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Didn't Bill Clinton promise to put 100,000 new lawyers on the street?
I don't remeber. I really don't. But in the great depression we legalized a much more destructive drug. Alcohal. God night. I'm head to dinner then bed.
Speaking of marijuana, in Oklahoma we had our first Medical Marijuana Day at the State Capitol last February. At least 50 participants showed up to personally lobby their legislators. But one lady had a big surprise waiting for her when she showed up for her appointment at her state senator's office. The senator had with him two agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to help him to make the case as to why he's against legalizing medical marijuana. The agents gave their tired old spiel how marijuana contains 400 chemicals (isn't is normal for a plant to contain around 400 chemicals) and that it is a gateway drug and addictive. But the lady spoke right up to the two agents, saying she's heard of women whoring for meth but never for pot. The lady who has illnesses treatable thru medical marijuana went on defending her beliefs for medical marijuana but got reduced to tears a couple of times. After nearly an hour, all the agents and the senator had to offer her was their pity. The audio of the meeting is believed to have been recorded by the senator. Needless to say people in high places in Oklahoma are still highly addicted to Reefer Madness. You can see the TV News report of the lady's story here:
I really don't get it. How many people died last year due to smoking Pot? None. How many people died last year due to smoking tobacco? About 625,000 (Tobacco Kills 625,000 in the Americas Each Year). Yet Pot is illegal and cigarettes are fine. What do we think we are accomplishing as a society by locking up so many illegal drug users that we don't have room to keep murderers in jail for their full sentences?
For the record, I'm over 50 and haven't used illegal drugs since college.
That statistic doesn't reflect that a person diagnosed with lung cancer is admitting he smoked pot. He can't be included in statistics because it's illegal. Same way we can't do an honest head count of gays in the military, or illegal immigrants for fear of self incrimination. The only way I imagine we'd get honest statistics is through autopsy testing for THC, but even then most pot smokers I know also smoke tobacco. Pot is unfiltered, leaves tar deposit and has the mechanical potential to create the same lung damage. Emphysema isn't specific to tobacco.
Do I think it comes close to tobacco damage? No because people smoke far less of it by volume. Well, except for Cheech and Woody Harrelson. hahahaaa
Quote:
Originally Posted by ergohead
Yeah, but it's provided a lot of jobs for the law enforcement growth industry.
Noooo silly that doesn't qualify as 'big gubbermint'! Only SEC staff attacking honest hard working financial firms providing jobs for good americans. Why are you communists hating on enron all the time? AND abusing our troops of drug enforcement so unpatriotically??
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nativechief
How can you "ban" a friggin plant that is as GOD made and natural as corn? Its a natural medicine used for hundreds of years...gezzzz
Uranium is also god made and natural. Arsenic too. That argument doesn't work. Pot is used for medicine in limited applications. There's a reason why all medications aren't freely available unless prescribed.
Pure speculation- I don't think pot hurts people physically as much as it does psychologically. Timothy Leery could afford to lose brain cells. Most others cannot, but if it harms no other I can't see why I should be in your way. The moment it starts costing the rest of us who don't is where joe public starts to quarrel with credibility.
With so many people trying to control others through government intervention, it doesn't surprise me we have so many pot smokers. So many people telling others what they can and can't do, it brings so much unneeded stress to life. Wasn't this country founded on the principles of personal freedom and liberty. Or is that all just talk now? I really hate to see our country go down the road of being a police state.
Why is it, conservatives and those that try to impose their morals on others cry about big government, yet the policies they support are some of the most bureaucratic and authoritarian ever known to man. Sounds a little hypocritical to me. You can't say you want less government and then vote for more government authority. Here is a chance you have all been waiting for to tell the government to get out of our lives, yet many who make these claims are going to vote to maintain its power.
We can argue all day about whether it is good or not for you and what the social ills are. However, can anyone argue that the prohibition on alcohol was a success? Well not really, since it made the mafia rich and they still were powerful 20 to 30 years after the legalization. The legalization of alcohol turned out to be a more than just a way to eliminate the crime. It created legitimate jobs and help bring in extra revenue for communities. Tens of thousands of people are employed in the brewing business and other people in communities have thrived and built up wealth through providing needed services to employees of the local breweries. Plus count in the tax money alcohol brings in to communities. There aren't many communities throughout the world that don't sell alcohol.
