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Marijuana Lights Up the Wrong Way
Townhall.com ^ | January 10, 2018 | Andy Schlafly

Posted on 01/10/2018 9:51:14 AM PST by Kaslin

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being attacked on both sides of the aisle for rescinding the Obama policy that opened the floodgates to marijuana addiction. Funded by libertarian billionaires such as the Koch brothers, pro-pot senators like Cory Gardner are demanding that AG Sessions stand down and continue Obama’s misguided policy.

Sessions rescinded Obama’s command that the Department of Justice ignore federal law against marijuana production and sales, and instead Sessions instructed U.S. Attorneys to begin enforcing well-established federal statutes against large-scale cultivation and distribution of marijuana. These federal laws preempt state law, particularly in Colorado and California where a culture of pot addiction has virtually taken over.

Sessions wrote on January 4th that “today’s memo on federal marijuana enforcement simply directs all U.S. attorneys to use previously established prosecutorial principles that provide them all the necessary tools to disrupt criminal organizations, tackle the growing drug crisis, and thwart violent crime across our country.”

That hardly seems controversial, but money talks and politicians beholden to mega-donors went ballistic in response. Sen. Cory Gardner, who heads the misguided fundraising arm of Republican senators, even took to the Senate floor to rant against Sessions for wanting to enforce the law.

Sen. Gardner is the same guy who is pushing the agenda of the same mega-donors to enact amnesty for certain illegal aliens, wanted for their cheap labor. Yet every time Gardner opens his mouth he makes it more difficult for Republicans in Congress to hold onto their majority in the upcoming midterm elections, because American voters reject Republican candidates who support either amnesty or legalized pot.

New Year’s Day rang in the sale of pot in retail stores in California, which expands the hazards it poses to the public there. In addition, anyone over the age of 21 may smoke pot on private property now in California, simply to get high over and over again.

This push for pot is not really coming from the freedom-loving culture of rock music. Instead, like gambling, legalizing pot is driven by a multi-decade campaign of investors seeking to profit from cannabis, as it’s now being advertised for marketing purposes.

First it was sold to the American people under the guise of “medical marijuana,” and predictably anyone with a little back or joint pain was obtaining prescriptions to get high. The strategy was to open the door to the inevitable recreational use by anyone, which is occurring now in eight states.

This is too much even for rock fans, as California's popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival recently responded to the legalization of marijuana by banning it at its concerts: “Sorry bro. Marijuana and marijuana products aren’t allowed inside the … Festival. Even in 2018 and beyond.”

If concerts won’t allow smoking pot, why do the rest of us have to put up with its pungent odor and harmful consequences? Costly emergency room visits by “potheads” and deadly car accidents are just two of the burdens that rampant marijuana addiction brings to our society.

Among traffic fatalities in Colorado when operators were tested for marijuana, 25 percent of those crashes had an operator who tested positive for the drug. This is a sharp increase since marijuana was legalized there, and the real number may be higher because unlike alcohol there is no close correlation between impairment and tissue levels.

Although supposedly limited to adults, marijuana use by youths between 12 and 17 years old, and college-age adults between 18 and 25, has risen sharply in Colorado since pot was legalized there four years ago. Now Colorado has the highest rate of marijuana use by youths in the country, according to the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Meanwhile, the town of Pueblo, Colorado, is buckling under the expense of “marijuana migrants,” attracted to the town’s pro-marijuana publicity. Instead of finding real work, however, these marijuana migrants live mostly in boxes, resorting to buckets as toilets.

Billionaire George Soros has been behind the push to legalize marijuana around the country, but the problem now is that he has been joined by a few billionaires associated with the right side of the political spectrum. They are misleading GOP politicians to make the colossal mistake of embracing this leftist agenda item.

Starved for money to finance their campaigns for office in 2018, hopeful Republican candidates will feel the pressure to cave in to pro-pot demands of mega-donors. But while Democrats can get away with that, Republican candidates surely cannot.

The vast majority of our country, and particularly working-class Republicans, reject the legalization of marijuana with all of its harmful consequences. Republican candidates for office who go along with the demands of billionaire donors to endorse their pro-pot agenda will see their own candidacies go up in smoke among voters.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: abuse; addiction; cannabis; cannapiss; chemicaldependency; drugabuse; illindegenerates; jeffsessions; marijuana; pot; potheads; statesrights; substanceabuse; tenthamendment; weaklingsondrugs; wod
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To: DBrow

Crikeys, our Republican state legislature can’t even pass a bill to allow for Sunday sales of alcohol.

It’ll be the year 2525, before IN ever legalizes pot


21 posted on 01/10/2018 10:25:38 AM PST by digger48
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To: Kaslin

I criticize Sessions for this because there are about a million more important things for him to be doing at DoJ to clean out the swamp and advance conservative principles. Making pot illegal seems to be his Number One priority.


