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Texas Republican Party Endorses Marijuana Decriminalization
Forbes ^ | June 16th, 2018 | Tom Angell

Posted on 06/17/2018 10:35:45 AM PDT by Mariner

Delegates at the Republican Party of Texas convention on Saturday voted to approve platform planks endorsing marijuana decriminalization, medical cannabis and industrial hemp. They are also calling for a change in cannabis's classification by the federal government.

"We support a change in the law to make it a civil, and not a criminal, offense for legal adults only to possess one ounce or less of marijuana for personal use, punishable by a fine of up to $100, but without jail time," reads one of the party's new positions.

"Congress should remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1," says another.

A third asks lawmakers to expand an existing state law that provides patients with limited access to low-THC medical cannabis extracts so that doctors can "determine the appropriate use of cannabis to certified patients."

And a fourth says industrial hemp is a "a valuable agricultural commodity."

That the official GOP organ in a red state like Texas would voice support for such far-reaching cannabis reforms is the latest sign of how mainstream marijuana has become in American politics.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cannabis; lonestarstate; marijuana; medicine; pot; potheads; texas; wod
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To: dfwgator

“doped-up truckers?”

It used to be much worse than what is likely to happen with legal weed-when I was s teen living on the ranch, many small ranchers-including one of my uncles-owned rigs and worked as long-haul truckers for their main source of income. All the teens knew whose dad, older brother, etc who was un trailero kept a bottle of mollies or other speed capsules, so they could get high and keep truckin’ for a couple days without sleep-talk about dangerous... They would also often take phenobarb to come down when they got to their destination, and crash for 24 hours before picking up their next load and paperwork, hitting the road-and the pills-to do it all again.

Most of those pills were legally prescribed and obtained from a doc-just like the f***ing opiates are now-with that going on, legal weed looks like a goddamn nursery school picnic to me...

I even saw it as a workers comp case manager as late as 2003, when regulations for long haul truckers were tightened-the only difference was that now the truckers were staying wired on cowboy cocaine-aka crystal meth, which is unbelievably addictive and health-destroying...


121 posted on 06/17/2018 3:20:36 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans
schools getting overrun by kids with marijuana.

The facts from Colorado:


122 posted on 06/17/2018 3:34:12 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

“(5) minimal increase in tax revenue, probably offset by costs for police, increased traffic deaths, people poisoning themselves and needing increased medical costs,”

Colorado tax revenues from marijuana:

2014 $67,594,323
2015 $130,411,173
2016 $193,604,810
2017 $247,368,473
2018 $109,002,969 (Jan-May)

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data


123 posted on 06/17/2018 3:36:18 PM PDT by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: NobleFree

.

‘Taint no fun if its legal!
.


124 posted on 06/17/2018 3:38:33 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

“skyrocketing usage in general”

Out of the ludicrous pile of bullshit you just dropped, I had to single this one out for comment and rebuttal.

In Colorado teen and pre-teen use has GONE DOWN since legalization, and adult use remains constant. Of course, official use data shows it going up as they are comparing the “medical marijuana” construct to the “legal marijuana” construct.

Anyone who believes there’s a bunch of people in Colorado smoking pot after legalization that were not smoking it before...is deluded by their emotions.

Legalization does not increase the use of a drug that was ubiquitous prior to legalization.

And it’s ubiquitous in most states in the union. Which is one of the reasons over 60% of the American public supports full legalization.


125 posted on 06/17/2018 3:45:58 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Mariner
Homocide is certainly not equivalent to illegal drug use, but laws against either one are "prohibitions", which you seemed determined to eliminate. Is that because you just want to get high, or are you an anarchist? I'm not judging - anarchists can be pretty entertaining.

On the second subject, while personally I find the practice repugnant, there are many pedophiles that believe that their practices should be decriminalized, and it's persons like YOU that are the close minded hypocrites.

It's no secret that Pedophiles have argued that their activities have a positive effect on children - it's just that phony studies by psychologists and psychiatrists (you know, the same people that say marijuana is a "gateway drug") cause discrimination against their activities. We all know that psychologists aren't real scientists anyway, right?

Besides, just as there were no marijuana laws at the founding of the United States, children at that same time were legally considered PROPERTY. It was only the rise of what you and your friends would call "Nanny State Laws" during the late 19th and early 20th centuries that made pedophilia a crime against a person. So if we just go back to the good old days, like you and your friends want, it's "no harm, no foul", right?

LOL, so you see, I'm not really that close minded after all!

Although I admit that I wouldn't want to live anywhere near a place that decriminalized pedophilia, I'm willing to apply your clear thinking ability and be OK with it if pedophilia is legalized in the community where you and your family live.


126 posted on 06/17/2018 4:13:35 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: NobleFree
I don't like being stuck with the bill for trying to enforce the War on Pot, nor the bills for the additional destruction created by the War on Pot's putting profits in criminal hands.

So will you adopt a doper or not?

127 posted on 06/17/2018 5:22:37 PM PDT by itsahoot (Welcome to the New USA where Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity is a mental disorder.)
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To: indthkr

“Homocide is certainly not equivalent to illegal drug use, but laws against either one are “prohibitions”, which you seemed determined to eliminate.”

