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‘Real News’: Marijuana Legalization Begins in Colorado, What Will Feds Do?

Dec. 11, 2012 8:04pm Christopher Santarelli

This year two states voted to legalize the recreational use of Marijuana, Washington and Colorado–where Governor John Hickenlooper signed the voter-approved legalization Monday. Many say that the recent legalization reflects a growing national feeling that Marijuana should be left to the states. Nationally, marijuana legalization draws just short of majority support.

However, according to a recent Gallup Poll, 64 percent of Americans say they do not want the federal government to enforce its anti-marijuana laws in those states where voters have recently legalized. Despite this sentiment, the issue is likely to cause conflict between state and federal governments. One plan to settle this dispute that the feds are considering now would be where they arrest only a low level of users to test the laws in the courts.

‘Real News’ Monday looked at the points of contention between enforcing federal law and respecting states rights, and other questions that come up when looking at the legalization argument:

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Comments (26)

nothinghere
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 1:28pm
as usual in wash,st.,their telling police not to enforce fed. law,same as illegal aliens,this is what america has come to,enforce laws that you want,and forget others.
how are citizens,and business owners,going to deal with this,insurance wise,you think maybe your rates are going to go up.
if you own a business in co.,or wash.,whats your workmans comp,and liablity insurance co.’s going to do,i assume raise your rates,same as car insurance.
regular pot smokers are already complaining,pot stays in your blood stream,for up to 72 hrs.,which means their probaly,federaly under the influence constantly.

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Gerewolf
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:04pm
Ok my fellow conservatives you must be informed of a few facts on this plant. One: It’s not addictive, it’s also not toxic, and it was only made illegal because it was competition for the cotton industry, the Nylon industry and the paper industry. hogwash you say? Here’s some history. Dupont of Dupont Chemical invented nylon at the same time that the Hemp Gin was created. Why do they compete? because hemp fiber is 100 times stronger than cotton, and lasts about 200 times longer. So Dupont was on board with banning his primary competition, then you have William Hearst who sold news papers and owned the lumber yards and the lands the lumber was grown on, and hemp paper (same hemp paper your declaration of independence was written on) lasts forever and is much much cheaper, so Hearst had competition with the hemp industry too, and used his papers to smear a plant that has been as much a part of American history as George Washington, but the reason it was made illegal had zero to do with smoking it. The primary effect of smoking pot, it lowered blood sugar, that’s where the “high” comes from, it’s euphoria from low blood sugar, hence the “munchies” and it also increases blood flow and that’s why the eyes become red, but it does not make one dangerous on the roads, in fact it lessons accidents because people that are high, drive like little old ladies too slow and too cautious. Learn before you spout people. From a citizen of Colorado.

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- JRook
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:14pm
  Now why would you want to come here and confuse the GB crowd with facts and the real truth.
  
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- Gerewolf
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:24pm
  Jrook, because I am a conservative and actually like GB and most of those who post on this site. I also want my fellow patriots to know the real reasons that the FED is against legalization. It’s because the Pharm industry hates a plant that they cannot patent and sell back to you and pay dearly to keep our elected officials on their gravy train so as to not have free medicine that is more effective and has no side effects than their toxic and addictive products. I need people to know that this is the highest order of plant life on the planet and has the capacity to feed us (hemp seed second highest in protein in nature) and produce biomass fuels, and a very strong antibiotic, and cloth, and paper, and all of it reducing the need to deforest our lands for those materials. On hillsides recovering from fire, plant hemp to stop mud slides, all of this info is out there, but people need to be made aware of the uses and stop being suckers for mass media telling them it’s evil only to maximize profits at our expense, and the expense of liberty.
  
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MikeinIdaho
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 11:25am
What will the Feds do? NOTHING!
This will become part of their plan for “bread and circuses” to keep the serfs happy and quiet while they complete the stealind of your freedom and your ability to take care of yourselves. They hope you won’t notice anything amiss until you wake up in chains, working for the communists in DC.

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huey6367
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 8:08am
Obama and the feds aren’t going to do anything about it. How do you think he got elected? Twice? Keep it legal and he will be elected a third time … or would that be a fourth time? You gonna eat that? I have no idea what’s going on.

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OldSurfRat
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 5:54am
Cheeto sales will rise but all he11 will break out when they relize that they cant get twinkies anymore.
Thats about all that will happen.

