[release] BY STEVE HUNTLEY
One step forward: California voters will get a chance in November to decide if the state should legalize marijuana. Two steps backward: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told authorities in Mexico that the United States was looking at anything that worked to fight the drug cartels killing Mexicans daily -- but responded "no" when asked if anything included legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana.
The California vote, however it turns out, constitutes a recognition that millions of Americans see lighting up a joint as no different than sipping a martini. Clinton's rejection of easing U.S. law on recreational weed use reflects a wide opposing belief that allowing marijuana use would violate moral norms and inflict onerous social costs on our society.
Sponsors of the California referendum attempt to sidestep the moral argument by framing the issue in dollars and cents. They assert taxing legal marijuana could bring $1.4 billion to California's bankrupt state coffers while cutting law enforcement and incarceration costs.
Passage of the Golden State measure would set up a state-federal conflict. Federal law trumps state law, but the Obama administration has wisely stopped federal prosecution of medical marijuana sales in the more than a dozen states that have approved them. But turning a blind eye to a defiant challenge on recreational use would be another matter.
A California yes vote could force the nation into a realistic conversation on drug prohibition. Casualties from the war on drugs keep piling up. Nowhere is this more true than in Mexico, where more than 18,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the last three years, including several recent victims with ties to the U.S. consulate in Juarez. In this country, FBI crime statistics list narcotics circumstances behind 3,052 murders over five years ending in 2008.
The deaths and millions of arrests, convictions and imprisonments stem from a trade supplying products Americans obviously want -- and No. 1 is marijuana. The National Institute of Drug Abuse found that more than 40 percent of high school seniors used marijuana at least once. Sports Illustrated reports that personnel in the National Football League see joint smoking "almost epidemic" among 2010 draft-eligible players. Weed has been depicted as the norm in books and movies for years, and the medical marijuana revolution in the states now has even timid broadcast television addressing the issue.
Legalizing marijuana wouldn't end the criminal drug trade and its violence. Addicts still would crave heroin, cocaine and other hard narcotics. But decriminalizing marijuana would be a body blow to drug cartels. Half the annual income for Mexico's violent drug smugglers comes from marijuana, one Mexican official told the Wall Street Journal last year. Imagine how many smugglers and street-corner reefer hustlers would be put out of business.
One recent advocate of considering legalization as part of a new approach to crime is John J. DiIulio Jr., who served as President George W. Bush's director of faith-based initiatives. Writing in the journal Democracy, DiIulio said that the impact of more than 800,000 marijuana-related arrests on crime rates last year was "likely close to zero." He argued there is "almost no scientific evidence showing that pot is more harmful to its users' health, more of a 'gateway drug' or more crime-causing in its effects than alcohol or other legal narcotic or mind-altering substances."
Legalization backers go further, pointing to Canadian studies suggesting health-care costs are higher for tobacco or alcohol users and that police disruption of drug-trafficking gangs contributes to street violence by causing gang power struggles.
The prospect of reducing violence, undermining gangs, freeing law enforcement to concentrate on serious crimes and more revenues for hard-pressed governments -- all are reasons to end the "reefer madness" in our laws.[/release]
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img]
[i]Groovy[/i]
[url]http://www.suntimes.com/news/huntley/2129118,CST-EDT-HUNT30.article[/url]
There are no good arguments against legalizing weed.
No one should be surprised that its prohibition is feeding the Mexican gangs and their violence.
looks like it would.....[I]devastate cartels[/I]xD
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Why reply - this adds nothing to the topic and is not even funny" - verynicelady))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=Mr.Ordbert;21085195]looks like it would.....[I]devastate cartels[/I]xD[/QUOTE]
Not a Pun :bang:
Ah Clinton, silly woman.
I'll do anything for Mexico, but I won't do that.
soooo, they're [I]smashing[/I] pot laws?
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img]
[i]I just smoked a joint.[/i]
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img]
Looks like if the bill goes through in November, California would...smoke...the competition :P
[QUOTE=Exille;21085301]Looks like if the bill goes through in November, California would...[i]smoke[/i]...the competition
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Fix'd
Legalization = money
who doesn't like money?
I have [I]high[/I] hopes for this.
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Ishmael12;21085221][QUOTE=Mr.Ordbert;21085195]looks like it would.....[I]devastate cartels[/I]xD[/QUOTE]
Not a Pun :bang:[/QUOTE]
thanks
[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;21085194]There are no good arguments against legalizing weed.
No one should be surprised that its prohibition is feeding the Mexican gangs and their violence.[/QUOTE]
acquisition will become much easier for high school students. Less dangerous, but also much easier.
I say legalize it for a bit, see how things happen and if they get better keep it legalized, if somehow worse, make it illegal again. But I'm staying the fuck away from it no matter what, I have no respect for people that smoke it.
[QUOTE=BrickInHead;21085407]acquisition will become much easier for high school students. Less dangerous, but also much easier.[/QUOTE]
So they'd all be on pot instead of out drunk driving. And since pot is healthier than alcohol, and drunk driving kills others, that sounds like a good thing to me.
[QUOTE=BrickInHead;21085407]acquisition will become much easier for high school students. Less dangerous, but also much easier.[/QUOTE]
It's easier for me to get some pot for myself than it is a significant amount of alcohol right now even though it's illegal. Not that I've ever had pot...
[QUOTE=BrickInHead;21085407]acquisition will become much easier for high school students. Less dangerous, but also much easier.[/QUOTE]
Easier? It is already easy. Less then easy. Within 10 minutes at school if you call a few people you can have as much weed as you want delivered to you personally.
[QUOTE=BrickInHead;21085407]acquisition will become much easier for high school students. Less dangerous, but also much easier.[/QUOTE]
Actually it would be a lot harder.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;21085682]Actually it would be a lot harder.[/QUOTE]
Wut?
[QUOTE=Aman V;21085707]Wut?[/QUOTE]
It's harder to find someone 21 to buy you alcohol than it is to just call a dealer.
It looks like Clinton isn't up for a [i]joint[/i] campaign for marijuana.
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Pandemix;21085371]I have [I]high[/I] hopes for this.
[img]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q198/Hezzy88/mojo.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Finally, every other one was too terrible.
Well this is one [I]doobi[/I]ous situation.
[IMG]http://i41.tinypic.com/2z87pck.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=yawmwen;21085723]It's harder to find someone 21 to buy you alcohol than it is to just call a dealer.[/QUOTE]
Assuming it would be 21.
Whats cigarettes? 19?
Cigs are 18
[editline]05:18PM[/editline]
And duh, @ topic
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21087964]Cigs are 18
[editline]05:18PM[/editline]
And duh, @ topic[/QUOTE]
In NJ it's 19 for some reason.
I love mary jane. But as much as I love this magical plant, legalizing it won't hurt cartels much. Barely any Cannabis, illegally sold in the US, comes from Mexico. People just grow it here. And in Cali, people can just get medical cards and don't need dealers at all. You'd have to legalize cocaine to hurt cartels
[QUOTE=Aaronn;21088333]I love mary jane. But as much as I love this magical plant, legalizing it won't hurt cartels much. Barely any Cannabis, illegally sold in the US, comes from Mexico. People just grow it here. And in Cali, people can just get medical cards and don't need dealers at all. You'd have to legalize cocaine to hurt cartels[/QUOTE]
No...
Now I wonder how many restaurants are going to start selling, it bring a hell of a lot more business....and fat stoned people falling asleep in a booth.
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