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.".
The uniparty gets it wrong. Again.
I’m not particularly in favor of legalization, but I would prefer that to the militarized police that have become acceptable as a result of drug prohibition. That’s the real issue here: the uniparty couldn’t care less about whether drugs harm people. They care about losing the pretext for more control.
Have the proponents of the “threshold drug” argument considered the possibility that this effect is due to marijuana being sold in the same black market, by the same criminal enterprises, as “harder” drugs, and would be, if not abolished, at least diminished, were marijuana, like alcohol, nicotine and caffeine, sold by legally by merchants not connected to organized crime.
You bet, SusaninOhio! I can’t believe that FReepers are in with legalization. I can think of some more:
* Do you want an employee coming into your business half-stoned?
* Do you want the flood of employers having to require drug tests in a vain effort to keep their employees half sober?
* Do you want the electorate even more mind-numbed than they are now? These people are going to be VOTING. Getting drunk is bad enough.
* All the media says “cigarettes are bad” like it’s the worse thing you can do... and they want to legalize pot???
* Do you want to deal with the *majority* of American youth getting stoned on a drug? Yes, the majority. If they legalize pot *most* of the teens in this country will use it.
“You can guarantee that....”
No one can guarantee you anything. Those who are being intellectually honest will tell you that all of the problems you list will happen if marijuana is legalized. And then some.
But here’s the kicker: it’s already happening anyway. And the fact that the demon weed is still illegal is giving the uniparty and it’s cronies the excuse to engage in all sorts of authoritarian misbehavior. And it’s making gangsters very wealthy.
The cure has become worse than the disease.
Good point. The 10th Amendment doesn’t prevent states from being stupid.
You may not want it legal at the state level, and that’s fine. But shouldn’t a state be allowed to decide intrastate marijuana policy per the Tenth Amendment?
“This is Biblical.”
Which is exactly why you fascist bible thumpers should never be allowed anywhere near power.
“Yes there is, unless you don’t care if every Mfg plant in America moves to China. They won’t stay to be sued into bankruptcy by tort lawyers when someone gets run over by a lift-truck.”
Labor intensive manufacturing has already left. It’s not much of an issue at this point.
I doubt you have ever actually read the Constitution and I’m damned sire you couldn’t define Federalism if you had a gun pointed at your head.
“Which is exactly why you fascist bible thumpers should never be allowed anywhere near power.”
Um... you just included many of the Founding Fathers in that.
The landscape is become weirder and weirder. You’ll find self-professed “conservative” pundits on television not just arguing pro-dope, pro-amnesty, and pro-homo marriage, but ALL three at once!
If this defines “conservatism” today, then I guess I’m not a conservative anymore. I was against such crap thirty years ago, and I’m even more against it now, seeing how these very things have turned America into such a degraded cesspool. Honestly, I don’t even see this country as even ‘worth’ salvaging at this point. Would I pick up arms to combat an invader to protect THIS deviant culture? THIS deviant populace?
“But shouldn’t a state be allowed to decide intrastate marijuana policy per the Tenth Amendment?”
No. For the same reason that we can’t have half free-states and half slaveholding. Some things are just wrong.
Once again, are drunk drivers charged with premeditated murder?
What you are stating is not recognized or supported by any court, and that is really all there is to it.
Furthermore, smoking weed doesn’t remove one’s ability to think or understand.
That being said, one should not smoke weed and then drive or handle guns.
That just plain, old stupidity in action.
“Um... you just included many of the Founding Fathers in that.”
Really? The Founding Fathers countenanced torture? Please explain the 8th Amendment then, pastor.
Thanks in advance.
“The landscape is become weirder and weirder.”
Man, you’re telling me... this is nuts.
No. For the same reason that we can’t have half free-states and half slaveholding. Some things are just wrong.
So what section of the Constitution do you personally think authorizes fedgov to override the Tenth Amendment and impose national prohibition?
So you really don’t believe in the Constitution.
Thanks for dropping the mask there, liberal. It is refreshing when your ilk actually is honest about how you want to trash the Constitution just as much as the Left does, just so of as you get to do the trashing.
“fascist bible thumpers”
“The Founding Fathers countenanced torture? Please explain the 8th Amendment then, pastor.”
No, not torture! Certainly not.
I was referring to the fact that you just called “bible thumpers” fascist. This country was founded by Bible-believing Christians. Countless tens of thousands of these “Bible thumpers” have given their lives for this country on many battlefields.
Christians deserve the right to have a voice in our nation just as any other group. Calling us “fascist” because we believe in God’s word is... unbelievable.
“So you really don’t believe in the Constitution.”
Sorry, but God trumps Constitution.
He causes nations to rise, and He can cause them to fall.
If it were to be made legal, there should still be restrictions just like now on booze. Probation, minors, parole etc. Private sector entities could also impose their own regulations.
It’s pretty easy to test for usage. Any parasite found to be a stoner should definitely be cut off from public assistance.
Probably the best argument of all for legalization.
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