Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense

Time Magazine ^ | Joe Klein

[sdcraigo]

For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp...I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead." A fantasy, I suppose. But, beneath the furious roil of the economic crisis, a national conversation has quietly begun about the irrationality of our drug laws. It is going on in state legislatures, like New York's, where the draconian Rockefeller drug laws are up for review; in other states, from California to Massachusetts, various forms of marijuana decriminalization are being enacted. And it has reached the floor of Congress, where Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter have proposed a major prison-reform package, which would directly address drug-sentencing policy. ...The hypocrisy inherent in the American conversation about stimulants is staggering. But there are big issues here, issues of economy and simple justice, especially on the sentencing side. As Webb pointed out in a cover story in Parade magazine, the U.S. is, by far, the most "criminal" country in the world, with 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners. We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes.

[grey_whiskers]

I posted a vanity to this effect last weekend, in sarcasm.

Cheers!

[going hot]

Believe it was freewheelin franklin.

:-))

[Ken H]

Paul, Frank introduce bill to legalize hemp (link to FR thread from earlier today)

-snip-

Liberals like Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), the Chairman of the Progressive Caucus, are joining forces with Reps. Tom McClintock (R-CA) and Dana Rohrabacher.

-snip-

[Mojave]

Smoke all the industrial hemp you want. You can start by rolling up some hemp fiber sold at Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Nutiva-Organic-Protein-Fiber-Powder/dp/B0012C2GFM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1238815010&sr=8-4

[surfer]

I was being sarcastic...myself I wouldn’t touch the stuff.

But I agree we need to make a stand and when we win we must show no quarter.

[Eagles6]

And then they would focus on their other avenues of funds. Cocaine, heroin, designer drugs, kidnapping, et al.

[Tolsti2]

Give me a break, I’m old enough to have seen lots go into and out of mental hospitals from it. I avoid people that use it, but some of my old friends started way back and were lost fairly seriously.

It ruins lives. Period. What you say, as a user, doesn’t matter since they never saw what was happening while they were on it.

[Eagles6]

"Are you in favor of criminalizing alcohol as during prohibition? Why not?"

No. Alcohol has an historically long and beneficial use to society before and after prohibition.I don't believe that these characters will turn legit. The cartels are now smuggling hezbollah operatives into this country. Will they stop if weed is legal?

Personally I would have no problem with someone growing and consuming their own pot. I don't believe that decriminalizing marijuana would have any effect on crime. The cartels are smuggling pot because it's lucrative. Here in the US a gangbanger with a 3rd grade education and a felony record will not suddenly decide to flip burgers because he can't make loot selling pot, he will find some other criminal activity to engage in.

[KarinG1]

I was being sarcastic

I should have known you were, I just get so agitated with those socialists sometimes I don't think straight. The brandy has nothing to do with it. ;-)~ I mean, first they tell us we have to give up our guns because they are fueling Mexican drug violence and then they tell us legalizing drugs is a good thing. We need another Joe McCarthy to restore this country to sanity.

[Ken H]

Did McClintock fall for the hemp scam?

HEMP SCAM

Janet D. Lapey, M. D.

At a news conference on December 30, 1996, top federal officials exposed the medical marijuana scam. 

-snip-

Another scam which is being perpetrated on the American people by the marijuana lobby in an attempt to legalize drugs is the hemp scam.  The drug legalization lobby is currently targeting farmers, such as tobacco growers, in an attempt to persuade them to grow hemp, a crop which would not be profitable.  This is a cruel hoax similar to the legalizers' efforts to persuade sick patients to smoke marijuana as a ``medicine."  These legalizers are spreading the myth that hemp (Cannabis sativa) is a profitable, useful, environmentally safe crop with no potential for diversion into the illegal drug market.  They are wrong on all counts.

-snip-

The pro-hemp lobby contends that hemp grown for fiber is not psychoactive.

-snip-

By selectively harvesting the buds and excluding the large leaves, a higher THC product can be obtained form the fiber crop.  Also, through cross-pollination, higher THC plants may even develop naturally.

