Legalize Marijuana?

[JackRiddler]

Poll question: Legalize Marijuana?

Marijuana should be legalized for adult use, based on the Dutch model of distribution at designated coffee-shops, with the revenues to be taxed and put into drug treatment programs and into financing enforcement of the age limit.

[PDJane]

1. Delivered for the use of those for whom it is a medical

Necessity. Inhalable derivatives are available, at least in Canada.

[Vincardog]

2. All drugs should be legalized for adult use. Every one imprisoned for nonviolent Drug Charges

Should be freed and have their records cleared.

When will This country start to treat medical conditions in a sane way?

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Second!!!

[wuushew]

3. Somebody voted no but didn't explain

...still waiting

[SteppingRazor]

10. They probably didn't want to explain the inexplicable

:shrug:

[JackRiddler]

13. They don't really have to...

Only "other" asks for an explanation.

[endarkenment]

4. Of course. What a silly question.

People in favor of treating drug use as criminal behavior are the ones who need to be locked up.

[southerncrone]

6. Yes, tax it heavily & it would alleviate the prison overcrowding problem.

:smoke:

[jus_the_facts]

7. YES....I want some NOW...dammit....

:smoke:

[Madspirit]

44. Come on over!

I always have some. 53, smoking weed since 11.
Lee

[HeeBGBz]

92. You and me both. n/t

[Cerridwen]

re-legalize cannabis

to allow medical/medicinal applications as needed and to free farmers to create a new industry growing hemp and create jobs in manufacturing hemp, growing cannabis for medicinal and food uses, etc.

[butterfly77]

35. They also need to change the laws that prevent people who smoke...

from obtaining work, I am not talking about hard drugs even though I think that in a lot of cases the drugs that are suppose to be legal are more harmful and detrimental for people on a job than pot.

[juno jones]

40. Hemp...

...would also be perfect for biodiesel/biomass/biomethane applications. Damn stuff could probably save the world if we let it.

[Taverner]

8. Decrimnialize all drugs

Look, its not a matter of drugs being dangerous. It's a matter of legislating against tidal waves and punishing the survivors.

[etherealtruth]

33. I heartily agree

I do not partake in drugs that are illegal now (rarely us the ones that are, ie alcohol) ... decriminalizing "drugs" would not encourage me to use them; however, my tax dollars would not go for incarcerating people that are either addicts (something I believe is a hideous disease) or merely users of arbitrarily illegal substances.

As others have stated: tax the hell out of these substances, regulate them (prevent deaths from contamination and accidental overdoses...) and I believe we will see a lot less destruction being wrought in our society.

[SteppingRazor]

9. Absolutely, unequivically, yes

In fact, the revenue streams created could certainly do more than just finance drug-treatment programs and law enforcement.

Additionally, overall costs of law enforcement would drop drastically, as would corrections budgets. It would also create jobs, of course, along all points of growing, shipping and selling the product. There's also the many beneficial uses of hemp to consider, whether as food, livestock feed, an oil and fuel alternative, plastics, paper, building construction, etc. etc., etc.

Any negative aspects of marijuana legalization are far outweighed by the positives.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

11. There are many, many of us . . .

. . . who are dealing with serious chronic pain, who simply couldn't get by without it. It is a life-saver. It works as well as heavy-duty opiates, and has virtually none of the side-effects.

But . . . the good folks at Budweiser will make sure it is never legalized in Missouri. Bet all your mother-in-law's money on THAT! ;)

[Madspirit]

12. Absofuckinglutely

Even my shrink tells me to smoke pot. I have NEVER met a psychiatrist or a cop, who didn't support the legalization of marijuana and I've known many of both. Pushing something underground only CREATES a criminal class and a bunch of really bad dudes we are forced to deal with. Al Capone and all those gangsters wouldn't even have existed if not for the prohibition.

Marijuana is so much less harmful than alcohol, they really cannot even be compared. I have seen so much disgusting violence from those under the influence of booze and yet, never seen any violence from a pothead.

The only argument people give, including the tripe in the anti-pot commercials relates to anti-motivational syndrome and that has already been debunked. If you're the kind of person who is going to sit around eating bags of barbecue potato chips, with your legs up, while watching re-runs of The Dukes of Hazard...don't blame pot. Plus, no other recreational activity has the added burden of being judged by whether it makes lazy people NOT lazy.

