Arrested for weed

[Thief]

It is pathetic that we can drink until our livers are rotten, we can smoke until our lungs are blackened, we can eat McDonalds until we have a heart attack, we can be given highly addictive and destructive drugs legally from a doctor, but yet to touch a super-plant with so many beneficial medical and commercial uses and the ability to add jobs and fuel the economy is simply off limits and carries the penalty of a ruined life. Never mind pot is non-addictive and has never caused a fatal over-dose.


Marijuana can easily be taxed, in the similar way that alcohol and tobacco is taxed.

False.

As for manufacture, marijuana is a weed and grows just about anywhere in America. Distribution is not an issue either, as we already distribute many plants as it is, including tobacco. The sale is also just as easy as alcohol and cigarettes. And the plus side is is that once something is legal and regulated, it significantly reduces underage/teen use as it makes the substance harder for them to acquire. And as for use the answer is obviously medical and recreational.

Tobacco is readily controlled.
To make a profit you need large open fields with plenty of sunshine and fertile soil.
Huge quantities are needed to make a profitable crop.
You can't hide such an operation.

The thirteen years of alcohol prohibition were intense and bloody.
Even the promoters reversed their positions and endorsed repeal.
But control was easy enough....alcohol stills are hard to hide.
Again quantity is a must for profit.

Marijuana cannot be controlled.
It grows anywhere, by anyone, can be hidden...etc...etc...etc...
Calling it a controlled substance is basically a legal focus.

Changing the law and allowing any aspect to be legal, will reduce what little control, the current drug war can offer.
Even some growers here the States have been interviewed and (strangely enough) oppose legalization.
Doing so will drop their profit margins sharply.
It would put them out of business, if manufacturing (for personal use) should be decriminalized.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The thirteen years of alcohol prohibition were intense and bloody.
Even the promoters reversed their positions and endorsed repeal.
But control was easy enough....alcohol stills are hard to hide.
Again quantity is a must for profit.

There are already greenhouses that grow marijuana for medical purposes. As for larger outdoor farms, some of their crop will be stolen, but if it's legal to grow your own that really won't be much of a problem. But considering how specific growing conditions have to be for optimal potency, I don't see large farms growing for anything more than hemp. It just wouldn't be economically sound to do so.

Changing the law and allowing any aspect to be legal, will reduce what little control, the current drug war can offer.
Even some growers here the States have been interviewed and (strangely enough) oppose legalization.
Doing so will drop their profit margins sharply.
It would put them out of business, if manufacturing (for personal use) should be decriminalized.

The War on Drugs is a massive burden on the tax payers, and has done nothing but make America the nation with the largest incarcerated population. Here in America over half of all prisoners are in on drug charges, of which over half of those are pot. And to add to the list of failures in the wake of the War on Drugs, drug cartels and gangs become heavily armed through drug profits. If the drugs are legalized, the money drug cartels and gangs loose alot of money. Even just legalizing pot would hit their profits pretty hard.
And why should I have the option to grow it in my house? It's actually quite a fascinating plant to watch grow, and can be a very colorful plant depending on the strand.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

Drinking is legal, so is smoking.
Weed is illegal.

So you do not understand what exactly?
Why people are being arrested for carrying, dealing, and consuming an illegal substance?
My first guess would be because it is illegal to carry, deal, and consume weed.

Why are the lives "ruined"?
Because they made the decision to carry, deal, or consume an illegal substance.

Should wed be an illegal substance?
I don't think so.
In fact, I think it should be legalized, taxed, and regulated just like alcohol and tobacco.
At least then the government would not be wasting so much time and money with their half arsed enforcement of weed laws and would in fact be getting money from all the weed being sold.

Will it ever happen?
I seriously doubt it.
The government needs something that they distract the population with and the "War on Drugs" works well enough.

Do I feel sorry for or pity someone whose life has been "ruined" because they decided to engage in the illegal activities associated with weed?
Nope.
Not one bit.

Great post, and I agree with just about every bit.

I was wondering if one way to ease to way to gain acceptance for legalization or at least decriminalizing drugs would be to increase the penalties for driving under the influence or during commission of a crime. If pot heads really are harmless & looking to partake for their own pleasure, then they would not have any problem supporting this measure. Of course, legalization would reduce the need for the criminal element, ala ending prohibition of alcohol.

