Posted on 07/25/2006 1:08:16 AM PDT by freepatriot32
I don't smoke marijuana now, I did many many years ago. I guess I outgrew it. Now I simply dont have an interest.
That being said... I think the penalties for its use are too severe. I think it should be taxed and controlled in the same way as alcohol or cigarettes are.
A guy I went to school with got caught when he was 19 and it was not marijuana that ruined his life, it was the years he spent in prison because of it.
I looked back up at the top of the page. You posted an article written by former Texas Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower.
Yes i posted an article written by jim hightower I then Quoted H.L. Mencken in reply # 1. If you would drink less jack daniels straight from the bottle you might be ableto tell the difference between posting an article on fr and quoting someone in the first reply of the article. Posting an article is not qouting them its posting what they wrote in thier online newspaper artivcles or blogs onto FR.
bleh... I can also agree with you as well. I dont think certain professions should use it - before they do whatever they do.
Yet they still have to live by our laws.
Or they can exercise their freedom by moving to an unclaimed island where it is reasonable for them to substance abuse without dragging the whole of our society down with them.
I'd just like to say a few more things:
In case any DU idiots are monitoring this, simply because most of them are stoners: I gloat at your demise. I really do. I laugh it up every time a Democrat and a "progressive" loses an election. I laugh every time one of your bills is voted down by a Republican majority in Congress.
I will never, ever, support the legalization of marijuana, simply because it is what the "progressives" want. Never. I will laugh every time we bomb the hell out of a terrorist enclave, and I will applaud at every terrorist we wax. I used to support some "liberal" causes in the past, but I won't anymore - because I hate the left. I loathe the left.
I voted for Clinton - twice. I vote for Gore in 2000. I'm glad he lost. I'm so frigging glad. In 2000, after the second Palestinian "intifada" began, and George Bush said that Israel had every right to defend herself, I applauded him. I started to become a Conservative. After 2001, in September, when I was in New York City and saw those burn and fall, and I saw how the left opposed the war in Afghanistan, I never would turn back. Ever.
Ten years ago, I would never have joined a site such as this. Now, I'm proud to be on Free Republic. A lot of my former friends moan the fact that I am. Many of them are horrified that I support Gun Rights, and Religious Rights (I'm a "devout" Atheist, as I like to call myself, but I defend Evangelicals).
In the 1990's, I supported the idea of the European Union. Now I want to tear it apart. In the 1990's, I still supported the United Nations. Now, I would gladly see it abolished forever and spit on it's grave.
I am so fed up with liberal causes that there are simply no words to express my disgust with them.
I am an Atheist who has been a "free thinker" for over twenty years. But I am an Atheist who would see an army of crusaders with a cross and star of david on their shields, taking over the Muslim world together and imposing our way upon them; humiliating them; grinding them into the dust; breaking their very last spirit in our own charge of defiance against them.
That is how much I have come to loathe the left. And that is why I will never support their causes.
It's too bad that some people have good arguments for legalizing marijuana, or euthanasia, or even gay marriage. But I couldn't care less. Perhaps I'll be willing to discuss it in a more rational tone one day, in the distant future, when the left has been utterly defeated and destroyed along with the enemies of this great civilization.
But that time isn't now. And I wouldn't ever bank on it.
Hey, we could play "study" ping-pong all day.
Mental Functioning Not Affected by Long-Term Marijuana Use, Johns Hopkins Study Says
Long-term use of marijuana does not lead to a decline in mental function, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore. Individuals who confessed to having smoked marijuana, even heavily, have no more signs of impaired mental function than people who have never used cannabis (Constantine G. Lyketsos, et al., "Cannabis Use and Cognitive Decline in Persons Under 65 Years of Age," American Journal of Epidemiology, May 1999, vol. 149, p. 794-800; "Long-term Use Doesn't Hurt Mind, Study Says," Detroit Free Press, May 7, 1999; "The Straight Dope," Science News (US), May 22, 1999).
Scientists at JHU tracked the mental functioning of 1,318 Baltimore residents aged 18 to 64 over the course of 11 ½ years. After analyzing data gathered by the Mini-Mental State Examination, or MMSE, researchers concluded that there is no cognitive decline associated with marijuana use. The researchers said that cognitive decline is related to aging and starts in individuals younger than 30 years old. The decline is said to increase exponentially with each decade that passes, but attaining a higher level of education may reduce the severity of cognitive decline.
"In your world is everyone who smokes marijuana an abuser? Can they possibly be simply a user instead?"
In my world, your world, the world where you live in which smoking marijuana is illegal... it's an abuse.
As for your friend, blaming prison is just a convenient excuse to pass the blame. He broke the law, he went to prison, what he does with his life after that is his own responsibility.
I guess that is one word dopers don't understand... responsibility.
Tobacco is just a weed also. Not only that but the government makes milions off taxes on it. They use this money for all kinds of things, and yet look at the uproar over tobacco use. Why legalise another substance when the one you have legalised is under such pressure?
You could say that about all aspects of life.
To smoke a cigarette in a public place, could be seen as selfish, to drive a car when its not needed.
People can be selfish in many aspects of there life's, should we legislate against selfish behavior, should we set up a list of what does and does not constitute selfish behavior
Because the answer to tyranny is always more freedom not more tyranny
Mr. Freetower,
Thank you so much for refocusing our attention on something REALLY important.
Spoken like a true believer in Marijuana.
You just made one of the best posts I've ever seen on Free Republic.
Thank You.
Legislating selfish acts is a slippery slope. I don't believe in marijuana any more than I believe in Big Mac's. They're both selfish to consume, but we should have the liberty to decide what we put in our bodies.
Since safety is what you want, you should REQUIRE all drivers to smoke pot first (at least, if you want to be logically consistant - and not a hypocritical jack-booted, mind-numbed fascist thug like most drug warriors)....
And, for the record, I'll pit my "brain power" against just about anybody you can find, anytime, anywhere. And, I'll do 3 bong-hits first and STILL kick ass.
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