The Government's Sick War on Marijuana

http://tx.mpp.org ^ | 7 21 06 | Jim Hightower

[freepatriot32]

Excuse me for a moment while I vent about the mind-boggling stupidity of the autocratic, bureaucratic, right-wing, Neanderthal numskulls who keep pushing an insane, inane, and inhumane holy war against marijuana – which is, after all, a weed.

The most embarrassing thing for these holy warriors is that the weed is winning! They've been at this war since 1937, spending billions and billions of our tax dollars, militarizing our borders, and stomping on our Bill of Rights. They've used phone taps, garbage searches, jackbooted raids, and draconian prison terms to ... well, to do what? To nab peaceful, mellow tokers who aren't bothering anyone, that's what.

Despite 60 years of spending our money, they've failed: 85% of Americans say marijuana is easy to obtain today, a third of our population says they've tried it, nearly 15 million people partake of it at least monthly – and more high school students now smoke marijuana than cigarettes!

Meanwhile, the holy warriors have become more fanatical and thuggish than ever. A marijuana arrest is made every 41 seconds in America – nine out of 10 of them for mere possession. In 2004, 772,000 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges – more than for all violent crimes combined.

Even sicker, the sanctimonious weed warriors have made it a crime for thousands of seriously sick people to get the medical benefits of using small amounts of doctor-prescribed marijuana. Weirdly, our doctors can prescribe cocaine for patients – but not marijuana. Worse, drug thugs from the DEA and FBI bust down the doors of these patients, seize their dosages ... and haul them to jail.

For information and action to stop this absurd war, call the Marijuana Policy Project: 202/462-5747.

[freepatriot32]

No hope could be more vain. What all the current optimists overlook is that the illogical and indefensible persecutions certain to occur in increasing number under the Prohibition Amendment constitute the chief cause of its popularity among the sort of men who are in favor of it. The typical Prohibitionist, in other words, is a man full of religious excitement, with the usual sadistic overtones. He delights in persecution for its own sake. He likes to see the other fellow jump and to hear him yell. This thirst is horribly visible in all the salient mad mullahs of the land -- that is, in all the genuine leaders of American culture. Such skillful boob-bumpers as the Rev. Dr. Billy Sunday know what that culture is; they know what the crowd wants. Thus they convert the preaching of the alleged Word of God into a rough-and-tumble pursuit of definite sinners -- saloon-keepers, prostitutes, Sabbath-breakers, believers in the Darwinian hypothesis, German exegetes, hand-books, poker-players, adulterers, cigarette-smokers, users of profanity. It is the chase that heats up the great mob of Methodists, not the Word. And the fact that the chase is unjust only tickles them the more, for to do injustice with impunity is a sign of power, and power is the thing that the inferior man always craves most violently.-H.L. Mencken

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[freepatriot32]

ping

[freepatriot32]

maybe a nanny state ping

[satire]

wonderful post!!

[PetroniusMaximus]

"To nab peaceful, mellow tokers who aren't bothering anyone, that's what."


No man is an island.

[PAR35]

Reduced to quoting washed up left wing Democrats who can no longer get elected?

[nathanbedford]

No man is an island.

Well then I guess you agree that it does Take a Village

[freepatriot32]

Reduced to quoting washed up left wing Democrats who can no longer get elected?

Henry Louis Mencken (1880 - 1956)

The most prominent newspaperman, book reviewer, and political commentator of his day, Henry Louis Mencken was a libertarian before the word came into usage. His prose is as clear as an azure sky, and his rhetoric as deadly as a rifle shot. Frequent targets of his lance were Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal politics,

Oh and by the way the man has been dead for 50 years i'd submit to you that Ronald Wilson Reagan himself can no longer be elected after being dead for only 2 years

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

If the dopers are falling back on a turd like Hightower to defend them, they must be desperate indeed.

Oh, and here are some more deep thoughts from your font of wisdom, H.L. Mencken:

“I admit freely enough that, by careful breeding, supervision of environment and education, extending over many generations, it might be possible to make an appreciable improvement in the stock of the American negro, for example, but I must maintain that this enterprise would be a ridiculous waste of energy, for there is a high-caste white stock ready at hand, and it is inconceivable that the negro stock, however carefully it might be nurtured, could ever even remotely approach it. The educated negro of today is a failure, not because he meets insuperable difficulties in life, but because he is a negro. He is, in brief, a low-caste man, to the manner born, and he will remain inert and inefficient until fifty generations of him have lived in civilization. And even then, the superior white race will be fifty generations ahead of him.”

