Watch Live: Congressional Hearing on IRS Scandal
Live BlazeCast at 2pm ET: All the fireworks from the IRS Hearing!
‘Real News From TheBlaze’: The Conservative Case for Legalizing Marijuana
Former Republican Colorado congressman and runner-up in the 2010 Colorado gubernatorial election as a Constitution Party candidate, Tom Tancredo, has created a bit of a stir by making a detailed case for the legalization of marijuana in his home state. In an op-ed in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Tarncredo writes “Prohibition has failed us:”
Throughout my career in public policy and in public office, I have fought to reform or eliminate wasteful and ineffective government programs. There is no government program or policy I can think of that has failed in such a unique way as marijuana prohibition.
Our nation is spending tens of billions of dollars annually in an attempt to prohibit adults from using a substance objectively less harmful than alcohol.
Yet marijuana is still widely available in our society. We are not preventing its use; we are merely ensuring that all of the profits from the sale of marijuana (outside the medical marijuana system) flow to the criminal underground.
[...]
In addition to the economic and public safety arguments for ending marijuana prohibition, I also support Amendment 64 for a much broader, philosophical reason.
Marijuana prohibition is perhaps the oldest and most persistent nanny-state law we have in the U.S. We simply cannot afford a government that tries to save people from themselves. It is not the role of government to try to correct bad behavior, as long as those behaviors are not directly causing physical harm to others.
To be clear, I do not consider marijuana use a good thing for society. I have never used marijuana personally and do not encourage others to indulge. But as the son of a violent alcoholic, I know enough to appreciate that it is irrational to have laws in place that allow the use of alcohol, yet punish adults who choose to use a less harmful and less dangerous substance.
Amendment 64 is an upcoming Colorado ballot measure that would end marijuana prohibition in the state and regulate the production and sale of the substance. Tancredo joined “Real News From TheBlaze” Friday to debate the philosophical, law enforcement and economic arguments for Marijuana legalization:
In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.












































































































Comments (193)
cosmic dogma
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:22amLEGALIZE, REGULATE and TAX. Think of how angry this will make the drug lords and paid off politicians.
Report this comment
Plateaupartisan
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 2:45amSee (www.web2carz.com/people/who-you-know/1364/kinky-friedman-talkin-politics-for-all-the-world-to-hear?w2caf=298c9c9f53282a30) A great reply to Kinky Friedman’s (Texas Governor candidate) support to legalize pot: “….Califormia’s marijuana decriminalization efforts have produced a swamp of casual criminality and an invasion of illegal professionals…Making it legal isn’t gonna make it any better… I live in…Sonoma County…..described…as “The Left-Most County In America.” By way of the “Medical” shuck, marijuana has been de facto legal around here for a long time, and it’s an ugly thing to watch. The cartels are deeply entrenched…and for sure ain’t gonna go away just because some laws are changed. They…provide an employment base for what is no less than an invasion by people who have no investment whatsoever in the laws of the land. Illegal marijuana supports an industry with greater income than wine, fruit and vegetables COMBINED in a state with a bigger agricultural industry than any COUNTRY…. You think that’s gonna go away? Color me skeptical. I’ve lived in 14 counties in several states…including Austin, Dallas…San Antonio, Chicago, San Francisco…(etc.)…My current situation is the most egregiously corrupt environment I’ve ever encountered…and I have little doubt the marijuana industry is largely to blame. I’ve been a musician too, and I smoked weed for 40 years until it sank in on me what I could see it doing to me and everybody els
Report this comment
The Jewish Avenger
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:30amA carton of smokes used to be 6 bucks in 1980, now they are $80.00.
This has not saved one life, all it has done is promoted regulation and suppression of citizens over not only a legal product but a very good money making product for our government.
Taxing pot to make it “better citizen” isnt going to change anything except give the government more money to play with. Besides, since people now are using vaporizers to smoke their crap, not only are they fried half the time but they think its better…
The last debate I had on it, the doper dropped his stuff and bent down to pick it up like a sloth…
Yeah your right man… its better than beer and you SOOO have it together, I can why you should be driving the freeways right now…
Report this comment
WarMunger_Al
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 9:10amFact is, if you agree the government has a right and or duty to make pot illegal, than they have the right and duty to make salt, sugary foods, etc….also illegal for “our protection”. Keep the government out of the citizens lives. Just wait for the swat team to kick your door in and shoot your family under suspicion of illicit salt trade.
Report this comment
G-WHIZ
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:27amThen, maybe Slick-Willie can finally INHAILE!!
Report this comment
PontiusPirate
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 2:04pmJewish Avenger, that is perhaps one of the most absurdly inaccurate and illogical posts I’ve seen here – a true achievement. Smoking rates have declined every single year since efforts increase regulations and taxes on the industry. Smoking is a risk factor for almost every leading cause of death in America (heart disease, cancer, stroke etc). So the efforts have had a very real impact and have without any doubt whatsoever saved countless lives.
As for marijuana, the hypocrisy here is unfathomable. Many of you preach individual liberty and personal responsibility, yet you believe the government should tell you that you can’t smoke marijuana (and there’s the multibillion dollar drug war fiasco). Marijuana is no more harmful than any other legaldrugs including alcohol, nicotine, and many prescription medications. Marijuana has very real potential adverse effects, just like all drugs, and the potential for harm increases with misuse, just like all drugs – but these are not justifiable reasons for the government to criminalize a substance.
Report this comment
desertspeaks
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 3:30pmscrew you and your tax! tax is theft!
Report this comment
Obama_Forward_Over_The_Cliff
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:00pmWake up American lemmings!
The “drug war” is the longest running war in American history … that makes absolutely NO DIFFERENCE as regards drugs! That’s because it NEVER was about “drugs” …
The “drug war” is only an excuse for building the “standing army” that America’s Founders so greatly feared and warned us about. Hitler and his SS would drool to have the “internal security” apparatus that the drug war has developed for America.
But marxist Obama needed to move that time-table “forward” and called for such in his 2008 speech in Colorado:
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
Report this comment
tommysoap
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:46pmNow guess who are some of the largest users of Marijuana..MINORS!. So the illicit trade will continue, legal or not.
Report this comment
PlotTwister
Posted on September 30, 2012 at 2:16amThank you very much for talking about this on the Real News. This has become my first action item and I even created a group on Freedom Works to begin policy changes here in Utah. Please follow up with more discussion. It is important to make the distinction between the non-psychoactive and TCH-based strains. At the minimum the states to remove the industrial hemp (it never should have been added anyway) from the Schedule I of controlled substances. This plant is an intricate part of our history! I wonder if Glenn is aware that Henry Ford had a car built of composite hemp, the very Constitution is written on hemp paper and the Founding Fathers were farmers of it. Check out this new book, it answers many questions. Mendocino County, CA has been on the tip of this already.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/too-high-to-fail-doug-fine/1110931619?ean=9781592407095
Report this comment
American Soldier (Separated)
Posted on September 30, 2012 at 12:08pmThe problem that most people here against Marijuana don’t understand is that by making drugs illegal, you are doing so as a preventative manner, right? People that use and sell drugs are more prone to criminal activity, right? So you are in favor of a law that combats “Pre-Crime” not so differently than the movie “MINORITY REPORT.”
So you want marijuana illegal because those that use have more potential to commit crimes than those that don’t.
That is the EXACT same argument the left has against gun ownership. They believe by you having a gun, you are more potential to commit crimes. You see the flaw in their argument, right? Yet you use the same argument on drugs!!!!
Hypocrites!
Report this comment
TomCal
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:21amI just look a it this way, the argument is a great, great winner in debates; but, the drug is a big time loser narco- substance in real-life. I hated it after i tried it several times back in hghschool, and i don’t agree with it sitting next to me every night on the couch as an adult either!!
