Pro-Pot Group Challenges Bush Marijuana Policy (BARF ALERT)

Focus On The Family | January 9, 2003 | David Brody

[Sparta]

A pot-legalization group is taking on the White House over marijuana.

A group that wants to see marijuana legalized is angry with the Bush administration because they say the government is being too critical of pot.

The issue all started with a letter from Scott Burns, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control. In the letter, Burns told district attorneys across the country that they must better educate the public about marijuana use.

Keith Stroup, who heads up the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), claims the administration is going over the top suggesting that marijuana is the biggest drug threat in America.

"We're simply going to call them on this lie," Stroup said. "The Bush administration, for some reason, is in the process of ignoring the real drug problems we face and instead focusing their entire anti-drug apparatus on responsible marijuana smokers."

But Burns said it's time to get serious about the problem.

"It's something that the administration, I believe, has an obligation to talk about," Burns said.

He added that in some parts of the country heroin is the biggest problem. In other parts, it's cocaine. But the common thread is marijuana.

"We can't ignore marijuana," Burns said. "Sixty percent of the folks addicted to drugs in this country are using marijuana. If we don't talk about it and talk about it loudly, we're ignoring two-thirds of the problem."

As for his letter to prosecutors to raise awareness about marijuana, he said the response has been sobering.

"I've received calls from prosecutors all across the country who have said, 'I didn't know,' " Burns said.

That is precisely the reason for the letter: to make sure everyone knows that the problem is getting worse every day.

[jayef]

Also, weed smokers create an economy as I said (free or "black market") that corrupts others. (seen the ads on TV lately?) It also dissipates one's well-being IMHO and that's a "bummer."

No comment. Just reposting for everyone to see.

[jayef]

Yep, those "Rights to... Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of the Perfect High." I shudda remembered that! -- the right to any property ever in existence. All I gotta say is that if a free-baser burns up his house, he better stay in it, cause there'll be public out in the street watching it burn!

No comment. Just posting for everyone to see.

[jayef]

It would seem so; and if so, we need to shore up the Constitution to reflect greater national capabilities in our governance.

No comment. Just reposting for everyone to see.

[jayef]

I'm saying that impaired and/or freaked out people impose upon us all, to clean up ther messes, whether we accept it or not. I wouldn't accept it, if I were you. I choose to be free of it, in whatever ways we may, with our counstitution in its present or revised form.

No comment. Just reposting for everyone to see.

[jayef]

The People and our Republic have the authority and means to distinguish between one chemical which may be used for impairment, and another. It's as basic as that. We have the freedom to legislate about such things. We really do. Really. No, really. That's what we do in politics. We make decisions.

No comment. Just reposting for everyone to see.

[unspun]

j, you're effecting my sense of modesty, here. Appreciate the highlights.

I think you're exposing me as a conservative Republican!

[tacticalogic]

If we don't see the need to justify our choices, then by all means we the People need to elect representatives who will legislate in measured ways to keep us from being unruly as well as unaccountable.

And if those representatives, or the bureaucrats they empower to make choices for them, don't need to justify their choices, why do we have, or need a Constitution?

[Polonius]

Jesus healed with cannabis indeed! This bit of propaganda is almost as offensive as "what would Jesus drive."

[jayef]

You're the Kasey Kasem of woddie one liners. The hits keep on coming. Please feel free to share more of these inanities with us.

[BlackJack]

Mike4Freedom you are right on, pot should be legalized

[jayef]

Oh, I'm exposing you allright.

[unspun]

And if those representatives, or the bureaucrats they empower to make choices for them, don't need to justify their choices, why do we have, or need a Constitution?

Interesting episode of Enterprise, right now -- about rival stranded on a moon looking for ways to survive and cooperate, kinda like that movie awhile back with Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett, Jr.

Well, representatives and bureaucrats do need to justify what they do and be accountable, by the beauty of our constitutional Republic. I also like the buffer against corrupted central govenment provided by our limitation of powers and the 10th Amendment -- though we've grown some as a nation since the late 1700's and need to act more cohesively in numerous ways that the powdered wig set hadn't the ability to analyse this far into the future. That's one reason why they made provision for amendment, of course.

We don't need the feds to be sending the noses of their dogs into our pants pockets, of course (nor the local Sherrif's Deputy). There are reasonable things all elements should do and unreasonable things they shouldn't do.

[unspun]

Jesus healed with cannabis indeed! This bit of propaganda is almost as offensive as "what would Jesus drive."

Hey, as I recall he rode a donkey! Could it have had a hemp harness? Do ya think that proximity to hemp could have given Jesus the power to raise up from the dead?

So many wonderful things happen with Jesus. How could it not be from THC?

[Hobo anonymous]

Ok, apparently im not up to date on my Drugs 101.. so uh.. I've been humbled and.. I'll just stay quiet on this matter. lol

Me= "Just took it like an ethnic albanian"

[motzman]

Ok, apparently im not up to date on my Drugs 101.. so uh.. I've been humbled and.. I'll just stay quiet on this matter. lol

Well, you've got a leg up then on many people here who'd NEVER admit they're wrong, or weren't educated about a topic.

Facts and information are relatively easy to acquire, they just require a little time and desire. However, a know-it-all attitude will keep you ignorant, and arrogant. (he said matter-of-factly..lol)

[MrLeRoy]

And the FDA has been given the authority to decide what is safe to market and not to market, in the way of food and drugs.

Contrary to the Constitution.

It would seem so;

I'm pleased to find that we agree on this point.

and if so, we need to shore up the Constitution to reflect greater national capabilities in our governance.

I would vote against such an amendment; I see no reason why food or drug regulation needs to be nationalized.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

narcotic

adj 1: of or relating to or designating narcotics;

I see you've learned to read a dictionary. To bad you haven't yet figured out how to engage your brain.

[MrLeRoy]

That post does not establish that cannabis acts in a significantly different way than alcohol. And even if that was true, you have not responded to the point that alcohol and opiates (such as heroin) act in the same way, so your attempt to distinguish alcohol from all narcotics fails.

Surely you're not saying, "all chemicals work alike on the human brain?"

Of course not. I'm saying that nicmarlo has yet to present any evidence supporting his notion that there are biochemical grounds for distinguishing alcohol from all illegal drugs.

[MrLeRoy]

"Apples and oranges---abortions are much harder to conceal (and take much more skill to provide) than drugs."

Doesn't matter.

It clearly does matter to your argument that we can expect legalization to increase drug use as much as Roe v Wade increased abortions. The points I cited show why legal restrictions are much more effective against abortion than against drugs.

By your logic, since we now have abortion drugs, that fact means they should be legal and the drugs openly provided on the "free" market.

False; abortion drugs are used on an unwilling person, whereas recreational drugs are used on the willing self.

[MrLeRoy]

From the National Institute on Drug Abuse web site: "Opiates are made from opium, a white liquid in the poppy plant. They're also referred to as narcotics."

More from NIDA: "we do not suppose that the epidemiology of heroin and other narcotics encompasses the epidemiology of all drug use"