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betterpart
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 3:49am
They’ll likely blame a video when some little kid gets their hands on it and dies or gets severely ill.

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- TAC616
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 5:19am
  Unless their kids can gets their hands on roughly 1500 pounds, and smoke it in the space of about 15 minutes, not going to happen. The lethal ratio for cannabis is one of the highest on Earth.
  
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donkeykong
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 2:30am
How do they square this with “drug-free-workplaces” ?? How long
before you go to work must you abstain from smoking weed?
How long before driving a car, say, to work ??? Seems like a
catch-22 situation to me.

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- sillyfreshness
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 3:35am
  What will the feds do? They will run ruff shot and force their federal will on everyone. Be ready for jackbooted thugs to kick down doors. We don’t have states rights anymore. And this Obama fellow was a chain pot smoker in his chum gang, but watch and see how he won’t let anyone else act like how he used to (or maybe still does) smoking pot. What a hypocrite. The commander in chief used to smoke drugs illegally and now he wants to throw other people in jail for doing the same thing as him. I just don’t understand this crazy, knee jerk reaction when talking about pot. It’s not nearly as bad as alcohol and I don’t smoke it, but I know a lot of people who do and they are fine. Let the states have their rights back. The federal government was created out of the states giving up certain rights, but that proves the states were the sovereignty before they created the federal government.
  
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- TAC616
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 5:24am
  And what happens when you show up at work drunk? No one is asking for the right to come to work stoned, just like no one is fighting for the right to show up to work drunk. The answer is simple, you treat it just like alcohol.
  
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- Gerewolf
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:16pm
  The effects of smoking last about 2 hours. The initial high is within 15 minutes of smoking, and it trails off from there over about a 2 hour window. So if you are in heavy manufacturing where it’s dangerous to be impared in any way, abstain for a minimum of two hours, 3 to be totally safe. If it’s eaten, the effects can last about 5 hours or longer so never eat food products infused wiht herb as it’s more powerful and longer lasting. I totally agree, don’t smoke or eat herb before work. But it’s no different than a Martinni after work to enjoy some herb while watching the news in the evening. And no one gets high and beats their kids, their wife, or robs a liquor store. They would much prefer the couch, someone to cuddle with and a good movie.
  
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2ndOpinion
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 2:00am
Right now, here in Colorado, lives a person who will be the first one killed by a driver high on weed. Hopefully they will be one and the same. Also, I’ve never seen a state degrade their own constitution with such crap. Could have been just a law, but no, they have to make it part of the constitution defining their state.

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- GUAPOKOVSKI
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 10:26am
  It’s already begun and it’s headed to Colorado.
  
  “A new Office of Traffic Safety survey of nine cities during Friday and Saturday nights recently concluded more Californians are driving under the influence of drugs than alcohol: more than double, at 14 percent.”
  
  “”Nearly half had marijuana. That was the drug. And sometimes it was marijuana plus other drugs, or marijuana plus alcohol,” said Chris Cochran, Office of Traffic Safety.”
  
  http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/state&id=8891755
  
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- Gerewolf
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:19pm
  If you can show a single statistic that can prove that anyone has been killed by a driver who was impared by herb and herb alone I will give you a prize. The NHTSA has already stated that this is not the case, also insurance companies statistics prove that regular smokers tend to be the safest drivers and are considering a discount for those that smoke herb. I can prove my points, can you?
  
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- GUAPOKOVSKI
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 1:03pm
  Looks like another Liberaltarian disguised as a Conservative.
  
  “Among impaired drivers, fatally injured drivers, and motor vehicle crash victims, marijuana is the most prevalent illegal drug that has been detected, according to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.”
  
  http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/09/marijuana-nearly-doubles-risk-of-collisions/
  
  There’s more. Look it up.
  
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- MadAsHeII
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 1:26am
  GUAPOKOVSKI, In 1992, a study released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicated that alcohol is by far the leading cause of drug-related traffic accidents, while marijuana poses a negligible danger, except when combined with alcohol. In an analysis of blood samples from 1,882 drivers killed in vehicular accidents in seven states, alcohol was found in over 51%. Marijuana was a distant second to alcohol, at just 6.7%. Because two-thirds of those deceased marijuana users were also under the influence of alcohol at the time of death, the actual number of drivers who tested positive for cannabis was 2.2%, the exact number determined by the NTSB in 1988. The US government’s 1992 NHTSA research, considered the most comprehensive study of cannabis use among driving fatalities, was suppressed for almost two years because it contradicted America’s “just say no” anti-pot propaganda.
  Anyone can find a study to support their claim. I can say from experience that alcohol impairs my driving after about three beers, but I have never had a problem taking a few tokes and driving. The bias of people on marijuana is needless. Those that drink but think that marijuana smokers are criminals are hypocrites.
  
