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Locked on 01/15/2014 11:23:33 AM PST by Jim Robinson, reason:
Enough already! |
Posted on 01/13/2014 11:39:29 AM PST by Kaslin
Right now, China and Russia are having a great laugh at America’s expense. For a once proud country with strong moral character and intellectual ambition, we have become a nation intent on destroying itself from within. The publicly sanctioned and widespread celebration of indolent potheads toking themselves into oblivion in Colorado is only the latest example.
We have come a long way from Nancy Reagan’s largely successful “Just Say No” campaign to educate students on the dangers of drugs and their consequences. Call it “You Can Say Yes. “
In the minds of many conservatives, the lines are becoming quickly blurred on the legalization of mind-altering substances as well as the punishment of drug offenders. Libertarians are taking up the cause to push for universal legalization of marijuana around the country. Some are doing this because of Americans’ growing fear of our government’s intrusion into our private lives while others are doing it because of easier access to their favorite recreational pastime. Indeed, the latter motivation seems to be so popular, that it quickly turned into one of the most popular battle cries amongst the young adults for the election of Rep. Ron Paul in the 2012 Republican Primary.
Unfortunately, many traditional Conservatives are also getting on the drug bus because they have bought the Democrat lie that the money collected by drug users could be fiscally beneficial. In the most recent year, Colorado generated $9.1 million in retail sales tax from the sale of medical marijuana. This figure is bound to grow with the introduction of recreational sales and the additional 25% in excise and sales taxes since becoming legal on January 1st.
Looking beyond just the tax revenue, the industry generates millions of dollars every year for the state from licensing and application fees. To apply for and obtain a license to run a medical marijuana facility serving more than 500 patients, for instance, the necessary application and license fees alone approach $40,000. Colorado has agreed to take this new revenue and use it for the education of its children and construction of new schools. Does this mean at 18 every high school graduate will be handed their diploma and a doobie with the instructions to get addicted in order to help fund future generations’ educations?
We are now seeing a very odd mix of bedfellows. One of my favorite Tea Party Senators, Mike Lee of Utah, and one of the most odious liberals in the Senate today, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, both are now in agreement to reduce the mandatory jail sentence time on non-violent drug offenses in hopes of reducing prison expenses. A federal inmate’s yearly cost for one inmate ranges from $21,000 to $33,000 depending on the prison's level of security. Because of the current system, about half of the nation's more than 218,000 federal inmates are serving time for drug crimes with virtually all of them subjected by some form of mandatory minimum sentencing.
Am I living in the twilight zone right now? Has our country become so ignorant that we have abandoned one of the few positive goals of eliminating substances from our cultural landscape? Drugs that have reduced the productivity, health and advancement of our society? Don’t think drugs have a negative effect on the community? Just look to Washington State, where within the first 6 months of pot being legalized, 745 drivers stopped by the police tested positive for marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient THC and over half of those tested were over the state’s legal limit of 5 nanograms. This means there are more impaired drivers on the roads of Washington and now Colorado driving alongside families on their way to school and people on their way to work. Please tell me how a price can be put on their safety or tell me that drugs cannot hurt innocent bystanders? Please go ask a family who has lost a loved one to drug use or more importantly whose family was affected by someone under the influence.
We are witnessing the steady decline and intentional corrosion of America’s social structure. This is the ultimate goal of leftists: total control of the state that would make middle and lower class its feudal subjects. What better way to destroy a culture then to encourage mind altering substance use by the general public?
Ronald Reagan often quoted John Winthrop’s shining “City upon a Hill” but ultimately under these types of legislative policy, we might suffer more the fate as predicted by Alexis de Toqueville who said “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
On the contrary, “the common good” does NOT over-ride personal freedoms, so long as others are not harmed by their exercise. Abortion and pedophilia cause direct harm to people other than those who practice it. A person smoking a joint in their own house does not.
But thanks for supporting the “gun-grabbers” arguments anyway...
Amen to that.
But it is not unreasonable to decriminalize pot. The anti marijuana crusaders are way off base. In my, and millions of Americans, humble opinion.
How you equate ideals like being against “abortion, queer marriages, pedophillia, and so on...”
with being in favor of Obama deciding we should turn in our guns is fascinating.
Interestingly, “gun control” is also deeply rooted in racism.
In what stoned out frame of mind do you see an argument for the “gun-grabbers” arguments here?
Its bad enough that you defend illgal drugs, but to make up and insert arguments not on the table is just too liberal.
I have my own (small) business. I've been working as a mechanic for over 40yrs. I have two people working with me and I tell them both I don't care what you do at home, but when your at work, NO BEER, WEED or cell phones texting, etc .
One day (during the summer, 85degs) while pulling a tranny from a customers truck (at his house), the customer came outta the house with two cold beers. He went to hand it to my assistant, but I told him no. He became a little pissed off, but I told him NOT DURING WORK.
If any of my assistants ever came to work drunk, they'd be fired on the spot. I wouldn't blame the alcohol, just as I wouldn't blame the weed.
Yep. A nation of degenerate dopeheads.
America has become a damned sewer of a country. Socialism, dope, and homo-marriage. My interest in its preservation gets smaller and smaller by the day. I suspect by 2016, I won’t even bother voting anymore. There is just no reason to.
Agreed.
with being in favor of Obama deciding we should turn in our guns is fascinating.
No, what's fascinating is how far you seem ready to bend over for the "common good", comrade.
Yes it is.
The new Colorado law explicitly provides that private employers can conduct drug tests and can fire people for marijuana use.
I’ve made my point that I’m against “abortion, queer marriages, pedophillia, and so on...” for the common good.
Twice now you have laughed and sneered at these conservative values.
Tell us. What else do you hate? Tea Parties? The Constitution? Freedom of Speech?
After all. These are also all for that “common good” that you so detest.
So you're in favor of Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sodas?
There is nothing “stoned out” about my frame of mind, and I did not make up your argument - you did. I do not use illegal drugs and your implication that I do is not appreciated.
With that said, the “stoned out frame of mind” is as follows:
The most common “gun-grabber” argument is “your personal freedom does NOT trump the common good”.
You used that exact argument to justify outlawing drugs.
Responsible gun ownership by an individual causes no harm to others and therefore cannot be justified with the “common good” argument.
Responsible drug use by an individual likewise causes no harm to others and therefore also cannot be justified with the “common good” argument.
Arguing that drug use should be outlawed because some people use drugs irresponsibly is just as logical as arguing that guns should be outlawed because some people use guns irresponsibly.
Remember, I am talking about activities which do not harm other persons when practiced responsibly. As I’ve already stated, your previously referenced abortion and pedophilia comparisons do not pass that test.
Well, IIRC, used to be when you got off the plane in Malaya, there was a amnesty barrel and a warning sign: “Possession of illegal drugs or weapons is punishable by death.”
I don’t think they had much problem with drugs.
But I’m not going to endorse such measures (any more). If foks want to use drugs, there should be penalties for operating vehicles, etc., under the influence, and insurance companies should be allowed deny claims, refuse insurance, etc., based on drug usage. But in today’s “no fault” society, that isn’t doable either.
See post 46.
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