We celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end of alcohol prohibition this week, making many wonder about the parallels that exist between then and now when it comes to the illegality of marijuana. Pete Guither takes out the fisking tools and goes to work on this column in the Los Angeles Times that warns about regulating and taxing this widely used and far safer drug.
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Amsterdam to outlaw pot cafes in certain parts of the city to drive out organized crime.
Suck on that, Lee!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/.....index.html
I agree with Lee on this one.
The worst evidence I can find puts marijuana well down on the list of commonly used “drugs” in terms of any toxicity. Not just booze or cigs, but diet pills, coffee, NoDoz, antiallergy drugs and maybe even chocolate have worse side effects than marijuana.
For that matter a lot of the “natural” drugs and vitamins sold in the local nutrition market are more worrisojme than pot,
If illegalization of po9t is an issue, imagine what would happen if wer illegalized chocolate!
The real reason pot is illegal is because Republicans think it turns military-age kids into pacifists.
As I understand it, the reason that pot might be associated with crime is Amsterdam is that while its consumption is not persecuted it still cannot be grown on legitimate farms, thus there is bound to be organized crime involved in parts of pot’s distrubtion chain.
If all steps of the distribution chain were legalized, then organized crime would be as involved in pot as it is in alcohol or tobacco.
I think the ral issue with pot is that it has assumed religious status. The opponents have a view not very different from their views that God would not limit oil production or allow global warming. These ideas are awfully wide spread. The proponents tout exaggerate the value to such an extreme that it supports the nuts. If Le were actually correct in some of his claims about medical marijuana, then it would be hard to believe it did not have the negative side effects every effective drug (even vitamins) has.
The simplest answer is to bring science into these decisions, let the FDA do its job!
Here’s something we should all understand about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. One may speak all day of so-called weapons of mass destruction, or spreading democracy, or freedom from tyranny, or remaking the Middle East. The fact remains that the war in Iraq was started and continued primarily to funnel hundreds of millions to billions in taxpayer dollars to a succession of hastily-formed corporations owned, directed, and staffed by Republican political operatives with no expertise or competence in the jobs for which they contracted, in return for them funneling tens of millions of dollars back into the Republican party and associated conservative political organizations. Not all of it makes its way beack to the party–hell, the Republicans know that they’re hiring crooks–but enough does that the scam is worth it to them, and fuck the American taxpayer, or anyone who might have benefited from a job well done by skilled, honest men. THey’re just chumps, marks who exist to be taken.
Similarly the Katrina response (tax money dumped into incompetent Republican “recover effort” companies who drag their feet rebuilding to keep the black Democrats from returning to NOLA), faith-based initiatives (tax money dumped into hastily-organized and incompetent charities), and every other Bush administration initiative. It’s all about giving tax money to purposely incompetent enterprises for political purposes.
Why do financial and insurance companies get hundreds of billions of tax dollars with no tracing, no acccountability, and no strings? Because they contribute to Republicans. Why do conservatives oppose using a fraction of that money to keep the auto companies afloat? Because they’re happy to crush America’s manufacturing industry solely in order to harm the UAW for political gain.
You’ll pry my chocolate from my cold dead hand. !
@7 ,,,
Imagine if we rotated such prohibitions ….Mexico would go nuts figring out what to smuggle next!
Remember General Eric Shinseki? He’s the guy chimpface sacked for saying it would take 500,000 troops to occupy Iraq. He’s gonna be President Obama’s secretary of veterans affairs.
@3 – they may well be right about that one. :D
Then they’ll be forced to fight their own damn wars….
Well, we’re about to get total Democratic control. When (not if)they fail to even bring up legalization, what will be the preferred excuse?
11 zdp
When legislators, educators, judges, and criminal authorities have all been basically BORN INTO drug prohibition, it is much more difficult to effect change.
Legalize pot, criminalize melamine fer chrisakes.
My brother knew a guy who smoked pot one time and he went completely nuts and killed his family with an ax. I think its dangerous and
not good for the brain, especially an unstable
liberal brain.
Marijuana is a drug. It is a legal problem and gangs push it. Gang members buy guns on the black market and instigate street violence and crime. The next liberal douchebag who buys their “not hurting anyone marijuana” should try to reach out of their cobwebbed brain and internalize that they are perpetuating the crime problems in America.