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Some Find Hope for a Shift in Drug Policy
NYT ^ | February 15, 2009 | WILLIAM YARDLEY

Posted on 02/16/2009 7:45:30 AM PST by SolidWood

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To: SmallGovRepub

“Again, I’m not for legalizing all drugs, only marijuana.”

Do you do pot?


41 posted on 02/16/2009 2:46:07 PM PST by narses (http://www.theobamadisaster.com/)
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To: jimt
SOME druggies violate other, moral laws. Theft, etc., for which they should be punished no doubt....

Do you drive over 55 in a 55 zone? Do you stop completely at every stop sign? Do you take a long break on your job?

Of those situations, one is theft! But, I'd bet you've stolen a few minutes here and there from your employer. He doesn't see it, so it's OK! Right? No moral disfunction!

42 posted on 02/16/2009 2:49:11 PM PST by WVKayaker ("There are no facts, only interpretations." -Nietze)
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To: narses

I smoked plenty of it when I was younger. Now I’m in my mid forties and about all I ever do is drink one or two beers on occasion. Pot smoking got old and so did I.

Most people don’t like it that much. I think it will end up being legalized someday and I think most people still won’t smoke it. According to the government surveys though more than half of all adults under 60 have tried it. More than 100,000,000 Americans have smoked it. Most of them didn’t like it that much. Legal or not it will never have nearly the appeal that alcohol has. Millions of people do smoke it though and many billions of dollars are spent on it. Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. It’s here and it’s here to stay. It’s easy to find everywhere and it’s relatively cheap already, cheaper than beer on a per use basis for the most part. All we are doing is wasting a fortune trying to keep up the ban and we’re enriching organized crime to the tune of many billions of dollars a year and causing all sorts of other problems on top of that.

We should have legalized it a long time ago and sooner or later we will legalize it. Some folks will be like you and they’ll go into histrionics when we do legalize it. They’ll think the sky is going to fall in. But in a few years most people will be wondering why we didn’t do it a long time ago.


43 posted on 02/16/2009 3:01:44 PM PST by SmallGovRepub
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To: SmallGovRepub

Yeah, thought so. Sorry, potheads opinions are just noise.


44 posted on 02/16/2009 3:03:58 PM PST by narses (http://www.theobamadisaster.com/)
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To: narses

I’m not a pothead. I’m one of more than 100 million Americans who have smoked marijuana and like most of them I don’t smoke it anymore.


45 posted on 02/16/2009 3:07:22 PM PST by SmallGovRepub
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To: SmallGovRepub

Sure but you want it legal so that corporate America can package it, sell it and corrupt another generation of youthful idiots. Sorry, your desires and admitted criminal past relegate your opinions to noise so far as I am concerned. Those who advocate legalizing pot are still potheads. Noise. Just noise.


46 posted on 02/16/2009 3:11:30 PM PST by narses (http://www.theobamadisaster.com/)
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To: SmallGovRepub
We lost the war on pot a long time ago.

Give an inch and lose a mile.

47 posted on 02/16/2009 3:15:18 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: narses
I have worked as prosecuting attorney. I have prosecuted drug cases. For years I sat on the board of a drug court. I worked as a public defender for years. As an attorney I have handled countless drug cases, thousands of pounds worth of them. I don't like drugs. I hate drugs like meth and cocaine. I just see that what we are doing does not work and in many cases causes more harm than good. That's why you will see me posting so much about these issues. You want to call me names, fine. You're an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about so I'm not really all that hurt by the things that you say.
48 posted on 02/16/2009 3:16:17 PM PST by SmallGovRepub
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To: microgood
is a distraction from the real problem.

Right. The real problem is a personality disorder that makes people use drugs in order not to face life.

49 posted on 02/16/2009 3:16:38 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: microgood

You miss the point. Entirely. You want to legalize unsafe drug use that DOES affect others. It is not victimless.


50 posted on 02/16/2009 3:18:28 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: SmallGovRepub
You don't think drug prohibition is big government?

Those programs, police and ATF, are already in place. Obama and his DC posse would need a new organization to for legal drug sales. They're Dems. More government is just the ticket.

51 posted on 02/16/2009 3:20:41 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: jimt
Alcohol impairs judgment. Tobacco does not. Drugs impair judgment.

Free country? Yes. But no one has the right to jeopardize anothers safety.

