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

Posted on 07/25/2006 1:08:16 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Gardening
KEYWORDS: addiction; dea; democrats; donutwatch; dopesick; drugskilledbelushi; governments; govwatch; keepitillegal4ever; leroyknowshisrights; libertarians; marijuana; mrleroybait; on; potgatewaydrug; potheadduers; potheadsuccessstory; sick; the; timeforsuspension; war; warondrugs; whytheycallitdope; wod; wodlist
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To: Berlin_Freeper
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.

21 posted on 07/25/2006 2:40:39 AM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: PAR35
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.

22 posted on 07/25/2006 2:41:31 AM PDT by freepatriot32 (Holding you head high & voting Libertarian is better then holding your nose and voting republican)
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To: Banagor

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


23 posted on 07/25/2006 2:42:42 AM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: freepatriot32
"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.

24 posted on 07/25/2006 2:43:07 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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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.


25 posted on 07/25/2006 2:44:45 AM PDT by Banagor
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To: winston2
Hey, some more control freaks are gettin' pissed. I think we're up to more than half the fun at this point.
26 posted on 07/25/2006 2:53:43 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: AdmSmith
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.
27 posted on 07/25/2006 2:54:17 AM PDT by dyed_in_the_wool ("O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends" - Koran 5.51)
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To: AdmSmith

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.


28 posted on 07/25/2006 2:56:51 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: expatguy

"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.


29 posted on 07/25/2006 2:59:58 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: freepatriot32

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?


30 posted on 07/25/2006 3:12:30 AM PDT by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
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

31 posted on 07/25/2006 3:14:11 AM PDT by tonycavanagh
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To: sgtbono2002
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

32 posted on 07/25/2006 3:47:00 AM PDT by freepatriot32 (Holding you head high & voting Libertarian is better then holding your nose and voting republican)
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To: freepatriot32

Mr. Freetower,

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


33 posted on 07/25/2006 3:49:26 AM PDT by No Longer Free State (No event has just one cause, no person has just one motive, no action has just the intended effect)
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To: freepatriot32

Spoken like a true believer in Marijuana.


34 posted on 07/25/2006 3:52:08 AM PDT by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: Banagor

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

Thank You.


35 posted on 07/25/2006 3:55:23 AM PDT by Khurkris (Things look different from over here.)
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To: freepatriot32

36 posted on 07/25/2006 3:56:35 AM PDT by Screamname (Batman and Godzilla : When will they fight?)
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To: Screamname

37 posted on 07/25/2006 4:02:39 AM PDT by Screamname (Batman and Godzilla : When will they fight?)
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To: tonycavanagh
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.
38 posted on 07/25/2006 4:12:38 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: sgtbono2002
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.

39 posted on 07/25/2006 4:17:43 AM PDT by highimpact
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To: AdmSmith
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.

40 posted on 07/25/2006 4:17:48 AM PDT by KeepUSfree (WOSD = fascism pure and simple.)
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