That’s a silly conflation that could only be the product of a simple and weak mind.

If you don’t have the horsepower to understand the context of the statement, you’d do well to shut up and quit looking stupid.


128 posted on 06/17/2018 5:24:46 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: freedumb2003
Don’t have some other ankles to bite?

Of corse I do but yanking your chain pays well.

129 posted on 06/17/2018 5:25:04 PM PDT by itsahoot (Welcome to the New USA where Islam is a religion of peace and Christianity is a mental disorder.)
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To: Mariner
LOL!

As I suspected, you're not willing to put down your crack pipe long enough to understand what "context of the statement" even means.
130 posted on 06/17/2018 5:41:23 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: itsahoot
Maybe you could start the first "Adopt a Doper" program so the taxpayers won't be stuck with the inevitable bills created by the doper?

[OMITTED BY ITSAHOOT: Anyone who before legalization was responsible enough to not use illegal marijuana will after legalization remain responsible enough to not become a bill-creater.] I don't like being stuck with the bill for trying to enforce the War on Pot, nor the bills for the additional destruction created by the War on Pot's putting profits in criminal hands.

So will you adopt a doper or not?

Addressed in the text you omitted.

Will you be passing the hat for for trying to enforce the War on Pot, and for the additional destruction created by the War on Pot's putting profits in criminal hands?

131 posted on 06/17/2018 6:18:03 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: indthkr
studies by psychologists and psychiatrists (you know, the same people that say marijuana is a "gateway drug")

No, they don't - the "gateway effect" is purely a fabrication of prohibitionists.

132 posted on 06/17/2018 6:21:30 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: NobleFree
"the "gateway effect" is purely a fabrication of prohibitionists."

So in other words, based on the context of the discussion, you would agree with Pedophiles that it's OK for adults to bugger elementary school children, because the psychologists who would claim it's harmful are prohibitionists.
133 posted on 06/17/2018 6:52:23 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: indthkr
based on the context of the discussion

The context of my statement was your incorrect claim that psychologists and psychiatrists say marijuana is a "gateway drug."

134 posted on 06/17/2018 7:12:02 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: TheStickman
yes, let's add to the number of impaired drivers. That number to increase does give me a warm and fuzzy. Colorado has seen a significant increase in MVAs.

And yes, your are right I have never used cannabis. I also have never had a beaker of cyanide, but I do know it 'might' be a bad choice.

135 posted on 06/17/2018 7:29:11 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: indthkr

Here’s what your War on Drugs did to these children =>

______

“Mass search of Georgia high school students included genital touching ...”

June 06, 2017

a) Deputies ordered students to stand facing the wall with their hands and legs spread wide apart;

b) Deputies touched and manipulated students’ breasts and genitals;

c) Deputies inserted fingers inside girls’ bras, and pulled up girls’ bras, touching and partially exposing their bare breasts;

d) Deputies touched girls’ underwear by placing hands inside the waistbands of their pants or reaching up their dresses;

e) Deputies touched girls’ vaginal areas through their underwear;

f) Deputies cupped or groped boys’ genitals and touched their buttocks through their pants.

This is shocking, at least at first glance. But perhaps it shouldn’t be. If police believe the drug war gives them authorization to conduct anal and vaginal cavity searches, forced enemas, and colonoscopies based on little more than a police officer’s suspicion that someone is hiding some quantity of illegal drugs, allegations of a little over-the-clothes groping of high school students ought not surprise us in the least.

According to the lawsuit, the deputies had a list of 13 suspected students. Three of them were in school that day. For that, they searched 900 students. (And, let’s just point out again, found nothing. In a school of 900.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3559602/posts

______

It makes you wonder how many children have been molested in the name of your War on Drugs, doesn’t it?


136 posted on 06/17/2018 7:31:16 PM PDT by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: Mariner

What the heck???? Are they freaking morons??? Did not anyone live through the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s and see the destruction that drugs brought??


137 posted on 06/17/2018 7:35:32 PM PDT by DouglasKC
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To: DouglasKC
Did not anyone live through the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s and see the destruction that drugs brought??

Were drugs legal then? If not, those days tell us nothing about the wisdom of legalizing.

138 posted on 06/17/2018 7:42:00 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: NobleFree
"incorrect claim that psychologists and psychiatrists say marijuana is a "gateway drug." "

It's not a claim, it's a statement of fact that some psycologist's and psychiatrist's have gone on record saying that MJ is in fact a gateway drug.

I'm not claiming that the psychologists and psychiatrists are are correct in their opinion - simply that they have made these statements publically.

For example, in April of 2016, a psychiatrist by the name of Robert L. DuPont MD went on record in the New York Times claiming that MJ is a "gateway drug".

If you don't believe me, just google it for yourself.
139 posted on 06/17/2018 7:45:54 PM PDT by indthkr
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To: crusty old prospector

If you think our current laws are preventing anyone from using marijuana, you’re sadly mistaken. The only thing those laws are doing, is creating the conditions for a criminal black market to thrive.

End the prohibition and that market (and its attendant criminality) goes away.


140 posted on 06/17/2018 8:08:53 PM PDT by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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