Posted on 10/22/2017 9:47:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
The war on drugs has been going on since 1971, and we have a winner: marijuana. Back then, possession of pot carried heavy penalties in many states -- even life imprisonment. Today, 29 states sanction medical use of cannabis, and eight allow recreational use. Legal weed has become about as controversial as Powerball.
One sign of the shift came in Wednesday's debate among the Democrats running for governor of Illinois. The state didn't get its first medical marijuana dispensary until 2015, and it decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot only last year. But most of the candidates endorsed legalization of recreational weed, and one supported "full decriminalization."
Those positions are not politically risky, in Illinois or most places. They're mainstream.
In 2016, Gallup Poll found that 60 percent of Americans supported full legalization -- up from 36 percent in 2005. Given the choice, voters generally favor it. Nine states had cannabis initiatives on the ballot last year. Medical marijuana won in four states, and recreational pot won in another four. Only Arizona's recreational pot measure failed.
Next year should further erode pot prohibition. "Campaigns are underway in at least five states to legalize either medical or recreational cannabis," reports Marijuana Business Daily. It also notes that New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont could get recreational cannabis through legislative action.
All this progress has occurred even though federal law bars possession and use -- impeding normal commerce in states that permit dispensaries. Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department chose to defer to states that allowed cannabis. But banks generally are leery of doing business with pot dispensaries, forcing many to operate on cash alone.
s a candidate, Donald Trump indicated he would follow more or less the same course as Obama. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, however, has been an implacable opponent of liberalization. He once joked -- well, I assume he was joking -- that he had no problem with the Ku Klux Klan until he "found out they smoked pot."
He appointed a task force on crime, hoping it would confirm his preposterous claim that Obama's laissez-faire policy was to blame for rising violence. But the panel report, which has not been made public, recommended sticking with that approach.
The case for full legalization becomes stronger all the time. One reason is that the disproportionate impact on African-Americans has gained more attention. Blacks are nearly four times likelier to be arrested for pot possession than whites even though there is no racial difference in usage.
Drug enforcement has been a major motive for stop-and-frisk tactics that have fostered resentment of cops among black men. Treating cannabis like beer or cigarettes would greatly curtail such encounters.
For years, opponents said legalization would lead to disaster. But as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. noted, "A page of history is worth a volume of logic." We no longer have to rely on ominous forecasts. We now have actual experience in states that have taken the leap, and the results refute the fears.
Studies show that after Colorado permitted recreational pot, there was no increase in adolescent use or traffic fatalities. In Washington, which voted for legalization in 2012, crime rates proceeded to decline. California found that when medical dispensaries closed, neighborhood crime didn't fall; it rose.
This year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found "substantial evidence that cannabis is an effective treatment for chronic pain in adults." That helps explain why states that allow cannabis have far lower rates of opioid overdoses. The simple reality is that marijuana eases suffering and saves lives.
States with fiscal problems -- Illinois being a prominent example -- also stand to gain from allowing recreational pot. First, they don't have to spend so much money arresting, trying and incarcerating users and sellers. Second, they get a windfall from taxing a product that previously sold only on the black market. Washington's cannabis taxes bring in about $250 million a year.
State governments can also expect savings in Medicaid and other health care programs as some patients opt for inexpensive cannabis over pricey prescription drugs. There are also financial savings for ambulances, hospitals and morgues when fewer people overdose with opioids -- not to mention a lower toll in human misery and heartache.
It's too late to undo all the harm produced by the war on drugs. But Americans are realizing it's never too late to enjoy the benefits of peace.
Wait a minute. Why am I warning you? I ought to give you a map of all the groves here in Northern California and encourage you to visit them. Unannounced.
Some folks apparently learn nothing from history. You could have said exactly the same thing about folks distilling liquor during the 20s. It wasn't a problem before prohibition, and it wasn't a problem after prohibition. I don't see the local Budweiser and Miller distributors shooting it out over territory these days. Must be the media suppressing it or something.
Once it's just another crop, what you are describing will be history, just like the gin-runners of the 20s. Pot should be completely legalized and sold just like tobacco and alcohol.
Has Sessions addressed this issue?
ATF: Medical marijuana cardholders may not purchase firearms
People who obtain medical marijuana cards cannot legally purchase firearms from a federally licensed dealer, an ATF spokesperson told 40/29 News.
Marijuana is illegal under federal law regardless of Arkansas law, Kevin Moran with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told 40/29. It is against the law to possess firearms while using marijuana, whether the marijuana is being used medicinally or not.
In addition, Americans are not allowed to buy guns from licensed dealers if they use marijuana or have a medical marijuana card.
When you buy a gun from a licensed dealer, you are required to fill out form 4473. Question 11. e. on the form asks you if you’re an unlawful user of marijuana or other substances. Because marijuana is illegal federally, Arkansans will be considered to be unlawful users regardless of state law.
If you answer ‘YES’ to Question 11. e., you will be denied a firearm.
If you lie on the form and answer ‘NO’ to Question 11. e., you could face serious legal consequences.