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- MadAsHeII
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 1:32am
  GUAPOKOVSKI, Now on to other studies:
  The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
  The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
  “We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
  
  A pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco has found that a compound derived from marijuana could stop metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancer, potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever. Desprez, a molecular biologist, spent decades studying ID-1, the gene that causes cancer to spread. Meanwhile, fellow researcher Sean McAllister was studying the effects of Cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-toxic, non-psychoactive chemical compound found in the cannabis plant. Finally, the pair collaborated, combining CBD and cells containing high levels of ID-1 in a petri dish.
  “What we found was that his Cannabidiol could essentially ‘turn off’ the ID-1,” Desprez said. “The cells stopped spreading and returned
  
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- MadAsHeII
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 1:37am
  Sorry, even though it said I had ten characters left it cut off an important word. Here is more:
  
  “What we found was that his Cannabidiol could essentially ‘turn off’ the ID-1,” Desprez told HuffPost. The cells stopped spreading and returned to normal.
  
  “We likely would not have found this on our own,” he added. “That’s why collaboration is so essential to scientific discovery.”
  
  Desprez and McAllister first published a paper about the finding in 2007. Since then, their team has found that CBD works both in the lab and in animals. And now, they’ve found even more good news.
  
  “We started by researching breast cancer,” said Desprez. “But now we’ve found that Cannabidiol works with many kinds of aggressive cancers–brain, prostate–any kind in which these high levels of ID-1 are present.”
  
  Desprez hopes that clinical trials will begin immediately.
  
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- REW2221
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 5:50pm
  Dont worry about the fact people get drunk and get behind the wheel every day. And do you assume people havent been driving while high before this new law? Oh and what about the state being sick and tired of billions of dollars wasted by the feds on the “Drug War” that has done nothing? Heads up: people have been and will be smoking marijuana the only difference is we dont have to waste money anymore, in fact we can make it. Is it worth an officer getting shot over a few joints that are far less harmful than the booze thats guzzeled down by the “good Americans”?
  
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yazoo
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 1:21am
Legal Pot will be a calamity for those states. Where to begin? Some things that come to mind is an influx of folks into their state that use this and other drugs, solid citizens those. It’ll stop the selling of drugs to minors cause it will be carefully controlled! Controlled selling will remove the Drug Pushers! Never mind that there will still be a lot of 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, old (and younger) who will become there new clients/ victims.
And then will come the big boy bullies to wade into the game in the form of the many Federal Agency that can and will regulate this new industry. Just for starters, someone is gonna get taxed, Health Warnings, product manuacturing controls will be enacted. Who will sell it? Where will it be sold? New laws enacted as to its’ use and the operating of vehicles. Insuance, Ravanous Class Action Lawyers waiting to pounce.
OH, you thought this would be a nice little Cottage Industry where you and Hughlio could grow you enough pot to keep you high and out of jail. Wrong Bunkie. You see, you’ve invited into your “thing” the world’s best Take Charge guys…your Federal and Local Governments. There will be; Permits, Licenses, Workmen Compensation Insurance, Social Security payments, Medicare, Healthcare, Health Inspection, product purity testing, the list will go on and on and on. Trust me. Good luck sucker!

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- REW2221
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 5:55pm
  Scenario: My friend who is good at growing marijuana grows his legal plants. He gives me some as a gift in exchange for a ride to the airport or whatever and I smoke it. The end.
  
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TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:16pm
Obama…. smoke ‘em if ya’ got ‘em you choom gangers you… or not…

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- anarchocapitalist84
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 12:51am
  What does that even mean?
  
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- TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
  Posted on December 12, 2012 at 7:45am
  ANARCHO… means it could go either way…. per a King Obama decree. Sorry about the unclear jocularity towards Choom Gangers, pot heads and Anarchos who believe the invisible hand of the free market will cure ALL the worlds ills…
  
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