Posted on 06/19/2010 9:13:23 AM PDT by nmh
Sarah Palin says recreational pot smoking is "relatively speaking a minimal problem" in America.
...
"I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts," she said. "If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society."
Allen St. Pierre, the director of NORML, which supports liberalizing drug laws, said Palin's position on pot is perfectly in line with her identity as a politician.
"If you're a populist as she appears to be, it's maybe not that surprising," he told AOL News in a phone interview today.
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
You must have a reading comprehension problem. Go back and read it again......slowly.
Alcohol will screw you up way more than smoking a joint. And alcohol is legal ?”
I haven’t used any kind of drug, alcohol included for over 40 years so I’m not agreeing with you with the hope of smoking pot legally some day.
We always compare pot to alcohol in these debates. A different comparison shows just how inconsistent and illogical our drug policies are.
Heroin is generally considered much worse than pot, yet a very compelling case can be made that heroin is a far less dangerous drug than alcohol. The following statements represent facts that aren’t widely known:
Alcohol is more quickly addictive than heroin. Fewer doses are required to create an given level of addiction and tolerance.
Alcohol addiction withdrawal is more severe clinically than heroin withdrawal. Alcohol withdrawal lasts longer and hurts more. Alcohol detox deaths are fairly common.
Chronic alcohol addicts are usually sick on a cellular level with every organ adversely affected. Heroin abuse is associated only with lifestyle effects like malnutrition or needle born infections. A chronic alcoholic is more difficult to treat medically because the global damage to tissues compounds the medical problems.
Chronic alcohol abuse causes permanent mental impairment, heroin does not.
Why isn’t something as dangerous as alcohol illegal? Because we tried it and it didn’t work. Prohibition created a profitable and socially damaging organized crime industry.
I hate it when an intrusive, BIG GOVERNMENT SOLUTION to a problem is called conservative. Making laws to control peoples lifestyles for their own good is what LIBERALS do!
Anyone who gives drugs to children should be hung by their testicles, but adults should be allowed to consume whatever poison they choose and face the full consequence for that decision.
Conservatism is about freedom and personal responsibility. Nanny state government is the creation of liberalism.
The way I read it though, Sarah wasn’t advocating legalization, but just more logical law enforcement priorities.
Palin’s stand is solidly conservative and sensible.
Go Sarah!
Why would a movie be ANY authority on this subject, unless one is trying to make the argument that any one who smokes pot at all is a “pot head”, which would be the equivalent of saying any one who drinks liquor is an alcoholic.
The second point is obviously not true, and equally not true is the characterization that every pot smoker is a pot head, , just as no modern regular theatrical movie is an authoritative source of opinion on this subject.
What else do you expect from the closet libertarian?
I hope she does not allow her children to smoke pot especially her son who is in the military and will get kicked out of the military if he gets popped on a piss test.
I would be for the complete legalization of drugs if we:
1. Viewed all crimes in which drugs were used as “premeditated.”
2. Had a strong torture penalty, which would allow aggrieved parties the option of inflicting that torture.
3. Had no welfare or medical insurance that paid toward the care of self-inflicted drug injury (including rehab).
In other words, you commit a crime under the influence of drugs, and you have no safety net. Neither does the government or others pay for your choice to take them. Finally, for those who were physically hurt or killed by someone under the influence of drugs, that person gets tortured three times more than they inflicted on the innocent person(s), and both tortured and killed if they killed an innocent.
Far more people die from drunk drivers. It isn't even a close call. To be consistent, you would call for bringing back alcohol prohibition? Do you?
What she said is basic common sense.
Being a conservative is not placing the nanny state over peoples lives.
Telling people what they can eat/smoke is the nanny state whether you can recognize that or not.
Freedom is the right to make bad choices, as long as you bear the consequences of those choses and you don’t impose those consequences on your neighbors.
Once you start down the road that you are going to determine what is best for your neighbor there is no end to what freedoms will be taken from you all in the name of what is best for you - as someone else sees it.
You trust the government to torture people (we'd be first on their list) far more than I do and, then again, there's that pesky constitutional provision about cruel and unusual punishment. Do you want to repeal that?
don’t forget all the jobs the WOD creates on the black market. Unreported income of which the government has finally figured out how to get a peace of.
“I got it! We’ll buy Chrysler!”
Who is more a true "Conservative", you, or William F. Buckley Jr.(WFB), founder of the National Review, the premier American Conservative journal?
I'll go with WFB over you.
And who was more in agreement with Palin on this issue?
No surprise, hands down, it's WFB again.
So, thanks for your "stupid" (ignorant-about-Conservatism comment); I hope you find the exits.
FR was founded as a response to the decadent Clinton administration. Remember that icky feeling we had that we wanted to clean up after they sullied the presidency? One thing always used vs. Bubba was his pot-smoking and his “I didn’t inhale” comment.
The FReepers of today would be very be very comfortable sharing a doobie with Bill. Wow.
Whatever you’re doing has you pretty wee-wee-ed up. Lighten up, Francis.
LOL
When I went to elementary school they sent drug addicts around to speak to us.
I’m not sure what effect it had on me, but I did “experiment” with inhalants like paint thinner for a few years as a teenager.
I figured out the stuff was bad and so was alcohol for that matter.
People often need other people like “Alcoholics Anonymous” and such to find “God” and a “Higher Power” to stop “drinking” and “getting drunk.”
The police state approach is not going to get us off of drugs (from the pharmacy or from the street).
Been smokin' weed for almost fifty years and the old THING is still straight...
Just sayin'.
“Marijuana is a gateway drug.”
No it is not.
Statistically, alcohol is many times over a “gateway” to alcoholism, more than is pot to drug addiction.
The false statistic that is used is based on the question to a cocaine or heroine addict, about earlier pot use.
But that is no different than asking an alcoholic, “when did you take your first drink”, finding it was in their teens and then suggesting that teenage is a “gateway” to alcoholism. Now, mot people did take their first drink in their teens, but most people do not become alcoholics.
The true statistic to how much pot becomes a gateway is - out of all those who ever smoked or smoke pot, how many went on, or go on to “harder” drugs?
The fact is, just as most liquor drinkers do not become alcoholics, most who ever smoked pot or still smoke it on occasion do not go on to harder drugs.
Amen. Reefer Madness was a cornball bit of gratuitious sensationalism.
Alcohol is legal, as it should be. There are folks who have a couple of scotch-and-sodas a few times a week to unwind, or a couple of beers a day, and may tie one on with pals every few months in a situation where they don't end up behind the wheel (sober friend/spouse driver, camping, on foot, etc). Then there are folks whose lives revolve around getting drunk and even become deranged while under the influence.
One is benign and well-adjusted. The other is a personal, moral and public problem.
Two very different things. In a lot of ways, alcohol is good for you, and look at the one (Islam!!!) society that prohibits it. No wonder Muslims are so high-strung. Alchohol has been around since the dawn of man for a reason. I don't see as how pot's all that different.
And HearMe is right. A whole lotta ordinary Baby Boomer Americans tried and survived the travails of drug addiction in their youths. It is a personal trial of temptation, part of being human, a individual's life path, an opportunity for growth as much as for destruction. Government has little or no place in it. It's between an individual, his conscience, and God.
A "mind your own business" conservative.
I can definitely get behind that.
You got it!!!
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