This prohibition if ridiculous. Oh yeah and I'm 53 and have been smoking weed since I was 11. I gave up booze 15 years ago.
Lee

[Nutmegger]

14. It's a damn herb.

It should be legal. I'm certain the cancer sticks are far worse than ganja.

[butterfly77]

15. We need another revenue stream ...

to fund all of the things that have been defunded and pay off the deficit...

[panader0]

16. I am 56 and started smoking when I was 16

I am sure from my own experience that pot is less of a vice than alcohol. It has some fine qualities besides medicinal ones. It can be very calming. It is a great hypocrisy that there are 30 plus bars in my town besides 30 more stores at which one can buy whiskey but pot is a crime. The money wasted by the government to persecute, prosecute and incarcerate smokers is absurd. If it was legal, and taxed, like tobacco and alcohol, the revenue would be huge. Plus, alot of US dollars go south in cash form to buy from Mexico and Columbia.

[madokie]

30. between your 40 years and mine we have a lot of time on this issue

other than clogged arteries and veins I'm ready to go

[Blue_In_AK]

54. You want to add my 40 years?

[HeeBGBz]

93. How about my 37...

Blue, had I known...lol.

[Blue_In_AK]

98. Oh, I thought you did. :-)

:hippie: from way back.

[RagingInMiami]

119. I'll throw in 20 years from my life

22 to be exact

[slackmaster]

17. Question about the Dutch model before I answer

Is growing your own, on your property, for adult use on the property (i.e. not for sale), also legal?

[JackRiddler]

25. In fact, I used "Dutch model" as a shorthand...

The reality is, marijuana is ILLEGAL in the Netherlands.

They just tolerate its sale at selected coffee-shops. And I believe they also tolerate free growing on your own.

So by "Dutch model" I refer to the coffee-shop part (keeping marijuana off the street and away from sales of alcohol) - and to the awesome success this has had as a drug policy, actually reducing overall marijuana use and cutting drug-related crime. (Note: US news crews, soon as they hit Amsterdam, are sure to go find a junkie on the street to film before proceeding to the nearest coffee-shop for a party. Nevertheless, heroin usage in Holland is below US levels.)

For the purposes of this poll: absolutely, yes, you could grow your own and even sell it, through a licensed distribution network.

If I were writing the legislation, it would allow licensing only of individual coffee-shops. No chains. No Stoner Starbucks.

[John Q. Citizen]

31. The Dutch use the "Harm reduction model."

[slackmaster]

34. Thank you, that's what I thought; my answer will be Other

Speaking only of cannabis products, toleration is not good enough for me.

Under that system, if I grew a plant in my back yard and the .gov decided to fuck with me, they could arbitrarily decide to bust me for political reasons, just as they are with a few Californians right now. If we had the same kind of government as the Dutch, with police powers strictly limited I might agree, but this is the USA.

For the purposes of this poll: absolutely, yes, you could grow your own and even sell it, through a licensed distribution network.

My libertarian sensibility is troubled by the idea of implementing and administering yet another licensing system. Switching to a system where it is decriminalized and tolerated, as in the Netherlands, would create another bureaucracy that collects money from a relatively harmless activity and uses it for an essentially unrelated purpose. Commerce in marijuana is out of control NOW, and its illegality causes problems that would IMO evaporate if the herb was simply legalized across the board. I would rather see it handled like most other plant products - I can sell the rosemary I grow in my yard in a casual transaction (if I can find anyone dumb enough to pay money for something commonly used as a hedge), but if you want to offer it for sale commercially (especially interstate) it's subject to government health and safety inspections.

If we want to collect taxes and license fees to treat heroin addiction, the tax should be on heroin not marijuana.

[JackRiddler]

42. Basically I agree with you...

I'm thinking like a politician trying to cobble together a coalition and preempt the objections ("what about the children?! boo hoo!"). But you are right!

[butterfly77]

65. The kids are smoking and laughing at...

this hypocritical garbage...

[JackRiddler]

73. That too I suppose. n/t

[H2O Man]

18. Legalize it.

Listen to Peter Tosh.

[TahitiNut]

24. !

:smoke:

[MuseRider]

19. Absolutely! n/t

[JackRiddler]

20. Time for... THE DRUG WAR RANT

Once a year I like to repost this, permalink here
http://summeroftruth.org/drugs.html

THE DRUG WAR RANT

Fueled by Vodka, these late-night meditations on one hundred years of Drug War were inspired by a thread on the "Democratic Underground Forum," in which supposed leftist-radicals wrote in favor of keeping drugs illegal, so that the State could engage the poor and sad drug users in its benevolent forms of "treatment."

