Posted on 06/23/2018 2:47:03 PM PDT by Mariner
Some day soon, even as sweet, skunky smoke drifts in from the streets outside, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other staunch opponents of marijuana may draw inspiration from a true believer named Morris Sheppard. After the repeal of national Prohibition in 1933 and until his death in 1941, the Texas senator embraced a yearly custom. A progressive Democrat often considered “the father of Prohibition,” Sheppard would rise on the Senate floor to rail against alcohol and call for a repeal of Repeal.
“It was a ritual,” Daniel Okrent, author of the 2010 book “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition,” explained in an interview. “Clearly he didn’t expect anything was going to happen. It was paying homage to his cause.”
Sheppard, a proponent of bank reform and an advocate of women’s suffrage, may have been the country’s most sincere Prohibitionist, but he ended up on the losing side of history. As such, he faced a dilemma that may soon become familiar to another group of prohibitionists: marijuana opponents. When society turns away from a cause, how long should its supporters fight on? After committing themselves to a lengthy, even decades-long struggle, how can they simply let it drop?
On July 1, Massachusetts will join states such as Colorado, Washington, and California, whose voters have chosen to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. The implementation of the law has been bumpy, not least because Sessions and the federal Justice Department still have the authority to crack down on cannabis use.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
I’m not holding my breath. I promise :)
The great lie of Liberalism and their quest for Utopia. They will always be delusional because Liberalism is like heroin to these people.
What should we do? Wait 10 or 20 years from the inevitable backlash due to drug addiction, pain and the destruction of families.
A few beers does most people no harm. A few hits off a bong won't kill most people - maybe any people.
But what about the chicks that get “loose” after a hit, or when they get drunk? They will often trade sex for drugs, while guys trade drugs for sex. From my observations a long time ago, it doesn't take long to get really basic in human psychology.
The other issue I see is mixing drugs. Been going on long before fentanyl hit the streets. A night of pot use combined with drinking leads to very different outcomes than a night with a single home grown (quality controlled) joint.
When I was young PCP was the drug of choice to mix into pot, to get a stronger high. And the pot was not nearly as strong as today's stuff. Dealers mix in a stronger drug to get increased sales, or to achieve a more nefarious outcome.
Predicting the effects of pot use seems to have many more variables than predicting the effects of alcohol use. We simply do not know enough to effectively police its use.
Both alcohol and drugs have been used and misused in my family, as in virtually everyone reading this. Neither had many positive outcomes from what I could see.
Oh Mariner. You should know me by now. My hyperbolic sarcasm is never intended to make some point.
Plenty of people have tried and failed to set you dopers straight with facts and information about the matter. You will never get it. So I certainly won’t argue with you. I’ll just poke fun and snark and have a good time instead.
The problem I see if removing a stigma from something that clearly alters our brains...especially the brains of young children. Remove the stigma and make it more available and INVARIABLY it will increase. Look at abortion..prime example.
It saved my life and health, so screw all you so much better people. Damm when did the free republic fill up with know better (leftist) people.
If I don’t infringe on another persons rights or freedoms, then it’s nobodies business.
All, support your self don’t go to work high, don’t drive high and to me most important be a reasonable parent. I’m in my late 50’s
No, 20 years ago the big popular drug was marijuana. I remember it well. I was in college and smoking acres of it. And 20 years before that, the big popular drug was also marijuana.
“No, 20 years ago the big popular drug was marijuana. I remember it well. I was in college and smoking acres of it. And 20 years before that, the big popular drug was also marijuana. “
From as long as I can remember alcohol has been the drug of choice by just about everyone. Even most potheads.
But since I was in 8th grade in 1969 pot was always nr 2. And probably long before that.
I absolutely hate it. That doesn’t mean it should be illegal. We must pray for revival in the hearts of our people, that they will turn from mind altering drugs and embrace holiness. This needs to be by choice, not by law.
“What should we do? Wait 10 or 20 years from the inevitable backlash due to drug addiction, pain and the destruction of families.”
CA has had “medical” marijuana since 1997. That’s time enough for murders to have risen, highways to become deadlier, and ODs to be skyrocketing.
None of that has happened. The murder rate from 1996-2016 went from 9.1/100K to 4.9/100K. It is still below the national average average of 5.3/100K.
CA’s highways are safer than most other states. Eyeballing the table at the link below, CA is tied for 14th safest.
CA also has the 7th lowest rate of OD deaths among the states, and had practically no increase between 2010 and 2016. (Link to CDC table below)
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http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3665634/posts?page=80#80
Mildly intoxicating is not "harmless." Try again.
What do you do as an employer in a state that legalizes weed? If you are a government contractor or subcontractor, drug tests are mandatory. It is getting increasingly difficult to find prospective hires that can pass a test
Ummm...really?? You're holding up CALIFORNIA as some kind of paradise and trying to make the link that it's because of "medical" (in quotes because there's no such thing) marijuana?
CALIFORNIA. The place where leftist mental illness is has taken root, flourished and grown?
CALIFORNIA. The place where homosexuality, child molestation and HOLLYWOOD are rampant?
CALIFORNIA. The place that never met a commie they didn't like??
lol...ok! Good argument!
Oh, puh-leeze. I have posted links many times.
None of which ever turned out to support your claims.
I have told you where you can look up the original research publications for yourself.
That's not evidence - so I'll put you down for "excuses for not posting evidence" as I expected.
I've found at a quick search that 55 million adults currently use marijuana. Can you admit to yourself and us that there is not 55 million adults currently using hard drugs? For it to be a "gateway drug" the gate seems very narrow.
The only connection between marijuana and hard drugs is that a person who is willing to violate the law by using marijuana, soon finds out that nothing bad happened to him. He therefore is willing to try some other drug because he knows from personal experience that he was lied to by "the powers that be" about the so called harmful effects of marijuana. Understanding that youth feel invincible and all that. It isn't the marijuana that is the gateway, but the illicitness that is the gateway. Decriminalizing marijuana stops it from being a gateway.
I smoked weed 45 years ago. I stopped, got married, enlisted, held a Top Secret Security Clearance (yes, I full disclosed my illicit drug history through the Human Reliability Program), was honorably discharged, worked for ITT, Sprint, MCI/Verizon and retired after 31 years at Verizon. I have run like a scalded dog from marijuana for the past 45 years because it is illegal and I didn't want to ruin my life with a police record.
As a former head freak, I can tell you I am a better person for my past experiences and alcohol affects individuals and society much worse than marijuana on a personal and societal level.
Still battling straw men, I see. Ken "held up" CA as a place where the hysterical scaremongering of the Reefer Madness set was not borne out by events - not "paradise."
yeah...the mental illness that IS California is a GREAT endorsement for legalized dope. The moral, ethical and Godless abyss that IS California is a GREAT endorsement for legalized dope.
Marijuana is MORE accessible to teenagers BECAUSE it is illegal for adults - so sellers have no marginal incentive to not sell to kids.
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