Since it is impossible to determine THC content with the naked eye, it is easy to illegally blend high THC plants into a ``fiber" crop, and this has been happening in Europe. For instance, in Switzerland, hemp was supposedly being grown for fiber stuffing for cushions. However, IN December, 1995, hemp plants were seized by the Swiss government after forensic tests showed that the THC content was 4.0-5.5% THC and not 0.5% as claimed.  It is clear that legalizing hemp in the US would seriously compromise aerial surveillance and other anti-drug measures by drug enforcement officers.

-snip-

Currently, pro-hemp propaganda is rampant on the Internet, in pro-drug magazines, and at marijuana rallies.

-snip-

http://www.wctu.org/hemp.html

[Ken H]

And then they would focus on their other avenues of funds. Cocaine, heroin, designer drugs, kidnapping, et al.

Is it your position that there are enough billions of dollars of upside left in their other activities to replace the nearly 2/3 of the revenue they get from mj?

If so, what's stopping them from going after it now?

[Mojave]

Since it is impossible to determine THC content with the naked eye, it is easy to illegally blend high THC plants into a "fiber" crop

No doubt. Any domestic grow operations will need to be closely regulated and regularly inspected.

[fr_freak]

Give me a break, I’m old enough to have seen lots go into and out of mental hospitals from it. I avoid people that use it, but some of my old friends started way back and were lost fairly seriously.

I'm sure you've seen many people go in and out of mental hospitals who are also pot users, but it's the old chicken and egg question: did the people develop mental problems from smoking pot, or did they start smoking pot to alleviate mental problems? Alcoholics frequently have other issues, but I have yet to see anyone, who claims that pot causes mental illness, claim that alcohol causes mental illness. With alcohol, people generally assume that the mental problems (depression, anxiety, etc.) occurred first, and the alcoholic took to drinking to drown those problems. That is the conventional thinking, but the exact same view could be taken of pot. It isn't, only because it has been propagandized for years that alcohol is good and marijuana bad.

As far as your friends go, were they ever taking any other drugs? Were these a bunch of 60s hippies who were dropping acid twice a week, but smoked pot more often, so pot gets blamed for everything? If we're going to use anecdotal evidence to go leaping to conclusions, then I'll say that I know a few lifelong pot users who function normally and have no overt problems. In fact, I've never met a pot user who had mental issues, but then, I don't know any old hippies from the 60s.

[Tolsti2]

Why do you defend pot so much? Why is that so important?

[wireplay]

I know a lot of pot smokers...and they are all liberals.

I know a few pot smokers and they are as conservative as can be.

Making pot illegal is government intrusion and is a complete an utter failure. All of the money, time, and lives lost and it has made 0 impact.

[fr_freak]

Piss off, troll.

[Snurple]

[WVKayaker]

It ruins lives. Period. What you say, as a user, doesn’t matter since they never saw what was happening while they were on it.

Give us a break. I'm old enough to have used marijuana for more than 40 years. In that time. I have been successful in business, and have raised 4 fabulous kids. One of them is a cop, one a teacher, two are married mommies at home.

Your rant is a knee-jerk reaction, and is totally BS. Yes, I said you are spreading BS.

Alcohol has ruined more lives than pot could ever do. I rarely smoke pot any more. I drink good scotch, and just put down a Montecristo 7 that I bought on close-out at Costco today. They were $39.97 for 12, with a free travel humidor. It didn't have the new tax applied, and was a great deal.

I also got a box of Acid Def Sea's in the mail, along with the Cigars International catalog.

I have tickets ($125 each) for their Cigarfest next month. I'm going with a friend. He's a cop (not my son). He and I will smoke a bowl or two on the way... and never cross the center line, nor take any extra looks at white women (that last part may be a lie. I am a man)!

You may not like pot, but your stated reasons are not up to the job. They are based on propaganda and emotion. Isn't that exactly what got Zero elected?

[wireplay]

Had a GrayCliff today with my wife. She smoked an Avo.

I’m having a wonderful Bacardi Select and Coke right now.

After being very successful in business and life all of these years I cannot understand the fear-mongering over pot. I haven’t touched it in 20 years but would do so w/o hesitation. Why? Because it is mostly harmless.

[Tolsti2]

All potheads claim to be a great businessman online. Funny, never seen it happen offline.