I think from experience, i will have to agree with the california scenario on this page.That Pot is worse for everyone than anything else. And,if, someone’s doctor were to prescribe it for a condition,well, that to me is between the Doctor and his patient and it is also a very small % of people that do…
Report this comment
prettysad
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:49amI agree. Pot does more than admitted here. If they really need it medically, then put it in pill form as an herb. pot smoke in the lungs will do the same thing as cigarette smoking does (and it does bother everyone who inhales it)
As for taxing it. That is the same thinking they used for legalizing alcohol. Get the bad guys money.
You give any one an open door on these things and they will run through with any excuse.
control or not control neither answer is right. It just shows what matters in this country.
Report this comment
WarMunger_Al
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 9:14amThe argument isn’t wether or not it is good for you, it is wether or not the government should dictate your personal decision in the matter. The right to choose for ones self is essential if you believe in being free. Otherwise you are a slave to the state. As their slave they can tell you what to watch, what to eat, what you can say and when you can pray.
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:10pmStarting with the basics, keeping drugs illegal is one of the best ways to keep drugs out of the hands and brains of children. We know three things here: First, children who don’t use drugs continually tell us one of the reasons they don’t is precisely because “they are illegal.”
Report after report has found that perceptions of the risk and social disapproval of drug use correlate very closely with drug taking behavior. When those in the drug prevention community ask teens who don’t use drugs why they don’t, time and again, the answer comes back “because it’s illegal.” This, of course, explains why a greater percentage of teens abuse legal substances like tobacco and alcohol over illegal drugs such as marijuana even when they say marijuana is easily accessible.
Second, keeping drugs out of the hands of children is the best way to prevent drug addiction generally, as study after study has confirmed that if we keep a child drug free until age 21, the chances of use in adulthood.
Third, we don’t need to guess at hypothetical legalization schemes. Our experience with legally prescribed narcotics has already proven it, and we now have an epidemic. This, despite doing everything the theorists have asked, from oversight to regulation to prescription requirements.are next to zero.
Normalizing, de-stigmatizing, and legalizing illegal drugs like marijuana lowers their price and increases their use.
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:21pm@time2
Actually, the best way to keep drugs out of the lives of kids is to have good parents
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:27pmConservatives in particular should know better than to fall for Liberal-tarians’ and others’ superficially appealing arguments about the “right” to do drugs. John Locke himself argued that man’s power over his own body was not absolute, that liberty didn’t cover the right to enslave or destroy one’s self:
[…] a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the absolute, arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he pleases. No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it […] But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state have an uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself [...].
For leftists, drug use is a personal lifestyle choice, the condemnation of which would be the unpardonable sin of judgmentalism, while legalizers on the Right fringe of the issue frame it around personal responsibility, suggesting it’s paternalistic for government to keep people from putting harmful things in their systems.
Well, yes, that would be paternalistic…if that were our society’s only beef with narcotics. But drugs aren’t like Big Macs or cigarettes… it’s a substance that dulls your senses to the point where YOU become a THREAT to the RIGHTS of OTHERS.
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:42pmSOY. The left in our country has insured that we have an over-abundance of stupid parents. Wipe the fog off your rose colored glasses and put down the joint which clouds your judgement.
Ohhh, but of course… you’re one of those who personally don’t smoke marijusana right? You’re just in the business of promoting that stupidity for other’s consumption. That me boy.. will insure a continual rise of stupid parents.
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:45pm@Time2
” it’s a substance that dulls your senses to the point where YOU become a THREAT to the RIGHTS of OTHERS.”
like alcohol?
Parents are the best deterrent to uncivilized behavior – government just makes things worse
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:07pmThat’s a BS argument SOY and you know it. Don’t point to bad behavior and choices to legitimize other bad behaviors and choices. Seems we’re stuck with the dangerous (and deadly) effects from the use of alcohol (by stupid parents and others), but that dog doesn’t hunt when it comes bringing another source of stupidity into the mix.
You can actually drink a beer or two, glass or two of wine or even a mixed drink and not become intoxicated or even buzzed. Using marijuana and other “illegal” drugs are for the pure and immediate intoxication of it… and that is exactly what it is… to become immediately intoxicated (not for the taste of it). That’s not a rationalization on my part, but a fact.
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:21pmhow many people will die directly from alcohol related deaths?
and if you include the health issues like weight gain, liver disease, etc, the costs on our “society” are astronomical
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:28pm*alcohol incidents
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:52pmDespite what the legalizers say, drugs use certainly isn’t victimles… not even when it comes to marijuana, allegedly the safest of the bunch.
“The British Medical Journal unveiled the results of a ten-year study of German adolescents and young adults, which confirmed cannabis as a factor in “increasing the risk of incident psychotic experiences and if use continues over time, increasing the risk of persistent psychotic experiences.” A 2008 study by the University of Melbourne agrees, finding that “long-term cannabis users were more prone to a range of psychotic experiences.” The Tides Center’s Schizophrenia.com lists thirty studies indicating a connection between pot and schizophrenia. According to a 2004 study by the Netherlands’ Maastricht University, “THC [pot’s main psychoactive substance] positives, particularly at higher doses, are about three to seven times more likely to be responsible” for car crashes than factors unrelated to pot or alcohol. Other studies have linked marijuana to increased paranoia, anxiety, risk-taking, inability to focus, and distorted sense of time.”
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:55pm“The result? The Center for Disease Control says that drugs other than alcohol are a factor in around 18% of driver deaths. The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration’s data isn’t pretty, either—their 2004 National Survey on Drug Use & Health found that the “percentages of youths engaging in delinquent behaviors” such as theft and assault steadily rose alongside “increasing frequency of marijuana use”; while in 2005 they reported a strong correlation between drug use and other crimes; in particular, “of adults who had been arrested for serious offenses in the past year, 46.5 percent had used marijuana in the past year compared with 10.0 percent of those who had not been arrested for any serious offense.”
And again SOY, pot is the “safe” one right? We haven’t even started discussing the rough stuff like crack or heroin where of course this slippery slope will take us in the long run.
If government is essentially the collective exercise of the individual right to self-defense, then of course people are within their rights to protect themselves from drug-related crimes and accidents by prohibiting the source.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:29pm@Time2:
“If government is essentially the collective exercise of the individual right to self-defense, then of course people are within their rights to protect themselves from drug-related crimes and accidents by prohibiting the source.”
I can only assume you didn’t actually UNDERSTAND Bastiat, and that you do not realize that we live not in a democracy, but in a republic, wherein the RIGHTS of the minority are PROTECTED against the WILL of the majority. One does not collectively protect “society”, by extending the collective right of self defence BACK ONTO THE PEOPLE. This is a perversion of the Law.
Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:23pmCalifornia is bankrupt because most who work are supporting those who are on dope. How is that legalizing working out there and those places where they have all these types of legalizing dope?
There are parts of California that are so bad it has been described as worse than the old wild West. People are moving out in droves to get away from it.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:47pmFunny. I live in California. There are easily a dozen dispensaries within a two mile radius of my house.
There is no crime associated with these places. Shady characters are not hanging around, harassing people. They are good neighbors. They pay taxes. Lots of taxes. To the local communities.
Do some deal under the table? I have seen no evidence of this, and I doubt they would do so, because getting caught would not only entail their own incarceration, but would give a black eye to a legitimate industry in which legitimate participation would still yield bountious returns. They have no incentive to be bad neighbors, and they aren’t.
If you are seeing crime associated with marijuana, it is because it is still ILLEGAL without a 215 card, and not everyone who smokes weed, has a card. Because it is still illegal without, and restricted with, and because the demand far outstrips the legal supply, there is still incentive to grow the stuff illegally (a licensed user can possess up to six mature plants, whereas a licensed grower can possess up to 99 mature plants, which is nowhere near enough to meet the demand.)
Mexican cartels send people up here to hike out in the boonies and grow and guard large plots, because it’s easier to get it to market from within the US, and because the people sent to grow it, are paid to do so (thus not having to split time between cultivating cannabis and programming a computer for a living, say.)
(continued)
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:59pm(continued)
This arrangement devolves into violence, when someone stumbles into a grow. Or when you have some kind of a turf battle (among illegal pharmacists.) Two medical marijuana dispensaries located next door to each other, don’t battle it out any more than would a liquor store and a grocery store engage in a shooting match vying for purchasers of beer.