The AFT sent a letter to all federally licensed firearms dealers in 2011 instructing them not to sell guns to people with medical marijuana cards. The ATF says the card gives a dealer “reasonable cause to believe” the person uses marijuana and should be denied a firearm.
Read at: http://www.4029tv.com/article/atf-medical-marijuana-cardholders-may-not-purchase-firearms/10237108
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muyOXYrWQqY
BREAKING: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules No Gun Sales for Known Pot Smokers. Period.
avatar
Dan Zimmerman
August 31, 2016 133 comments
I asked a simple question. A yes or no is an easy response. Or “sey” or “on” if you are dyslexic.
You say weed should be legal and we can fend for ourselves on every thing out there.
Should heroin be legal to buy just like weed is in some states now?
I answered your question, Billy.
You dodge and tap-dance like a little sissy,
never mind lying about what I “say”...
I say that if heroin, or crack cocaine, or meth, were legal to purchase tomorrow, it wouldn’t make a user out of me.
I say you’re a fool for believing that passing a law banning a plant will have any effect on the behavior of people who *will* use drugs.
I believe that if you continue to cede to the supposed authorities the power to regulate your existence, they will.
Breast cancer kills four times as many people annually as heroine overdose.
Do you suppose banning breasts would help to keep you safe?
“But now, from what I understand, as I haven’t smoked pot since the mid 70s, is that its pretty strong and hallucengenic and zone out.”
Only if you use too much can that happen. Cannabis is a lot stronger now than in the 70’s to be sure.
As a medical marijuana patient in the state of Florida I can assure you cannabis being stronger these days is a GOOD thing as it takes less cannabis to do the job than it would have in the 1970’s. For us lower-middle class folks that’s a big deal. Medical marijuana is not cheap at all!
Do you think heroin should be legal to purchase just like weed? It’s a simple question. No need to obfuscate so much.
Tobacco companies should add mind-altering drugs to their cigarettes so that not only the will state and local governments allow people to smoke them unrestrictively, but that health-insurance plans can pay for them. It would be a huge boon to a tobacco industry hindered by fascist governments.
I already answered you, Troll.
I’m bored with your trolling. You didn’t get your “Aha!” so you’ve moved the goalposts; just like your earlier dishonesty in claiming you asked, when you did not.
Answer my questions.
Do you support the banning of Q-tips to prevent people from injuring themselves?
If not; Where do you draw the line on government interference into your personal choices?
Are you really so addled as to believe that making heroin (your choice of drug, not mine) legal will really create thousands of new heroin addicts?
Addicts are created by the pharmaceutical companies. I have a daughter who makes her living treating opioid addicts. 100% of her clients come to her with medical addictions, 0% street drugs.
Hell no, I do not support legalization of heroin for recreational use, nor do I support the outlawing of a naturally occurring plant. People are responsible for their choices. If we want smoking pot to be illegal, outlaw smoking pot... Outlawing the plant is just stupid.
It’s the exact same kind of stupid that asserts that outlawing guns prevents killings.
I support non-interference by the government in areas not specifically given to them in the U.S. constitution.
Let me explain some things to you that you’ve never been able to figure out for yourself:
Fentanyl, 50 times stronger than natural heroin is completely legal. It also accounts for a major portion of the overdoses attributed to heroin, as it is often mixed in to street drugs to increase their potency, this also renders the standard treatment for heroin overdose ineffective.
Fentanyl is legal because it provides profits to the US pharmaceutical industry, which uses that money to buy off politicians who then pass laws to their benefit.
In ALL CASES the legalization of pot within the states has come with a licensure scheme. Why? Because it makes money for politicians and their donors.
Can you imagine the damage unregulated marijuana and opium growing would cause to the CIA’s profitability? How would they be able to support their Afghanistan growing operations, and gun-running to the Mexican cartels? Legalize pot? Man, are you mad?
Your liberty is being controlled by politicians, to the exclusive benefit of politicians and the donor class. You fear pot growing in someones back yard because they told you to, not because it’s dangerous.
What they fear is individual liberty and personal responsibility.
These pot threads always bring the prohibitionists out in force.
I’m not sure why those people are even here.
Freedom and prohibition really don’t go together...
Wow.
“That would be because the factors in a relatively modern society that allow the existence of freeloaders who exist only to get high did not exist before industrialization.”
Thanks, I have told people exactly that on more than one occasion. Even when I was growing up it would have been impossible to support the percentage of the population that we have been trying to support with them contributing very little or nothing to their own support. The liberals who rave that we who don’t want to work just to support people who won’t work are heartless villains don’t seem to understand that just one hundred years ago there would have been no way possible for that percentage of the population to live on the dole, they would have had to make their own way or starve.
Whatever is a 215 card please?
Our ancestors were snickered on hard cider.
Fine example of fedgov taking a leak on both the Second and Tenth Amendments.
Sadly, there are some who are bappy to hold their cranks while they do so.
bappy = happy
For the most part, our ancestors drank wine and beer because it was much safer than drinking the water. With the wonders of modern water treatment, it is no longer necessary to drink fermented beverages.
Our bodies actually have mechanisms to destroy alcohol very quickly once consumed. This is not the case with THC.
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