Circa Feb. 2003. Copyright Nicholas Levis
-------------------------------------------

FREEDOM is not Left or Right, and on the issue of drugs, most Libertarians and not a few paleoconservatives are spot-on, compared to the salvation rhetoric and belief in benevolent psychiatric systems evident among some of the so-liberal writers here.

I'm amazed that activists on this board, even many of those who support decriminalizing drugs, still fail to understand the centrality of the Drug War and Prohibition to everything that is wrong with this this country, the world, and the reigning economic system.

First, the sheer idea that the state can IMPRISON you for things you ingest! What are RIGHTS, without the holiest right to your body and temple?Don't give me no Nancy Reagan shit about the children. Minors are better protected from beer than they are from The Weed. Why is that?

Second, the HYPOCRISY of Prohibition: We live in an environment that markets Prozac as the official happy pill; tobacco for the masses; speed for five-year olds - it's called Ritalin and dispensed by public school shrinks; alcohol advertised and available on every ghetto corner; psychotropics literally forced down a million unwilling throats; caffeine as the fuel that keeps the work force running; massively addictive Paxil; the "little blue pill" on the teevee; speed in the guise of diet pills; antibiotics prescribed routinely for viral infections... all these are Good, eh?

Third, domestic repression and RACISM. In the business of generating public hysteria, Drug War was the prototype for the present War on Terror. Drugs as an excuse for draconian laws. Drugs as an excuse to put down out-groups and radicals, with planted evidence if necessary - such a long history! The first targets of Prohibition (cocaine, 1913) were Southern Black men, what a surprise. The politicians leading the charge were KKK. The next targets of Prohibition (alcohol, 1910s and 1920s) were Trade Unionists. Surprise, surprise.For a century the police apparatus perpetually swells in size, drugs are the justification for any surveillance, today we see the end of the Fourth Amendment. Rich white junkies don't go to jail, they become President. Two million people in our state-run dungeons, double the number from just 10 years ago, the majority convicted for the drug trade, generally not involving violence. They serve as the forced-labor pool for microchip makers, keeping everyone else's wages under control.

There's another word for this: China.

Fourth, the pillar of covert POWER. Okay, so you're CIA and you want to micromanage the world on behalf of high finance. How do you recruit and finance a rebel army to ruin some nation far from American shores? How do you do it with money off the government budget? How do you keep the loyalty of mercenaries? How do you convince French gangsters on the docks of Marseilles to crack heads at your command? How do you get Laotians to follow your orders? You give them a free pass to run their wares into YOUR country, that's how. And while you're at it, you take your cut. Which is the lion's share. Sweet.Same pattern for sixty years: The covert sponsorship of the drug trade by operators ensconced in U.S. state agencies, their propietaries and related spook cabals goes back to the Kuomintang in the 1940s, and runs the gamut through the Burmese heroin lords, the French Connection, the Turkish and Mexican armies (those old mainstays), the Vietnam heroin wave, the Colombia-to-Contra-to-Bushmob pipeline, the Afghan mujahedin heroin wave... And say hello to your old friends, Hekmatyar and Osama, Manuel and Pablo...Did I mention the smack-dealing Pakistani ISI and its American-approved Frankenstein, the Taliban?The above reads like a capsule history of the corresponding narcotic consumption patterns in the United States, does it not?Best of all, every single one of these groups was splendidly anti-communist and God-fearing, whether Christian or Muslim, with an accordant influence on U.S. society, each with their own gangs and lobbies in the Land of the Free.Okay, when the time comes and they've outlived themselves, how do you beat the Taliban for peanuts? First, before 9/11, encourage them - hell, pay them off! - to kill the poppy harvest. The last payment, a mere $43 million dollars, was delivered in May 2001. They thought it was great. Stupid Taliban. How properly Islamist of them to punish the growers, and the Mullahs felt solid enough in the saddle to try it.

Then, after 9/11, you can rain dollars down on the Afghan warlords. Send in your CIA men to cut the deals: "Just switch to our side," they'll say, "and you can start planting again." And the farmers celebrate. Now the new heroin wave, from the land that no longer belongs to the Taliban but to Karzai and Khalilzad, can be bought in little plastic packages on the streets of Chicago.