People are leaving California in droves, because the government still regulates life out here way, way too much. And steals lots of money from people, in order to do so. Places are becoming wild-wild-west, because there are not enough taxes being paid by unemployed people, to police the droves of illegal aliens who, living as they do in a state of criminal depravity already, are less likely to find committing more crimes to be terribly odious.
The Feral government sends forth its officers to harass the citizenry and eat out their substance, while not securing the border. And things heat up.
Is the picture becoming a little more clear?
Report this comment
Chet Hempstead
Posted on September 30, 2012 at 2:52amEastinfection
If you mean psilocybin mushrooms, you are correct, that’s just a waste of good drugs. You can, however, catch a good buzz from smoking amanita muscaria, and in fact if you purchase amanita mushrooms, I recommend smoking a small amount just to test if it’s the real deal before you try ingesting them.
Report this comment
wireme
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:21pmsome of you have no clue Pot is a natural substance that grows on its own I know many people who have smoked weed for a long time and never went to stronger drugs like coke or crack and always were responsible people and believe it or not some of these people are very prominent people Doctors, lawyers, cops, I’ve been around it my whole life never seen anyone violent from weed but alcohol I have seen that destroy many lives and almost destroyed mine. stop believing that crap the government feeds you about leading to harder drugs its bull-crap. Alcohol is the drug that destroyed lives for many whom I know not weed
Report this comment
SuperMax52
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:02amBulls-eye
Report this comment
Chet Hempstead
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:35amPot is a natural substance that grows on its own
Even though I have no desire to move on to harder drugs, I am not going to waste my breath trying to get high by smoking pot that grows naturally on its own.
Report this comment
The Jewish Avenger
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:48amSo its the “its like eggs, butter and sugar but you smoke it” again?
Right…
This reminds me of the shroom teen that was out hankering for a high, saw some fungus ate it, 3 hours later, shes on the liver transplant list…
Want to smoke that?
Poison Ivy? Maybe that’ll do something.
Can’t smoke cigarettes even though people SWEAR it calms them down… but nope lets ban it better yet, let ban it and tax the crap out of it.
Want to pay … what did it used to be, 10 for $30? about an 1/8 of an ounce right?
Well, with regulations like cigarettes, that’ll be 10 for $300
And if you are caught selling and its NOT taxed… the IRS will PWN your parade.
…Actually, go ahead legalize it.
I’m sure at $2400 an ounce, the dopers will dance and sing their way to happiness…
Until they cant afford to LEGALLY get high anymore…
What they want is simply this:
Make a plant legal that affects peoples minds and bodies while under the influence on it.
So what if there was a delayed reaction where they didnt swerve and hit that thing with their car
So what if they were distracted by drolling at some colored poster when they missed the bus
So what if they misplaced the kids…
Its pot baby and its sooooooooo much better for you.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 4:24pm@Avenger:
Perhaps, if shrooms were available in the open market and not illegal, she would have already had a sufficient supply of known-safe mushrooms for her use. Perhaps she would not have had to go sneaking and scrounging around for unknown mushrooms, if she could have just gone to the store and picked up an ounce, from someone she could trust to supply her with a clean product. Perhaps, then, this supplier could in turn buy groceries from your own store, and so on.
Why would one who could legally smoke marijuana, venture out to try smoking poison ivy? Perhaps it is the prohibition, which makes marijuana harder to obtain and more expensive, which would cause a person to try something stupid like smoking poison ivy. Bathtub gin, anyone? Wood alkie?
Smoking bans are ridiculous. So are outrageous taxes on tobacco products. Is this what has you butt-hurt? Seems to me it’s legal to grow your own tobacco in your garden, then cure and dry it, and smoke it yourself. My great great grandma used to do this. Tobacco is legal. What’s the problem here? Allow people to grow their own. Don’t want to grow your own? Pay someone else’s price.
Legalizing it, and taxing it unreasonably, would just result in the same black market that exists now. No change, except it’d work the same as state-to-state cigarette tax problems. Still, these things are mediated without violence, because the substance itself is legal.
Report this comment
Eastinfection
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:42pm@JEWAVENG….. nobody “smokes” mushrooms. Again… an ill-informed opinion. At this point i’m guessing that you lost someone close to you to a serious drug thing and now all (illegal) drugs are “bad”. I’m sorry for your loss but snap out of it kid. Pot didn’t kill your loved one.
Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:21pmProhibition has not failed us, those greedy, money loving criminals have failed us. Keep drugs off the street and those who are weak about it out of the government. These addicts become so sick they cannot get well on their own. They should be helped. If they can put a man on the moon and a piece of equipment on Mars, then they could help cure these addicts, but it may be a way for them to thin out the population because their faith is so weak they think they have to do God’s work.
Report this comment
WarMunger_Al
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 9:22amProhibition created the criminal enterprise. It has made America the leader in prison populations, has resulted in thousands of deaths via drug wars and cops murdering of citizens. The cost is not worth petty crime of getting high. The war should be fought with education and facts, not bullets and incarceration. The majority of people would not choose to enfeeble their mind with drugs. The ones that choose to, do so regardless of the law.
Report this comment
blackyb
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:18pmAny Republican, Conservative or otherwise who wants to legalize marijuana will NOT get my vote and should not be running. They cave. They are weak and should not have office within this country. We are standing against this scourge and those who stand for it are evil. These people are not real conservatives, Christians or otherwise conservative. I despise the people who are weak and are not trying to protect this country from this mess of drugs and those who do them. Heal the addicts if you can, but stop the flow of all kinds of drugs, some legal and all illegal. Arrest those dispensing prescription medicine under the guise of helping people instead of trying to figure out ways to get people off drus. I despise these weak people. They are nothing but part of the scourge. Take some of that money spent overseas, given to the enemy who is importing drugs and put people in rehab an make it a severe punishment for those selling or distributing drugs. Most addicts have to sell to self-sustain, that should be considered to a degree, but they should be hospitalized and treated in a humane way until they are cured. Many want out of that lifestyle, but are so addicted they are on a total self destructive road. There are many greedy people who sell drugs and do not even use them.
Report this comment
JPDevuyst
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:48pm@Blackyb – my question to you is this – do you partake in drinking alcohol? If your answer is yes, you need to go away because apparently you “despise” your own self – Marijuana (which I don’t support) has far less negative qualities to it than alcohol. Also – as you say that anyone who supports marijuana legalization isn’t a true conservative or christian, what do you think a conservative is? Do you really believe that a true conservative believes in regulating how we live our personal lives, even if it does harm to no one else? If so, it is YOU who aren’t a real conservative. That would make you a hybrid between a progressive-liberal and a reagan democrat.
Report this comment
SurfinRallylizard
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:04amYou are ridiculous. real conservatives don’t tell people what to do. The “real” conservative solution here is deregulate all this stuff, including prostitution, firearm ownership and firearm carry, drugs, shipping of alcohol etc… and ALSO get the federal government’s mitts off the taxing and penalty power to fund rehabs and whatnot. You make personal choices, they affect you and your family, and you pay for them. That’s freedom, that isn’t weak, its responsible. If i want to own a brothel that has a gun range and bar serving alcohol, marijuana and coke, then so be it, if people don’t want it I’ll fail and go bankrupt. If you don’t want it then don’t go there, but don’t impose your self-asserted moral superiority to me.
Report this comment
The Jewish Avenger
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:37amHere we go…
Another justified pot head
Marijuana has far less negative qualities to it than alcohol
. Because the paranoia, the high blood pressure that some get and of course the slothful reactions make it ok right?
JUST ONCE I wish these pro pot heads would admit a few things:
Yes, I does affect peoples judgement
Yes, reaction time is affected/
Yes, concentration is slowed
Yes, physical alterations occur that can AFFECT NORMAL EVERYDAY USED ITEMS
No, everyone does not react to the same level as other but this is beacuse of BODILY TOLERANCE.
Thikn of your first glass of alcohol and then the chronic that can put a case of beer away and a 1/5 of spirits and then stumble around…
O’m so sick and tired of the pro-pot eads that will NEVER admit that it does affect like other depressants and that it is unsafe to use in MANY enviornments.