“If the average man is made in God's image, then a man such as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God, and so God may be jealous of him, and eager to see his superiority perish with his bodily frame. All animal breeders know how difficult it is to maintain a fine strain. ”

Women "as a sex, are shrewd, resourceful, and acute; but the very fact that they are always concerned with imminent problems and that, in consequence, they are unaccustomed to dealing with the larger riddles of life, makes their mental attitude essentially petty."

“The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.”

“If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object."

Anglo-Saxons are “a wretchedly dirty, shiftless, stupid and rascally people . . . anthropoids.”

Religion is “so absurd that it comes close to imbecility.”

“Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions.”

“Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. . . . A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill.”

[JoeSixPack1]

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

Aristotle

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

First of all I agree.

Secondly users of profanity

Would this now include the President and Vice President?

[AdmSmith]

People who smoked marijuana had changes in the blood flow in their brains even after a month of not smoking, according to a study. The findings could explain in part the problems with thinking or remembering found in other studies of marijuana users, according to study authors Ronald Herning, PhD, and Jean Lud Cadet, MD, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Md.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050211084701.htm

Since marijuana and other drugs reduces the function of the brain and can affect the decision making, I am in favor of drug tests and to immediately fire any employee with positive test result. Drivers driving drunk or on drugs should get much higher penalty.

Drug addiction changes the biochemistry of the brain and long term use even changes the anatomy of the brain. Since drug addiction reduces the performance and changes the behavior of the person, you may even say that it reduces the free will, thus it should as well be opposed by libertarians.

[Berlin_Freeper]

To be a substance abuser, one has to be extremely selfish. Because they habitually flush their money and lives down the toilet as they fail everyone including themselves, their family and their country. That is why such a selfish person would use language as:

"...the mind-boggling stupidity of the autocratic, bureaucratic, right-wing, Neanderthal numskulls who keep pushing an insane, inane, and inhumane holy war against marijuana..."

Only a person who is selfish beyond reason could be so vindictive in the space of a single sentence against those he perceives as denying him easy access to a wasteful self indulgent mind altering substance.

The question is:

Should we expect to hear anything different from substance abusers, such as a well reasoned, respectful, informative point of view?

Obviously not. Thus it is safe to ignore or laugh at them until maybe one day they grow up enough to learn how to deal with reality.

[freepatriot32]

Oh, and here are some more deep thoughts from your font of wisdom

I never said the man was jesus that wrote a new bible. he did have some off kilter beliefs hes incredible wrong on race relations but I think that had more to do with the fact that he was born in 1880 when it was practically illegal not to be a rascist then anything else and he was one of the first to come to the aid of the jews in germany long before most americans or even germans heard of the final solution. He is flat out right on prohibition in what ever form it takes be it alchohol, drugs, cigarettes,sugar or trans fat.

[Banagor]

I rarely comment on FR, but here's one time that I will comment:

Like many recent "Conservatives", I'm also a former "liberal" (although I was always VERY hawkish on defense and Israel - always - and loved Ronald Reagan when I was in High School).

Quite frankly, I've never cared one way or another if weed is legal or not. I just have one major problem with it's legality: You can't test for it immediately on drivers. If somebody is driving stoned, you can't give them a breath test to see if they are stoned. Imagine, if you will, that your kid's bus driver is stoned. Or, for that matter, your airplane pilot.

I need say no more on that matter. And I actually hate the argument "think of the children". I just think it is particularly apt in this case.

But that was the only problem I had with legalizing weed.

I do have a new problem with it, however, and it is quite simple (and also falls in my "problem" with gay marriage):

The frigging hippies want it.

Quite frankly, I'm happy to oppose many things which the other side tries to champion, simply because I have grown to hate them so much. I know, it's absolutely illogical and it doesn't make for a great argument, but I'm human. After having lived in San Francisco for years during the entire anti-war fervor since 2002 (I moved a little over a year ago, thankfully), I've come to loathe anything which the commies and hippies want to legalize. It's just a natural, visceral, reaction against their evil ways. No, I'm not kidding, and no this isn't sarcasm.

I'll oppose the legalization of marijuana simply because it pisses them off - the same way that they piss me off. Sorry for the strong language, but I get a bit heated when thinking about them. I used to live, literally, about 4 or 5 blocks away from Haight and Ashbury street in San Fran, so you can imagine how bad it was. Everyone knew I voted for Bush, just as everyone knew I supported the war. I was a pariah. They loathed me. I frigging gloated the day that Bush won in 2004. And just for their dirty looks, I will always oppose them; and for their "Palestinian" keffiyehs and flags; and their commie shirts whilst parading in the streets half naked a if that would save the world.