 

[Thief]

Great post, and I agree with just about every bit.

I was wondering if one way to ease to way to gain acceptance for legalization or at least decriminalizing drugs would be to increase the penalties for driving under the influence or during commission of a crime. If pot heads really are harmless & looking to partake for their own pleasure, then they would not have any problem supporting this measure. Of course, legalization would reduce the need for the criminal element, ala ending prohibition of alcohol.

Can't have it both ways.

Tetrahydrocannibinol is alcohol soluble.
This means the residue (not the active chemistry) will linger in your body for weeks.

No one using pot can pass a drug test...and drive.
If testing is required....driving will not be allowed.

It may interest you to know.....
The more harmful and dangerous drugs are water soluble.
That means they flush from your body in a day or two.

If you have 'control', you can party like you're insane on Friday night....
go back to work on Monday....and pass a drug test.

With this in mind....people are moving toward more dangerous chemistry....
so they can keep their habits, and their jobs.

If you would like to see a greater sanity in this world....learn to say...
'...mellow out, man...mellow out....'

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I was wondering if one way to ease to way to gain acceptance for legalization or at least decriminalizing drugs would be to increase the penalties for driving under the influence or during commission of a crime. If pot heads really are harmless & looking to partake for their own pleasure, then they would not have any problem supporting this measure. Of course, legalization would reduce the need for the criminal element, ala ending prohibition of alcohol.

I would be for that, but THC stays in the body for about 30 days. So unless there are knew testing techniques made available, there is no possible way for such testing to be accurate. Given that you can smoke a joint, and up to four weeks later get in a car crash and test positive for THC, I'm sure if more accurate testing for marijuana use were to be discovered that the number of car crashes involving pot heads will have some decrease.

 

[Mathematician]

The problem isn't that pot is illegal, the problem is those people who break the law by smoking it. If you're not getting your smoke from your own garden, or hydro from someone who takes the time to set it up, then chances are it comes directly from Mexico.

...but it's just an oz, I'm not contributing to murder

Criminalize caffeine and the same exact thing will happen the next day.

How does one throw a stone here? Have you never purchased food or furniture from 3rd world countries? You're supporting sweatshop labor where the conditions are such that they kill children every day.

 

[bigbadgirl]

Marijuana is one of nature's creations. Nature is perfection. Why question it.

 

[McBell]

Marijuana is one of nature's creations. Nature is perfection. Why question it.

I wonder if you feel the same way about the flu virus....?

 

[CaptainXeroid]

Can't have it both ways...

Too bad. As a Libertarian, I'd vote for legalization today, but come up with a more advanced test to implement my plan and you'll take away the most common objection.

As it stands now, pot is illegal, and those who participate are breaking the law and therefore deserve to be punished.:sorry1: I like to drive fast, but if I exceed the speed limit I have to know I am risking police activity.

Anyone remember from the movie The Untouchables? A reporter asked Elliott Ness what he'd do if Prohibition were repealed. He said he'd take a drink.:yes:

 

[Thief]

Too bad. As a Libertarian, I'd vote for legalization today, but come up with a more advanced test to implement my plan and you'll take away the most common objection.

As it stands now, pot is illegal, and those who participate are breaking the law and therefore deserve to be punished.:sorry1: I like to drive fast, but if I exceed the speed limit I have to know I am risking police activity.

Anyone remember from the movie The Untouchables? A reporter asked Elliott Ness what he'd do if Prohibition were repealed. He said he'd take a drink.:yes:

And of course....the public refused to obey the prohibition law.
THAT lead to the repeal.

If Americans continue to use pot...it will some day be decriminalized.
But only if the users continue to do so.

 

[Thief]

You're being ironic here, right?
I have a link to two Mexicans being decapitated; one with a chainsaw, the other with a box cutter. You ever seen anythng like that?

And this is an example of American law?

(No doubt a territory...monetary...problem.
Some people don't play nice when it comes to dealing.)

 

[Mathematician]

Criminalize milk and the same thing....see what I did there, I can make absurd analogies, too.

I'm sure I have, but I don't intentionally seek out a product that someone may have lost their head over; literally lost their head, I should add.