Its almost like listening to a pro-abortionist justify killing the baby.
Its all about benefits and screw the fact that it may endanger something or someone else.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 4:42pm@Avenger:
Just admit that you are an authoritarian, jack-boot wearing fascist, already.
The health benefits and risks associated with alcohol use vs. marijuana use, both mental and physiological, are not the point here. For each adverse affect you list for pot, I’m sure I could point to the same affect listed for alcohol use, and more. Like Tom Tancredo, I grew up in an alcoholic household. Had my father used weed instead of booze, I doubt our economic situation would have been more adversely affected. I do know our home life would have been more pleasant and peaceful, though, and we’d have probably had more deep and meaningful discussions around the dinner table.
I am a fledgling pothead. I find that it relieves a lot of pain in my back and my legs, from pinched nerves. I find that it has connected my brain to my belly, and that I now know when I am no longer hungry. I have dropped considerable weight, since taking up regular (if very limited in amount) use.
Judgment becomes slowed, but discernment becomes finer. Reaction times are slowed, but wisdom is increased (don’t drive high.) Concentration is focused, not slowed. I have found no problems using normal, everyday items. Yes, tolerance is a factor. So what?
I also take time to interact with my kids, and sing to them, and read to them, and talk to them, and love them. My alcoholic father, well, not so much. He was a great guy and all, but the booze never put him in the mood to philosophize w
Report this comment
Eastinfection
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:24pm@NORM- right there with ya bro.
@JEWAVENGER- you sound like an idiot, here. The profit margin on weed is astronomical… We are going to pay $2400 / ounce? How would that be possible? REALLY good pot goes for $400/ ounce….. the best of the best. No-one is going to buy doobie at your unsupported, hypothetical, price, so no-one will charge that price. stick to subjects you are informed about. I know those subjects exist because you put up smart posts all the time. Pot is not your forte.
Report this comment
olderjarhead
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:48pmWhat I find hard to believe is that in the “land of the free” we even allow the rulers of us, to determine what we can and can’t do with our own bodies. I would allow people to pollute their bodies anyway they wanted. BUT, I would also allow them to suffer the consequences of their decisions. Think about this; they won’t let you grow a freakin plant. Really?
Report this comment
Mr.buff1959
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:28amWell said.
Report this comment
WarMunger_Al
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 9:25amIt is stranger considering it is legal to murder a baby but if you ingest a weed you go to jail.
Report this comment
Frost_Pendragon
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:43pmIf it were a choice between marijuana and the zombification of our youth through ADHD Meds and antidepressents, what would you pick?
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:47pmfalse choice – we don’t have to choose either.
Report this comment
Jenasus
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:40pmMarijuana is not a drug. Drugs are man made.
Johnny Pot Seed says “A joint a day keeps the doctor away.”
Support your local marijuana grower. But American Grown Marijuana. (BAGM)
For all of you people that have never smoked a joint it is about time that you did.
America you are supporting the Drug Cartels in Mexico and around the World because Marijuana is under prohibition in America.
Legalize Marijuana and take the profits out of the Drug Cartels pockets.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:51pmPot shrinks the male testes and turns potentially masculine adolescent boys into hairless, flaccid wimps with low sperm counts. Sounds like a winner, right JENASUS?
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:59pmDemsreveil; …why are you so worried about little boys testies anyway,…hmmmm??? You think it’s ok for VIAGRA for pervs too I bet,..good-bye
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:14pmI am with you JENASUS AND “DEMSREVIL is wrong when he said “we don’t prison pot smokers” b/c they do,…and most Policemen, Nurses, Doctors and Ice Agents say it is a waste of OUR MONEY and their TIME ,..WE HAVE MUCH MUCH BIGGER PROBLEMS THESE DAYS, Don’t you think?
Report this comment
KidCharlemagne
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:20pmDEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:51pm
Pot shrinks the male testes and turns potentially masculine adolescent boys into hairless, flaccid wimps with low sperm counts.
================================================
Mayor Bloomberg?…..is that you? (LOL!):
NYC Mayor Bloomberg On Soda Ban: ‘We’re Simply Forcing You To Understand’ What’s Better For You
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:33pmKIDCHARLEMAGNE – funny…but potheads aren’t going to keep the species going. They’re a dead end on the evolutionary road…like gays, only dumber.
Report this comment
JPDevuyst
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:51pmso lets see somebody actually use some facts to refute DEMS’ claim, because you idiots sound a lot like liberals – you don’t refute accusations with facts, you just name call.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:09amJENASUS
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:40pm
Marijuana is not a drug. Drugs are man made.
——————-
completely false, learn your chemistry
——————-
For all of you people that have never smoked a joint it is about time that you did.
America you are supporting the Drug Cartels in Mexico and around the World because Marijuana is under prohibition in America.
Legalize Marijuana and take the profits out of the Drug Cartels pockets.
————
Same logic as legalizing “illegal aliens” to take the profit from the human smugglers…
Speculation and historically inaccurate,, Did the mobsters running alcohol stop making money.. they just move to other vices. Today if pot were legalized, the dealers would just create a more potent version or spike it with something to enhance it that is more popular. So, will the Gov then legalize that to stop the profits.. Bad logic…
————
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 4:55pm@DEMS:
Well, you won’t have to worry ’bout any o’ them flaccid potheads a-tryin’-a steal yor wohman, will ye? Probably a net benefit, in your case, ’cause she can probably find someone else a lot smarter to hang out with, if she started talking to a pothead.
:-)
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:09pm@Unalien:
Did legalized alcohol after prohibition, cause there to be a huge spike in the potency of alcohol products? Do you know anyone who prefers straight Everclear to a beer?
Perhaps there would be some work on concentrating the effects. These already exist, and may be enhanced. But what this means, is that you have to smoke less, to get the desired effect, thereby reducing harm. I don’t see a problem here. My own use of cannabis has included trying the extracts a couple of times.
The first time, I prayed to God that he not strike me dead. Not a pleasant experience, but the profuse sweating left me feeling physically cleansed and detoxified. I told my wife that I prayed I would never actually need such strong medicine to find relief. The next time I tried it, was because I was seeking relief from an injury, that I knew could be found by taking a “dab”.
There are already so many, many different drugs out there, that spiking pot with something to make it more potent (thereby probably also rendering it illegal, and therefore not salable,) would either muddle the effect of the diluent unacceptably, to one looking for that effect, or would so change the effect of the cannabis, as to render it unwanted or unpleasant to the cannabis user, who seeks to use cannabis for the effects he expects from cannabis.
Seriously, the spiking issue is one that will not be a problem. (continued)
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:12pm(continued)
Spiking won’t be a problem, that is, unless the regulation and taxation is so stringent and burdensome, that you end up with a Phillip Morris of weed, who could then pay off politicians to get rid of laws against reporting diluents put into cannabis cigarettes, allowing them to sneak chemical crap into the cigarettes which causes yet more harm to the smoker, and … is any of this starting to sound familiar?
Just like anything else, locally sourcing these things from your neighbors, and keeping regulation to a minimum, will yield the best possible result.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:55pmNORM D. PLUME
The spiking argument is a retort to the “reduce the profit for dealer”. The criminal element will just make a more potent or powerful “pot”. The dealers will never go away they will adapt to competition. Now around here the leading Gov “health” expert described the sale of legal pot just as alcohol is sold. The Gov would set standards for legal pot potency and development, sales and use. It isn’t really legal but restricted and decriminalized. So, would you buy expensive Gov pot or better cheaper dealer pot? The point was the Gov can never compete with the criminal dealers.
But, clearly, there is a balance between society and the individual. The libertarian in me believes that individuals should be able to do what they want to themselves even if it isn’t in their own best interest but frankly we as a society are so messed up by modern liberalism that too many of us are just not equipped to handle legalized pot. We have been demoralized. So, I see this issue differently, most recreational pot users don’t have a problem using now even though it is illegal, speeding is illegal and everyone does it. So, legalization enables a potentially destructive behaviour. The purpose of law is not always prohibition but usually it is suasion. In fact, no law has ever stopped any behaviour. Until this society regains its moral character, I just don’t think legalizing pot will be a good thing. It will push us further toward self destruction.
