Make Peace With Pot

NY Times ^ | April 26, 2004 | ERIC SCHLOSSER

[neverdem]

Prohibition forever, it's for the children. I have nothing more to write on the article.

[Helms]

Schlosser is a Libertine

[BrooklynGOP]

Let's prohibit alcohol as well.

[Petronski]

They want to legalize it 'for medicial use' and sell it 'without a prescription?'


Right.

[mtbopfuyn]

Where to begin... medical mj but don't need a subscription... tastes like lumber so they promise to get better stuff... and it goes downhill after that.

[rhombus]

Can't wait to get my weed entitlement. I hope it's in my senior perscription drug package. I still remember the old days, it was just yesterday, those old days. The quality went right down hill as soon as the Gov't monopoly took over. They should have left it in the hands of the private sector. Those were the days, a surprise in every bag!

[Jaysun]

So in a nutshell, the financially strapped Canadian health care system has gotten into the lucrative drug business. What's next?

[Ronin]

"Marijuana and violence are linked . . . no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana."

Huh???

About the only thing I remember being dangerous to was a bag of doritos.

Granted, that was a long time ago, but still...

[bikewench]

Prohibition forever?

That is pretty much unachievable with Mexico on one side of you and Canada on the other... but hey.. whatever blows your hair back.

[robertpaulsen]

"So in a nutshell, the financially strapped Canadian health care system has gotten into the lucrative drug business."

Yeah, nice of them to sell it to the patients for what we pay illegally for it. And they call themselves compassionate!

[rhombus]

"So in a nutshell, the financially strapped Canadian health care system has gotten into the lucrative drug business."

Being the Government, they'll find a way to lose money and it won't be lucrative any more.

[Untouchable]

I have to agree with the article. I can buy much more "harmful" drugs over the Internet without a prescription. Legalize Pot and be done with it. And, legalize prostitution while you're at it, and......vote Libertarian.

[presidio9]

Say old chum, have you ever heard that Ozzie Osborn says that smoking pot led his son Jack to experiment with harder and more addictive drugs?

[philman_36]

I have nothing more to write on the article.
Oh, I do.
Even though the war on marijuana was begun by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, it has always received strong bipartisan support.
While I agree that the WOsD has had strong bipartisan support it is simply poor researching that concludes that Reagan started the war on marijuana. Especially after having written about this...
In fact, some of the strongest opposition to the arrest and imprisonment of marijuana users has come from conservatives like William F. Buckley, the economist Milton Friedman and Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico.
...and this...
In 1972 a commission appointed by President Richard Nixon concluded that marijuana should be decriminalized in the United States.
Now if this reporter could find information regarding Nixon and the '72 commission then why couldn't this information also be found...
The Drug War as a Socialist Enterprise by Milton Friedman
In 1972, almost twenty years ago, President Nixon started a war on drugs-the first intensive effort to enforce the prohibition of drugs since the original Harrison Act.
However, even Friedman doesn't go back far enough for my satisfaction. Consider Lyndon B. Johnson!
LBJ State Of The Union Address: 1968
This year, I will propose a Drug Control Act to provide stricter penalties for those who traffic in LSD and other dangerous drugs with our people.
I will ask for more vigorous enforcement of all of our drug laws by increasing the number of Federal drug and narcotics control officials by more than 30 percent. The time has come to stop the sale of slavery to the young. I also request you to give us funds to add immediately 100 assistant United States attorneys throughout the land to help prosecute our criminal laws. We have increased our judiciary by 40 percent and we have increased our prosecutors by 16 percent. The dockets are full of cases because we don't have assistant district attorneys to go before the Federal judge and handle them. We start these young lawyers at $8,200 a year. And the docket is clogged because we don't have authority to hire more of them.
I ask the Congress for authority to hire 100 more. These young men will give special attention to this drug abuse, too.

No, if you want to lay the blame of the war on marijuana/WOsD at the feet of someone then LBJ is the man you're seeking.

[Jaysun]

Yeah, nice of them to sell it to the patients for what we pay illegally for it. And they call themselves compassionate!

HAHAHA. I'm not on the illegal pot buyer's club mailing list, but I get your point. We should also note what the Canadian patients have said about the quality of wacky tobacky being peddled by their government:
"lousy pot"
"It is of incredibly poor quality,"
"It tastes like lumber."

[Cheetah1]

Let's prohibit alcohol as well for the children...please

[Cheetah1]

Canada at least takes a common sense approach to this issue...unlike the USA.

You know buying weed supports terrorists...biggest lie I have ever heard. What a joke.

[tdadams]

Those convicted of a marijuana felony, even if they are disabled, can be prohibited from receiving federal welfare payments or food stamps.

As stupid as the WOD is, this isn't a bad policy. If it weren't for the Big Brother, monitoring your behavior aspect, I think it should be extended to any vices. If you're buying cigarettes, booze, or Twinkies, why should the taxpayers be subsidizing those indulgences?

[Jaysun]

Being the Government, they'll find a way to lose money and it won't be lucrative any more.

No kidding. It'll take 150 government employees and 6 months to accomplish the same thing that 3 Mexicans with an Astro Van currently perform in 12 hours.

[tdadams]

"Marijuana is addictive," the letter asserted. "Marijuana and violence are linked . . . no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana."

I'm sure somewhere within the ONDCP's internal staff memo it said something like, "If we repeat it often enough, some will start to believe it."