Posted on 01/12/2014 10:49:32 AM PST by Libloather
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) this week said he's opposed to laws legalizing marijuana.
While Maryland legislators are expected to take up several proposals to legalize the drug this year, the Democratic minority whip said he's concerned it’s a gateway to harsher narcotics.
"I'm not a proponent of the legalization of marijuana," Hoyer said Thursday during a taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program, which will air Sunday.
The position puts Hoyer on the same page as Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), but at odds with a recent shift in public opinion.
O'Malley said earlier in the week that he's "not much in favor" of the legalization proposals members of the state's General Assembly plan to introduce in both chambers this year.
“I’ve seen what drug addiction has done to the people of our state and the people of our city,” O'Malley said Wednesday in an interview with Baltimore's WEAA radio station.
Public sentiment, meanwhile, has shifted sharply in favor of legalization in recent years. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday found that 55 percent of Americans support the move to legalize the drug — up 12 points from 2012 and 39 points from 25 years ago.
A Gallup poll released in October put the level of support at 58 percent.
Interest in decriminalizing marijuana has skyrocketed since voters in Colorado and Washington state voted last year to legalize the drug for recreational use.
While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the Justice Department announced last year that it wouldn’t attempt to block state efforts to legalize it. Colorado venders began selling it openly on Jan. 1.
"By regulating marijuana like alcohol, Colorado voters hope to reduce crime and keep marijuana away from kids," Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said as the sales began.
Along with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Polis has sponsored legislation to eliminate the federal laws criminalizing the drug.
At least 18 other states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana to some extent, though most of those laws relate to the treatment of medical conditions and require a doctor's prescription.
Hoyer this week noted that a former Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke, had advocated for legalizing pot several decades ago. Hoyer said he supported that move at the time, but has since changed his tune based on his discussions with drug-treatment experts.
"My initial reaction was a positive one," Hoyer said. "Then as I talked to people who deal with drug abuse issues, with rehabilitation issues, I became convinced that marijuana was, in fact, a threshold drug and that it would lead to the use of harder, very harmful drugs.".
Drunk drivers SHOULD be charged with their crimes considered premeditated. That this is not normally done is a current policy failure.
My great aunt lost both her legs when a drunk driver hit her. I definitely want this applied to drinkers.
I have no double standard in this. I also believe those three criteria should apply to myself, should I do any crime under such influence.
Anyone with a brain should believe the same as I.
This is exactly what you said. What is in front of my house is my front lawn, which is not public property. What's beyond my front lawn is the street. Had you meant street, then you should have said street.
Now, if there are people smoking weed in the street in front of your house and you don't like it, then report them to the police. Maybe the police will do something about it, and maybe they won't.
Personally, if all such a person is doing is smoking weed and not committing any actual crimes, I don't care.
I can think of no reason I would want to smoke weed in public.
“Geez, you can’t be that obtuse...can you?”
I think it’s becoming quite apparent that he can, don’t you?
Bean bag/Pink Floyd convention with unlimited Hors d’oeuvre served by Disney characters and cheerleaders?
“It’s up to employers to make sure that the people that work for them are up to the necessary standards.”
I said they would do exactly that, they will move to a sane country where they can run a profitable business.
I could give a crap less if you smoke dope until to chew your own arm off in a munchies rage, but making it legal will have a huge effect on the nations economy.
“It’s up to employers to make sure that the people that work for them are up to the necessary standards.”
I said they would do exactly that, they will move to a sane country where they can run a profitable business.
I could give a crap less if you smoke dope until to chew your own arm off in a munchies rage, but making it legal will have a huge effect on the nations economy.
Pretty much where I am too. Nothing is as effective at killing enterprise (illicit or otherwise) as taxation and regulation.
You can sign me up for the Pink Floyd part anytime ^^
Until the plant is eliminated, we will suffer the scourge of self-cannibalizing weedaholics.
I could give a crap less if you smoke dope until to chew your own arm off in a munchies rage...
And I can say by this hyperbolic statement that you don't really know anything about the subject at all, much like every other hysterical person arguing against what I said in this thread.
Please, keep your doom and gloom the world is going end fall to pieces because of weed nonsense to yourself, it really doesn't have any meaning to me or weight with me at all.
Because it is so difficult to acquire pot now? It is available pretty much everywhere and kids all over the nation are buying it the way it is.
But it isn’t actually premeditated murder. That is actually and specifically something else entirely.
Where is the malicious intent and malice aforethought? Where is the specific planning to do mortal harm to another person?
Your charge lacks those necessary legal elements.
Sure they do, any amount in their system now and they can be fired without recourse. That fact keeps the majority from using it.
Make it legal and a company would have a hard time proving they smoked it at lunch and not on the weekend.
The same lawyer that will sue you for firing them would turn around and sue you if they hurt someone. It’s not worth the bother, fire them all and move to China.
As much as I’ve wanted to see a manufacturing comeback in America all these years, with the combination of government regulations, taxation, tort insanity, and a pathetic American workforce of lazy, layabout dopeheads, I think it would be crazy for any entrepreneur to invest heavily here in this country.
BS. Some companies are firing because of positive tobacco tests.
Some companies will fire you if you have a beer at lunch.
Legalizing dope won’t change that you can be fired for pretty much anything.
/johnny
I know it’s everywhere, but in Mfg you will be fired for using it. Workmans comp insurance costs an employer in Mfg half as much if they have a zero tolerance policy on drugs.
When one voluntarily removes the capacity for rational thought, whatever comes after that must be premeditated. If I have a loaded gun in my possession and I take a recreational drug that causes me to do something stupid, those stupid actions were done with intent, because I wouldn’t have done them if not on that drug—i.e. I (under the influence) chose to do them.
That’s really all there is to it. I can’t even claim something was a accident when I remove my own ability to understand what accidents might yet happen.
Plenty of companies will allow a beer at lunch, but not dope.
It’s easy to tell if someone has had too much to drink, not so with dope.
I really don’t care if someone that works in an office smokes pot on the weekend, there is little chance of getting sued over it.
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