But, it is a States
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 30, 2012 at 6:05pm@Unalien:
I’d rather grow my own, so I know what’s in it, and so I don’t have to pay dealer OR government prices.
There is no balance between society and the individual. We are a society OF individuals. By protecting the rights of INDIVIDUALS, individually, we protect the rights of society writ large. There is no other formulation for this, which yields anything except a spiraling tyranny.
The collectivist in you hopes for the perfectibility of man, and that impulse leads you to want to control others, “for their own good”. Because they are “demoralized” and “incapable of making their own decisions.” How elitist! How completely 180-degrees opposed to the “libertarian in you”!
Pot users use pot now. Even if it’s illegal. If heroin were made legal, would YOU run right out and try it? I sure wouldn’t, and I’ll tell you right now, I smoke pot, and would continue to do so, even if it were illegal where I currently live. Legalization does not enable a destructive behavior, which is already behavior exhibited in the face of Prohibition. That argument is dead, as you admit yourself.
“Society” has no moral character. Individuals do. And individuals will not improve their morals, until they are FREE to do so. When YOU make the decisions, then you are judged on YOUR behavior, not by standards built into society by a system of unenforceable, tyrannical laws.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:31pmDEMSREVIL” – I think you should change your username and go smoke a blunt!
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:39pm…been there…done that TIPOFTHESPEAR42. You’re barking up the wrong stereotype.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:44pmDEMS…….And YOU AREN’T?!
Report this comment
booger71
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:59pmPot shrinks the male testes and turns potentially masculine adolescent boys into hairless, flaccid wimps with low sperm counts. Sounds like a winner, right JENASUS?
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
=============
So you are describing yourself as above then?
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:04pmBOOGER71 – actually, your mother. BTW, has she bonded out yet?
Report this comment
ThemDemsLie2much
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:11pmIt’s a huge waist of taxpayer dollars and ruins honest taxpaying citizens lives when they are caught with it or tested for it yet the booze is no problem. No where near as bad as drinking.
Report this comment
starman70
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:25pmI disagree! In more cases than will be admitted by the “Legalizers”, the pot leads to stronger drugs. If someone wants to shoot up or ingest these poisons, well so be it BUT in most cases, they will become a problem for someone else. Police, EMS, Hospitals all wind up being affected by the drug trade and ultimately we the taxpayers pick up the tab because these users have no money to pay any medical or therapy bills.
Legalizing pot WILL lead to increased drug use and eventually many more deaths from drugs.! Oh, but I forgot, increased deaths due to drug use is just what the population control freaks want. Nothing would make the United Nations panel on population control happier.
Report this comment
KidCharlemagne
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:39pmSo if someone puts a loaded .38 revolver to their head and uses it to commit suicide with, then are you saying that guns should be illegal too?
Remember that people that have been shot by guns wind up affecting a lot of people (“Police, EMS, Hospitals all wind up being affected by the gun trade”).
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:14pm@STARMAN70, if a minor drug leads to major drugs, then apply the same logic to the minor (but worse than marijuana) drug alcohol. Would you have it banned? Also, I agree the UN is bent on world population reduction, but they oppose all “illegal” drugs. Don’t you think if there agenda were to reduce population, and legal pot did the same, then they’d be for legal pot? Marijuana is safe, should be legal. Now it’s illegal, and just like prohibition of alcohol, it’s just driving up cost and increasing crime and death associated with the profits to be had via the black market sale of it.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:53pmCS LEWIS FAN – have you seen what it costs to have someone killed these days? It’s crazy. If we would legalize it, there would be more money available to educate, feed and take care of our children. It’s all about the children.
Seriously, you’re drawing artificial lines. You say we should legalize pot…but what about heroin or cocaine? Or crack cocaine? You could use your argument just as easily with them. But if you’re saying pot is okay and the others aren’t, then you need to explain why and it needs to be a better reason than “because”.
Report this comment
blackstone22
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:07amthat is complete bunk. Lots of people like to take a hit of weed once in a while and they have no plans of doing any kind of hard drug ever. It’s ridiculous, look at all the money and lives wasted, and police man hours all because pot is illegal. People smoke it, anyone who wants to buy it can do so, let’s pull our heads out of the sand and legalize it. It can’t be worse than alcohol in terms of inciting violence. Matter of fact you could make a strong case for opposing alcohol if you tally up all the lives and families it has destroyed, and healthwise cigarettes are far worse and i don’t see anyone looking to make cigarettes illegal. If someone wants to smoke a doobie occasionally it’s their business, the government should butt out.
Report this comment
chrlefxtrt
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:47amGateway blah blah blah. Pot doesn’t make people use heroin, getting molested makes people use heroin. People never want to confront the issues that make people turn to the hard stuff in the first place. I’ve never known a pot head that said “weed ain’t cuttin’ it, time for crack”.
source – me, I used to smoke pot daily and still wake up at 530am every day to work for 10hrs. It’s just another way to unwind. Only thing that changed was the drug testing policy at work.
Report this comment
Chet Hempstead
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:43amThe whole pot leads to harder drugs thing is based on the same kind of logic as saying that Coca Cola leads to heroin, because 100% of junkies drank Coke before they tried any other recreational drug.
If smoking weed is more likely to lead to harder drugs than drinking beer, it’s mostly because the laws against it cause otherwise law abiding people to lose respect for the law and fear the police.
Report this comment
environmentalandawake
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:20pmOne thing I forgot to post. The drug trade was only marginally violent until we declared a war on drugs. It introduced the notion that everyone should be armed. That would help to allevieate that problem a little anyway.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:17pmthe “war on drugs” and other moral equivalents of war, instigated by the US government against an elusive and fabricated enemy, where results are vague and immeasurable, is just another example of how government should stay out of our lives. Since the ward on drugs, there are more drugs. Since the war on poverty, there are more poor. Since the war on literacy, my son now goes to school with more idiots than I ever did.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:21pmdang it, that should have been “war on ILLITERACY”.
Report this comment
environmentalandawake
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:14pmIt’s a much simpler issue than we give it credit for. Legalize it. The kids are all trying it anyway. We could save untold billions in housing potheads in prison. Then if you add the prosecutory expenses and the fact that law enforcement could spend more time with dangerous criminals, then it is a no-brainer. Additionally we lost a whole faction of very talented people from the workforce when the potty testing laws came into effect. For a supposed non-discriminary government, they sure are discriminary and non-transparent.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:22pmAmen!! Well said!!
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:42pm…we don’t house potheads in prison, ENVIRONMENTALANDAWAKE. There goes your argument.
Report this comment
booger71
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:01pmDEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:42pm
…we don’t house potheads in prison, ENVIRONMENTALANDAWAKE. There goes your argument.
============
I spent 21 years working in a prison. 25% of the prison population are there because of low level pot violations.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:10pmBOOGER71 – that’s complete BS and you know it. You may work in a county jail, where guys come in for pot arrests then leave on PR or small bonds the next day, but you don’t work in a prison. Do you know the difference? Prison – felons, County jail – misdemeanors. No one is being charged with felonies these days for small amounts of pot. If you have to lie to make your point, you don’t have one.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:20pmanother good point ENVIROMENTALANDAWAKE. Follow the money trail. Big Pharma makes money by synthesizing artificial pain relievers for which it charges way more than the natural “herbal” marijuana would cost to grow at home. Now jails are full of non-violent drug offenders, and private companies are trying to run the jails with a promised high occupancy rate. This keeps minority fathers out of the home and in jail, so the rest of the family is bound to live off the government dole, and therefore, always vote democratic.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 11:22amCS LEWIS FAN
bad point,,
if pot is legalized big pharma will get into the business… aka legalized drug pushers
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:26pm@Unalien:
Good for them! Let’s hope we can keep the government regulators from restricting the market so much that ONLY they can afford to grow and distribute! More competition ALWAYS benefits the consumer!
Perhaps, if they enter the market, prices will go low enough that nobody has to go out and steal and hurt others, to obtain weed. You know, we already have a model for this: When’s the last time you saw a bunch of people getting shot up, because beer distributors were having a turf battle?
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:06pmmurder and rape is prohibited, they still happen, so I guess we should legalize it..