Fifth, DEMORALIZING the damned. Look at the domestic victims of Drug War: groups that the Anglo elite wants to weed out: blacks, white deviants, leftists. Works out wonderfully and consistently, decade after decade... Given the rich history, at what point can we characterize the use of drug war as a control mechnanism on unwanted minorities and out-groups an intentional effect of the state's involvement in the drug trade and Prohibition?The LSD wave, a special case, began in the CIA's MK-ULTRA mind control operations. Having once turned themselves on, these guys wanted to dose everyone they could! This caught on. Independent chemists went to work, and soon the kids were chewing acid like candy. This particular story is declassified, the stuff of academic scholarship. Has anyone noticed? (Martin Lee, Acid Dreams.)

Sixth, the fount of CORRUPTION in society. Prohibition turns cheap and common plants turn into cash on the vine. There has never been and there will never be an anti-drug effort that succeeds - short of a holocaust like the 1950s in China, when they just rounded up a million opium users and shot them in the back of the neck.Every single case of Prohibition otherwise ends the same way: inevitably, some among the police, prosecution and border guards will sell to the highest bidder. The more the police crack down, the higher prices and profits will go. For every desperate youth they imprison, another enters the trade. The profit margin rises. Inevitably, the sheer force of money finds a crack in the law enforcement. Cops are no different than other people. It's a function of the human condition. With persistence, you will always find the one who sells himself, and build from there. If a key figure resists, he is bumped off.Yes, the police do stage theatrical crackdowns, invariably on the competition to whoever the main gangsters are at any given time. Small-time operators are rounded up, victory is declared. Why does anyone think the United States is different from Colombia, in this regard? The principles of the Lansky-Luciano gang win in the end: Though mafias may rise and fall and be replaced, a Hoover can still insist for 30 years that there is no organized crime in these United States. And the Kingpin of Crack, Papa Doc Bush, goes on teevee to promise he will put lots of crack dealers in jail. Lots and lots of crack dealers. Just not his blessed sonny boy, W.It never changes. This is how Prohibition has always been.Perhaps none of it was planned this way in advance. The parts of the Drug War machine simply came together over time, as logical developments. Regardless, it has turned into a system. Everyone has their role. Every aspect of the profit-addiction-profit system is its own industry: the growers, the kingpins, the chemists, the smugglers and spooks, the street dealers, the politicians who cover the trade, the cops who are on the take, the honest cops who think they are crusaders collaring up the filth, the prosecutors and lawyers, the prisons and prison suppliers and prison employers, the think-tank whores who spread hysteria among the middle classes, the psychiatrists and counselers.

Seventh, we arrive at the top of the pyramid. There we find - as always - who else but the BANKERS? So, say you need to launder an estimated $200-$400 billion a year in illegal drug trade revenues? Where can you hide such a sum? Only in the mainstream. You stick it in big friendly banks, or pass it off as legitimate corporate revenue. And then you watch it flow downstream, to Wall Street, multiplying as it goes. You know exactly who "just won't say no" to drug money deposits, and it turns out to be the financial system as a whole. Where is the problem? The high kingpins are in the executive branch, and bankers are the chief spooks, from the Dulles Brothers to William Casey to the Afghan poppy kingdom of today. Business is a rough world, so we've been told for many a year. Profit margins on real production fall perpetually, yet growth remains a commandment. Now here is a business that multiplies its winnings at every stage of production. All you need to do is to inject the booty back into legitimate front entities. It's so great to be high! Wasn't it splendid? Now get ready to peak. Dearest Bankers, when you and your buddies and their pals and the other gangs have passed off their proceeds as legal revenues, it adds to every wondrous money-bubble you fatten. Every drug dollar that goes into a stock-listed company factors many times over in stockholder value. At least, as long as the bubble keeps blowing and growing. And why ever stop? You can leverage and option and triple-hedge to the stratosphere. Every dollar counts twice, then ten times, then thirty. The bubble keeps growing. Never mind that it pops! Won't I know to be first out of the market, before it does? (A common signal for a "correction" is the election of a Republican president. That's why they call it Smart Republican Money.) Never mind how badly the bubbles pops! To those at the top, the ones who are hurt are mere animals. We rule, we just keep pumping it. And pumping it.

As my man Ruppert has said: America isn't high on drugs. It's high on drug money.

NOW ORDER THE BOOK "DRUG WAR" BY DAN RUSSELL
http://www.drugwar.com/dwindex.shtm
Monumental. Novelistic. Paradigm-shifting. Deep and moving. Personal. Covers centuries. Academic. Tells the hidden history of America itself. Best book I've read in the last two years. Thank you, Dan Russell.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

26. kick

for a helluva rant . . .

