Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Legalized pot is making America’s lower class poorer and less responsible
New York Post ^ | 8-20-16 | Naomi Schaefer Riley

Posted on 08/21/2016 10:34:48 AM PDT by DeweyCA

(Snip)

The middle and upper classes have been the ones out there pushing for decriminalization and legalization measures, and they have also tried to demolish the cultural taboo against smoking pot. But they themselves have chosen not to partake very much. Which is not surprising. Middle-class men and women who have jobs and families know that this is not a habit they want to take up with any regularity because it will interfere with their ability to do their jobs and take care of their families.

But the poor, who already have a hard time holding down jobs and taking care of their families, are more frequently using a drug that makes it harder for them to focus, to remember things and to behave responsibly.

(Snip)

In fact, the typical user is much more likely to be someone at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, whose daily life is driven, at least in part, by the question of how and where to get more marijuana. Just consider the cost. Almost a third of users are spending a tenth of their income on marijuana. And 15 percent of users spend nearly a quarter of their income to purchase the drug. The poor have not only become the heaviest users, but their use is making them poorer.

To all the middle-class professionals out there reading this: Do you know anyone who spends a quarter of their income on pot? Of course not. But these are the people our policies and attitudes are affecting.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: brainwashing; cannabis; control; crime; goodintentions; liberalism; marijuana; pot; potheads; poverty; slavery
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 241-255 next last
To: familyop
Campaigning for legalizing marijuana is antithetical to conservatism

Locking people up for doing nothing more than minding their own business and doing as they please is not conservative, it's authoritarian.

Potheads and pushers are commies.

Words have meanings. You don't seem to know the definition of communist. Were you not paying attention in school?
141 posted on 08/21/2016 3:15:21 PM PDT by Garth Tater (What's mine is mine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 137 | View Replies]

To: familyop

“To be conservative is to be in favor of conserving and perpetuating traditional moral and fiscal values. Campaigning for legalizing marijuana is antithetical to conservatism.”

Traditionally, cannabis was used in America as medicine till the 1930’s. Therefore, campaigning for a return to this tradition it is very conservative.

Vote Trump 2016


142 posted on 08/21/2016 3:40:29 PM PDT by TheStickman (Trump will be the 1st Pro America president since Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 137 | View Replies]

To: Snickering Hound

its making them poor because the gangstamint wont let em grow their own


143 posted on 08/21/2016 4:43:56 PM PDT by aces ( Islam is the religion of the dead, Got Jesus?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: dsc
I guess you want to think that, because your top priority on this thread is defending pot use. Nothing else matters. Just defending pot use. No other priority here. Just defending pot use.

This is exactly why most of us are suspicious of it: even Freepers, once they start smoking weed, stop caring about anything as much as defending pot use.

144 posted on 08/21/2016 5:11:06 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady (They aren't being radicalized; they're being activated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: chris37

So who is to dictate the perfect balance ?....I smoke tobacco and drink beer ...I roll my own cigarettes (way cheaper)...I brew my own beer. I am going on 55 and am still at the same weight and height (and I look great} as when i was in high school....some people have a good metabolism.....** did the partying like most in the teen’s and early 20’s...just gut’s the JEANS (misspelling was intentional.)


145 posted on 08/21/2016 5:42:13 PM PDT by mythenjoseph (Separation of powers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: mythenjoseph

“So who is to dictate the perfect balance ?”

You are.

We are free men. It is up to us to determine our path by the choices we make.

It is up to each one of us to find the balance that makes us happy.

Others may want us to do this, and even more may want us to do that, but in the end our life is them sum of the choices we made as individuals regardless of anyone else’s input, wanted or otherwise.


146 posted on 08/21/2016 5:48:11 PM PDT by chris37 (How do you make Republicans turn on their own candidate? Sneak up behind them and say "Boo".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 145 | View Replies]

To: Java4Jay
Do the poor get their pot at government reduced/free rates?

Nope, and the local pot store near me still has no shortage of customers. *Somehow* they find a way...

147 posted on 08/21/2016 6:04:47 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: DeweyCA
Legalized pot is making America’s lower class poorer and less responsible

Nobody could possibly see it coming!

A Red Swan!

148 posted on 08/21/2016 6:12:51 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DeweyCA

Since when has making something that many people enjoy doing illegal lessened its use?