The “prohibition failed” argument is a logical fallacy…
IMO, it will be a disaster, but it is a States issue,,, so a State should decide and all the pot heads can move to that State and watch its society and economy suffer… on the other hand,, people can move to States that don’t legalize,,
the goal is to make the States compete and my guess is that the “legalized” States will suffer for it…
Report this comment
KidCharlemagne
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:27pmUNALIEN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:06pm
murder and rape is prohibited, they still happen, so I guess we should legalize it..
==============================================
Right now then It’s not illegal for you to drink a gallon of Turpentine either……..
Report this comment
volantis
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:41pmI think you got it right. Let them make the legalized pot mistake in Colorado so the rest of the nation can learn from it. Fortunately, however, Federal law will trump and the law will tossed out by a judge and so the whole exercise is just a waste of time and money.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:23pm@ KIDCHARLEMANGE…touche, or however you spell it. Curse that war on Illiteracy!
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:45pmUNALIEN – good point. Let the potheads move to one state. They’d destroy it. They’d turn it into one huge Detroit, then expect the rest of us to feed their children and bail them out.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 11:50pmKIDCHARLEMAGNE
Right now then It’s not illegal for you to drink a gallon of Turpentine either……..
—–
You missed the point,,, I am specifically addressing the commonly used single argument that because prohibition has failed, we should make it legal, This is a logical fallacy. There may be other arguments for legalization (I still haven’t heard a good one) but this one is entirely bogus.
The argument goes,, because prohibition has not stopped a behaviour we should remove that prohibition. This is illogical.. and irrational
It means that..
A prohibited activity that does not stop should be allowed..
there is no prohibited activity that stops
ergo
There should be no prohibitions on anything.. A logical fallacy
example,
The prohibition on speeding has failed as everyone does it,, therefore it should be legal.
or..
if were illegal to drink a gallon of paint thinner (maybe it is?) and it is still done then it should be legal
Report this comment
cosmic dogma
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 2:20amMurder and rape are crimes against another human being. Pot is harming your OWN BODY. I OWN MY BODY. It is not the government’s. It is mine. If I choose to not exercise, I am harming my own body. Should the government arrest me? If I eat a cheeseburger it may harm my body, should the government arrest me? As long as you do no harm to another, why is it any body’s business what I do WITH MY OWN BODY. I do not choose to smoke pot, never will. I find it distasteful and unnecessary, but some enjoy it. If THEY HARM NO ONE, WHY THE BIG ISSUE? Do you want to CONTROL EVERYTHING OTHER HUMANS DO WITH THEIR OWN BODIES? Pot would be regulated same as liquor, no driving, working or responsible for others while under influence-therefore no harm to others. Why do you desire such control over others bodies? Think about the all encompassing repercussions of these controls. You would be basically a slave, owned by the state, physically and mentally, unable to make decisions concerning your own existence. Do you want to live like that?
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:58amCOSMIC DOGMA – “Pot is harming your OWN BODY”…until you get behind the wheel of a car stoned and kill a family of five and their dog…or operate complex machinery and maim a coworker…or pilot a plane and kill 220 passengers…or forget you left your baby daughter in the car seat on a hot summer day and go into the house for a nap. Don’t be selfish…your actions affect others around you.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 10:41amCOSMIC DOGMA
you have introduced another argument reread my second post..
suicide is illegal and more people commit suicide than die in car accidents
The argument that if prohibition fails it should be made legal is a logical fallacy..
The only argument that I give any credence is the one you alluded to..
people should be able to to what they want to themselves, even if it is destructive and against their own best interest.
However, even though the libertarian side of me agrees with this premise, the legalizing of pot would introduce a few problems that need to be reconciled..
Concerns..
State hypocrisy, they are clamping down and heavily restricting smoking by raising taxes and limiting rights of smokers based on health concerns and costs. Why promote pot? A contradiction.. for $$$
The left and elites are always promoting and trying to legalize recreational drug use,, Why? they are not acting in your best interest. They want to control the masses and if recreational drug use increases societal values and morays are subverted and balkanized, the State can more easily claim power over a “doped” culture.
It is part a “demoralization” strategy to subvert a society
And clearly pot smokers still use it even though it is prohibited. In other words, prohibition doesn’t stop you if you really want to use it, but use comes with a small risk. So, it may be legally prohibited, in a practical appllication, it is not.. like speeding, prohibited do it
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 11:11amso,Tom Tancredo makes 2 errors in his legalization argument
he relies on faulty logic..
“because prohibition failed it should be legalized”
and then
it is probably not good for society… true the effects are greater then the individual..
so, Tom Tancredo has failed to make the case for legalization…
Though there may be other arguments, my view is still, let a State decide and then that State can compete with other States and the impacts it should be clear.. My prediction is that a State with legalized pot will have more societal problems and be less productive.
This is free market competition between States, a state that legalizes will attract the pot users and suffer the consequences.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:49pm@Unalien:
Though we disagree on the likely outcome of such a policy, we find common ground when you discuss letting the states themselves decide. This is liberty speaking.
Report this comment
reformed911
Posted on October 2, 2012 at 12:09pmStrawman! Awefully juvinile in your thinking.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:56pmStoned drivers are just as bad as drunk drivers. Do you really want to drive on the roads with these people? Seventy-five miles an hour down a busy highway full of 18 year old teens stoned out of their minds? I don’t think so. The pot today is much stronger than what I smoked. At least with alcohol, BAC can be used to give some indication of how impaired someone might be, but there’s no such corresponding test for pot…and it can stay in your system for weeks. I hate to say it, but a lot of people are going to die if it’s legalized.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:05pmWRONG!!!!,…TEXTING WHILE DRIVING IS THE MOST DANGEROUS DRIVERS ON THE ROAD. Little pot smokers are too paranoid to drive and if they do,…they only drive 7mph! Cannibis is a proven fact to help many illnesses, deseases, anxiety, nausea, glaucoma, cancer, etc….DR. SHACKLEFORD – HARVARD SCIENTIST/PROFESSOR
Report this comment
West Coast Patriot
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:11pmYou are a brainwashed individual. I do not smoke marijuana on a regular basis, a few times a year maybe, but I do drink. Marijuana never gets me as messed up as alcohol. I do not stagger when I do smoke, but after a few drinks I do. People need to get real here. Marijuana is not near as destructive as alcohol. I know some people that smoke on a regular basis and do not have marital problems, but I know many drunks who have lost their families in divorce and have children who suffer from the divorce. I have never seen anyone who was addicted to marijuana the way an alcoholic is on liquor. People need to stop this crap and quit being ignorant on this subject. My son relies on marijuana, prescribed to him by his neurologist, for his traumatic brain injury induced epilepsy as we could never find a pharmaceutical drug that worked as well as marijuana. Some people and their prejudice makes me sick.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:14pmTIPOFTHESPEAR42 – you’re delusional. You WANT to believe that crap. You’re no different than Haitians chopping off chicken heads and smoking bone marrow…lol.
Report this comment
KidCharlemagne
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:19pm“I hate to say it, but a lot of people are going to die if it’s legalized.”
=================================
Then why not go ahead and make things like gasoline, butane, and air freshener illegal too?:
“My friends kind of recommended it ’cause we couldn’t find any other drugs to use,” Ward said. “Air freshener, paint, everything … It was quick and easy, disposable … It’s not illegal to buy.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-620528.html
If you made gasoline or paint illegal, then that would mean that more people on the roadways could be saved ’cause kids would no longer be able to get their hands on that stuff anymore.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:34pmWEST COAST PATRIOT – brainwashed? I smoked the stuff, friend. You’re the ignorant one in this room. I drove stoned, and the pot then was nowhere near as strong as today. My piece was simply about driving under the influence of pot – not divorce, children’s mental health or brain injuries – and definitely not about your son, who obviously doesn’t even drive. But let me ask you this…is your son’s comfort worth the possibility of thousands of deaths on the roads?
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:37pmKIDCHARLEMAGNE – the kids using that stuff rarely have drivers licenses and don’t live long anyway if they use it any length of time. While we’re at it, lets make murder legal too, so we can tax it.
Report this comment
West Coast Patriot
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:42pmDems, you are such an ignorant brainwashed individual, that you are not worth my time of day. You are probably a drunk, hypocrite.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:55pmDEMS’ – YOU MUST BE A GOVERNMENT TROLL,…There is NO comparisons to this debate and the major B.S. you are pushing!?
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:57pmWEST COAST PATRIOT – just like a lib…can’t handle losing an argument, so you name call like a child.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:02pmTIPOFTHESPEAR42 – you stopped making any sense about 30 minutes ago. It’s late…go to bed.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:25pm@TIPOFTHESPEAR42….EXACTLY what i was thinking. Great point, but not just because I was thinking it.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:31pmDEMS, the tide is against you on this one.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:34pmCS LEWIS FAN – and tides don’t have brains.
Report this comment
The Jewish Avenger
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:52am@WCP
Your kid needs it, be thankful.. if they are sick and dying and itll make em eat, fine
but I can think of hundreds of lame excuses and blatant outright lies to justify the use of this stuff…
IF and when they do actually want to enforce control over pot, youll be paying $2400-2500 an ounce.
What will you do then? The same that you are doing now, getting it illegally and using it.
Stick with that or your precious pot will be worse than cigarettes.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:45pm@Avenger:
Simple. It grows in the dirt. Let people grow it. $2400/oz. won’t happen. You don’t have to pay $80 for a carton of cancer-sticks, either. Grow your own tobacco, and figure out how to roll a nice thin cigarillo.
Report this comment
reformed911
Posted on October 2, 2012 at 12:30pmAt least with alcohol, BAC can be used to give some indication of how impaired someone might be, but there’s no such corresponding test for pot…
__________________
Basic sobriety testing roadside is all that’s necessary. It’s all on dashcam so there’s no denying it.
__________________
I hate to say it, but a lot of people are going to die if it’s legalized.
__________________
A lot of people are going to die either way Dems.. Do you know what the most dangerous recreational activity is? FISHING!! Thousands die each year in fishing accidents. Should we ban fishing? You’ve got nothing but strawmans to throw out there and you’ve been doing it all throughout this thread.
Strawmans? Is that all you have? I can show data for any concern you may have. Would you agree to a debate on the subject using only objective data?
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:54pmWAYYYYY OVER-DUE!!! With Obama’s RATIONING and DEATH PANELS aready in full force,….WE THE PEOPLE should have every right to grow our own!! I am SICK AND CANNOT EVEN FIND A PRIMARY CARE DR!! So,…what do they expect us to do,…bend over and take it???
I DON’T THINK SO!!!! THANK YOU TOM AND YOU HAVE MY FULL SUPPORT!!!
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:58pmIt’s not medicine…quit bullsh*tting yourself.
Report this comment
West Coast Patriot
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:40pmDems are evil, You are delusional, you really need to get a brain. Your name even says it. I am friends with many democrats and they are not evil. The Parties, both of them are evil. Everyone needs to wake up to that fact. You are a government brainwashed little person who does not know his head from his @ss.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:48pmWEST COAST PATRIOT – I’ve read your posts…you ARE touched by evil. You’re corrupted and you can’t see it…but we can.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 5:55pmNo one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Report this comment
bmfh58
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:53pmWhen these pot heads start to have breathing problems and lugging around their O2 bottles to their chemo appt’s. They will wish that they smoked cigarettes which aren’t inhaled and held as a pot smoker does. Pot smoking is so much worse on the lungs than the shallow breaths a smoker does. Time will tell the story no matter the excusses you will here today!
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:20pmGOD put EVERYTHING on the earth that humans could ever need,…it isss the MAN-MADE LAWS that have made you think it’s soooo bad!! Obamacare & the people that have NO CONTROL are the ones that are making it even harder for AMERICANS to get MEDICAL HELP!! IT IS CALLED “CONTROL”!!
You can NOT knock it,..if you’ve NEVER tried it. They have edibles and vapors, etc so,…you dont have TO SMOKE IT!!
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:02pmI bet you’re gonna be surprised when you read the recent study done of long-term cannabis users, and its effect on lung capacity.
Versus non-sedentary non-smokers, lung capacity diminished only very slightly. Versus sedentary non-smokers, even sedentary pot smokers did better (they breathe deeply, and hold their breath, regularly.) Pot smokers had markedly increased lung capacity and oxygen utilization, when compared to tobacco smokers.
My own experiences confirm this, with the added benefit that it has helped to mitigate serious chest cold symptoms, for me. It relaxes the bronchii, allowing air to penetrate the lungs more deeply. It is an excellent expectorant, far better than store-bought nostrums, so the lungs get clearer more quickly, and stay clearer longer. Because of its actions in the lungs, relaxing the tissue, it is indicated (and successfully used) by asthma sufferers.
Report this comment
Celeste.Christi
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:51pmLegalizing and Taxing Marijuana is not a bad idea, but it is a bad idea for today. 10 years ago I would have said sure, go ahead, but making marijuana available at every corner store in todays enviroment is unwise. The country isn’t thinking clearly as it is and this putz wants to get it stoned? Stupid man. Come back after national sanity is restored. When we’re back in our right minds we can talk about firing one up.
Report this comment
UNALIEN
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:06amAgree, society has become a demoralized, infantile, delusional, self destructive cabal of irrational and self destructive ignorant dummies.. caused by the indoctrination of “Modern Liberalism”, There are many who can handle pot, but IMO it just makes you stupid and retards your abilities in life. The fear is that society, at this stage, will not be better for it and legalization would just cause a further balkanization of American society. But that is an opinion and let the States decide….see which one fails and which one succeeds.
it always bothers me that the Leftists always promote legalization of recreational drugs in general, perhaps as drug use destroys a culture from within.. A Leftist agenda,,, Sound familiar…
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:19pmOddly, my thinking has become more clear since I began smoking cannabis. I smoke a small bowl in the evening, and watch Glenn Beck and the Real News, sometimes Wilkow, and often I flip over and watch Rachel Maddow, to see what the propaganda blast from the communists sounds like that evening. I enjoy this time spent relaxing with my little family, and we learn quite a lot from the discussion, especially from Glenn’s show. He’s a quite able presenter.
I have come closer to God, since starting to smoke. I have noticed my health improving, my bowels acting healthier, my weight reducing, and my mobility increasing, and the amount of pain I endure from pinched nerves in my back and legs greatly reduced, even when I haven’t recently partaken. I surmise that all of this has happened together, for a reason, and I begin to think of cannabis consumption in small amounts to be a bit of a sacrament.
In my ruminations, I have found a logical reason to oppose abortion, as well as being informed by a scriptural admonition against it. I think I’ve become more conservative, and more appreciative of the history of our country, and more cognizant of the great gifts we are setting about giving up as quickly as possible, if we remain enthralled to the government the way we are.
I have begun directing my own life, and am starting a small business with the idea that my family and I must, first and foremost, become free. That is, outright property owners, on a little farm.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:10pm(continued)
I have learned to use cannabis to relieve pain, and have noticed its other benefits in my health, well-being, and ability to control my emotions. I relax with it, and open my mind. I have spent this time thinking more deeply on some things than I have ever thought, even (or especially) when I was young, dumb and full of … ahem … and so pumped up on what I thought was patriotism that I was once described by a friend as a guy who “pees red-white-and-blue and sh*ts stars and stripes.” I now begin to truly UNDERSTAND what all this stuff is about.
I have begun reading more widely, as well, and educating myself.
I don’t think these are bad things. And I attribute my openness to learning, and my desire to understand deeply the culture in which I was raised, to the gateway afforded me by cannabis.
Report this comment
TEXTHEDOG
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:43pmIf you look at research studies, for example at Vanderbilt, you will see that the cardio-pulmonary and psycological effects of our modern cannibas are serious. The whole arguement that because one substance (alcohol) is legal we should add another toxic substance is infantile. We have lost our moral compass. I am 65 years old and I have seen hundreds of my friends affected by pot in a completely negative manner.
Report this comment
THXll38
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:48pmI think it is immoral to make it illegal allowing for a violent underground market.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:02pmTHXLL38 – so, in order to prevent anything from being sold on the black market, we should legalize it? How about illegal organ harvesting? human trafficking? child prostitution? heroin? uranium? Not a smart way to look at it.
