Posted on 01/02/2003 5:17:17 AM PST by Sparta
BENTON - Prosecutors around the country are being urged to take a stand against attempts to legalize or decriminalize controlled substances - in particular, marijuana.
“Those who support drug legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the media,” reads a Nov. 1 letter to prosecutors from the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks. “And they do not mind deceiving the American public as well.”
The letter warns of “incremental victories” by those in favor of legalizing drugs and notes the “key role” local prosecutors play in anti-drug efforts.
Included with the letter was an open letter also dated Nov. 1 from Scott M. Burns, deputy director for state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, urging prosecutors “to take a stand publicly and tell Americans the truth” about marijuana and warning of “deceptive campaigns to normalize and ultimately legalize the use of marijuana.”
“I think it would be a nightmare to legalize it,” agreed Scott County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Boyd. “It would lead to so many more people out there high operating machinery and other things.” Boyd will be sworn in as the next county prosecutor at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Of the 16 million drug users in America, 77 percent use marijuana and 60 percent of teenagers in treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis, according to Burns. “No drug matches the threat posed by marijuana.”
Marijuana, Burns writes in the letter, is not harmless but has risen as a factor in emergency room visits 176 percent since 1994, surpassing heroin.
Burns writes of the increasing potency of marijuana and its addictive properties in addition to being a “gateway drug” for many people.
“I would agree that marijuana is a gateway drug to hardcore drugs,” Boyd said. Marijuana is “the great seducer,” Boyd said, because “it breaks down a person’s defense to say ‘no’ to the harder drugs.”
John McMinn of Charleston, administrator for the Circuit 33 Drug Court, also agrees that marijuana remains a problem for the courts.
According to National Institute of Justice statistics on arrests, 39 percent of the males and 26 percent of the females test positive for marijuana, and 53 percent of male juveniles and 38 percent of female juveniles test positive. “Roughly 80 percent of adult offenders in the 33rd Circuit Court come in with some kind of a drug issue be it alcohol or some other drug,” McMinn said.
“More people enter drug treatment every year because of marijuana as their drug of choice,” he added.
McMinn said a 2001 study of students in grades 8-10 showed 20 percent of 8th graders had used marijuana and 9 percent were current users, defined as having used the drug within the past 30 days. By the 12th grade, nearly half of the students had tried marijuana and 22 percent were current users.
McMinn does think research on medicinal and therapeutic properties should be pursued: “There is still so much research left to be done regarding the use of marijuana - the good and the bad.”
However, “there are other drugs that will work as well as marijuana,” he added, with some of the alternatives being more addictive and others that are just as effective while being safer.
What question? Oops that's right you are a marijuana advocate, all that matters is what happens in the millisecond of now.
Nevermind that the 30 years of Libertarian Party being has been about the glorification of marijuana and drugs.
Rubbish---the LP has been about freedom, including the freedom to use drugs, not their "glorification." Is the "Libertarian drug culture" just a rephrasing of your lie about "glorification"?
As would I (I see you as the person lacking the intellect to work their way up). But I, unlike you, also respect a person who has already worked their way up and earned substantial vacation time.
than a cop killer drug dealer/drug culture advocates that you and other Libertarians on FR wish you could glorify.
Liar, I neither glorify such people nor wish I could glorify them.
Huh I guess Libertarian Gary Reams political campaign of a "reefeerendum" is not glotification.
LOL! You all are stuck in the 60's(drugs are good) with a 90's Clinton pretzel twisting parsing.
Interesting that Clinton and Libertarians were both disfunctional products of the LBJ 60's.
No, it's not; I'm glad you finally figured that out.
LOL! You all are stuck in the 60's(drugs are good)
Liar, I have often stated that I do NOT think drugs are "good." Keep lying about me---it shows the true character of the Drug Warriors.
America needs more folks willing to enter the fray and get the ball rollin'...MUD
Leastways not on this issue...does he have an opinion on any other issues?!
FReegards...MUD
Do you think Jesus Christ wouldda been pro-WOSD?!
I think not, although I'm sure he wouldn't have been pro-StoniesEverywhere, either.
FReegards...MUD
LOL...MUD
I think not, although I'm sure he wouldn't have been pro-StoniesEverywhere, either.
Nobody here is "pro-StoniesEverywhere".
Berkeley war protestor in 68.
Liar, I have often stated that I don't think war against commies is "bad".
Huh, too bad no one interviewed you in 75 with the start of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the millions they slaughtered by 1979.
We all know your hero Harry Browne(Libertarian Party candidate for President in 2000) well. He's a pot loving peacenik who probably was saying in 75 that the Khmer Rouge was no big deal.
I've read reports that sugar is 12 times stonger now than 30 years ago. /sarcasm
LOL...so you reckon all pot-smokers are extensions of Cheech&Chong? Pot usedta make me sleepy and since I don't sleep much anyway, it really didn't fit into my adult life, but I knew folks who could smoke it an lead perfectly productive lives. It's not good fer yer lungs and often causes eating binges that aren't good fer yer waistline, but I can assure you the WhackyWeed ain't nearly the Tool of the Devil the pro-WOSD folks like to make it out to be.
FReegards...MUD
Now yer just bein' silly, my FRiend. I voted straight GOP in that election, but I followed the Libertarian candidate's argument during that election and there was no "marijuana glorification" whatsoever, just a call to get rid of the embicilic WarOnSomeDrugs that we've allowed the fascists to use to strip Americans of many of their Civil Rights.
You had to know that and are just being silly to make yer insupportable argument 'cuz yer much smarter than that on other issues, IMHO.
FReegards...MUD
And I can assure you that "Whackyweed" is not the "sign of the Angel" that you seem and Libertarians on FR preach it to be.
I was 12 in 1975. What are you babbling about now?
We all know your hero Harry Browne
Another lie; Harry Browne is not my hero. He's said some silly things about national defense, and I oppose his party's open-border policy.
(Libertarian Party candidate for President in 2000) well. He's a pot loving peacenik who probably was saying in 75 that the Khmer Rouge was no big deal.
What do your "probabilities" have to do with me---or your alleged "Libertarian drug culture"?
You had to know that and are just being silly to make yer insupportable argument 'cuz yer much smarter than that on other issues, IMHO
Huh, why don't you call Gary Reams, "silly", he is the one who ran his campaign as a "reeferemdum".
See reply #158.
That's never been my argument or that of the Libertarians...what's wrong is that the "solution" is worse than the "problem."
FReegards...MUD
BTW...do you really think the WOSD is working? AT ALL?!! If we really wanted to make pot usage more rare, we'd institute drug-testing and hit at the Demand side of the equation. Why don't we do that? It's becuz the Fascists who support the WOSD wouldn't be able to trample our civil liberties in pursuit of their CauseDuJour if we were able to get the "problem" under control using drug-testing.
FReegards...MUD
Dittoes!! His post 9/11/01 comments made me disgusted and I'll never support anything he says ever again...whatta DOLT and an embarrassment fer the Party!!
FReegards...MUD
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