Posted on 01/12/2014 10:49:32 AM PST by Libloather
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) this week said he's opposed to laws legalizing marijuana.
While Maryland legislators are expected to take up several proposals to legalize the drug this year, the Democratic minority whip said he's concerned it’s a gateway to harsher narcotics.
"I'm not a proponent of the legalization of marijuana," Hoyer said Thursday during a taping of C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program, which will air Sunday.
The position puts Hoyer on the same page as Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), but at odds with a recent shift in public opinion.
O'Malley said earlier in the week that he's "not much in favor" of the legalization proposals members of the state's General Assembly plan to introduce in both chambers this year.
“I’ve seen what drug addiction has done to the people of our state and the people of our city,” O'Malley said Wednesday in an interview with Baltimore's WEAA radio station.
Public sentiment, meanwhile, has shifted sharply in favor of legalization in recent years. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday found that 55 percent of Americans support the move to legalize the drug — up 12 points from 2012 and 39 points from 25 years ago.
A Gallup poll released in October put the level of support at 58 percent.
Interest in decriminalizing marijuana has skyrocketed since voters in Colorado and Washington state voted last year to legalize the drug for recreational use.
While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the Justice Department announced last year that it wouldn’t attempt to block state efforts to legalize it. Colorado venders began selling it openly on Jan. 1.
"By regulating marijuana like alcohol, Colorado voters hope to reduce crime and keep marijuana away from kids," Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said as the sales began.
Along with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Polis has sponsored legislation to eliminate the federal laws criminalizing the drug.
At least 18 other states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana to some extent, though most of those laws relate to the treatment of medical conditions and require a doctor's prescription.
Hoyer this week noted that a former Baltimore mayor, Kurt Schmoke, had advocated for legalizing pot several decades ago. Hoyer said he supported that move at the time, but has since changed his tune based on his discussions with drug-treatment experts.
"My initial reaction was a positive one," Hoyer said. "Then as I talked to people who deal with drug abuse issues, with rehabilitation issues, I became convinced that marijuana was, in fact, a threshold drug and that it would lead to the use of harder, very harmful drugs.".
I call BS. Let's see a link.
But you know what my theory is on why the powers that be may be changing their minds on that?
I suspect they think that it aids them in their brainwashing people with socialist/ communist ideas, and I might even be inclined to believe that’s true. But I have seen evidence that this is not the rule.
I think what it might to is make one generally more open minded to any ideas that may be present at the time, and in the case of this country, almost all media and education is oriented towards communism, thus people being high may allow that ideology to take root faster.
Many years ago early on in my life I used to get high quite often, and many times I would listen to Rush Limbaugh while high, and he most certainly convinced me that his way of thinking was correct. It just kinda’ worked its way right on there and took hold and made sense to me.
Anyway, just my theory on that.
Expected to happen, but not yet proven:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/11/colorado-pot-shops-likely-targets-cartels-say-experts/
That article was a bunch of wishful thinking by worried Drug Warriors.
Yes, I do remember that :D
Boy that brings me straight back to the 80’s when movies and music were really good!
I don’t know. I thought I read something about Soviet Russia having pushed vodka on the population, as a sort of effort to curtail restlessness which might be directed towards the state.
Oh, and if my parents were a couple of filthy dopeheads, I would have happily finked them out! Put ‘em behind bars, officer! Give ‘em hard time!
A liberal democrat i finally agree with!!
Just make the penalty harsher.
I wish prison for you!!!
Thanks!
I wish Ebola for you!!!
How long before CA goes full legal?
Well, do you mean “if” alcohol or cigarettes were illegal? It’s hard to say, since that’s sort of a sci-fi scenario, other than during Prohibition. Or if my father ran a still in the basement? Maybe I would call Elliot Ness. I don’t know. Or calling the cops about cigarettes? It’s too whimsical and far-fetched to use as an analogy. Considering their longstanding legality and cultural standing, I think the onus would more likely just be on me to move away.
But dope? Hell, yes. If some sibling or cousin came to my house and pulled out some dope, I’d personally beat them to a bloody pulp and then call the cops. I’d never even want to see them again.
Drugs are indeed winning. And America is dying. With the country embracing evil and deviancy in nearly every quarter, there’s really becoming no reason for me to even support the preservation of the republic, at this point.
A country that has gone pro-fag marriage and pro-dope no longer has any worthwhile moral legitimacy, as far as I’m concerned. That’s the bigger picture for me, not all the little chatter about extraneous side issues.
And the punishment will be a direct result of the sin. A county of hedonists cannot operate a functional economy let alone a powerful one. The continuing creep of communism will be embraced more and more by people who render themselves unemployable, mentally and physically impaired through their own gluttonous lack of self-control. And the country will fall into a death spiral as it embraces instant gratification over the self-restraint and hard work that only a solid bedrock of morality can inspire. Weed is an appropriate word, because it is one of the poisons that will choke off the life of the virtual garden of Eden that our forefathers successfully planted for us.
And you think legalizing marijuana will make it less available to kids?
You can answer honestly or you can give us all a good laugh.
The basic principle of conservatism is that if you tax something, it becomes less available and if you subsidize something, it becomes more available.
Do you expect the legalization of marijuana to drive up its price or lower it?
And now we have ads saying to turn in your employer if they’re pirating software. Guess what, stealing software is illegal. It hurts people. We also ask people to report suspected terrorist activity. Enforcing good laws is not fascism, it’s morality in action. Anti-marijuana laws are good for the individual and the society as a whole. It’s illegal to drive 100 miles an hour on the highway for a reason. Just because you might have gotten away with it once without killing yourself doesn’t mean it isn’t the height of arrogance and irresponsibility to say we should do away with the speed limit entirely. When something is harmful to most people who do it, we have an obligation to outlaw it.
Morons Hoyer and Owe’Malley probably want the DUI limit to be .05, too.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
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