Report this comment
Duddio
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:17pmI am 42 years old and have seen hundreds of my friends affected by glucose and high fructose corn syrup in a completely negative manner! Should we outlaw it then? Bloomberg would go there, for sure!
Diabetes, heart disease, fibromyalgia, obesity and all that comes with it…..
Report this comment
KingDork
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:21pmI also lost a ton of friends to pot smoking. People don’t realize that the stuff also kills personalities and changes people. It also turns people into fanatics for it. I hear sob stories how some claim they need it for this and that and you know it’s a total croc, but if we cave and let it be legal they will soon try to push other drugs. Things are bad enough as it is without pot being legal here, if we allow it now it will just greatly increase the stupid boring fanatic population of feeble minded addicts.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:44pmKINGDORK – pot does kill personalities, it’s sad…turns them into unmotivated zombies. Obamazoids.
Report this comment
booger71
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:05pmIt is not the government jobs to save us from ourselves.
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:19pmBOOGER71 – right, but it IS the government’s job to save us from you.
Report this comment
THXll38
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:10am“THXLL38 – so, in order to prevent anything from being sold on the black market, we should legalize it? How about illegal organ harvesting? human trafficking? child prostitution? heroin? uranium? Not a smart way to look at it.”
The following crimes that you stated do not compare to legalizing pot, and thinking so is silly. The things that you stated are morally wrong and (except heroin use) and should be illegal. Pot does not kill nor does it hurt anyone — texting and alcohol use jack and kill more people that pot ever will.
Report this comment
THXll38
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:38pmSounds good to me. I don’t smoke the stuff, but I see nothing wrong with it. It should be a state issue anyway.
Report this comment
WHEREMYHANDOUT
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:24pmTwo things for sure… a drop in alcoholic DUI’s and a 500% increase in Cheeto’s and Cinnamon Toast Crunch sells.
Report this comment
Captain Crunch
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:06pmAbout time!
Report this comment
Fella
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:05pmGood luck Tom Tancredo! My fellow conservatives are by and large on the wrong side of this issue every single time.
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:59pmFELLA: If the REPUBLICANS would come out and say “WE are going to legalize Cannibis,…..and MEAN IT,….Obama would “NOT” stand a chance! PERIOD!!!
Report this comment
Duddio
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:11pmI hear you, when I started logically comparing the legalization of alcohol and cannabis, I couldn’t explain why one was ok and the other wasn’t. The prohibition on Marijuana is hypocritical at best, and criminal at worst.
As a conservative Christian, I get all kinds of pushback when I share my views. But I cannot take the inconsistency any longer. I am willing to promote the legalization of cannabis. It would take millions of $$ out of the pockets of the drug cartels as people can grow it in their yard. Good enough to start with.
Then we could clear out non-violent inmates who are in prison for use or possession by commuting their sentences. Save money, free people, give choices back to the populace, & focus the DEA on the psychotropic drugs that turn people into cannibals.
Report this comment
Fella
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:45pmSome people might find this interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpIyaIHsJbc&feature=g-all-u
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:39pmObama and his entire chum gang would even vote for Romney then, after rolling out of a smoke filled, psychadellic van at the wrong voting precinct on the wrong day. All this talk of illegal vs. legal. This country is screwed up. It’s legal to kill a human life just because it’s inside another human’s body. Thank goodness nobody’s applied this line of thought to a man’s manly parts, or he’d have no right to his own at certain times. Slightly off topic, but government legality does not equate with morality. It’s illegal to control us and make money off us. Look at this history of how it was made illegal.
Report this comment
CS Lewis FAN
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:41pm@DUDDIO….ditto
Report this comment
Cemoto78
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:01pmWe have lost the war on drugs and have made it worse. Time to legalize MJ and tax it like alcohol.
Report this comment
justangry
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:07pmHow are you going to tax a weed that anyone can grow?
Report this comment
AvengerK
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:29pmyeah sure..ask California how those taxes are working out. Many of the clinics selling the stuff have been hiding their profits from the IRS. The whole thing is a farce. Furthermore..let’s stop this “harmless drug” garbage. Today’s weed isn’t your Cheech and Chong stuff..it is far stronger. A recent study showed that prolonged use of cannabis from an early age permanently affects a person’s memory, IQ and attention.
And by all means..tell me how you’re going to stop the stoners from growing their own and avoiding taxes?
Report this comment
tipofthespear42
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 9:43pmDuddio”, Very well said and thank you,..PTSD, Chronic PAIN and so many other treatable MAJOR medical problems are NOT being helped by PHSYCOTROPICS…Been there,..done that…no thanks.
My mind is much more clear NOT taking those EXPENSIVE MEDS (that don’t work) that OBAMA & BIG PHARMA ARE PUSHING!!
Report this comment
DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 10:27pmWe have lost the war on murder and have made it worse. Time to legalize murder and tax it like alcohol. Maybe run it like a lottery. Before we had laws against murder, murder wasn’t a crime, and no one ever killed anyone else. No look. It’s a slaughterhouse out there. Legalize it – start in Chicago and Youngstown, OH. We can smoke pot, kill each other and live off the scraps Democrats throw us. At least we won’t be hypocrites.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 6:10pmDo laws against murder, mean that there is no murder which occurs?
The biggest problem in this whole debate, and the 800-lb. gorilla in the room, is that the Feral government has arrogated to itself the power to regulate this substance. It has constructed this power from whole cloth, based on the insane and stupid, coerced-court Wickard v. Filburn decision. That decision, and all law and decisions based upon it, should be overturned, and a deep and sincere apology given to the American people.
Report this comment
Norm D. Plume
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 7:26pm@AvengerK:
I’d like to take issue with your assertion that today’s weed is a lot stronger than the weed from the 1970s.
In some sense, this is true. That is, you don’t have to smoke as much weed, to get the effect you desire. So, to get the proper dose, you inhale fewer lungfuls of burning, crude plant matter. This sounds like a health WIN to me, frankly.
In another sense, this is false. All that happened, was that people smoked more weed to get the same effect, back in the 70s. The effects were just as strongly felt, in sufficient doses. Where do you think modern weed’s spectrum of effects came from? It came from that weed they grew in the 1970s.
There might be studies showing that cannabis use affects people’s brains. I’m not surprised. I can tell it has reshaped my own, a bit. But I don’t consider that to be a bad thing. It has made me more reflective, more introspective, and calmer, more rational, and less prone to violence. Not that I am a pacifist, mind you, but I’d have a well thought out reason, and a well laid plan, for the commission of a violent act nowadays.
Don’t want that effect in youngsters? Well, okay. Legalize it for people 18 and older.
You realize it’s not illegal for you to grow tobacco for your own use, right? Why doesn’t everyone do it? Why would people pay a tax on tobacco products, if they can grow them in their yards? Why? Convenience. That’s why. The same will be true for pot.
Report this comment
justangry
Posted on September 28, 2012 at 8:00pmDo we need any other reason other than ticking off social progressives? Meddling busy bodies.
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:31pmWritten like a true “Liberty Movement” Liberal. Barney Frank, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson (drug pushers) are proud of you part-time, ahem, uh, hmmm… Conservatives for selfish freedoms and personal stupidity.
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 12:48pmIf the federal government were to let people take care of their own personal lives – the republicans would have no party
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:11pmSOY. And that would be just fine with you Obama enabling Liberal-lites…
Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:19pmi would rather have a real constitutional party than this progressive republican party
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:36pmSOY. What you WANT and what are the FACTS are two different things. I would love to see real CHANGE in our government and an adherence to our Constitution. Ron Paul (your orginal purveyor of lies and idiocy) only wanted to “USE” our Constitution to pedal a diseased strain Libertarianism. His Rothbardian ideology which includes racist, anti-Semitic, morally repugnant socially-Liberal views and a totally naive isolationist agenda. The economic side of his musings are about the only thing he had going for him.
Report this comment
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on September 29, 2012 at 1:48pmSOY. And the facts are you get NONE of what you want enabling Obama to a second term. The FACT is Romney will be a step in the right direction. Can’t help but be anything but a step in the right direction…
Report this comment