(ReconsiDer) The former director of President George W. Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and the co-author with former Drug Czars Bill Bennett and John Walters of the book “Body Count: Moral Poverty…And How to Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” has just come out in favor of medical marijuana and serious consideration of marijuana decriminalization.
[In a] 1993 book review for The New Republic, he implied that [drug users] were getting off too lightly. “It is not unreasonable to argue,” he wrote, “that the problem with the ‘get-tough’ approach of the last twenty-five years is that it hasn’t actually been followed. Despite mandatory sentencing laws, most drug offenders and other felons continue to spend only a fraction of their sentences behind bars.”
In a recent article in Democracy his prescription for reducing crime addresses marijuana thusly…
“… legalize marijuana for medically prescribed uses, and seriously consider decriminalizing it altogether. Last year there were more than 800,000 marijuana-related arrests. The impact of these arrests on crime rates was likely close to zero. There is almost no scientific evidence showing that pot is more harmful to its users’ health, more of a “gateway drug,” or more crime-causing in its effects than alcohol or other legal narcotic or mind-altering substances. Our post-2000 legal drug culture has untold millions of Americans, from the very young to the very old, consuming drugs in unprecedented and untested combinations and quantities. Prime-time commercial television is now a virtual medicine cabinet (”just ask your doctor if this drug is right for you”). Big pharmaceutical companies function as all-purpose drug pushers. And yet we expend scarce federal, state, and local law enforcement resources waging “war” against pot users. That is insane.”
And in other news, residents of Hell have made a rush on parkas at Burlington Coat Factory because it has just frozen over. It seems to me like the more thoughtful and intelligent drug warriors are conceding that the war on marijuana has been lost in the hearts and minds of most Americans.
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Well I hear a whole bunch of political, intellectual, and philosophical talk about this subject of Roger Christie, THC ministries and the DEA. Please remember that many others were included in this “raid” including myself and my 10 year old daughter. I am a MMJ patient who suffers from debilitating nerve pain. My child was awakened by strange men with guns and flashlights. She is not a member of the church as I am. My MMJ permits cleared and my plant count was within limits and my “dry usable” amount of herb was below legal limits. However, I had an amount of off-grade, stems, leaves, tiney buds , some with mold… all in a semi-wet condition. This could have been construed as over my legal limit as local police often do with MMJ patients here on Hawaii Island..
The Feds were polite and said it looked as if I was in compliance with State law and left without taking any plants, herb or anything of any consiquence with one exception…. a “Ganjanomics” button that I got from …you guessed it: Roger Christie. God Bless him…. but what about the rest of us who are guilty by association. I dont like being woken up by the Feds… howabout you? PPG theweedreport.com.
and once we pull down enough lying from our federal embassments we can start to turn off the shit we worked up in UK with schedule two and other nations whose pigs we have incited to burn and enslave, too.
now, if only we can kill about 3,000 million people and have it more to our wealthy selves. hmmmm the dollar fails, bank cards lock up, martial law commences, and you need food? suure! here’s your gun go stand over there
remember? remember!! when the shit comes down the majority of those who are better than we are for whatever reasons blows the hair back will suddenly become economically one with us.
and they won’t be what we call happy with it, either.
I put it out there quite awhile back that my opinion about the cannabis prohibition was that it was properly based on economics, not politics.
economics, not race
economics, not Catholicism or any other ism, for that matter
get yourselves ready Now to grow more than just your pot, folks. But, I’m just one of the baldheads lol
if you want a helping hand it’s at the end of your arm once the drug prohibition Actually falls on its corrupt face because the welfare that’s supporting me on disability will die right along with the dollar’s strength.
We need us activists to release the regrets and anger and meet the public so they can see and hear us and find out for themselves that we aren’t mutants, well, I shall make the effort here to not tease carl or ray with that opening. ha ha
Remember! we are the good guys. for real
It’s not just the pharmaceutical companies doing the advertising. The most recent craziness in Tennessee has combined the local press and government into an advertising force for something I’d never even heard of: K-2. Apparently, K-2 is a type of incence that “has effects similar to marijuana.” Wow… ok didn’t know that… It is also apparently legal. K… didn’t know that either. It is also apparently sold in stores, over the counter, and is “very powerful.” It’s so powerful that state lawmakers have taken steps to prohibit the sale of it… aaaand that’s where they lose me. So you’re advertising a product, thus increasing the demand for it, and you want to prohibit it so the dollars spent on these things rush out of the state? How on earth will you recoup the money?
Here is their solution: http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=12142338
Lawmakers Want To Tax Illegal Drugs
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Should people be taxed for using illegal drugs? That’s what lawmakers could start debating again.
The so-called crack tax would require people to pay taxes for illegal drugs and liquor. The tax was approved by lawmakers in 2005, but declared unconstitutional in 2009.
The tough economic times now has some lawmakers wanting to try the tax again.
The drug tax generated more than $10 million for the state. The new version of the law would specifically target drug dealers.
Idiots.
Next week he will say all of us should be put to death!
Great pill KY, I’ll help you shove it down the throats of the other sick prohibitionists.
Especially Gil Kerlikowske who is lying through his teeth.
And … I’ll wait and see where this goes, I don’t trust any of them.
It worked, my little Pill worked, now we just need to get all prohibitionists to take one and we all will be free.
One tab in there water and bam instant reasoning washes over them, they start to think clearly and see the damage that lays at their feet! They jump out of the “drugs are bad, MMM K” mindset and see the science and truth right in front of them.
Its my new “Pop-a-Prohibitionist pill”, and you wont be sorry for doing it. Side effects are; able to listen to liberal ideas, seeing the truth in a sea of prohibition scare tactics, wanting to learn about issues by seeking out the truth and a true concern for their fellow man, a real understanding that we are all the same and deep down we just want what we want to make our live happy and joyful and how we can not force others to do what we believe in, but to let everyone live how they choose without fear of arrest.
Buy yours today! Free to all prohibitionists who know they need to change but feel they cant because they have dug a stupid hole, they are standing in it and its making them get more stupid every passing minute. Come one come all, change you views, change you ways, hell just educate yourself with the facts, take your “Pop-a-Prohibitionist Pill” today! Taxes and restrictions may apply, may not work for all prohibitionists, they have to want to change, this gives them the reason to do so, resolts may vary.
Thanks to one of Bush’s staffers that has finally come to the realization of the failure on the war on drugs, I now retain some hope in our government coming to the realization. If only he would tell this to current staff.
Well said Russ, Hell has indeed froze over. This is big! It just shows us that even the most ardent prohibitionist can see the light! Keep up the fight with education!
Maybe there is light at the end of this tunnel. I hop to actually see legalization in my lifetime.
Utterly stunned. I can almost hear some fat chick singing. And it sounds heavenly
About damn time! What a feeling of relief.