[geardaddy]

57. You forgot the Opium Wars of the 1840s

;)

[immoderate]

21. Who really has the right to tell you that you can't?

...in a free society, I mean. :shrug:

--IMM

[butterfly77]

22. I don't see why it is illegal when...

anybody who wants it gets it anyway.

[immoderate]

62. Not everybody.

Depends on who you're in contact with, and local laws. The law certainly has an effect on availability.

--IMM

[texastoast]

23. If it was good enough for George Washington and Thomas Jefferson

it's good enough for me.

Not only does pot have tremendous medical properties, it really can save the planet.

Hemp oil = Diesel; food uses
Hemp seeds = Food
Hemp fibres = clothing, industrial uses
Hemp the plant = fodder for ethanol (without herbicides, pesticides or using fossil fuels--it is self-supporting)
Hemp fibres = paper (no more tree harvesting)
Hemp hurds = very strong building material free of the need for termite treatments (grow your own house material in four months)
Reef = better for your liver than Bud

Oh, now wouldn't all of that piss of corporate America.

http://www.hemptraders.com/properties_of_hemp_hemp101.php?osCsid=f9678967e6d9ca43bdb8571aa599efa4

[DAMANgoldberg]

27. Yes

Marijuana, absolutely. Tax it big time.
Hemp production, absolutely. Alternative fuels, plastics, other goods.
Other Drugs, no. However, I would ticket users, not fill the prisons with them.
there will be enough crime to satisfy the Criminal Justice System complex anyway.

[catmandu57]

28. Everytime someone asks this question

The legalize side wins handsdown. We ought to make this a campaign issue, a populist issue to get the damn apathetic people out to vote. They always say they're not going to do anything for me, well, maybe if someone ran on legalization they couldn't say that.

edit: I must be getting dyslexic.

[John Q. Citizen]

36. I've long thought the Dems should use cannibus as a wedge issue.

Medical Marijuana passed in Montana with a 62% vote. That was more votes than any statewide candidate recieved that year, and was only second to the ban gay marrige vote, which was 66%. These were in 1994.

[catmandu57]

38. Yep we need our own social issues

we've been reacting to their wedges abortion, gay marriage, welfare, it's time to change the conversation.

[Ignacio Upton]

90. Legalization has a large cross over appeal

Go over to a conservative site like Free Republic, and there is a sizable legalization contingent.

[John Q. Citizen]

106. Absolutely. The Medical MJ initiative here in Montana did very well in the

sparsely populated and quite conservative Eastern plains part of our state.

While it didn't pass there, it almost passed there. And it won very big in the more populated small cities and towns in the West.

It could well be used as a wedge issue by stressing state rights over the oppresive Federal regime.

Commercial Hemp also is popular with farmers. And again, states rights would be very appealing to our folks.

[wuushew]

People who are against things appear to be more motivated than those for

Fear and hatred are powerful forces. Take a look at the recent gay marrige ban referendums, the defeats were by larger margins than were indicated by public opinion polling.

[Madspirit]

61. Fear and hatred are powerful forces.

Your words are true and sad.

I'm a pot smoking lesbian. I just sit around every day wondering if I should go down to the local elementary school, wait for tiny girls to walk by, jump out from behind my bush, force them to smoke pot and watch Ellen Degeneras. I can see why the fear is there. Yup. <g>

Seriously, you are right. Fear is behind a lot of things. We cannot let that dictate policy because none of it is substantiated by reason, science, psychology, etc.
Lee

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

29. To Those Who Disagree, Y'All Need To Loosen Up. Here, Here, Take A Hit. Ahhhhhh, That's Better.

:smoke:

[Madspirit]

43. You OMC?

I'm thrilled. Let's make amends but don't bogart!
Lee

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. Once Upon A Time, I Was The King. If Only You Knew.

Course, ain't touched it since I got married 5 years ago, being that my wife is adamantly against it (sighhhhhhhhhhhh).

But if only you knew.

[Madspirit]

48. Sneak over some time..

I'll give you a brownie...my friend.
Lee

[mrreowwr_kittty]

32. This is why I love DU!!

I think in the general pop. support for legalized pot is around 45 - 50%. The good news is that the number is steadily growing.

[SteppingRazor]

39. And even more telling...

even people who are usually at each others throats on DU are in agreement here. It's like legalize-marijuana threads are some sort of utopian bizarro world :crazy:

[lonestarnot]

37. Hell yes!

Our prison populations are exploding so much that we are letting them discuss and have their way with privatization. Too big to stop.