22 posted on 01/10/2018 10:26:03 AM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

To be fair, Sessions didn’t make it illegal.

Congress did.


23 posted on 01/10/2018 10:27:50 AM PST by digger48
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To: Vaduz

Except that THC is not addictive.


24 posted on 01/10/2018 10:28:27 AM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
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To: chris37

Denial works for some never met a stoner who could stop for very long.


25 posted on 01/10/2018 10:35:20 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacted the most.)
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To: chris37; WayneS

I appreciate the work you two put into similar threads. Hang in there!

My mom and mother-in-law both benefit from a marijuana cream for their arthritis, something I’ll be using eventually.


26 posted on 01/10/2018 10:38:03 AM PST by scripter
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To: Kaslin

I did not realize Senator Cory Gardner is a Republican.

Marijuana is not an easy issue for GOP candidates to work with.

Outside the southeast USA, a Republican who demands rigorous enforcement of marijuana laws stands a good chance of losing a close election.

I personally favor legalization, but I haven’t smoked marijuana in 25 years, so it’s not a compelling issue for me, one way or the other.


27 posted on 01/10/2018 10:38:43 AM PST by zeestephen
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To: rstrahan
...and where it is submitted to the voters repeatedly passes.

That fact right there gives the lie to any claim that the vast majority of Americans reject legalization.

28 posted on 01/10/2018 10:44:55 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: scripter

Personally, I don’t use marijuana - but I believe strongly in individual freedom coupled with individual responsibility.

Of course, that also means I have almost no sympathy for people who get drunk/stoned/messed-up on their intoxicant of choice and then harm others or otherwise get themselves in trouble.


29 posted on 01/10/2018 10:49:15 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: scripter

PS - Thank you for the compliment and the encouragement.


30 posted on 01/10/2018 10:50:47 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: Vaduz

That doesn’t mean that they are addicted, nor does it mean that THC is an addictive drug.

It just means they would rather continue than not continue, a choice.

An addict does not have a choice.

I am not in denial, and you should learn what addiction actually is.


31 posted on 01/10/2018 10:58:55 AM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
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To: scripter

My pleasure.

There seem to be a lot of people who like to spout off about drugs, drug use, and addiction, but they don’t seem to actually know anything about it at all.

I hadn’t heard about marijuana cream use for arthritis, i will have to look into that. I can only imagine that it is a better option that NSAIDs, steroids or opiates.


32 posted on 01/10/2018 11:03:22 AM PST by chris37 (Take a week off racist >;-)
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To: WayneS

“I stopped reading at “...floodgates to marijuana addiction”.

Man, I do truly despise these Drug Warrior zealots who go after pot.

They’ll say whatever needs to be said to further their agenda without regard to truth.

And it’s always been so. From “Refer Madness” until today.

They don’t even care that they look dumb.

And I don’t even smoke the stuff. Nor do I care who does.


33 posted on 01/10/2018 11:14:56 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: arthurus; All

“In the meantime, enforce the actual enacted laws. “

Even before states legalized, the feds would not get involved in anything less than 100 pounds or 100 plants. They simply didn’t have the resources.

Even then they were reliant on local LEO to queue them up as they didn’t have feet on the street for discovery.

So my question is this: Would you have the feds direct their limited resources to the scourge of marijuana? If so, what would you pull them off of?


34 posted on 01/10/2018 11:19:17 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: NorthMountain

It would be fun to find those posters and put them up in my reloading room or gym.


35 posted on 01/10/2018 11:21:06 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Mariner

I am for the feds to continue as they had in the past before the Obama chaindown. Enforce the law as resources permit. Primarily that is to retain the threat of enforcement as a very real possibility. But don’t stand down.


36 posted on 01/10/2018 11:32:56 AM PST by arthurus (aer)
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To: arthurus

Yah right, Sessions, let’s help the Republican midterm candidates win real big... (slaps forehead, walks off muttering...)


37 posted on 01/10/2018 11:51:08 AM PST by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: arthurus

“Primarily that is to retain the threat of enforcement as a very real possibility. “

That makes sense as policy.

But it will not change things on the ground.

Keep it a cash business without access to the banks, and ensure large corporations don’t get into the business.

And it’s precisely what the small pot business wants.


38 posted on 01/10/2018 11:53:26 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: chris37

Also, among the pantheon of chemical components found in cannabis, THC is now considered a bit player.

There are many other components that do many things; beneficial things, like ease my muscle spasms and reduce the inflammation in my vertebrae.

THC really has no effect on my vertebrae, sadly.


39 posted on 01/10/2018 11:59:10 AM PST by T-Bone Texan
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To: chris37

Please note that it is not marijuana cream per se, but rather CBD oil in a cream form. It does not have psychoactive properties.

CBD is just one of many components in pot.


40 posted on 01/10/2018 12:01:35 PM PST by T-Bone Texan
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