The marijuana industry has been around much longer than the United States has been a country. It is an industry that will out live all of us. The current approach we have is an absolute failure. Why is it that the Netherlands a country that is very tolerant towards marijuana, has lower drug usage than the U.S. How can anyone that takes meds, drinks coffee, eats products sugar(yes sugar is a drug), eats McDonald(cause its sooo healthy right?), drives a car(do gas fumes make the air cleaner?), drinks alcohol, doesn't live a healthy life, point the finger at others and say they can't do that cause of health related reasons.
Why is it, that pot smoker Joe is somehow a criminal for sitting in his backyard smoking a joint. What is he doing that is so wrong? Why should he be punished? How is he a criminal and on the same level as Tim the rapist and Ted the axe murderer.
Marijuana culture isn't going anywhere and time will come and marijuana will be legal in I say a tops of 20 years. This almost century long war has not been a success. Can you guys just please give up? Nobody can statistically prove that the war on drugs has been a success. Why? BECAUSE WE ARE STILL FIGHTING IT TODAY. People are going to smoke marijuana regardless of legality. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States and we have a chance to use it to benefit our society. The current approach has failed. With all the money wasted in persecuting our own citizens we could have used it build more roads, fund schools, and make quality of life better.
Isn't it a little ironic, that the DARE generation is the biggest supporter of marijuana legalization. I guess all that state propaganda just wasn't enough.
Fairness; let me describe the citizen who smokes pot that I've never had a problem with-- he's responsible for every aspect of his life harming none. Dealers do not have a beaten path in his neighborhood. Children do not have to pay for his choices because he decided not to be a parent. Parents who regularly seek escape from reality are not good parents (no matter their poison- alcohol, mothers little helper, whatever). It's just a subtler degree of neglect. 'Moderation' is very difficult to define in the framework of writ, and for young adults to discern.
I'm only trying to point out that some actually aren't responsible, and manifest behaviors that harm the overall social fabric. Singular example: Construction trades are plagued with drug abusers. Even when sober, a lackadaisical trait among them undermines the job, injuries follow suit, and insurance/ disability claims abound. Because it's so difficult to parse out who is who, the laws have been unduly harsh on pot. The behaviors of pot smokers overlapping with other drug abusers is the line drawn badly on your sides position on the argument.
Dr bronner soaps- hemp makes me itchy as hell. Hate the stuff, but I see no point in standing in anyones way.
So for example, what about someone who has children, and takes anti-depressants? Couldn't that be considered "neglect" since they can also be considered an escape, or a way to take the edge off? Yeah, of course it's legal (when prescribed and not gotten through other means) but isn't it funny how there is a pill for everything now??? It seems that the pharmaceutical companies want people hooked on their drugs, which have highly addictive qualities. What happens when people stop taking those drugs? A lot of them cause serious withdrawl, that isn't present with ceasing of smoking weed. Please keep in mind (and I have mentioned this in other threads on this subject) I am in no way condoning the legalization of the hard drugs, like cocaine, meth, or heroin. Those drugs scare me, as well as the people that get strung out on that s***! But, pot... come on? I've never felt uncomfortable being around a pot smoker. And because I've worked in bars as a DJ, I've been around plenty of drunk people in my time. Let me tell you, those folks scare me sometimes as well. The bottom line here is that there are plenty of responsible pot smokers and drinkers as well. It's ashame that the idiots in society screw it up for the rest of us. But I will say that if you're stupid enough to go to work or drive drunk or stoned, then you deserve to deal with the consequences that come with it.
I still see the day when "drug dealers" are on the corner with illegal butter, salt, soda and twinkies.
Police Officer 1: You, in the black SUV, pull over. Do you have any Oreos in the car? Don't lie to me! (Oreo sniffing police dog comes out and they find the cookies.)
Police Officer Number 2: Jack, didn't I arrest you once before for trans-fats? I just checked. You have open warrants on butter possession and Cheetos with the intent to distribute. Say, that's not a free range chicken in that shopping bag! You're going to do jail time for that. Put your hands behind your back.
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Is that a good thing?
God night. I'm head to dinner then bed.
