I do believe at the end of this interview I hear ardent prohibitionist Dr. Andrea Barthwell, former deputy drug czar, making the case for legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and offering up public health campaigns about it.
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Good job, Aaron, and I know how the time constraints are on live national TV, but will somebody, please, anybody, when the prohibitionist says that the taxes on tobacco and alcohol don’t begin to cover the social costs, instead of going with the “marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco route”, which is undeniably true, swing it back to the economic argument and say:
“22 million Americans are smoking pot already and we’re taking in zero revenue to cover any social costs, which, since marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, will be much lower. And since the greatest costs from marijuana are from policing people for it and dealing with the crime and violence of a black market, we’ll do much better than break-even on the deal.”
Thank god they didn’t get Rob Kampia out there.
Bear Bait says:
July 9, 2009 at 8:54 pm
“…too much is focused on smoking…”
RE:
- I agree.
Vaporizers DO make THAT danger a NON-ISSUE…
And there are already some affordable vaporizers.
Not much reason to smoke anymore, not even now…
- The MPP-ad only refers to cannabis-consumers,
makes no mention of smoking / smokers whatsoever.
- However,
prohibs always defer to scare-tactics citing smoke-hazards
and smoking, as if this were the only way to consume it…
Pot APOLOGETICS, not pot-apologies:
- It’s important to be able to explain exactly
WHY the plant is MORE EFFECTIVE than the pill…
- Marinol™ contains a SYNTHETIC-VERSION of ONE
OF the MANY useful-compounds found in cannabis…
- Prohibitionists touting the Marinol™ pill
as a “superior” alternative to whole cannabis seem to
ONLY BE AWARE of THAT
“one active ingredient”, THC.
(Whereas,
there’s actually several closely-related compounds
present in whole cannabis, functioning SYNERGISTICALLY!).
- This is why Marinol™ is
“not the same” as whole-cannabis,
“doesn’t do the job…”
- It’s MISSING numerous, beneficial CO-FACTORS,
only found in WHOLE-CANNABIS, but not present
in their stupid little pill.
The government is a soda bottle and WE are the SODA!
:rbow:
The government holds us they “think” if you well, “they” control us!So “they” move where “they” want to or “TELL US WHAT TO DO AND THINK”!
BUT! the more they move the more they shake the soda
!! THE SODA WELL ALWAYS BURST OUT IN THE END!
and fly all over! Covering the land in SWEET STICKY
BUD!
I agree, Aaron did a pretty cool and effective job in that. It was also nice that the whole thing started out with a “Marinol is not as effective” statement.
too much is focused on smoking!concede that smoking marijuana should be illegal. There is no time on these “news” programs to defend smoking pot.
I’d give up smoking pot to make it legal! If it was legal I’d be able to afford a vaporizor and to enjoy it in every meal.
I keep hearing the prohobitionists talking about marinol. The legalizers always respond with something like ‘it’s not the same – it doesn’t do the job’. I’m curious. If the drug companies extract and manipulate the active ingredients in marijuana, make a pill or drops or ???, what will/do they costs? I’m on various meds for heart, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. I know full well the ‘retail’ prices for many of them. Without insurance, I couldn’t afford a fraction of them. Will insurance cover mj extracts?
When someone starts saying let the ingredients be extracted/synthesized, ask them how much it would cost to take a pill? We can grow our own basically free! Oh yeah, home grown hasn’t killed anyone. How about the drug companies?