Point is this: It's illegal for a reason, and regardless of how ridiculous you or I may think said reason is, it's still illegal. So no blame should be put on the powers that be, every single murder; all deaths related: both intentional and unintentional, falls completely on the consumer e.g your common everyday pot smoker.

Blame rests on the shoulders of those who uphold draconian anti-drug laws, not drug users.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Point is this: It's illegal for a reason, and regardless of how ridiculous you or I may think said reason is, it's still illegal. So no blame should be put on the powers that be, every single murder; all deaths related: both intentional and unintentional, falls completely on the consumer e.g your common everyday pot smoker.

Here are the main reasons it's illegal:
It was considered to be significant in black and jazz culture, jazz culture of course was also viewed as black culture.
People were loosing money in the timber industry because hemp is a cheap substitute for making paper with.
Anslinger was looking for his next big career move.
Combine those factors with faux science and medical reports, of which many doctors and scientist refuted during the debate to illegalize marijuana, add a moral crusade to protect the children and protect white women from the darkies (Anslinger's words, not mine), crank up the fear, and you have a successful campaign.
There really is no reason to keep marijuana illegal. A growing body of evidence shows it's safer than water or sunlight, there are a plethora of medical uses, a myriad of commercial uses, and it is a massive burden to the tax payers to keep the world's largest prison population which is mostly in for nothing more than possession of marijuana. You are paying money right now to house hundreds of thousands of people in jail and prison only because they were caught with a harmless plant. And very often these "criminals" are only guilty of possession of something that has NEVER caused a fatal overdose. A few years ago a woman killed herself by overdosing on water to win a Nintendo Wii, so maybe we should criminalize water because it as killed more people than pot has. And of course that nasty sun causes skin cancer, dehydration, and some people are allergic to it so we need to block it out. And we should ban fast food because it makes people unhealthy. Obesity will shorten your life span so we should throw fat people in jail. And of course alcohol and tobacco kill legions of people annually, but those are legal. Pot, which may cause a headache or a cough, does not have anything chemically addictive to it, has never caused a fatal overdose, and could add thousands of jobs to the economy and pump a ton of money into the national budget, is off limits. Some things just do not make any sense.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Check this out:

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

We actually had these guys speak at our church one Sunday. I love going to a UU church!

 

[Thief]

In case you realize how ignorant your post is and decide to change it, I'll re post it so everyone can see for themselves just how off the planet you really are, in regards to this subject only, though.

This is exactly what you're saying:

The people who break a law aren't to blame if they think it's a ridiculous law to begin with. :unicorn:

I suppose you believe 'Reefer Madness' was for real?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I can't even carry on with this, your points are beyond moot; they border on lunacy.

Actually here's what will throw you off. If you legalized all drugs, but even just pot would work just fine, then you will deal the biggest blow possible to drug cartels and gangs by forcibly removing their cash flow. It's as easy as that. Al Capone got his cash from alcohol prohibition, and since we can legally drink no one makes black market fortunes from alcohol anymore.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

In case you realize how ignorant your post is and decide to change it, I'll re post it so everyone can see for themselves just how off the planet you really are, in regards to this subject only, though.

This is exactly what you're saying:

The people who break a law aren't to blame if they think it's a ridiculous law to begin with. :unicorn:

Do you think that people should be obliged to obey unjust laws?

 

[gnosticx]

thats because weed opens up the 5th or creative brain...its what the rastas talk about...anyway the plant were placed here by the gods to be used 4 everything and they were....a lot of wars were hemp wars anyway to control the hemp trade. george washington was a hemp trader....almost immediately after the exhaustive mknaomi drug research program where just about all drugs were tested 4 their affect on human psyche it was banned world wide by the illuminati under the pretence that it was bad for you...then they nuked hiroshima...have a pub on every corner peddle tobacco...fill the space around us with all types of wavelength beams ( tv radio data etc) causing who knows what cancers.....

 

[Sunstone]

Blame rests on the shoulders of those who uphold draconian anti-drug laws, not drug users.

Quite true.

 

[not nom]

That doesn't throw me off of anything. I can think of 100 more ways to even out the statics, but that's got nothing to do with the point I made.

it's not about evening out the statistics, whatever that even means, if it means anything, which I doubt.

it's simply that what you claim is a good reason for it being illegal, is merely a RESULT of it being illegal