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Post by Spider on Apr 22, 2009 10:28:19 GMT -5
The Drug War is based on the repugnant assertion:
That you do not have ownership over your own body; that you don't have the right to decide what you'll do with your body, with your property and with your life. The position of the drug warriors is that you should be in jail if you decide to do something with your body that they don't approve of.
This is an abomination of everything that America is supposed to stand for. As long as this country continues the drug war, you are not free. At the root, then, those that force the drug war on you are enemies to your freedom.
If you are concerned at all about liberty, the economy, the Constitution and the power of the Federal Government - you cannot ignore the US government's longest and most costly "war" - the War on Drugs.
But no matter how long it lasts, how much is costs, how many lives are disrupted, and how much it fails - the war rages on.
Why? Well, because Federal "authorities" don't care what your local laws are, they don't care what your personal choices are, and they don't care what reason you have for your choices.
All they care about is their own power. Period.
In this ongoing drug war, you are always treated as a suspect and your neighborhood is much less safe. You are searched at airports and your bank accounts are spied on. While drug users who are no physical threat to anyone but themselves are put in jail, the prisons become more and more overcrowded, resulting in the early release of violent criminals on a regular basis.
If you love your freedom and you want your city to be safer, this psychotic war on drugs must be ended - now.
Understandably, many Americans are afraid that ending the drug war will result in countless drug addicts, including children. In reality, though, that's just what we have now!
On top of it, we generally don't even consider the people who are addicted to federally-approved drugs to be drug addicts. According to a 2004 CDC report, almost one-half of Americans use at least one prescription drug. It should be obvious, then, that the drug war has done nothing to reduce Americans' use of drugs - it's simply to control which drugs people use, and who can make a profit from them.
So what's really going to be different - can our nation's addiction to drug use get any worse? It's doubtful that legalizing all drugs could make things any worse, but even if it does, then so be it.
People will always do plenty of things that are bad for them, and there's no reason to put them in prison for it. Think about all the things that you do which are bad for your own health and well being - should the government outlaw those too?
People eat too much fast food and they forget to floss every day. They watch too much TV and they don't count their calories. They stay up too late and they spend too much. And, guess what else? People swallow, snort, shoot and smoke drugs that are both legal and illegal - and it's not going to stop. A free society just wouldn't force you, under the threat of punishment, to be "good" to yourself all the time. That was the job of your parents - unless, of course, you want the feds to be your new "daddy."
In all seriousness, though, if we are ever going to have a nation that respects the Bill of Rights, of which the Ninth and Tenth Amendments may be the most important, the DEA and the entire drug war must be eliminated.
If not, what's going to be next? Orwellian telescreens in our homes and a state-mandated morning exercise routine?
That would most assuredly keep the cost down on the coming national healthcare system.
Won't that be nice? Continued_______________  I think it is time for 'America to Wake Up' and decriminalize marijuana.
Just think of all its citizens that are imprisoned, denied job and educational opportunities, and generally are looked down upon because of the negative stigma/s attached to marijuana use.
Once marijuana was decriminalized that would also be a great contributor to removing the incentive for Mexico to illegally export its #1 crop (weed) into the USA. Thereby greatly reducing the murderous violence associated with it.
Large amounts of our tax monies are being expended on this unnecessary war.
Decriminalizing it would be to the best interest of the USA in my opinion.
What do you think?
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Post by moonpuppy on Apr 22, 2009 15:09:12 GMT -5
All it would do is legitimize crooks. Look how well that worked for the Kennedys.
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Post by Spider on May 4, 2009 2:21:55 GMT -5
 Drug Decriminalization Produces Success in Portugal
In 2001 Portugal abolished all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Incarceration was replaced with the offer of therapy. A five year study published last month by Glenn Greenwald of the Cato Institute found that this policy change has resulted in a significant drop in the rates of drug use and HIV infection.
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."
Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana...
Portugal's case study is of some interest to lawmakers in the U.S., confronted now with the violent overflow of escalating drug gang wars in Mexico. The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U. (including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use. __________
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Post by bob on May 11, 2009 5:14:45 GMT -5
The alcohol industry would have a fit if other drugs were made legal. Medical pot in California is okay to use. The funny thing about that is the government laws trump the state. The open sale of pot goes on but you never know for how long. Wouldn't that make a nice lottery? A date where Feds would crack down on it all?
