Ask yourself, do marijuana users, who can be found in the wee hours of the morning, staring at the “white noise” of a blank TV screen – off the air for hours, be competent drivers? Every druggie has laughed about having found themselves in that position.
What is this television channel in the 21st century that goes “off the air”? John, it’s called the digital transition – your old Magnavox console with the built in 8-track and turntable won’t pick up our fancy-schmancy hi-def 24-hour digital channels, dagnabbit!
John provides a cut-n-paste of a study that says pot smokers are 3 to 7 times more likely to cause an accident. He’s kind enough to provide footnotes to these esteemed scientist’s work. But John’s been hammered in his comments section, by me and quite a few well-educated people, pointing out every flaw in his argument and every deficit in his scientific claims. There is a simple explanation: John’s scientists are pure as the driven snow and our scientists are “druggies” with a self-serving agenda bankrolled by evil world dominating billionaires.
[I]n fact, those who leave comments, claim it’s just the opposite.Of course they’re users, trying to tell you that they’re fine to drive, … and they’ll refer to “studies”, proving just the opposite of what is only common sense, that using marijuana doesn’t impair drivers … so where’s the truth? [T]here are seemingly competent scientists who are also users, and will evidently produce ‘studies’ to further their agendas, and/or those who pay them, and don’t forget; behind the scenes, there are also wealthy men and organizations willing to bankroll anything to further their goal of legalization.
And the next claim will make Dr. Earleywine and every other scientist who’s ever tried to get a grant to study the medicinal properties of cannabis fall out of their chair:
These scientists, … they’re also a concern, for those attempting to find the truth. Truth is, they’re under pressure: 1) if academics - they need to be a published author, (being published in the scientific and research field means more respect and impacts tenure issues) … 2) how better to get more grant money than to produce something controversial?
Oh, yeah, the money is just flowing for controversial marijuana studies. Can’t you just stick to the standard reefer madness lines like “This ain’t your father’s Woodstock Weed”?
Understand also that the marijuana of this generation is not the same as their parents smoked!
Pot then, had a THC content of 1 – 3%. Now, the THC content is surging up to 25%. (That too will be covered in future articles.) One can expect an increase of physiological and psychological problems with higher dosages.
Sure, the flower children were all smoking barely-above industrial hemp ditchweed. That explains Laugh In, “be-ins”, massive afros, bellbottoms, and the Grateful Dead. all that lousy weak pot our parents were smoking.
I could cite the studies that show heavily-stoned drivers drive no worse than a .05 BAC driver, or that we tend to drive slower and leave more room, but also tend to wander a bit in the lane. John would just say those are druggie scientists. It doesn’t matter because nobody’s advocating for people to be allowed to drive stoned. Making marijuana legal is not going to increase any smoking and driving, because the idiots who would do that are doing that now. When marijuana is legal, police will still be able to bust drivers who demonstate impairment or poor driving.
So many of these prohibitionist fears are based on the notion that making marijuana legal will mean suddenly people will start smoking it. Out of nowhere we’ll have increased healthcare costs, lost productivity, impaired drivers, psychotic teenagers, and rampant crime. You can only buy into that if you don’t know that 22 million people are smoking pot this year, 14 million monthly, 3 million weekly. If the projected harms of legalized marijuana exist, we would have seen them by now because so many people have been smoking marijuana for so long!
Don’t smoke and drive, don’t drive impaired. It’s all we ask of beer drinkers and they are far more dangerous drivers.
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California NORML Coordinator and NORML Board’s Dale Gieringer on Oakland’s new medical marijuana tax and the explosive growth of the Los Angeles dispensary scene.
Mile High NORML’s Scott Greene on starting a brand new NORML chapter and having to staff a booth on three days’ notice at Red Rocks for the Blazed and Confused Tour.
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(Springfield) — With the push for medical marijuana in full force at the Illinois Capitol, and group of cops, doctors, and moms are now pushing back. The broad coalition says marijuana isn’t medicine but is a dangerous gateway drug. And Dr. Andrea Barthwell says the effort to make it legal is all bout “legitimizing” pot use.
Chief Eric Smith with the Illinois Association of Chief Of Police says legalization, even for medicine, could blur the lines between patients and drug dealers. He also hypes up fears of Mexican drug cartels expanding their operations under the guise of “medicinal marijuana growers.” Illinois lawmakers are being asked to okay a plan that would let some ill people grow and use marijuana as medicine.
The backlash against medical pot is a little late to the debate, but will be cause enough for some lawmakers. The medical marijuana proposal is stuck as sponsors try and find support to get it through the Illinois General Assembly.
It appears this broad based coalition is basing their entire prohibition argument on two theories, 1. The gateway theory and 2. the theory that evil Mexican cartels will move into the state and set up shop.
First, marijuana is NOT a gateway drug. In fact, in a review by US National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, the gateway theory was debunked (didn’t you get the memo? Click here). “…pot was not a gateway drug to the extent that it is a cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse.”
Second, Law Enforcement are using the same argument to scare people against medical marijuana as did Harry Anslinger, the founder of what has become the “DEA”.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”
“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”
“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”
“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”
There is no room for racism in this debate; America has woke up to this fact and we are wise to your racist propaganda. Help us educate those who oppose medical marijuana and contact your elected representative NOW! Let’s get this legislation passed in Illinois and help sick people get the medicine their freedom affords.
Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 12:20 pm | By: Dudemaster
OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland’s City Council last week approved a 1.8% tax on medicinal marijuana sold in the city. If voters pass the proposal in a July election, Oakland would become the nation’s first city to directly tax the drug.
A city tax on medical marijuana could generate at least $400,000 and perhaps more than $1 million annually, said Rebecca Kaplan, the Oakland City Council member who pushed the proposal. The city of 400,000 residents is facing an $83 million shortfall in a $455 million budget.
The owners and managers of Oakland’s four medical-marijuana dispensaries said they approached the city with the idea. “We wanted to further legitimize the medical-marijuana paradigm to show that we are truly willing to assist [Oakland], and to show other cities that there are social benefits to this,” said Keith Stephenson, executive director of Purple Heart Patient Center.
No formal opposition has formed against the proposal, and Ms. Kaplan and medical-marijuana advocates said they are confident voters will approve it.
But Paul Chabot, a Southern California resident who recently founded the Coalition for a Drug Free California, is opposed to the idea because he thinks the “quasi-legalization” of marijuana would add more of the drug into the black market. “It’s a front; it also sends the wrong message to children,” he said. “What are you doing to do next, allow prostitution and tax that? Allow methamphetamine to be sold and tax that?”
Some people just won’t learn. This opposition leader obviously is not aware that if we legitimize a banned substance and turn a black market into a legitimate business, then it’s no longer a black market. Secondly, here is the message that I want to send to my children: Science over Politics.
As I recenly wrote in my article “Grade School Children Caught Selling Marijuana“, this opposition leader could learn that children have virtually unfettered access to any kind of illicit drug “right now”.
In fact, I asked my 15yr old, who is attending high school near our home in a middle class town in Texas, to share a list of items she can obtain within 24 hrs notice at her school (for purchase inside of her school) and here is what she wrote down off the top of her head:
Marijuana (indoor Chronic of any flavor), LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Mescaline, Cocaine (in any form), Meth, Ice, and Heroin (in any form)
What the list doesn’t contain is Cigarettes or Alcohol. When asked about the availability of those, she stated,
“They are harder to get because you have to go to a store, present an I.D., and undergo a certain amount of scrutiny.”
Paul, if you truly want to protect our children from reefer madness, then you need to embrace decriminalization and help us to shape our laws of oppression into laws of protection.
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 9:52 am | By: Radical Russ
When commentary like this from Kathleen Parker starts hitting the staid Washington Post, can real change we can believe in be far behind?
…Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina’s Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn’t be one.
Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we’ve been alive. Almost half of us (42 percent) have tried marijuana at least once, according to a report published last year inPLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science.
There are good reasons for substance restrictions for children that need not apply to adults.
That’s the real drug message that should inform our children and our laws, rather than the nonsense that currently passes for drug information.
Today’s anti-drug campaigns are slightly wonkier than yesterday’s “Reefer Madness,” but equally likely to become party hits rather than drug deterrents. One recent ad produced by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says: “Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren’t many jobs out there for potheads.”Whoa, dude, except maybe, like, president of the United States.
Once a kid realizes that pot doesn’t make him insane — or likely to become a burrito taster, as the ad further asserts — he might figure other drug information is equally false. That’s how marijuana becomes a gateway drug.
Tuesday is Government at Work day on the podcast, and coming up after the news, we’ve got audio from the recent hearings at the Oregon State Legislature as medical marijuana advocates, including yours truly, testify against the lobbyists trying to prevent patients from holding down certain jobs based on positive urine tests for marijuana metabolites.
Next we have sarcastically funny hemp hoe-down with music from The Sneakers with their song The Ballad of Devil Weed.Then it’s on to our interview with Dr. Mitch Earleywine as he deconstructs the latest reefer madness headlines from the latest studies that claim marijuana smoking leads to gum disease and is just as addictive as cigarettes.
Also, a little note on the posting times. I’m on the West Coast. Posting at 4:20pm Eastern Time puts me at 1:20pm Pacific, which is impossible for me since I still work a day job (yeah, can you believe it, working for NORML doesn’t pay like working for “the man”… but the “benefits package” is much sweeter!). So forthwith, I will be posting the Daily Audio Stash at 4:20pm Greenwich Time, which is 11:20am Eastern, 8:20am Pacific (I knew it would be 4:20 somewhere in the world before I had to be in the office; Greenwich Time is the default time zone for the planet, so it worked out quite nicely). Now you can listen to the Stash on your lunch hour! — “R”R
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
mr reuben: I don't respect her opinion bluzguy.
Missippi Hippy: Something about the last year in a contract... folks become more ballsey... and Oprah has big ones.
Adam: Oprah won't actually go off air for over a year, 2011 sometime. Maybe with here leaving the network soon, she'll be more likely to speak out about MMJ.
The Bluzguy: She promotes movies, turns books into best sellers overnight, and millions respect her opinion. Please contact her!
Missippi Hippy: I totally disregarded it Spof... My wife and I had 5 youngins
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
John English III: Fast and Furious
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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