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Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol
Associated Press ^ | Thursday, Mar. 8, 2012 | MICHAEL FELBERBAUM

Posted on 03/08/2012 9:21:14 PM PST by Mariner

RICHMOND, Va. -- Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government's war on drugs has failed.

The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of "The 700 Club" on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He said people should not be sent to prison for marijuana possession.

The 81-year-old first became a self-proclaimed "hero of the hippie culture" in 2010 when he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
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To: garjog
But, if it is harmful, then it should be discouraged.

There are effective ways to discourage the use of marijuana without criminalizing it, as the ongoing campaigns against tobacco demonstrate.
101 posted on 03/08/2012 10:54:48 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Sorry, but I don’t just disregard or throw people away who have problems, I try to help as best I can most of the time to no avail.
Most of them are extended family members and co-workers, and they are not the only people I associate with.


102 posted on 03/08/2012 10:55:39 PM PST by PMAS (Romney = Democrat tested, Soros approved)
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To: garjog
I believe that pot seriously damages the brain. Heavy users in their teens or early twenties who I know are impaired. I know that these guys are very intelligent, who would have been hugely successful, but the drug use has them into idiots. I am not kidding.

"Drugs are menacing our society. They're threatening our values and undercutting our institutions. They're killing our children." -- President Ronald Reagan.

103 posted on 03/08/2012 10:58:50 PM PST by re_nortex (DP...that's what I like about Texas.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

I’m not talking about terminal cancer patients, and there are many good doctors, but there are enough of them prescribing pain killers to people who don’t need them to keep the problem growing - and we are all paying for it through Medicaid taxes and higher healthcare premiums.


104 posted on 03/08/2012 10:59:04 PM PST by PMAS (Romney = Democrat tested, Soros approved)
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To: Mariner

“The prohibition of alcohol...”demon alcohol” itself. Same with pot.”

You are persuaded by the libertarians. Live and let live. OK. But, my point is that sometimes society needs to protect vulnerable members.

I don’t want to live in a city where fifty percent of the workers are stoned. (Seemed that way when I visited Palm Springs in December).

To compare pot to alcohol is simply a false analogy.

Alcohol has been a pervasive part of human culture for 10,000 years. We drink wine at meals and at religious rituals. It is nothing like pot. People smoke pot to get high.

No one smokes pot to express culture. You can drink without getting drunk. To ban one and not the other is not a contradiction but social sanity.


105 posted on 03/08/2012 10:59:14 PM PST by garjog
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To: LukeL

Did you watch the same program I did? I believe it was on the History Channel but I’m not 100% sure.


106 posted on 03/08/2012 11:00:52 PM PST by POWERSBOOTHEFAN (I love you,Pumpkin. You are the best cat in the world. You're my Sweet Pea.)
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To: Mariner

If we legalize Pot the the whole country would be like Obama — who admitted that he smoke a lot of pot and appeared stoned during a 60 Minutes interview.

Don’t miss watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMSB4A1iJD4


107 posted on 03/08/2012 11:04:43 PM PST by garjog
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To: PMAS

“I am watching family and friends struggle with the addiction for years now and watching their lives fall apart.”

Maybe these individuals should exercise a little of the personal responsibility that comes with the freedom they have to make their own decisions?

There are millions of Americans who reponsibly gamble, drink and engage in other vices — marijuana for one — and do so responsibly while there are some who gamble away their savings, drink themselves to death or die of overdoses of harder drugs, devastating families in the process.

Are we to have the federal government ban gambling or drinking because a certain number of people are hopelessly irresponsible to begin with? These same people will find a way to self-destruct whether a given activity is legal or not. It all comes down to personal liberty and responsibility.

You can have a liberal nanny-state dictating your every action to you because it knows best or there are those who make bad decisions. I’ll make my own decisions and take responsibility for my own actions, thank you.


108 posted on 03/08/2012 11:07:59 PM PST by FerociousRabbit
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To: garjog

“No one smokes pot to express culture.”

You’ve never been to a Pink Floyd concert!


109 posted on 03/08/2012 11:12:58 PM PST by FerociousRabbit
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To: unkus

I just read about a triple-murder in eastern Washington State-—a mother and her two sons, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader. All three were strangled by a 22-year-old LOSER that the family felt sorry for and took in to help out. Two friends told police that this LOSER came over to their house hours after the murders to play video games after a night of cocaine and smoking pot. And there are thousands more stories like these out there. Yes, our society definitely needs more LOSERS like him. P.S. If you’re wondering, this LOSER shot and killed himself later that day.


110 posted on 03/08/2012 11:15:17 PM PST by dupree
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To: POWERSBOOTHEFAN

Yes, that special was amazing.


111 posted on 03/08/2012 11:16:39 PM PST by LukeL (Barack Obama: Jimmy Carter 2 Electric Boogaloo)
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To: garjog
To compare pot to alcohol is simply a false analogy. Alcohol has been a pervasive part of human culture for 10,000 years. We drink wine at meals and at religious rituals. It is nothing like pot. People smoke pot to get high. No one smokes pot to express culture. You can drink without getting drunk.

That's the funniest damn thing I've heard in the past 4 hours.

It make come as a dramatic shock to you, but alcohol has killed more people, and destroyed more families, than any drug, ever. Alcohol is a vicious mass murdering drug, when compared to something like pot. The graveyards are jammed with drinkers and victims of drinkers.

112 posted on 03/08/2012 11:18:14 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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Comment #113 Removed by Moderator

To: CaptainKrunch
I know exactly what I’m talking about.

Maybe.

Could also be that you've just been indoctrinated by hefty doses of government propaganda.

114 posted on 03/08/2012 11:34:22 PM PST by Wissa (Gone Galt)
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To: PMAS

People steal because they want televisions and we don’t ban televisions.


115 posted on 03/08/2012 11:38:50 PM PST by DNA.2012
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Comment #116 Removed by Moderator

To: LukeL

Any justification for banning painkillers can be applied to banning alcohol.


117 posted on 03/08/2012 11:42:07 PM PST by DNA.2012
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To: fr_freak

Alcohol is deadlier than, for example, codeine.


118 posted on 03/08/2012 11:44:37 PM PST by DNA.2012
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To: cherry
...some are evil

the Bible says there are none righteous, no not even one.

119 posted on 03/08/2012 11:53:49 PM PST by Theophilus (Not merely prolife, but prolific)
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To: Antoninus
Frankly, anyone who thinks legalizing drugs would be good for society isn't playing with a full deck.

Anyone who thinks you can't get just about any drug you want in today's society isn't playing with a full deck.

The people who would abuse it if it was legal are the ones who are abusing it now, when it's illegal.
120 posted on 03/08/2012 11:54:10 PM PST by af_vet_rr
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