Last summer I had a tumor and half of a lung removed. I went through chemotherapy and radiation and am now gaining the weight back that I lost (30 pounds). I used medical pot to help keep up my appetite and still had to have periodic transfusions due to low blood counts etc. I am done with all that now and am cancer free as far as cat scans show, but I would use pot again if it would help do what the doctors couldn't.
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Post by buford1 on Jul 12, 2010 10:52:09 GMT -5
I thought we had ownership of our own bodies. That is the news we have been told the past few decades. It is a females right to choose what she does with her body. Why is that not the same for males who like to smoke Marijuana in their own home away from everyone else. I have never seen any harm with Marijuana. The funny thing happening now is a new product that uses a man made chemical is being sprayed on Potpourri and sold as incense is the new craze. People are lighting up and smoking what some chemist is spraying on ground up material that resembles Hemp.
There has been a handful of states banning this product now because it has caused about 500 people to have a chemical reaction so they want it removed from all store fronts. What does our government expect when people start smoking anything man made to get a high so they can enjoy a buzz but not be fired for using it since this new product can not be detected with a drug test.
The reason they are banning this new product will shock some of you. They said that the new drug has cannabinoids traits that are illegal since Marijuana is illegal. They do not mention that this product is nothing more than man made chemicals. Why do they not admit that Marijuana is safer than any chemical man can come up with.
Seems to me if a person wanted to make some quick legal cash they would buy K2 off the internet spray it on something that can be put in a joint and charge half as much as the stores want for the product. Some stores are selling a small amount for 40 to 60 dollars per package.
Legally you could make this at home and sell it for one quarter the price it sells for now and make plenty of money since people now want this product. Why deal in real Marijuana and risk jail time when you can make legal marijuana now with a package of chemicals.
I hope the federal government recognizes that Hemp is not the devil and attempting to ban it will make people figure out new ways to get the same but more intense high than smoking a natural plant.
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Post by buford1 on Jul 12, 2010 11:00:07 GMT -5
The alcohol industry would have a fit if other drugs were made legal. Medical pot in California is okay to use. The funny thing about that is the government laws trump the state. The open sale of pot goes on but you never know for how long. Wouldn't that make a nice lottery? A date where Feds would crack down on it all? I believe pot arrest are about to get a whole lot worse in this country. Marijuana has been making strides the past two years but I am afraid the mid level sentencing and arrest are about to get more abusive. January 2011 you will see tighter control once again like in the mid 1980's. I have heard liberal politicians who say they smoked marijuana while they were young but no one seems to want to admit they had any trouble with it. The last three Presidents smoke Marijuana which is natural and nothing is wrong with these men as far as harm from Hemp. People celebrated when President Obama came into office. I admit I was one of them but Mr. Obama doesn't seem too concerned about Marijuana or steps to help patients enjoy it for their medical conditions. Hemp is basically like any other material we use for hundreds of products except it can be smoked so therefore man can not grow this natural plant. |
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Post by Boatrocker on Jul 13, 2010 8:12:44 GMT -5
The WAR ON DRUGS is not about drugs; it's about a law enforcement industry that has become, ironically, addicted to the flow of money that funds the WAR ON DRUGS. Ditto the WAR ON TERROR.
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Post by kilgoretrout on Jul 13, 2010 10:23:39 GMT -5
our increasingly privatized prison system would never allow it
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Post by kilgoretrout on Jul 13, 2010 10:31:37 GMT -5
All it would do is legitimize crooks. Look how well that worked for the Kennedys. it's always funny, in a sick kinda way, how a con can blame the consequences for the problem put aside your idiotic partisanship and try to follow the sequence of events 1st came the war on alcohol 2nd came the kennedy fortune resulting from the war on alcohol see how it works - now let's look at the present 1st came the war on drugs 2nd came the drug lord and prison industry fortunes changing the law now, won't completely undo the the problems the law has created but it will stop it from getting worse and why the "s" on kennedy - do you blame the sons for the crimes of their father do you blame lil bush for both of his grandparents illegally financing the nazis |
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I think it is time for 'America to Wake Up' and decriminalize marijuana.