[guitar man]

41. Other

I should be able to grow my own in my garden right next to my tomatoes and green beans. It's a plant for fucksake, it's time to get rid of all the ridiculous laws attached to it. :grr:

[Quantess]

46. I can't stand weed!

But I think it should absolutely be legalized.

I'm not going to smoke it (or consume it any other way), but
#1 it has valid medicinal use;
#2 recreationally it's no worse than alcohol; and
#3 punishment for marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources.

[POAS]

47. What was the question again?

[0rganism]

49. the tougher question is, how long will legalization proponents be unelectable?

As it stands, rescheduling marijuana wouldn't even make it out of committee in either house. How long will it be? 10 years? 20 years? 100 years?

[slackmaster]

50. Yes, Congress is the big problem on this issue

How many states have legalized "compassionate" use now, with Congress not lifting a finger to deal with the conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act and other laws?

They really need a "joint" session.

[porphyrian]

51. Drug laws are redundant.

Every argument given for keeping drugs, and specifically marijuana, illegal are already covered by another law. DUI, assault and battery, robbery, etc.

[slackmaster]

55. Except the taxation part

The only way you could get the federal government to even think about legalization would be to tempt it with the money it could collect, further abusing the power granted to it under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

I do agree with your core point, which brings to mind things like initiatives to ban use of cell phones while driving. Oh, and texting on a Blackberry. Or shaving. Why not simply write a law so that anyone who is driving while noticeably distracted by ANY other activity is an infraction?

[porphyrian]

56. Sure, but that's a tax law. I was speaking to current prohibitionary laws. - n/t

[More Than A Feeling]

94. How would that be abusing the commerce clause?

Items that move in interstate commerce can definitely be regulated. It's been that way since U.S. v. Darby (312 U.S. 100 (1941)):

"While manufacture is not of itself interstate commerce the shipment of manufactured goods interstate is such commerce and the prohibition of such shipment by Congress is indubitably a regulation of the commerce."

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=312&invol=100

(P.S. I am not a lawyer.)

[slackmaster]

101. Wickland v Filburn 1942 is the precent most often cited

The logic behind it is that wheat grown for your own personal consumption reduces the amount of wheat you need to buy through interstate commerce.

Just because something CAN be moved interstate doesn't mean that intrastate commerce should be subject to FEDERAL control. I see homegrown marijuana more on a par with home brewed beer than with homegrown wheat.

Just my personal non-legal opinion as a libertarian-leaning Democrat.

[More Than A Feeling]

103. Well for that, you'd need a constitutional amendment to get rid of the commerce clause.

[slackmaster]

107. Not if they put some kind of reasonable exemption in it, as there is for beer and wine

You can brew up to 40 gallons of beer, and 200 gallons of wine per household annually without having to report it or pay taxes. I assume there is a similar exemption for homegrown wheat, barley, tobacco, etc.

Let's say your first pound of marijuana is tax-exempt. That would be more than enough for most users I know, as long as they take care to cultivate sinsemilla of a decent strain.

My point is that the feds are greedy for cash. The original mass expansion of the ICC occurred during World War II, when the fedgov needed cash badly. They've gotten addicted to it.

[More Than A Feeling]

108. Oh, we've moved off the "does congress have the power to regulate"

to "should congress use its power to regulate and its power to tax on marijuana" which is an entirely different question.

[Blue_In_AK]

52. I agree it should be legalized

but people should be allowed to grow their own and skip the tax man.

[JackRiddler]

53. Taxation only on sales, I'd say...

If it were legalized and you were allowed to grow, who the hell would ever be able to keep track?!

[Annces]

58. Smoking pot

My brother once stole some of my father's stash, and so my father retaliated by pulling out some of his home grown plants in the back yard. I had a whole shoe box full of home grown at one point, not too bad.

I say legalize it, but certainly no driving while under the influence.

[porphyrian]

66. DUI is already on the books. There's no reason to single out pot smokers. - n/t

[verse18]

59. I hope to get a movement going about this in my community.

Our gang/drug problem is really exploding. The rival gangs in the city are working together to move a huge amount of drugs through the city. I read in a local paper that we're becoming a distribution hub for drug trafficking to the rest of the country. Add to that the number of young people (typically Black) who have drug convictions by the time they're 17 or 18 and have no other options but to get right back into the life.

