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Legalize, Tax Marijuana? (Libertarians Say Yes)
Fox ^ | 02/26/2009 | Glen Beck

Posted on 02/28/2009 8:55:36 AM PST by Responsibility2nd

GLENN BECK, HOST: Marijuana brownies, anyone? This is the worst — the people in our green room, I'm happy to say it's clear they've never been high.

I'm going to ask you what's wrong with this picture. Chicago is trying to fix $50 million budget — their budget gap by taxing car rentals in suburban areas. And now, California is talking about legalizing marijuana and taxing marijuana to solve their budget problems.

Rob Kampia is the executive director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

How are you doing — how are you doing, Rob?

ROB KAMPIA, MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT: Doing well.

BECK: All right. Do you smoke marijuana? Do you have any those marijuana's...

KAMPIA: Occasionally.

BECK: Occasionally?

KAMPIA: Yes.

BECK: It's against the law, you know.

KAMPIA: Yes. So, is speeding, a lot of people do that, also.

BECK: Wow. OK. You used to work for NORML, did you not?

KAMPIA: Yes.

BECK: Yes?

KAMPIA: Fourteen years ago.

BECK: Fourteen years ago. And is it true that you quit working with NORML because they were stoned all the time and that's all they really wanted to do was get high? They weren't serious about changing the laws?

KAMPIA: No, everyone there is very serious about changing the laws.

BECK: Really? OK.

KAMPIA: And the reason that — the reason that I left and started up the Marijuana Policy Project because I wanted to focus almost exclusively on lobbying and ballot initiatives.

BECK: OK. So, tell me because — look, I'm a libertarian. You want to legalize marijuana; you want to legalize drugs — that's fine.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beck; liberaltarians; lping; marijuana; potheads; wod
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To: Responsibility2nd
I think you are missing the larger issue here.

Government isn’t our nanny. We should have the right to be stupid.

Once government becomes our nanny we are screwed.

21 posted on 02/28/2009 9:09:09 AM PST by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric cartman voice* 'I love you guys')
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To: Responsibility2nd

One hundred years ago there were no laws restricting drugs. The original stimulant in Coca Cola was cocaine. Then they had to add caffeine because cocaine was made illegal.

Those of you who are against legalizing marijuana and consume an occasional beer or a glass of wine, I have only one word to describe people who have that attitude - hypocrites.


22 posted on 02/28/2009 9:09:10 AM PST by Pelagius of Asturias
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To: Responsibility2nd

How can I be wrong about what I want?

And I don’t believe alcohol should be taxed, either. I guess that’s “wrong” as well.


23 posted on 02/28/2009 9:09:19 AM PST by MichiganConservative (You are a slave. The government is your owner and master. For many slaves, it is also their god.)
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To: svcw

I wonder when drugs will become mandatory?

__________________________________________

Good question.

First, we surrender to the Libertarians and legalize the crap.

Secondly, we introduce it to our children in school. Like we do the pro-homosexual agenda.

Thirdly... well you get the idea.


24 posted on 02/28/2009 9:11:10 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd
Let me ignore the immoral viewpoints about turning America into a Nation of stoners for a moment.....

Well, I guess we are a nation of alcoholics, since Prohibition ended. Whatever.

25 posted on 02/28/2009 9:11:31 AM PST by MichiganConservative (You are a slave. The government is your owner and master. For many slaves, it is also their god.)
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To: cripplecreek
“If you tax it, you make it more expensive to produce legally, thus helping the drug cartels (or so we hear)”

I'm not too sure on that.

Tobacco is being taxed real heavy, I think it's $3.75 a pack around here right now. Smokers in a lot of the US could grow their own but they don't. I think the curing foils most of them.

Marijuana can also be grown in large areas of the US - and is right now. I don't think the cost and taxes for Marijuana could be much higher than for tobacco - and libs would want to keep it as low as they could. Add in the home grown “no stamp weed” and the drug cartels should be out of business.

26 posted on 02/28/2009 9:11:48 AM PST by PeteB570 (NRA - Life member and Black Rifle owner)
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To: pnh102

“Do we see organized crime rackets causing trouble by smuggling cigarettes and booze?”


Nice try, logic and reason. The people who want to keep drugs illegal are not interested in logic and reason. They seem to believe that people must be controlled with force.


27 posted on 02/28/2009 9:12:54 AM PST by marktwain
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To: Responsibility2nd
The human wreckage and waste, not only moral degradation that legalizing drugs would create would be the last nail in this country's coffin.

Moral strength and fortitude, clean sober thinking and morality is what gave this country it's greatness in the first place. In other words, you can make a pig into bacon, but you can't make bacon back into a pig.

Any argument to the contrary is pure insanity and has no merit.

28 posted on 02/28/2009 9:13:06 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (WHAT? Where did my tag line go? (ACORN))
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To: cripplecreek

Good points. And if you really want to end the cartel violence, then see my previous post. You take the US Armed Forces to war against our enemies in Mexico as we take them to our enemies in Iraq and other places.

I’ll say it again. WOT, WOD... America can not surrender!!!


