Marijuana Downgrade: Three cheers for Yemen; By easing access to marijuana, America will join Yemen in the international race to the bottom

American Thinker ^ | 05/07/2024 | Richard J. Douglas

[SeekAndFind]

What do backward Yemen and the developed United States have in common? An apparently insatiable urge to get stoned on a green bush. In Yemen the green bush, khat, generally is chewed. In our country the green bush, marijuana, is smoked, chewed, vaped, and applied as a cream. The effect is more or less the same: incapacity and degradation.

Imagine being a fly on the wall at the recent Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) senior staff meeting where Biden politicals hanging on at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uncorked their plan to downgrade marijuana on the controlled substances list. You remember HHS: the same public health agency that provided gold-plated COVID-19 advice to the nation while receiving Big Pharma royalties. Does Big Marijuana pay royalties? Bet on it.

One wonders: in the meeting room, is there a portrait of late DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena? Did anyone mention that the Guadalajara Cartel murdered Camarena in 1982 for engineering the destruction of its marijuana plantations? Or that transfers of millions of American dollars each year collected from American drug buyers finance the cartels? Has anyone at DEA or HHS disputed the notion that increasing marijuana use in America will contribute to reducing our shocking national drug addiction? Or that the cartels will vanish?

In Yemen khat is widely available and khat chewing is built into everyday life. Visit Yemen’s ancient capital, Sanaa, and you will see khat-chewing parlors on every block. Couches line the walls in these establishments. By mid-afternoon they are occupied by out-of-it chewers and the country shuts down. Visit Sanaa’s central market and you will see heaps of the green khat bush on tables, ready for local use and for export to the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Gulf states, and even to the USA,

[jimwatx]

I guess you missed the part where I said I quit it a week ago. But just because I don’t consume it any more doesn’t mean I want to deny others that option. You’re just a loon who wants to blame everything on drugs. You’d have a much better case against alcohol but you ignore that because you know prohibition is unfeasible. So instead focus your attacks on marijuana since that’s less popular. But the principle is the same. Unless you are also in favor of outlawing alcohol you are a hypocrite for only going after marijuana.

[JohnBovenmyer]

If the drugs are as safe and well tolerated as claimed, then its users should be able to hold up to all the responsibilities of non-drug users. No getting off or reduced penalties for otherwise crimes because “they were under the influence.” If someone isn’t able to pay for their own food, lodging and other ordinary expenses they shouldn’t be irresponsibly wasting money on optional recreational drugs and thus shouldn’t receiving government handouts. Now if private charities wish to provide support for druggies they are free to do so, but public charities should at least try to avoid that and have mechanisms for booting druggies off the dole. Although the drugs may be presumed legal for adults (juveniles may have different rules) the judicial system should have some mechanism, whereas with due process, someone who’s proven through serial misbehavior, that they can’t responsibly tolerate this or that drug should be able to be legally barred from using it, with the kind of penalties previously applied to all for use pre-legalization.

[MinorityRepublican]

Biden staff advisor to the President: “If we get enough of them using it, we’ll win all upcoming elections.

That's why.

[jimwatx]

I’ve already covered that in an earlier post here when I said drug tests should be considered for welfare recipients. By far the vast majority of marijuana users are self supporting members of society contrary to what you may think.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Unfortunately “drug tests” are not useful markers of recent drug use for some recreational drugs. It would be nice if they were, but other, less straightforward measures may be needed in some cases. Proof may be difficult in some cases but the principles of requiring responsibility for drug use and denying drug use to those who can be reasonably proven to be irresponsible, should be the goals.

[jimwatx]

In heavy users marijuana can be detected in urine for a month, less time for light users. It can be detected longer in people than any other illegal drug. So yes it could be used to screen welfare applicants and those receiving such benefits.