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 ...
Marijuana destroys lives. I have seen the effect on relatives and neighbors over the years.
I read quite a while ago that since they legalized the use of marijuana, that vehicle accident claims have gone up. Just searched and found this Forbes article:
Crash Rates Spike After Recreational Marijuana Is Legalized, New Studies Show
I'm 75. I'll be 76 in August if I live that long. I've already outlived everyone else in my family. Nobody ever made it to 75. The youngest died at 51, so yes, I feel I'm living on borrowed time. I may not even be alive to vote a third time for Trump in 2024. I'd hoped that I would be dead before seeing this country turned into a third world shithole, but that hope is long gone.
The great delusion is that pot isn’t as bad as alcohol when neither are good.
Recreational drugs of any kind shouldn't be legalized, because like gay marriage, it then opens up the way for liberals to take it even farther. They like to introduce perversion and aberrant behavior, piece by piece, and they've been allowed to get away with it.
Well, a lot of people are going to have to live here after you’re gone. I can sympathize with wanting to see the lefties get what they deserve, good and hard, but others will suffer. as well.
I would suggest that drugs themselves aren’t the problem here. The REAL problem is that this rampant abuse of narcotics takes place in a society where the personal consequences for bad decisions have been legislated or regulated out of existence. That is a recipe for disaster.
Many of the problems associated with drug abuse would disappear if drugs were legalized, taxpayer-funded health care ceased to exist, and all crimes that are commonly associated with drug addicts were prosecuted harshly — or met with lethal resistance by the targeted victims.
That is an entirely different argument than the "people will steal it anyway"-argument you led with.
So: You are also in favor - for the same reasons - of again prohibiting alcohol?
Regards,
Hello??? Others are already suffering because of liberal policies.
I don't drink the shit anyway, so I could give a rat's ass what they do with it. The bottom line is that whether it be drugs or alcohol, or any substance the government allows you to sniff, inject, or swallow, they will be getting their share of the bucks from it, no matter how it effects peoples' lives. The government runs illegal programs, and makes money off of it. They throw money at fake wars, and make money from it. Everything the government does, you can bet your sweet ass, it's putting money in their pockets. I don't have to help politicians get any wealthier than they already are.
People will steal anything if it isn't nailed down, and they will steal it even if it is. There are all kinds of thieves, and I came across all kinds working in NY State's prison system for 25 years. And then there's the thieves that run the government. Not all the criminals are behind bars.
Tax collected-— 1 penny
Money spent on damages-—3 dollars.
When you see what it has done to Portland (which had a serious drug problem since the 80’s) it should be no surprise to anyone...
Except local gov who were told it was going to raise revenue.
Another lie.
The Federal government, since the founding of this nation, has always wanted to tax the financial success of booze. It amazes me that the Feds hasn’t done the same with cannabis.
Other than taxation reasons, this isn’t a Federal issue. Banning alcohol, weed, tobacco, e-cigarette’s, or whatever should be done at the state levels.
I am not a supporter of absolyte cannabis legalization. As a police officer if almost 40 years experience I’ve seen too much that convinces me that recreational/non-medicinal cannabis use is a destructive thing. I feel exactly the same way about alcohol, with wisdom coming from too many years as an active alcoholic (10 years sober praise God). Alcohol has many great applications as a metal parts cleaner, an antiseptic, and maybe medicinally...but as for casual/recreational use it is a destructive thing. The same applies to cannabis. It has some legitimate uses in medicine, in the making of hemp products that are effective consumer products....but it’s use as a casual/recreational intoxicant it has terrible impact.
Complete legalization of cannabis is a horrible idea. But it is hypocrisy to have legal booze but not legal cannabis.
Mexican cartels and Chinese Triads have huge grow operations, all over the state.
Illegal weed production and sales have skyrocketed.
Just need to undercut the very high "legal" price.
RE: Everything gets stolen in NYC. and NY would benefit from shooting a number of thieves.
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I cannot locate an old reference in which a police official stated the average number of crimes perpetrated by one criminal before an arrest for one of them. It may have been 80 or something.
So like Robert Ringer and Dennis Prager we should imagine a large number of Dems and other criminals are on the streets and sidewalks when we go out, people “who represent a danger to themselves and to us” and are irrational and “unstable.” (Ringer).
Just on some types of crime:
“The Vast Majority of Perpetrators Will Not Go to Jail or Prison”
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system
Thank you.
Btw, I believe most if not all drugs are Bad News. I recommend people don’t TAKE drugs. And as I noted elsewhere, marijuana today is reportedly super potent and not “mellow yellow.” I suspect many “it’s not harmful” pro-legalization folks gave up pot in the 80s.
But I can’t ban drugs because I don’t like them. If the govt could ban stuff because of like/dislike, I’d recommend that govt ban PowerPoint and Springsteen.
Virginia is getting their tax money through sales tax from anything the marijuana growers buy as well as the property taxes for the homes they live in, all paid for with marijuana growing money.
“But we’re collecting TAXES on it.”
That was the argument in favor of legalization in California.
But instead black market pot sales still dwarf legal sales.
The pot farms here are international cartel operations. Mexico, China, you name it, they are here. We had a Hmong grow operation get slaughtered last year in Riverside County. Somebody shot all of them, left the piles of cash and pot untouched.
It took a Constitutional Amendment to ban booze. What ridiculous torture of the Constitution is required to ban pot?
Btw if you say the Commerce Clause, you’re a philosophical cousin of gun grabbers, comrade.
Apparently, the plain language of the Constitution is too complex for ordinary mortals to understand. Only the brilliant minds of SCOTUS Justices can parse the meaning. /s
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