When I was in high school back in the 70’s I was a relatively naïve, sheltered geek.....and I knew of several people that I could buy pot from had I wanted it. Our class president was the biggest dope dealer in the school.


149 posted on 08/21/2016 6:58:07 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: A_perfect_lady

“I guess you want to think that, because your top priority on this thread is defending pot use.”

That is an unjustified accusation.

Perhaps, rather, it is the case that you impose that template on people who disagree with you on this issue.


150 posted on 08/21/2016 8:03:46 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies]

To: DeweyCA
but it can't be true because our betters have lectured us constantly how victimless drugs are, especially weed which really only makes you sleepy and nice, right?...

why would a society adopt such ridiculous liberal ideas?

the old saying

“In declining states the leadership intuitively chooses the most harmful course of action.”- F.Nietzsche

151 posted on 08/21/2016 8:07:00 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dsc

No, I’ve noticed it here and on reddit: people who smoke pot regularly become so enamored of it that they cannot stand for it to be criticized. It becomes their totem, their lover, their religion. I can’t even think of anything to compare it with because I have never seen this sort of behavior to anything else. They wear shirts and hats with weed on them, they get weed tattoos, they talk to their pothead friends more than anyone else... it’s like they’ve joined a cult.


152 posted on 08/21/2016 8:20:52 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady (They aren't being radicalized; they're being activated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 150 | View Replies]

To: Mariner
Many of these people would be better off in jail or prison.

Or the third alternative...

153 posted on 08/21/2016 8:31:54 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Donglalinger
I also heard if all cars were outlawed traffic deaths would plummet.

Cars are a useful, positive necessity of modern First World country existence.
Alcohol intoxication as recreation is not.

Got any more absurd comparisons?

154 posted on 08/21/2016 8:36:29 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: A_perfect_lady

“people who smoke pot regularly become so enamored of it that they cannot stand for it to be criticized”

The first problem here is your assumption that you know who smokes pot regularly.

The second is that I have not behaved as you describe. At all.

As you are accusing me of things I haven’t done, I opine that you lack credibility, and do not wish to continue this discussion.


155 posted on 08/21/2016 8:40:04 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
That is true except cars have value Pot does not.

That should be qualified.

Cars have universal value.
Pot has value only for the indolent, the irresponsible, the idle and the parasites.

Full disclosure...

1) I consider the irresponsible who are high on the job as dishonest and unethical at best, dangerous to others at worst.

2) None of my remarks are aimed at actual, honest, real users of medical, ethically prescribed marihuana.

156 posted on 08/21/2016 8:46:33 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
In addition alcohol is not pot chemically and behaviorally so attempted analogies are probably false.

It's not an analogy, it's a comparison.

Insofar as negative behavior is the only legitimate social concern to the extent that it affects society at large, they are indistinguishable.

157 posted on 08/21/2016 8:54:47 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: notaliberal
Even on FR, if you say that the US is becoming nothing but a bunch of ignorant potheads you get pummeled by the “potheads”

An obviously impaired pothead should be avoided exactly as obvious alcoholics.

I avoid them both just as seriously, and ignore their reaction to criticism just as seriously nil. Pummeled?
I don't think so.

158 posted on 08/21/2016 9:12:01 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: A_perfect_lady
I guess you want to think that, because your top priority on this thread is defending pot use. Nothing else matters. Just defending pot use. No other priority here. Just defending pot use. This is exactly why most of us are suspicious of it: even Freepers, once they start smoking weed, stop caring about anything as much as defending pot use.

I guess you want to think that, because your top priority on this thread is attacking pot use. Nothing else matters. Just attacking pot use. No other priority here. Just attacking pot use. This is exactly why most of us are suspicious of it: even Freepers, once they start attacking weed, stop caring about anything as much as attacking pot use.

Projecting, much?

Regards,

159 posted on 08/21/2016 9:29:18 PM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 144 | View Replies]

To: wardaddy
Pot haters love their booze
Booze haters love their Pot.
Total losers love both.

And those who abuse neither, work and pay taxes to enable the losers.
It’s always been like that.
Human nature, elected criminals and their unelected bureaucrats who pontificate charity on our behalf, and take their substantial cut of the loot..

160 posted on 08/21/2016 9:57:43 PM PDT by publius911 (IMPEACH HIM NOW evil, stupid, insane ignorant or just clueless, doesn't matter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180 ... 241-255 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson