Weed Whackers The anti-marijuana forces, and why they're wrong

National Review ^ | 8/20/2001 | Rich Lowry

[WindMinstrel]

ping

[Khepera]

Sing to the tune of "Bringing in the shieves"

Legalize the weed,
Legalize the weed,
Collect a lot of taxes,
Legalize the weed.

Legalize the weed,
Legalize the weed,
We're tired of being criminals,
Legalize the weed.

[jodorowsky]

"Drug use," as Bill Bennett has said, "is dangerous and immoral."

"Bill Bennett," as jodorowsky has said with much more evidence, "is dangerous and immoral."

[EBUCK]

BUMP for later read...(really long article!)

EBUCK

[liberallarry]

Nice article. But it will convince neither the idiots nor the bigots.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

In the end, marijuana prohibition basically relies on cultural prejudice.

BULLSPLATTER! It takes an idiot to take drugs and a bigot to agree that they are ok for society

[robertpaulsen]

Other than the medicinal benefits, Rich's article in favor of legalization can be summed up as, "Hey, why not?". Not much of an argument, although the stoners are probably going, "Yeah, see, why not?"

I'd like to see an argument why it is better for society to legalize yet another drug. And don't assume that the problems with current legal drugs (ie. alcohol) would go away.

[WyldKard]

But listen carefully to the drug warriors, and you can hear some of them quietly reading marijuana out of the drug war. James Q. Wilson, for instance, perhaps the nation's most convincing advocate for drug prohibition, is careful to set marijuana aside from his arguments about the potentially ruinous effects of legalizing drugs.

Bingo. Almost every drug warrior here on FR can't help but invoke the specter of crack or heroin when talking about marijuana decrim. It's as if they know, in their heart of hearts, that it isn't anywhere near as bad a drug, and they know they will be beaten down and look silly if they aren't able to craft an appropriate strawman argument.

This is pretty much what happened with the Brits. All the Bobbies stood up and said "Look, we have enough problems prosecuting REAL crimes, and protecting people from DANGEROUS drugs. We're not going to bother wasting our time with this piddly marijuana crap, so get used to it." And after that, they figured they might as well reclassify the stuff...

As always, this decision should be left up to the individual states, but the Federal Government long ago stuck out the term "State Sovreignty" from it's dictionary.

[WyldKard]

BULLSPLATTER! It takes an idiot to take drugs and a bigot to agree that they are ok for society

So naturally, only idiots use cigarettes and alcohol, and you are actively campaigning for them to be made illegal?

[FreeTally]

I'd like to see an argument why it is better for society to legalize yet another drug.

I'd like to see an arguemnt as to why a pot smoker shouldn't use deadly force to stop yopu idiots from violating their natural rights.

[WyldKard]

I'd like to see an argument why it is better for society to legalize yet another drug. And don't assume that the problems with current legal drugs (ie. alcohol) would go away.

I can give you the only answer that counts: The Federal Government doesn't have the authority to criminalize weed, and the issue is one that has to be decided upon by the individual states. Speaking about against the abject rape of the Constitution that is the Wo(s)D is pretty much the only reason that matters.

[biblewonk]

sarcasm time:

A 15 year old friend of my daughters got into his dad's Schnops this weekend and drank till he puked. I'm sure glad it wasn't weed though.

[jodorowsky]

I'd like to see an argument why it is better for society to legalize yet another drug.

I'd like to see an argument why a conservative would adopt flat out communist rhetorical tactics like confusing "society" with "government".

[WindMinstrel]

My brother's first drunk was with peppermint schnapps. He *still* has trouble with a strong taste of peppermint -- 20 years later!

[gdani]

I'd like to see an argument why it is better for society to legalize yet another drug

In the case of marijuana, it would be re-legalize

[newgeezer]

Ironically, my first impression of this article is that reading it would have taken the better part of a day while "under the influence," from what I remember about the experience so many years ago. Plus, retention would have been dismal.

(Which is why I got a degree in Accounting.) :-D

[biblewonk]

Don't take this personally but your SN is right there on my list of subtle oral sex SN's. It's right there with Danceswithtrout.

[Dakmar]

Answer this: How does it benefit society to put people in prison for marijuana possession?

[WindMinstrel]

I...I don't understand