Two prominent human and civil rights organizations are calling on the U.S. government to decriminalize all drug use and possession in a new report which finds that the so-called war on drugs has caused "devastating harm."
Decriminalization of pot is the only acceptable way to handle this issue.
If pot is simply made legal it can be regulated by the government like cigarettes and alcohol.
The government will license the growers and sellers and collect taxes from the end consumer.
Decriminalization would allow any individual to grow the plants they require to satisfy his/her own personal needs.
Without governmental interference.
Personal story here, couple weeks ago a politician approached me at breakfast at a public place, although less than 6 patrons were in the restaurant and asked me for my vote as he is running for state senate seat. I asked him if I could ask a question and he said sure. I then said, if elected will you work to legalize marijuana? His jaw dropped, his eyes widened and he said: No, it is a gateway drug! I said, sir, that is a lie but at that point he was on the other side of the dining area and we were shouting at each other. Point is, willful ignorance is the rule of the day. He cares not for all the ruined lives, millions by now, but will do anything to perpetuate the continued lie.
Why must there be a profit motive behind the legalization of pot and not for legal parsley or any other herb? Drug prohibition is a racist, fascistic law that should never have happened. Why condition its retraction on how much money it can make the government that passed such a horrific law?
It is a misnomer to say there is a war on drugs; the truth is there has always been: A WAR ON WHO CONTROLS THE DRUGS!
The CDC website has American drug abuse figures for 2014 -- "percent of persons 12 years of age and over with any illicit drug use in the past month: 10.2%." Shall we pump even more money into the drug war, catch all these offenders and bring them to justice? Our family doctor was suspended for a year for his Vicodin abuse. Happily he's back at work now, clean and under the thumb of our state board, but millions aren't so lucky, Prisons aren't for white doctors who get their fixes as free samples or over-the-counter. If our culture valued all people equally, and treated hard drug addiction as a disease to be cured, a lot of prisons could be closed. Once weed is legally available everywhere the percent illegal drug use figure will go way down.
Not only legally available but completely decriminalized. No more job discrimination for something no more serious or injurious than cigarettes or alcohol. If you are so injudicious as to get high at work, then a reprimand or fired. Millions of tokers do this now but also play an anxiety filled game of avoiding pee in the bottle.
Vicodin - e gads. I was prescribed that once because of an arthritis flare-up in my lower back that pinched my sciatic nerve. Didn't really take away the pain, just makes you not care. But I flushed the balance of the scrip down the toilet because when I was coming down off it made me very mean.
Reminds me of the time I attended a party in Wash DC at which several prominent politicians were present. Imagine my surprise to witness a couple of Republican Senators, well known for their opposition to decriminalization, toking up with the rest of the party goers. If there are 30 million smokers of weed in the US and each one only smokes one joint a day (low-end estimate), the supply logistic is enormous. Just as Wal-Mart has countless semi-trucks supplying it's stores, the weed distribution network requires hundreds of semis worth of weed traveling the highways every day to supply 30 million plus joints. Those who control the drugs are safe and sound. Only street dealers get busted with a few bags or a couple of pounds. The semis go untouched and that is no coincidence. Ask the Republican Senators. There is a vested interest in keeping drugs illegal and keeping the price high. The big boys make all the profit and the little fish are the only ones who go to jail. As a former smuggler back in the 60's and 70's, I can attest to this first-hand. Not to mention the boon to the private prison industry. Just think, if drugs were legalized, a whole bunch of lazy-assed drug enforcement agents would have to cut their hair, put on suits and get real jobs like the rest of us.
Yeah, but can folks in Colorado grow their own or must they buy it from state licensed outlets who get it from state licensed growers? With taxes built in?
The biggest pot head I knew was a DEA agent, followed by a border patrol officer then college students. I'm voting to pass prop 205 in Arizona and if you are also an AZ citizen I urge you to do likewise!!
Look at who is against legalization: Mexican drug lords and US law enforcement.
Ask yourselves why!! For the answer: Follow the money!
Then ask yourself: who on the law enforcement side benefits from the current illegality? That answer is the Private prison industry and the Joe Schmoe who shouldn't ever be a cop, but who needs a job and fills an otherwise unnecessary position at the taxpayer's expense. My state has a backwards-assed flat tax percentage hat is tied to the federal tax they pay. Warren Buffet tells the truth that he pays a smaller percentage than his secretary, so it ain't the rich who are funding th oppressors as much as Jane Q Paycheck. You can't hide your income like the well-to-do can, when someone else writes you a paycheck!
If cops didn't "have to" arrest a pot smoker every 25 seconds, would we need so many? And if we didn't need as many cops, how many more black lives would have been saved by raising police hiring standards. The only other Offense (vs Defense which has been worn down from being on the field too long) is to get yourself onto a grand jury and vote not to indict!
Found at MintPressNews:
Leak Reveals Clinton Promised Bankers To Stand Against Marijuana Legalization
During an on-stage Q & A session with Xerox’s chairman and CEO in March 2014, Clinton used Wall Street terminology to express her opposition to ending cannabis prohibition “in all senses of the word.”
URSULA BURNS: So long means thumbs up, short means thumbs down; or long means I support, short means I don’t. I’m going to start with — I’m going to give you about ten long-shorts.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Even if you could make money on a short, you can’t answer short.
URSULA BURNS: You can answer short, but you got to be careful about letting anybody else know that. They will bet against you. So legalization of pot?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Short in all senses of the word.
Dam those Russians!
No one but bankers were supposed to hear that!
"This war, that war, class war." - The Dicks
Let's call the drug war what it is: class war.
Amen. I consider them a domestic terror organization. The fit the FBI definition, but I do not need that, I just need a dictionary, and there, terrorism is " an act that seeks to instill fear for political reasons"
Correct, under the medical law with individual med cases, one can have as many as needed (as recommended by doc) . Under rec. law--yep it is 6. But no bud inspectors will be going to anyone's backyard basement or window.
Free the people. Free the flower.