52 posted on 02/16/2009 3:22:20 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: DJ MacWoW
Right. The real problem is a personality disorder that makes people use drugs in order not to face life.

Some people use drugs for that reason. Others do not. If you go out and have a couple of beers with friends, are you not facing life, or are your just having fun? On the other hand, alcoholics do use drugs to avoid facing life.

Some people eat too much as well.

I would rather leave everyone else alone to do what they want so I can. The alternative is that anything that can conceivably affect someone else must be controlled by the authorities.
53 posted on 02/16/2009 3:27:55 PM PST by microgood
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To: SmallGovRepub; narses
I just see that what we are doing does not work and in many cases causes more harm than good.

You know why? Because there's no stigma to being a pothead. Then there's the lying that it's a "safe" drug. It isn't.

Actually it's very similar to the gay movement. Push it continually and the shock value wears off.

Our society is in moral decay and you want to push it down the slippery slope just "that" much further.

We'll just legalize pot. Yeah and 30 years ago we were just going to legalize abortion for rape and incest.

Take the blinders off.

54 posted on 02/16/2009 3:30:58 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: DJ MacWoW
You miss the point. Entirely. You want to legalize unsafe drug use that DOES affect others. It is not victimless.

It depends. If someone smokes a joint before bed because it helps him sleep better, it is really hard to make the case you are being victimized by this person.

If they eat a bunch of PCPs and go rob a liquor store, you can make the case that the drugs were a contributing factor.

At the same time, this guy who ate the PCPs takes a gun with him to the liquor store, that item is also contributing to the problem. In that case, you are being victimized because this guy is allowed to have a gun.

So in the name of victimhood, we better outlaw guns altogether, just to keep the fabric of society together.
55 posted on 02/16/2009 3:32:36 PM PST by microgood
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To: microgood
The alternative is that anything that can conceivably affect someone else must be controlled by the authorities.

That's because society has removed all stigma's. Including you.

I would rather leave everyone else alone to do what they want so I can.

Cop out.

56 posted on 02/16/2009 3:32:58 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: DJ MacWoW
You want to legalize unsafe drug use that DOES affect others.

It's not the use of a drug that is bad, but the abuse.

One can abuse any drug, licit or illicit.

The most abused drugs in America are licit drugs issued under prescription by physicians.

And these drugs are entirely legal.

57 posted on 02/16/2009 3:33:59 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (While the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.)
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To: DJ MacWoW

It’s a waste of money trying to protect morons from themselves.

I officially became pro-legalization when I had the flu. I couldn’t find decongestion to save my live because it is now behind-the-counter because morons turn it into meth.

Wal-Greens found no one bought it because it’s a total drag to wait in line and fill out forms to get Sudafed.

So they stopped carrying it.

COMPLETELY SUCKS.

Legalize drugs. Tax them.

Let the druggies die. I don’t care, they will anyway.


58 posted on 02/16/2009 3:34:11 PM PST by MeanWestTexan (Beware Obama's Reichstag fire.)
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To: DJ MacWoW
Obama is not going to legalize drugs. He's said he's not for legalizing drugs, even marijuana, and he couldn't legalize them even if he wanted to do it. Only the legislature could do that and they won't, not anytime soon anyway. I don't think we'll ever see drugs like meth or cocaine or heroin legalized because the people will never go for it. I sure wouldn't.

Marijuana probably will be legalized someday, maybe by 2020, probably by 2030. That's my bet. Already when they conduct polls support for legalizing marijuana is up to around 40% and it keeps growing. Since the 1990s it's been growing by around one percentage point a year. There hasn't been a poll in a while except one done in 2006 by Zogby I don't trust that put support for legalization at about 46%. I would not be surprised to see the percentage for legalizing it in the mid forties on other polls today though. There is almost no support for legalizing the hard stuff. It won't happen. Marijuana probably will be legalized in the not too distant future and I think that on the whole we'll be better off for it.

59 posted on 02/16/2009 3:35:14 PM PST by SmallGovRepub
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To: microgood
If someone smokes a joint before bed because it helps him sleep better, it is really hard to make the case you are being victimized by this person.

That is naive and delusional.

So in the name of victimhood, we better outlaw guns altogether, just to keep the fabric of society together.

Stupid argument. We don't jail guns or drugs. It is people who are dysfunctional. And you want to make it easier to be so.

60 posted on 02/16/2009 3:35:53 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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