29 posted on 02/28/2009 9:13:50 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Danae

“Well, considering that the Fed’s are not going to be going after pot anymore, they BETTER legalize it or we will have Mexican gangs living in our national forests growing weed. THAT is NOT something we need.”

Way TOO late. Armed Mexican Drug cartels have thousands of acres under cultivation in the NW, and all over this nation. I do agree at this point, the only way we will rid ourselves of the Mexican drug cartels growing in our national parks and forests is to make the stuff legal. Though they do keep busy in the off season brewing meth, which we simply cannot legalize.

The Mexican border has moved 800 miles north- On Lou Dobbs Tonight!
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles

Lots of photos of these grows.


30 posted on 02/28/2009 9:14:55 AM PST by AuntB (The right to vote in America: Blacks 1870; Women 1920; Native Americans 1925; Foreigners 2008)
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To: marktwain

Right, anarchy is ALWAYS the very best form of society to strive for. Let everyone do what ever they feel is right so long as they aren’t hurting someone else. Right?

But what you fail to see, is the long term damage and apathy that hedonism creates. It usually winds up in an Oligarchy of some form or another.


31 posted on 02/28/2009 9:17:22 AM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (WHAT? Where did my tag line go? (ACORN))
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To: cripplecreek

You need to study Prohibition. The enactment of the stupidest law ever, created a class of very wealthy and powerful criminals, and a class of very wealthy and corrupt politicians. When Prohibition was repealed, the criminals lost a huge source of income. Nevertheless, income from bootlegging enabled them to put that money to good use - they built Las Vegas. When Tennessee started enacting laws that enabled cities to regulate the legal selling of alcohol, it was the end of big time bootlegging.

My mother alway said that the only people against legal alcohol sales were preachers and bootleggers.


32 posted on 02/28/2009 9:18:25 AM PST by Pelagius of Asturias
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To: Responsibility2nd

If all libertarians care about is dope right now, screw them. There are more important things to be concerned with. How about real and actual FREEDOM?


33 posted on 02/28/2009 9:18:49 AM PST by BobS
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To: Responsibility2nd

The report on Glenn Beck last night showed that the cartels have gone far beyond drugs as a means of making money. They even shake down the teachers for their Christmas bonus checks.


34 posted on 02/28/2009 9:19:17 AM PST by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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To: Responsibility2nd
And Libertarians rule this place.

The are just a big squeaky wheel but they have no real power. You need to learn to ignore them more.

35 posted on 02/28/2009 9:19:56 AM PST by bmwcyle (The end is near and this time I mean it. Get right with JESUS NOW!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

This may be a way to soothe the pain of all the new taxes we are going to be hit with out here.


36 posted on 02/28/2009 9:20:16 AM PST by Lou Budvis ( 'Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson are rolling in their graves.')
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To: Steve Van Doorn

Our nanny.

Well, lets say I agree with you. Lets say we get rid of all the Nationalist nannies. Who needs ‘em?

States Rights forever, right?

Who needs a strong National Defense protecting us in Iraq and Afghanistan? Who needs a US Border Patrol protecting our borders against the drug cartels?

Phst. The one thing that Libertarins (libs) fail to see in their anti-nannyistic tirades is that yes... We do need the Feds.

Not to protect us against ourselves. But to protect us against our enemies.

Legalizing drugs is playing right into the hands of drug cartels.


37 posted on 02/28/2009 9:20:33 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd
The strongest drug I use is black coffee unless dark chocolate (to which I am unashamedly addicted) is a drug.

That being said, if some fool wants to waste his life stoned on a salad green I don't like, that's his problem. I am not willing to part with tax dollars to protect fools from their folly.

I am unconvinced that usage or availability would substantially increase if it were legalized. Alcohol was readily available during prohibition and anyone who really wanted it could get it. If marijuana were legally available tomorrow, I would avoid it as I do alcohol and tobacco now. I think most people would as well.

38 posted on 02/28/2009 9:21:11 AM PST by muir_redwoods (The president is an ass)
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To: bgill

“Having both legalized marijuana and the food police is like putting a humidifier and a dehumidifier in a room at the same time.”

Not if you tax both.

I would liken it more to owning the casino, AND getting fees from the ATM machine in the lobby.


39 posted on 02/28/2009 9:22:10 AM PST by Eccl 10:2 (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem - Ps 122:6)
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To: Responsibility2nd

My ideal would be a repeal of federal drug laws and a selective, non-uniform application of relaxed state drug laws to nuisance users and to violent criminals (in the latter case, to keep them in jail longer), but a “look the other way” policy regarding individuals who enjoy their vice in private and can handle the “side-effects”. No more drug raids on homes, getting the address wrong and shooting grandma and the dog. Or PDs wasting money on buying equipment to detect heat signatures.

I realize drugs “cause” problems, and I fully support the elimination from society of those members who cannot handle their chit. Criminalizing the drug is a poor substitute for properly, permanently dealing with real crimes - the equivalent of banning guns because of gun-related crimes, or pencils because of spelling errors.


40 posted on 02/28/2009 9:23:20 AM PST by M203M4 (A rainbow-excreting government-cheese-pie-eating unicorn in every pot.)
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