Some things never really change ... do they Freddie?
Posted on 12/23/2008 10:20:03 AM PST by kennedy
"And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
Not only would they lose the lion's share of their profits when they lose out on marijuana sales, but it will also be harder for them to sell their other more dangerous drugs. Illegal drugs tend to go through the same channels. Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. It's easily available everywhere. There are many people in every town selling pot. There are many in most towns in America selling Mexican pot. These end up being often the same people who will sell Mexican cocaine, meth and heroin. There are already massive distribution channels set up for the pot they sell. To move cocaine or meth or whatever, all they have to do is offer it to people they sell marijuana, and when those people buy these other drugs they sell them to their customers who pass them on to their customers. At the end of the line we have retail sellers of pot who will often offer consumers drugs other than pot. If these marijuana distribution networks were to disappear, the Mexicans would have far fewer people they could tap to sell their hard stuff. They won't have all these many thousands of people who buy pot from them to sell who they can offer these other drugs without having to worry much about them going to the police (since these people are already buying and selling illegal drugs). They'll have their current customers, but they lose several of those a year who either get busted or just get out of the business because they are afraid or they want to stop messing with the hard stuff. Taking the marijuana distribution channels away from Mexican organized crime will reduce the number of sources at the retail level for the hard drugs Mexican organized crime sell. It will probably also reduce the “gateway effect” for marijuana because no longer will people be buying their pot from people who offer them all sorts of other illegal drugs.
I can only imagine how horrible it would be to lose one of my children to a drug overdose. I am skeptical though when I see someone blame a child's death on marijuana though. I played around with drugs when I was very young too. I idolized rock stars like Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and a few others who were really into drugs and I wanted to experience what they were experiencing. I probably would have taken LSD if that was the first drug available to me. Instead I drank alcohol first, and I took pills that were in the house (my dad was a doctor so we had some heavy duty narcotic painkillers and drugs like Valium in the medicine cabinet). The first illegal drug I took was marijuana, but that's just because it was the first one available to me. I did several others to, as they became available. Smoking marijuana doesn't make you want to do other drugs. Some people, for whatever reason, are just inclined to take drugs and marijuana is the first illegal drug most will encounter. Most will have smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol before trying marijuana, because those drugs are generally going to be available to them first.
One thing about marijuana though is that being illegal using marijuana does open the door to the black market for drugs. If you use marijuana people aren't going to worry so much about breaking other illegal drugs out in front of you. Often the people who sell marijuana will sell other drugs too because all illegal drugs tend to travel through the same channels. I can remember many times looking for pot and the person I would contact would tell me he was out of pot but had some other drug he'd sell me.
Marijuana is already super easy to get, especially if you are young. A greater percentage of young people smoke it than do in oder age groups. Teenagers tend to know lots of people who smoke pot, and the more you know who do it the easier it is for you to get some. All you do is call around and ask your friends. In the process of doing that though you are likely to be offered other far more dangerous drugs.
If we legalized marijuana, far fewer marijuana smoking teens would encounter other far more dangerous drugs. They'd still get pot, just like kids get alcohol. But they probably wouldn't be buying it from dealers who often sell other drugs. They'd get fake IDs or they'd hit up an older relative or friend or acquaintance to go and buy it for them like they do for booze today. Since fewer would encounter these other substances, I think fewer would use them, which in turn means fewer would get addicted and fewer would die from drug overdoses.
0bama is going to need new tax revenue. Where did you think it was going to come from?
“...lawsuits for employers who still test for pot use...”
Some employers won’t let people work for them if they smoke cigarettes, even if they smoke while not on the clock. Employees have sued companies over these policies and lost. I bet if marijuana was legal there would still be many employers who test for marijuana and who will not hire or retain pot smokers.
Not from decriminalizing marijuana. It would have to be legal with a legal production and sales before the government could tax it. Legalization and decriminalization are not the same thing. Several states have decriminalized pot, meaning they have removed the possibility of jail time for simple possession of a small amount and in most cases have made it such that an arrest does not result in an actual criminal conviction.
The thought of legalizing marjuana occurred to me last week when I read of the significant loss in tax revenues by all levels of government.
In addition, it will begin to undercut the insurgency in Mexico by the narco-terrorists.
If it is taxed, growing your own will be illegal (especially if you are selling it). DEA agents will become BATFEC (C for cannabis) agents and will hound bootleggers mercilessly. Because of WOsD the mechanism is in place.
It's easy to distill booze, too, but few get involved with it for long due to BATFE diligence. Oh there may be some kitchen whisky made, but as soon as you get up to making several gallons a whack on a regular basis, they'll be looking for you just as if you had 20 metal halide lamps in your basement.
If it's so hard to profit, why are there Mexican drug lords with armies?
And as I said above "decriminalize" is not "legalize".
Is it true? No idea. Would likely be a worthwhile study to do on a large scale. Problem is that DARE is so engrained into education now that no matter the results, it would probably be impossible to get rid of.
Need a hookup for some ‘shine?
It’ll take off paint.
Made by people with fruit orchards. Waste not want not.
It’s peach brandy! 151 or so proof peach brandy.
Sounds good, but I live in grape country (well, between two grape countries, red to the north and white to the south).
Of course I’d never run a still, it’s illegal as heck.
I think it’s true, no proof though.
I sat in on a DARE session and most of the kids didn’t know the names of the drugs, what they looked like, how to use them, and how much they cost, going in. Afterward, they knew the difference between a bong and a water pipe.
This hooch comes out of Yuba county CA.
Regularly available if you know someone of the right ‘religious/ethnic’ group well enough.
I don’t much care for it, too strong. ‘Religious/ethnic’ group are a bunch of drunks.
A water pipe is something you can buy legally.
A Bong is illegal drug paraphernalia.
I don't know of any other difference.
Better than dealing with an obnoxious slurring idiot who wants to start fights all the time.
Which is?
My step-mother died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 39, brought on by years of alcohol abuse.
Who was responsible for her death?
LOL Ask Tommy Chong, he sure found out!
As a poster above said, one is illegal and one is not.
A bong has a hole in its body, a water pipe does not.
You know that many bball players are stoners.
But, if you do legalize it along with HEMP -which you do not smoke and wouldn’t want to - a lot of new jobs and tax revenue would follow.
And no, I don’t nor ever have smoked pot. I just think it should be legalized and taxed. Pot smells like burning horsecrap. Just give me a nice Don Diego Grande cigar, thank you very much
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