I hated them for it. I started to hate the left since a while, but I truly started to hate them in San Francisco. The words "Social Justice" start to get me very upset. The word "Progressive" calls me into a frightful state.

I never really cared one way or another about euthanasia - which I now oppose because I hate them so much.

I never really cared about marijuana - which I now oppose because I hate them so much.

I never really cared about gay marriage - which I now oppose because I hate them so much.

And every time people ask me why I take these stances, I tell them very publicly: because the left hated me, and I hate them back. I make no bones about it, and I mean it very deeply: I really hate them.

I can't forgive them. If they want to legalize marijuana, and gay marriage, they have lost an ally for a long time to come. If they want to learn about root causes, they should first look in the mirror at the amount of people they have driven away with their insane "ideals" about what they should and should not support during a time of war.

Again: illogical and not based on the moral arguments which many here on FR make on a daily basis, but it's a stance. It's my stance.

Let them rot in hell for all I care. If they want to get stoned, they can buy a bottle of booze.

I wonder how many others out there are like me, driven away by the leftists because of their hatred for Western civilization and willfully bending over for the terrorists to become their battered, willing, wives in bed.

I don't know. But I do know that I am one such person.

I hope that this has been instructive. Again, it is not sarcasm. Yes, I hate them that much. I am proud to have voted for Bush in 2004. I would vote for him again in 2008 if only he could run again. I have disagreed with Bush on many issues, but I support our security, and our country, and Israel. And anyone on the other side who doesn't gets a big American middle finger from me.

[PAR35]

Henry Louis Mencken (1880 - 1956)...Oh and by the way the man has been dead for 50 years

I looked back up at the top of the page. You posted an article written by former Texas Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower.

Perhaps if you smoked less weed, you could keep better track of the articles you post.

The Government's Sick War on Marijuana
http://tx.mpp.org ^ | 7 21 06 | Jim Hightower

Posted on 07/25/2006 3:08:16 AM CDT by freepatriot32

[muir_redwoods]

Except for the time-tagged absurdities on race, he reads pretty well to me. The history of religion is not yet a positive one on this planet and in my view much more evil than good has been done in it's name.

One has to be able to read in context and understand sarcasm (a rare thing here on FR) to read Menchen.

[freepatriot32]

Because they habitually flush their money and lives down the toilet

you said it all in the first sentence.It istheir money and their lives to do with as they wish. That is pretty much the definition of freedom and liberty. its every Americans right to be as selfish as they want with their money be it spend it on drugs to get high, gamble it away in Vegas, or even light cigars with 100 dollar bills in front of a homeless family in new Orleans if they wish. Or would you be in favor of bush signing a law that says every American must give 10 percent to their church and another 10 percent of their money to the united way because it would be selfish not to?

If you give the federal government the power to stop someone from doing drugs because its selfish you give that same government the power to stop any american from doing anything a federal bureaucrat thinks is selfish

[loboinok]

You should comment more often.

[expatguy]

In your world is everyone who smokes marijuana an abuser? Can they possibly be simply a user instead?

I don't smoke marijuana now, I did many many years ago. I guess I outgrew it. Now I simply dont have an interest.

That being said... I think the penalties for its use are too severe. I think it should be taxed and controlled in the same way as alcohol or cigarettes are.

A guy I went to school with got caught when he was 19 and it was not marijuana that ruined his life, it was the years he spent in prison because of it.

[freepatriot32]

Reduced to quoting washed up left wing Democrats who can no longer get elected?

I looked back up at the top of the page. You posted an article written by former Texas Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower.

Yes i posted an article written by jim hightower I then Quoted H.L. Mencken in reply # 1. If you would drink less jack daniels straight from the bottle you might be ableto tell the difference between posting an article on fr and quoting someone in the first reply of the article. Posting an article is not qouting them its posting what they wrote in thier online newspaper artivcles or blogs onto FR.

[expatguy]

bleh... I can also agree with you as well. I dont think certain professions should use it - before they do whatever they do.

[Berlin_Freeper]

"you said it all in the first sentence.It istheir money and their lives to do with as they wish."

Yet they still have to live by our laws.

Or they can exercise their freedom by moving to an unclaimed island where it is reasonable for them to substance abuse without dragging the whole of our society down with them.

