Posted on 08/13/2014 11:13:55 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
A few decades ago, marijuana was a topic that relatively few people, mostly counterculture musicians and comedians, spoke about in public. The comedy team of Cheech and Chong made films such as "Up in Smoke" that extolled the pleasures of smoking pot at a time the subject was still taboo.
"When trouble times begin to bother me," they sang, "I take a toke and all my cares go up in smoke." On the fringes of American society, it was usually possible to find activists who wanted to legalize it, as the reggae artist Peter Tosh famously sang. Efforts to legalize the substance in the mid-1970s failed.
Now marijuana has gone mainstream. Twenty three states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Colorado and Washington have legalized pot for recreational use. The media has featured lively debate over the issue.
Joining other media outlets that have run articles supporting this cause, The New York Times editorial page published a number of high-profile pieces that call for making pot legal at the national level and outline specific steps that should be taken to ensure that the industry evolves in a safe manner.
How did we reach this point? How have we come to the brink of ending the national prohibition against a drug that has been roundly condemned for years as a grave danger to health and a gateway to drugs that can be devastating over time?
Here are eight reasons: [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
And with that you admit you’re wrong. If you need ad hominems you know the facts and logic are against you.
“It’s a managed industry that pays for pensions, health care, puts food on the table and kids through college. What loss are you referring to? A financial loss to the taxpayer?”
The meth lab I saw has a pension? Who new?
That’s not a retort, it’s an admission that the facts don’t support their side. Left no mark on me, they basically admitted they were wrong.
Yeah really. Most drugs do no damage to the brain, they just jigger with the level of chemicals already in there.
Reason number 1: American culture and civilization has declined dramatically. What was once morally and culturally re-pungent has become acceptable. Homosexuality, abortion, drugs...all are manifestations of social breakdown.
Facts and logic are against them and the ad hominems are evidence of it - but I'm not sure they know that.
Case in point: Robin Williams, R.I.P.
Attack their positions and they react like an attack on them personally. This is the same way the far left reacts.
Nooooooooooooo...............your drivel lost out to personal experience with stoners. Quite a few of them because, after all, it’s a “safe” drug. They all ended up jokes with nothing of any value and no meaningful relationships but drugs aren’t harmful. Really. /s
You saw a meth lab?
I’ve got plenty of personal experience with stoners. I also have enough knowledge to understand that the plural of anecdote is not fact. Losers are losers. Some losers do drugs, so losers find ways to lose without drugs. Wiki hoarding and see just how strong the addictive personality and gene traits really are.
.
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This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed -- run over, maimed, destroyed -- but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it. For example, while I was writing this I learned that the person on whom the character Jerry Fabin is based killed himself. My friend on whom I based the character Ernie Luckman died before I began the novel. For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated, and what became of each.-Phillip K Dick-If there was any "sin," it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all. Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love:
To Gaylene deceased
To Ray deceased
To Francy permanent psychosis
To Kathy permanent brain damage
To Jim deceased
To Val massive permanent brain damage
To Nancy permanent psychosis
To Joanne permanent brain damage
To Maren deceased
To Nick deceased
To Terry deceased
To Dennis deceased
To Phil permanent pancreatic damage
To Sue permanent vascular damage
To Jerri permanent psychosis and vascular damage...and so forth.
In Memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The "enemy" was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.
Grow the hell up!
I’ve actually read that book. He’s one of my favorite authors, and that’s one of his best books. But you should know most of his friends and family thought he was pretty nuts even before the drugs. People with bad habits die, it’s how things go. Heavy drug use is generally accompanied with a poor diet, irregular sleep patterns, and lack of cleanliness. Then there’s whatever was wrong with the person in the first place that made them think heavy drug use was a good plan.
You didn't know about Wickard? Why am I not surprised? I seem to have an endless supply of people with whom to argue, who do not even have a decent knowledge of history, yet think they need to lecture the rest of us about ignorance and irrationality.
“Some losers do drugs, so losers find ways to lose without drugs.”
The opposite of this is interesting:
I can’t think of any winner who would abuse pot when he or she is in the act of trying to win or achieve something.
Some shaky musicians may be the exception, but they aren’t doing anything too important.
Met lots of stoners that weren’t losers. Some of the smartest people I know have been fond of pot. And some of the other smartest people I know are straight arrow. The most drugs generally do to people is emphasis traits, if they were on a bad path drugs add momentum, if they’re out of the box creative thinkers drugs get them further out of the box. Some drug users hide from reality, most add a little flavor to it. Really when used by people who aren’t on a bad path drugs are like going to see a movie, just a way to relax for a couple of hours.
Yelling doesn’t make your points better. In fact it shows you know they’re flawed. And really if somebody in this needs to grow up it’s the person applying magical properties to chemicals. It’s interesting to me how similar WOD argument are to anti-gun arguments, both suffer from the same mistake of thinking inanimate objects control the person. They don’t.
Good post.
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