Posted on 01/09/2003 6:41:06 PM PST by 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.
No one would disagree with that. The primary disagreement is over what constitutes "reason".
As I replied to you in post 89 (to which you never replied), "No, society imposes that cost on itself."
How does Joe Smith's marijuana use degrade me? Does his alcohol use not likewise degrade me?
We need laws to keep us from violating the rights of others---nothing more.
He's exposed you as someone given to fits of froth-flecked lunacy.
I have a better idea: educate yourself (start with www.druglibrary.org) and then speak out for truth and sanity.
That's the one. No one has ever been able to reproduce the results he claims to have observed from exposure to THC. They can, however reproduce those results by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Actually, I should hope that Scully and Mudler have better things to do.
If anyone should leave FR, it's someone like you, who is not the least bit interested in debate. That is one of the dumbest responses I have ever seen on this forum, and it deliberately tries to avoid the topic because you don't have an answer for it.
If you read it again, my apparently animated colleague, you may see that my answer is: "That shouldn't have to be the job of federal agents."
Such personal comments. Maybe you skipped by this?
n : a drug that produces numbness or stupor; often taken for pleasure or to reduce pain; extensive use can lead to addiction
As I said, wonderful, you've learned the common definition of the word "narcotic." It still doesn't change the fact that "narcotics," as a classification of drugs, are drugs derived from the poppy, now does it?
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