[Banagor]

I'd just like to say a few more things:

In case any DU idiots are monitoring this, simply because most of them are stoners: I gloat at your demise. I really do. I laugh it up every time a Democrat and a "progressive" loses an election. I laugh every time one of your bills is voted down by a Republican majority in Congress.

I will never, ever, support the legalization of marijuana, simply because it is what the "progressives" want. Never. I will laugh every time we bomb the hell out of a terrorist enclave, and I will applaud at every terrorist we wax. I used to support some "liberal" causes in the past, but I won't anymore - because I hate the left. I loathe the left.

I voted for Clinton - twice. I vote for Gore in 2000. I'm glad he lost. I'm so frigging glad. In 2000, after the second Palestinian "intifada" began, and George Bush said that Israel had every right to defend herself, I applauded him. I started to become a Conservative. After 2001, in September, when I was in New York City and saw those burn and fall, and I saw how the left opposed the war in Afghanistan, I never would turn back. Ever.

Ten years ago, I would never have joined a site such as this. Now, I'm proud to be on Free Republic. A lot of my former friends moan the fact that I am. Many of them are horrified that I support Gun Rights, and Religious Rights (I'm a "devout" Atheist, as I like to call myself, but I defend Evangelicals).

In the 1990's, I supported the idea of the European Union. Now I want to tear it apart. In the 1990's, I still supported the United Nations. Now, I would gladly see it abolished forever and spit on it's grave.

I am so fed up with liberal causes that there are simply no words to express my disgust with them.

I am an Atheist who has been a "free thinker" for over twenty years. But I am an Atheist who would see an army of crusaders with a cross and star of david on their shields, taking over the Muslim world together and imposing our way upon them; humiliating them; grinding them into the dust; breaking their very last spirit in our own charge of defiance against them.

That is how much I have come to loathe the left. And that is why I will never support their causes.

It's too bad that some people have good arguments for legalizing marijuana, or euthanasia, or even gay marriage. But I couldn't care less. Perhaps I'll be willing to discuss it in a more rational tone one day, in the distant future, when the left has been utterly defeated and destroyed along with the enemies of this great civilization.

But that time isn't now. And I wouldn't ever bank on it.

[Wolfie]

Hey, some more control freaks are gettin' pissed. I think we're up to more than half the fun at this point.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Since marijuana and other drugs reduces the function of the brain and can affect the decision making, I am in favor of drug tests and to immediately fire any employee with positive test result.

You could make the same argument about junk food. I am all for decrmininalizing and yet I agree it should be at the company's discretion to fire abusers of any substance.

[Wolfie]

Hey, we could play "study" ping-pong all day.

Mental Functioning Not Affected by Long-Term Marijuana Use, Johns Hopkins Study Says

Long-term use of marijuana does not lead to a decline in mental function, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore. Individuals who confessed to having smoked marijuana, even heavily, have no more signs of impaired mental function than people who have never used cannabis (Constantine G. Lyketsos, et al., "Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons Under 65 Years of Age," American Journal of Epidemiology, May 1999, vol. 149, p. 794-800; "Long-term Use Doesn't Hurt Mind, Study Says," Detroit Free Press, May 7, 1999; "The Straight Dope," Science News (US), May 22, 1999).

Scientists at JHU tracked the mental functioning of 1,318 Baltimore residents aged 18 to 64 over the course of 11 ½ years. After analyzing data gathered by the Mini-Mental State Examination, or MMSE, researchers concluded that there is no cognitive decline associated with marijuana use. The researchers said that cognitive decline is related to aging and starts in individuals younger than 30 years old. The decline is said to increase exponentially with each decade that passes, but attaining a higher level of education may reduce the severity of cognitive decline.

[Berlin_Freeper]

"In your world is everyone who smokes marijuana an abuser? Can they possibly be simply a user instead?"

In my world, your world, the world where you live in which smoking marijuana is illegal... it's an abuse.

As for your friend, blaming prison is just a convenient excuse to pass the blame. He broke the law, he went to prison, what he does with his life after that is his own responsibility.

I guess that is one word dopers don't understand... responsibility.

[sgtbono2002]

Tobacco is just a weed also. Not only that but the government makes milions off taxes on it. They use this money for all kinds of things, and yet look at the uproar over tobacco use. Why legalise another substance when the one you have legalised is under such pressure?

[tonycavanagh]

re :To be a substance abuser, one has to be extremely selfish.

You could say that about all aspects of life.