I was recently elected the delegate for my ward/precinct for the local Democratic party and my area includes my alma mater. I hope to work with the college Democrats to see if we can get a grassroots movement going. We definitely need it.

[ComerPerro]

60. agree, but don't really care.

[Madspirit]

63. I care

I care that there are millions of people in prison for nothing. Millions of families torn apart. Millions of lives ruined. ...and it's a way for police to get to you. I care deeply about this issue. It is a issue of the right to self determination over one's own body.
Lee

[DaveJ]

64. Even R's poll the same way -- you know what that means

We really are not living in a free Democracy. Oh well, time for TV.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

67. Legalize posession and personal cultivation.........

That way would seem most sensible to take the dealers out of the equation.

Make individuals responsible for their own bodies. No more nanny nation!

[NotGivingUp]

68. i do not smoke marijuana, but i see absolutely NO REASON why it should be illegal. eom

[Lilith Velkor]

69. Real drug treatment instead of Assholes Anonymous, please

There needs to be scientific research. Shouting stupid slogans at people can cause them to seek out stronger drugs.

Otherwise, right the fuck on, man. :thumbsup:

[Zywiec]

70. Definitely YES

What a friggin' waste of time and money trying to enforce this law.

[jeffrey_X]

71. Will we be able to own 5 plants a piece like the Dutch?

eom

[JackRiddler]

72. A CALL: CAN WE GET A NO VOTER TO ARGUE THEIR CASE?

AND IF IT HAPPENS, YES VOTERS, PLEASE:
Don't gang up, don't abuse, don't ridicule. Keep it sober & rational.

[Swamp Rat]

74. I agree 100% and amnesty should be given to EVERY PERSON ever charged

and/or jailed for possession/use.

[Zhade]

75. Of COURSE this beneficial medicinal plant should be legalized for 18+ adults!

Stunning the level of ignorance/misinformation about how "dangerous" it is.

So tired of the lies.

[nookiemonster]

76. Yes.

K & R

:thumbsup:

[Jonathan50]

77. Eleven disagree and three other

And not a single one bothered to post any explanation or rationale for their position.

BTW, decriminalization without total legalization will not stop or even slow down much the black market in drugs. I can explain if anyone finds it necessary for me to do so..

I support treating cannabis and other recreational drugs as alcohol is treated today. Licensed sellers, ID required, etc. etc.

[piedmont]

78. Prohibition doesn't work. (duh) nt

[Pawel K]

79. I'm all for legal Marijuana, its the harder drugs I dont think we should make legal

I do not however think that possesion of those harder drugs (cocaine, heroin, meth) should result in jail time, instead people found guilty of this possesion should be set up in a rehab facility.

[dysfunctional press]

80. legalize it, regulate it, and tax the shit out of it.

i won't mind paying the same price i pay now, if the threat of incarceration is gone.

i'd also be willing to pay a fair price for a growing liscense.

btw- studies have shown that out of cigarettes, alcohol, and pot- kids currently have the easiest time obtaining pot.

[Colobo]

81. I voted other, because I personally don't give a damn about marijuana

[JackRiddler]

100. How many thousands of people in prison right now due to its prohibition?

[Zhade]

102. And those whose lives have been destroyed due to its illegality? Give a damn about them?

NT!

[Jcrowley]

82. Quite naturally

Outlawing toking of natural endowment is criminal.

Outlaw television and make doobage mandatory for bureaucrats. Watch this country get happy overnight.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

91. Hell yeah . . .

. . . I might start watching C-Span, if I can see Orrin Hatch try to look important, while ripped.

[FyurFly]

83. Decriminalize.

Stop bullshit laws that fuck up peoples lives and careers because of bullshit prohibition.

[mopinko]

84. i have been out canvassing my neighborhood

for an aldermanic race (chicago). i admit i live in a neighborhood full of old hippies. but this has come up many times. all drugs should be legalized, and prisons turned into treatment centers. it is a public health issue NOT A LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUE!!! i'm series!11!

[The Gunslinger]

85. At the very least

The Federal Government should yield to the States decisions to legalize or decriminalize.

[proud patriot]

86. It seems like a silly thing to be illegal

especially when both tobacco and alcohol are legal

[whoneedstickets]

87. Weed and Profits...

Really, this would have been legalized long ago if they could figure out how to make it profitable. It's just too damn easy to grow your own (not that I do anymore). If you can keep ANY houseplant alive, you can keep yourself in grass for life. How can corporate USA make cash off stuff that's easier to grow than dandelions.

