08/28/2008 9:40:39 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: april15Bendovr

If an ardent socialist who wishes to destroy our culture and way of life is pushing pot then what does that say about pot?


39 posted on 08/28/2008 9:45:12 AM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: DouglasKC
If an ardent socialist who wishes to destroy our culture and way of life is pushing pot then what does that say about pot?

What does the UN banning it say about it?

40 posted on 08/28/2008 9:51:40 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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