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New York City Is Discovering That Legalizing Marijuana Wasn’t Really a Great Idea
PJ Media ^ | 04/17/2023 | Robert Spencer

Posted on 04/17/2023 10:44:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Decriminalizing marijuana, we’ve been told to the point of stupor for years, would simply be a matter of recognizing the way society has changed and coming to a mature accommodation of a widespread current practice. It would free up valuable police resources to deal with actual crimes and real criminals, and end a longstanding injustice in which — you guessed it! — people of color were, we were told, disproportionately targeted for arrest and prosecution. So the state of New York has legalized marijuana, and how’s it going? Doritos and Patchouli oil sales through the roof? Maybe. But there have been a lot of unexpected downsides.

The New York Post reported last Monday that “the Sunday night murder inside a Harlem ‘smoke shop’ near the corner of 125th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard — the second shooting in the neighborhood in the last year — is a savage reminder of the state’s stupendously disastrous legalization of marijuana.” It seems that the state went about the legalization by “virtually eliminating the entire criminal code pertaining to marijuana overnight.” Making matters even worse, “progressive state lawmakers, besotted by a woke vision of the pursuit of equity, decided to reserve the first retail licenses for felons and other ‘justice-involved’ individuals.” They wanted to make legalized marijuana “a vehicle for reparations.” Great idea!

The state has been slow to grant licenses to legal marijuana shops, however, so illegal ones have proliferated, and cops can do little or nothing to stop them, “because having weed on open display isn’t against the law — the cops have to be present to witness a sale in order to issue a violation.” But these places also often sell other illegal drugs and quickly become centers for other crimes as well.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: legalization; marijuana; nyc
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To: pfflier

Just last week on I-35, in Southern Oklahoma a truck driver, hauling a trailer full of bricks, failed to notice the upcoming construction zone, continued driving 70 mph into a line of traffic that had stopped for the construction. He hit 5 other semi-trucks, a pickup truck (that ended up just a cab) and then came to rest on top of a Honda Accord. Needless to say, the two occupants of the Honda died. The driver admitted to “smoking a bowl” of marihuana just before he left on his trip up from the Dallas area, and he was messing with his phone. It was just a massive level of destruction.


21 posted on 04/17/2023 11:17:17 AM PDT by yukong
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To: alexander_busek
"So you are also against legalizing automobiles"

Your thought process is screwed up. Owning a car has always been legal. Using and selling a drug hasn't been.

22 posted on 04/17/2023 11:17:28 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: SeekAndFind
But these places also often sell other illegal drugs and quickly become centers for other crimes as well.

So of course, just as with gun violence, they place the blame where they want instead of where it belongs: With crime and criminals

23 posted on 04/17/2023 11:17:39 AM PDT by Chuckster (Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish)
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To: DoodleBob

This conservative says there is no compelling reason — and no constitutional basis — to have any “federal drug laws” at all.


24 posted on 04/17/2023 11:17:46 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I've just pissed in my pants and nobody can do anything about it." -- Major Fambrough)
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To: SeekAndFind

“The state has been slow to grant licenses to legal marijuana shops”

Imagine if they had repealed Prohibition but made it very difficult to buy state taxed liquor. Well, that was Appalachia and guess what we did.

Virginia made it legal to grow and possess Weed but not sell it. Oddly, nothing really happened but the state is not getting the tax money. I think everyone here is growing it.


25 posted on 04/17/2023 11:17:48 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Biden told Al Roker "America is back". Unfortunately, he meant back to the 1970's)
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To: mass55th
Your thought process is screwed up. Owning a car has always been legal. Using and selling a drug hasn't been.

For most of our nation's history, marijuana was not illegal.

Regards,

26 posted on 04/17/2023 11:18:57 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The house organ of the NYPD whining about something that the people of the state wanted legalized and that was legalized for much of our nation’s history. The NY Post only exists to scare bourgeois surburban white Catholic old biddies in Suffolk County. Oh, they are also anti-gun.


27 posted on 04/17/2023 11:24:38 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: rellic

Exactly.


28 posted on 04/17/2023 11:26:18 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Not my fault, yer Honor. I went to the Alec Baldwin School of Firearms Handling. )
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To: gundog

Gotta go to the Rez...


29 posted on 04/17/2023 11:26:37 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: mass55th
Using and selling a drug hasn't been.

It was until some bureaucrat decided black people were having too much fun and it was then outlawed in 1937. But back in the day it was okay.

Genesis 2-29: “And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

But go along with the fascists if you want. Like guns aren't the problem, people are. Same with pot. And no I don't use it myself.

30 posted on 04/17/2023 11:30:52 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Not my fault, yer Honor. I went to the Alec Baldwin School of Firearms Handling. )
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To: wny

Stay away from the downtown pedestrian mall in Denver, five points, and MLK Blvd.


31 posted on 04/17/2023 11:34:29 AM PDT by dynachrome (“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the US economy.” Rand Paul)
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To: alexander_busek
"For most of our nation's history, marijuana was not illegal."

But then it was. Cars were never outlawed.

32 posted on 04/17/2023 11:36:17 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: BipolarBob
"But back in the day it was okay."

So was opium use.

33 posted on 04/17/2023 11:37:02 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: mass55th
Cars were never outlawed.

Stay tuned...

34 posted on 04/17/2023 11:38:40 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: BipolarBob
"But go along with the fascists if you want."

Believing that the use of drugs of any kind is being fascist? If so, then I'll proudly wear the label, but in today's world, the commies and fascists are the same, and they're the ones destroying this country...not me with my personal beliefs.

35 posted on 04/17/2023 11:39:55 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: gundog
"Stay tuned... "

Hopefully I'll be dead by then.

36 posted on 04/17/2023 11:40:32 AM PDT by mass55th ("Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." ~~ John Wayne )
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To: rellic

Nah. Ban the drugs. Then lock up the stoners. Then incarcerate libertarians for being so ... freaking ... stupid. Finally, please, somebody ban these fools from FR. They are the antithesis of conservative.


37 posted on 04/17/2023 11:40:43 AM PDT by LouAvul (Daniel 4:17: "..the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.." )
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To: mass55th
But then it was. Cars were never outlawed.

Irrelevant and immaterial. According to your logic, it is wrong to legalize something as long as people who don't want to pay for it might still steal it.

Regards,

38 posted on 04/17/2023 11:41:20 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: SeekAndFind
New York mandated that to get a marijuana seller's license, you HAD to be a convicted marijuana felon.

Not that you couldn't be a convicted felon, but you HAD TO BE a convicted felon to sell it legally.

The root problem might just be New York politicians.

39 posted on 04/17/2023 11:41:39 AM PDT by dead (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vFiUUcBkc)
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To: mass55th
That’s the spirit. /s


40 posted on 04/17/2023 11:42:59 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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