[Jonathan50]

89. It's ridiculously easy to grow a pot plant..

Growing enough potent herb to get high on regularly is another matter entirely.

The great majority of people won't go the trouble of growing their own in a legalized setting.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

95. I sure would.

Used to grow it by the GM&O tracks when I was a kid. Piece of cake . . .

[Blue_In_AK]

99. There's a reason they call it "weed." n/t

[CrazyOrangeCat]

104. yes.

lotsa sun and a little water and it is happy.

[Jonathan50]

109. Yep, and unless you pay attention and know what you're doing

You're going to end up with ditchweed.


Illegal Smile
©John Prine

When I woke up this morning, things were lookin' bad
Seem like total silence was the only friend I had
Bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down... and won
And it was twelve o'clock before I realized
That I was havin' ... no fun

Chorus:
But fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun

Last time I checked my bankroll,
It was gettin' thin
Sometimes it seems like the bottom
Is the only place I've been
I Chased a rainbow down a one-way street... dead end
And all my friends turned out to be insurance salesmen

But fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun

Well, I sat down in my closet with all my overalls
Tryin' to get away
From all the ears inside my walls
I dreamed the police heard
Everything I thought... what then?
Well I went to court
And the judge's name was Hoffman

Ah but fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun
Well done, hot dog bun, my sister's a nun

[Blue_In_AK]

110. I Love that song...

I hadn't thought about it in a long time. :)

[CrazyOrangeCat]

117. I got to see him sing it . . .

. . . on a blistering hot August night in Indiana, many moons ago.

Talk about fun . . . ;)

[DarkTirade]

112. Try telling that to my poor little bamboo plant turning yellow in my window... :)

I should probably water it today...

[Cobalt Violet]

88. Yes, legalize it already.

:kick:

[alfredo]

96. Oh wow man....

Decriminalize.

[WillyT]

97. Wha... Whoa...Dude... It's ILLEGAL ???

:scared:

[Pushed To The Left]

105. Yes, it should be legalized

I believe that most drug laws do more harm than good, and fill up prisons with non-violent, non-dangerous offenders who don't belong there. Not only that, but I think that some of the drug testing that employers do should be outlawed. Somebody who only smokes marijuana on a weekend can still fail a drug test, and what people do on their own time should not be used to fire or not hire them! I think what is being done to medical marijuana patients is a flagrant abuse of human rights, and should be treated as such. I would like to see some international pressure from the UN and/or other countries put on the US government to get them to stop violating the human rights of medical marijuana patients!

[DarkTirade]

111. At the very least, I'm all for medicinal.

I've never smoked anything, legal or otherwise, in my entire life. But I've seen what pot does. It makes people a little lazy, a little forgetful, and very laid back.
I'm already laid back, a bit forgetful, and trying to work hard to get my life back together after my last job collapsed, so I really don't need chemical help in those areas. :)
Seriously though, if not downright legal, at least make it legal for medicinal use. I know someone who died from cancer two months ago... but would have died slowly and painfully about two YEARS ago had he not been (illegally) smoking pot.

[MrSlayer]

113. Absolutely 100% agree.

This is a no-brainer. Pot should be legalized. All drugs except for crack and PCP should be legal.

[DarkTirade]

114. Or any drugs proven to be as downright dangerous as those two

I'm sure there are or will be more like them eventually.
Seriously, one of the points used by anti-pot people is that it's a 'gateway drug', leading to the use of harder drugs like the two you mentioned... Yeah, it's a gateway... IF YOUR ONLY SOURCE IS THE GUY IN THE BACK ALLEY WHO SELLS BOTH DRUGS. :\ If you could buy or grow pot legally, it wouldn't even be connected to any harder drugs.

[B Calm]

115. I been saying they need to legalize for 40 years. It ain't gonna happen!

[JackRiddler]

120. Why do you SAY that?

Prohibition is one of society's most wobbly of insane institutions and it would take about two senators and a secretary to knock it over, if they had the guts. If a majority aren't against it already, they would be after 6 months of debate and maybe 20million in ads. As far as pot goes, you'll be hard pressed to find opponents who never did it themselves - would it have helped for them to spend a while in prison?

[terrya]

116. Absolutely agree with you.

You're exactly right. Legalize Marijuana, based on the Dutch model. Exactly right.

I've never, ever understood the disconnect of "alcohol is a-ok to be legal" but marijuana isn't. Completely a double standard.

[movie_girl99]

118. heck yes. it helped my mom through chemo n/t