To smoke a cigarette in a public place, could be seen as selfish, to drive a car when its not needed.

People can be selfish in many aspects of there life's, should we legislate against selfish behavior, should we set up a list of what does and does not constitute selfish behavior

[freepatriot32]

Why legalise another substance when the one you have legalised is under such pressure?

Because the answer to tyranny is always more freedom not more tyranny

[No Longer Free State]

Mr. Freetower,

Thank you so much for refocusing our attention on something REALLY important.

[sgtbono2002]

Spoken like a true believer in Marijuana.

[Khurkris]

You just made one of the best posts I've ever seen on Free Republic.

Thank You.

[Screamname]

[Screamname]

[Berlin_Freeper]

I did not post that smoking marijuana should be illegal because it is selfish. I simply pointed out where the insulting attitude of the opinion piece posted here was coming from.

However since you mentioned it, cigarette laws are changing against smoking. There are also restrictions against wasteful driving such as the express lane that is for more than one passenger during rush hours.

By your same argument should it be legal for a person to selfishly masturbate on the street corner? Because that is just one example of how far the Libertarians would accept going with their selfish unfettered logic of what freedom ultimately means. If not, why not? "They are not hurting anyone and if you don't like it then don't look" would be their argument.

We live in societies that protect a way of life in part by passing laws that prevent unreasonably selfish people from depleting that way of life. That is just a fact and already includes aspects of smoking and driving.

[highimpact]

Gangs would not exist were it not for prohibition. The police force, prison space, and the judicial system would be used for the purposes for which they were originally intended: to punish those who commit crimes against people and/or their property.

Legislating selfish acts is a slippery slope. I don't believe in marijuana any more than I believe in Big Mac's. They're both selfish to consume, but we should have the liberty to decide what we put in our bodies.

[KeepUSfree]

Nice that you pick and chose. However, have you seen the studies that show that folks under the influence of pot drive SAFER than your average person.

Since safety is what you want, you should REQUIRE all drivers to smoke pot first (at least, if you want to be logically consistant - and not a hypocritical jack-booted, mind-numbed fascist thug like most drug warriors)....

And, for the record, I'll pit my "brain power" against just about anybody you can find, anytime, anywhere. And, I'll do 3 bong-hits first and STILL kick ass.

[raybbr]

This article is an excellent example of:

hy·per·bo·le    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (h-pûrb-l)
n.

A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.

[KeepUSfree]

Using "hate" as your guiding principal will almost ALWAYS lead to poor choices. Period.

In fact, I believe that "hate" is the primary motivation of Islam.

So, from where I sit, it seems you have alot more in common with muslim extremists than you would like to think.

Decision making requires both mind and heart. To use one completely at the exclusion of the other is also going to lead you astray (unless, of course, you are doing math).

I like to think of our side as using more logic to make decisions. But, sometimes, I am disappointed.

[arbooz]

Mencken's quote is good, he was usually right about most things.

As for the "drug war" rant, it is beating the dead horse all over again. There've been endless discussions here on this subject, and the point is moot.
Once again I'll state the obvious : it is NOT about the drugs - do you really think the politicians give a hoot about people and honestly try to protect them from themselves?
Like most things American, it is ALL about the money, and the money the guvmint crooks and thugs give themselves to "fight" the "drug bogey man" who, had it not existed, would have been invented just to hose "the true believers".

[Maceman]

No man is an island.

You mean, the personal is the political?

[Son Of The Godfather]

That was a most excellent post.

[muawiyah]

Mencken was a rabid antisemite. He kept most of his ravings in private, personal diaries.

[subterfuge]

The typical Prohibitionist, in other words, is a man full of religious excitement, with the usual sadistic overtones

Utter Bullsh!t. Liberal hippie are you?

[arbooz]

"Mencken was a rabid antisemite."


So was Wagner. That does not diminish his music, admired and performed by Jews today.

[Mr. Jeeves]

“Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions.”

Mencken held more than a few views that were unsubstantiated by facts, but this one is simple truth. No church can perpetuate its existence if its members believe they are obligated to grow spiritually and seek higher truths.

[television is just wrong]

I myself have never partaken, of marijuana, but my grandmother, who now has been dead for 30 years, used to smoke it as a migraine headache remedy. When it became illegal way back when, she then had to lie in bed in a dark room for two to three days and everyone had to tip toe through the house so as not to disturb her.

For what it was, it allowed her to carry on and hold down a job. It was not an addiction for her, but it was more a medicine to aid in a medical condition she had.