So let's ask folks if they like paying their income taxes and if 2 out of 3 say no, we do away with it. Of course the only ones who should be polled are the slight majority of Americans who pay income taxes.
George, To be fair, I've been talking about this for a very, very long time. And IMHO, we have better uses for our resources other than to waste them on a war that can't be won at home... and to put our brave men and women in danger for no damned reason at all.
Just call me one of those right wing close minded non-out of the box thinking rigid individuals. It is not persecution when you commit a crime. It is prosecution. If it is legalized, it is legalized. Until then, it is a crime and criminals should be prosecuted. There is no grey area here.
... and before you persecute me for my beliefs, let me tell you that when I was 18, I had an arrest. I have to put this arrest on my application to get, and to renew my CHL even though there was no conviction. I had my POS car break down and I was hoofing it on Lebanon Road in Hermitage Tennessee. I lived about 10 miles away from where the car broke down. An acquaintance, not a fried, but an acquaintance saw me on the road and offered me a ride. About a mile down the road, he pulled off into the parking lot of a convenience store. As he got out and walked to the door of the store, he saw a police car and ran on foot. The police car pulled in behind his car, pulled me out of the passenger seat, and searched the car. They found MJ in his console and arrested me. Charges were eventually dropped against me. This experience didn't turn me against the police. It made me desire to incarcerate anyone that would put me in that position. If you are going to knowingly break the law... bad boys bad boys...
Wow Tom....sounds like your friend had an extreme case of paranoia I would say. One look at the Police car in the parking lot and he takes off......unusual dude.
I'm with Tom on this one. As a society and a nation, we have gotten to the shape we are in today by making these little concessions along the way. Individually they are imperceptable but when you add up two or three decades worth of looking the other way and compromising of principles you end up like us..... or the Roman empire. Does anyone know anbody who is better off as a result of using narcotics?
Sorry...but I am afraid that I agree with 2/3 of the poll respondents that most likely do not view MJ as a narcotic....which it is not classified as. Do I think long term MJ use is detrimental? Absolutely
Well put IMO. My thinking runs along exactly the same lines, but I could not have expressed my thoughts as succinctly as you did, George. Those in favor of decriminalizing will rationalize a contra-argument because they simply do not get the bigger picture.
George, I am sorry but I have to disagree here. These things were all once legal and society didn't implode. In fact, I would counter that 'the more laws we create, the weaker our society has become.' The more we have demonized drugs, the worse the situation gets. This is like watching bad pro-Wrestling. How don't people see the story line? The fact remains is that I could walk out on the street and shoot some stranger in the leg, and spend less time in jail than a kid busted with a large amount of weed (even if he intended to use it and not distribute it). I would strongly contend that we need fewer rules that are to be followed and enforced. We create these candy assed rules to make people feel better about where we are going as a society, but the cold-hard reality of the matter is all we are doing is criminalizing people who simply do not see the world in the same light that we do. When the laws don't work, we decide that punishing them harder is the way to go. It is a cycle of failure, and the fact that somehow we didn't learn a god damned thing from the experiment of prohibition just blows my mind. I respect you, Tom, Sid and others. I am not a drug user. I just believe that legally and constitutionally the whole thing is nothing more than a tool of leverage used by the federal and state governments to gain more of a foothold on our lives.
So true Corey. When I think of the expense and grief my friends had to endure just because their 21 year old had a little weed in his car I can't see the justification for it other than what you are saying above.....except that apparently 2/3 of Americans see the world more as they do than does a smaller, conservative segment of society and the PC politicians who cannot afford to enrage that loud, smaller segment. I can imagine the spectacle of someone like Limbaugh raging against a Dem who voted to decriminalize marijuana.
If you could even point to one individual who could make the claim that: "I am better at ( fill in the blank) since I started using narcotics" then I would understand your position. Does smoking pot make you a better student? Does doing coke make you a better performer on the job? Will smoking crack raise your batting average or lower your ERA? Does smoking a bong make you a better contributor to society? Ricky Williams loves pot. He even gave up football for it. Did it make him a better running back? To me drug use is just another excuse; a way of running up the white flag in your life. It says " I can't do it. I can't face it. You're better than me so I am going to escape reality". Were Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison better for it? Does Belushi still entertain us? We're they criminals? probably not in their hearts. Just insecure losers. Drugs rob initiative.They steal your self respect. They turn honest people into petty criminals. Your neighbor's kid will break into your car to steal what he needs to buy for the day. It's just one more concession to failure; one more built in excuse.
What is there about legalizing drugs that will change their devastating impact on the human body and mind?
I am going to say....absolutely not. Does pot belong in the same category as narcotics....or is it included now by law? Absolutely not. Why people can't discern the difference is puzzling. Narcotics use and dealing is a whole different story although really how much difference is there between a street narcotics user and an abuser of prescription drugs?.
Absolutely nothing Sid.....my question to each of us is what is it about society that compels us to be so hypocritical about alcohol? Make no mistake, alcohol is a drug with a devastating impact on the human body, mind and likely to have a much greater cost to society than the "illegal drugs". I've always believed that when it comes to this debate, there is a material difference between weed and the other drugs. From my perspective, to suggest that weed has a greater negative impact on society than does alcohol is laughable. But as a society, alcohol is the "drug of choice" for the current ruling generation.....over time I would expect weed to be decriminalized and personally would have no problem with it.....society would benefit much more, imho, if we outlawed alcohol and decriminalized weed than vice versa....but I don't see that happening anytime soon. :wink:
On those points BT you and I are in agreement although I personally these days prefer a good martini over anything else and I wouldn't be too happy if I couldn't get one legally.
I hope no one is operating under the illusion that narcotic usage begins and ends with pot. Pot is the loss leader in most drug operations. The real money on the street today is in oxy, crack cocaine and heroin. And all of these items are most like available within a mile or two of each of our homes.
Not at all Krebsie.....not at all. I just don't personally put weed and the other "harder" drugs in the same category and have always been struck at the societal hypocrisy that differentiates alcohol as if it is not a "drug".....only because it's the current society drug of choice. Substitute weed for alcohol and society is a whole lot healthier and safer place, imho. That said, nobody on the planet enjoys a cold beer or nice bottle of red at dinner more than I.....take those away from me and my status as a law abiding citizen is ever more jeopardized....