Legalization of medical marijuana passes in AZ

I'll be glad when it isn't just medical

 

Amen to that

 

Sweet

 

Who knows how it will be implemented. In Kommifornia getting the card is pretty much a rubber stamp process. In Rhode Island there are all sorts of bureaucratic hoops to jump through and other drugs must have been unsuccessfully tried in order to qualify for the medical card.

Personally I think all laws regarding what an adult chooses to freely ingest, smoke, imbibe, inject, rub on their body, etc should be done away with.

Want to smoke crack? I'm cool with that. Just don't look to me to support your habit and don't expect any mercy if I sit on your jury when you are brought in for a crime that you committed in order to support said habit.

Aside from my stance on all substances, when it comes to marijuana anyone who has done even a cursory reading of the material available on this subject has to honestly conclude that in harmful effects both alcohol and tobacco surpass marijuana. If we are going to use those two drugs as our standard of harm for legalization, then marijuana should have been legalized yesterday.

 

Looking ahead to 2012, assuming a more conservative Executive Branch is calling the shots at the Justice Dept., do you believe it will be "war declared" again on the medical marijuana industry in states that have legalized it or do you think there will be an Executive Branch concession to state's rights on the matter?

 

Only this last October Eric Holder stated that the federal government denounced Kalifornia's Prop 19 and would continue to be "firmly committed to enforcing the federal Controlled Substances Act in all states". Also, under Obama spending on the War on Drugs has increased each year, with his proposed 2011 budget calling for an increase of 3.5% over current spending.

Contrary to what many think, the War on Drugs has not diminished one bit and is actually still expanding under the Obama administration.

 

True, but am I not correct that regarding medical marijuana specifically, the Obama Administration has called off the Justice Dept. from enforcing federal marijuana prohibition laws against specifically medical growers, distribution channels, and users in states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes?

 

I think you are incorrect. Just recently the DEA did another round of raids of medical marijuana grows and dispensaries across the US. Again, this subject appears to be one wherein the POTUS is saying one thing while his administration continues with business as usual. The only reason I can see for small scale growers not being raided is that even with the expansion of funds for the WoD there are still not enough resources to combat it. After all, an estimated 50+% of all marijuana consumed in the US is now grown here at home.

 

You're correct.

Looks like the DEA has a bunch of "Sheriff Joe" cowboys on their hands that don't give a damn what the boss says.

Too bad.

 

I am pretty sure that if President Obama truly wanted to end the war on drugs, specifically the targeting of medical marijuana grows and dispensaries, he could do so. All it would take is for him to threaten to fire a boss or two in the DEA and the process would end that day.

Obama will not do that though because the political fallout for him would be too great over a topic that he really doesn't care to spend any political capital on. So, he continues to pay lip service to ending the WoD while the bureaucracy continues to do what it wants. I guess Obama is counting on stoners to be too disconnected to be able to tell the difference between political statements and reality.

 

I think we should say screw it and let it go. we spend way to much money nowadays fighting what is and always will be a losing battle no matter from which side. If we would take all the money from all of these pointless programs that are certainly mistakes, and apply it towards out national debt, we may see the black in the next 20 years. But until then we will continue to fight a war that will never end, and thats being helped with the neighbors below us assiting in channeling it in. Close the boarder off, put in the correct security measures, and technology and we could actually fix the problem, multiple problems really. I personally dont do any of it, never have and never will but i could care less who else does it. When you were kids you listened to the drugs are bad speeches while growing up, its not my fault people didnt listen, why should I be responsible for them when they decide to do it?

 

I agree with ending the costly and futile WoD TippinTaco. But to the "drugs are bad" speeches, the reason people did not listen to them is they found out they had been lied to. The "this is your brain on drugs" and similar campaigns were the modern equivalent of the 1930s era "Reefer Madness". Once people realized that they were being lied to in regards to one drug (pot) why wouldn't they come to the conclusion that everything else the gub'mint was telling them in regards to drugs was also either incorrect or an outright lie as well.

 

Truth.

The worst drug lies, though, are the ones that are like "Marijuana today is 900 million times stronger than the pot YOU had back in the 70's." Ads like that are not only false, but they're obviously used to help parents justify lying to their own kids about drugs when they themselves smoked (and probably still do) their fair share of pot in their day.

The truth is that all sorts of strengths are available (just like, um, alcohol) and people don't typically smoke huge amounts of the strong stuff just like people don't typically drink 12oz cans of liquor.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that reefer today was stronger than that of a decade or two ago. But to date I know of no overdose due to marijuana. And regardless of the strength, the same thing holds true today as it did twenty years ago .... smoke too much cannabinoids and you go to sleep.

 

If we could get the gun owners and potheads to all join the Libertarian party, we'd have a viable third party.

 

Yes, some CAN be stronger. But it costs more. People don't smoke joints or blunts of the "good" stuff. They smoke tiny amounts out of pipes. Joints and blunts are filled with the same average-quality pot ("regs" or "mids") from back in the day, as I understand it.

And there is still no overdose ever recorded, and there likely never will be because THC simply isn't a very toxic compound. Worst case is you fall asleep... in a bag of potato chips.

 

Or vote for Gary Johnson in 2012: http://ouramericainitiative.com/

He will be running as a republican, and it sounds like Ron Paul may throw support to him.

 

Says you!

I hate the War On Drugs
they should go raid all the pharmacies, tobacco, and liqueur stores. Oh wait...They make money off of those, scratch that.

 

i'd think so