The Weed Blog: Johnny Green: Why Now’s The Time To Step Up & Fight Against The Drug War

SourceStop The Drug War-

Source:The New Democrat

Congress, the last two weeks has debated the defense authorization bill. The House, is close to passing their bill and the Senate is debating their bill this week and voting on amendments. Both chambers and parties in Congress would also like to end sequestration, in the defense budget and broader Federal budget. I mention these things, because there are better ways to not only pay for our national priorities, while at the same time cutting our deficit and national debt. Instead of fighting bogus so-called wars like the War on Drugs, use that money to, gee, I don’t know, fight terrorists. You know, actual threats to the country and end the War on Drugs.

Stop sending Americans to prison for simply possessing or using illegal narcotics. Legalize and regulate marijuana as if it were alcohol, since pot possesses similar side-effects and challenges to the country. Not legalize cocaine, heroin and meth. I’m not a Libertarian, which might seem surprising, to anyone familiar with my blogging. But decriminalize it in the sense that we stop sending people to prison for using, or possessing it. Instead fine them for possession based on how much they have on them. And send addicts and users to halfway houses and drug rehab, at their expense.

The War on Drugs, is a tragic failure, that never had to happen. Its costs us trillions of dollars that otherwise could’ve been spent on infrastructure, real law enforcement issues, strengthening the defenses of the country and I could go on. And while the economy is still fairly weak, with a deficit and high national debt and millions of Americans still unemployed, we need to be much smarter in how we spend our national resources. And invest in things that work and free up those resources by stop investing in things that don’t work. Like the failed War on Drugs.

The Weed Blog: Johnny Green: Debunking The White House's Response to The New York Times

Source:The New Democrat

I've written several posts this year already about why the drug warriors have lost the War on Drugs especially when it comes to marijuana. So here's another one and this one comes thanks to the White House because they are using the same old tired lame arguments that drug warriors have used forever.

Lets concede that marijuana is not good for juveniles. Lets concede that people who are driving should not be high before they get behind the wheel. Lets concede that there is and would be an underground meaning black market for marijuana even if it is legalized. I can answer all of these points with two words. So what! No I'm not taking those issues lightly or laughing at them. But the same issues come with both tobacco and alcohol which are both legal narcotics in this country. As far as the black market, that argument can be made about every product that is legal in this country. Because we have people who do not like paying taxes so they pay and sell products under the door.

If you want to lock people up for something that is dangerous we would end up with a country of convicts. We have countless number of products from junk food to soft drinks to caffeine to firearms to alcohol and tobacco. That are all potentially dangerous if they are either over consumed, or used incorrectly. Yet they are all legal because we've made decisions as a country that locking people up for simply doing something to themselves that comes with bad risks is something that we can't afford and not a country that we want to be.

There has yet to be a study that has been published that shows marijuana consumption whether it is used responsibly or over consumed is more dangerous than any of those other legal products that come with serious risks is they are used correctly or incorrectly. Yet marijuana is illegal at the Federal level and those other products are regulated and taxed. And why? Could it be because those other industries have very effective lobbying machines and marijuana is just getting started and will be legal in either your state, or a state near you in the near future? I would love an answer to that question.

The O'Reilly Factor: Bill O'Reilly VS Ethan Nadelmann On Marijuana

Source:FOX News- Ethan Nadelmann debating The O'Reilly Finger.

Source:FreeState Now

"Bill 'o Reilly Gets Owned on The Drug War" 

From Streamed Devito 32

A little free advice that's actually worth a lot more than nothing for you drug warriors: when you acknowledge the problems with legalized alcohol and talking about marijuana legalization and you saying something like: "We do we want to just add to the drug problem in America by legalizing marijuana as well?" you are losing the debate. Which is what Bill O'Reilly did on his own show when talking to Ethan Nadelmann. 

This is not about whether marijuana is good or bad for you. This is not about whether alcohol is good or bad for you, or tobacco, or any other narcotic drug in America. This is about whether consensual adults should be in jail, simply for what they do to themselves. 

Don't give me the you are against big government propaganda, except as is relates to what drugs people take, because you are obviously not against big government, when you are in favor of arresting people and putting them in prison, simply for what they do to themselves. 

Los Angeles Times: Richard Simon: 'California Conservative Defends State's Pot Law in Congress'

Source:Los Angeles Times- U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, California)

"WASHINGTON — For more than a decade, conservative Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has formed an unusual alliance with liberals on an unexpected topic — the defense of marijuana.

Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and his allies have so far waged a futile effort to pass legislation that would prevent federal authorities from interfering with medical marijuana use in California and other places where pot use is permitted by state law.

But as more states have moved to allow the drug’s use, Rohrabacher believes his Respect State Marijuana Laws Act may be gaining momentum in Congress. 

The recently reintroduced measure would shield from federal prosecution people acting in accordance with their states’ marijuana laws, including new Colorado and Washington laws that allow adult recreational use of the drug.

“The prospects are much better now,” said Rohrabacher, whose co-sponsors include Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), a Bay Area liberal who is usually about as far apart ideologically from Rohrabacher as anybody in Congress.

Still, Rohrabacher has his work cut out for him. The House last year soundly rejected, by a 262-163 vote, an effort he led to block the use of federal funds to prevent states from implementing medical marijuana laws. Only 28 Republicans supported the measure.

Rohrabacher has a libertarian bent but became more interested in the medical benefits of marijuana after having to spoon-feed his dying mother because of her loss of appetite. He has talked about the relief that marijuana might have afforded her.

He has been emboldened by a recent Pew Research Center poll that showed respondents, by nearly 2 to 1, believe the federal government should not enforce federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana in states where it is legal.

Perhaps as important as the shifting public opinion, he said in an interview, is his colleagues’ eagerness to erase Washington’s red ink. Substantial majorities of Republicans and Democrats in the Pew survey regarded federal enforcement of anti-marijuana laws as not worth the cost.

“If people of the states recognize what a waste of limited resources this is, then the federal government should respect what the people of those states want for their own criminal justice system,” Rohrabacher said.

Since 1996, when California became the first state to legalize the drug’s use for medical treatment, 17 other states and the District of Columbia have approved medical marijuana measures. Last year, Colorado and Washington state voters opted to allow recreational users to possess an ounce of marijuana. A move is underway to put a measure on the Alaska ballot to permit recreational use of the drug.

Efforts are underway in other states, including Idaho, Illinois and New Hampshire, to allow medicinal use of marijuana.

Rohrabacher also is hoping to convince GOP colleagues that his bill fits with the party’s traditional support for states’ rights.

“It is time that we respect states’ rights, get serious about prioritizing our federal government’s activities, and show some common sense and compassion when dealing with the sick among us,” Rohrabacher said last year when he proposed his measure.

However, Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees Justice Department spending, responded at the time: “If a state said sex trafficking is OK, would we honor that?... States, in the past, have done some things that have not been good in this country.”

The president’s drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, recently said at the National Press Club that the Justice Department was responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, and “that remains unchanged. No state, no executive, can nullify a statute that’s been passed by Congress.”

Kevin Sabet, a former advisor to Kerlikowske, said Rohrabacher’s latest attempt would “likely suffer the same fate as his several previous failed attempts have over the past decade.”

Steve Fox, national political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which promotes legalization, regards the bill as a long shot in this congressional session. But he said the legislation “sends the message that it is simply not a rational use of federal law enforcement resources to prosecute and imprison individuals who are acting in compliance with state marijuana laws.” 

From the Los Angeles Times

Any case anyone whose not a political junky, (and I''m sure life is fabulous for all of you people) hypocrisy is bipartisan in politics and so is support for the so-called War On Drugs, as well as opposition to it. 

But ever once in a sunny day in Seattle, or a cold day in South Florida, there are people in Congress who actually believe what they say, even to the point that they'll offer and vote for legislation that backs up what they say publicly, meaning they'll go on the record. 

U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, (Republican, California) has classical conservative leanings, except for perhaps when it comes to Vladimir Putin's Russia. He's a true federalist (meaning someone who believe in state's rights and local control) when it comes to marijuana and other issues. Which is why he wants the Federal Government off the backs of people who use marijuana in America. At least in states where it's already legal.

You can also see this post on WordPress.

News One: Paul Shepard: 'Focusing On Prevention & Neuroscience, President Ends Ronald Reagan’s War On Drugs

Source:News One- 

"Being a college student at the time, I clearly remember when Nancy Reagan and the conservative wave in national government helped usher in the nation’s War on Drugs in the 1980s.

Television news images of drug busts, large and small, along with the wholesale arrests and stiffer sentencing for anyone even suspected of drug involvement sent a clear message that government intended to empty the streets and fill the prisons until drugs were no more. 

But subversives like me and my Rutgers University cohorts viewed the so-called war as a heavy-handed, law-enforcement driven, prison complex-building effort to harass, arrest, and ultimately mark for life two groups of people: those who did small amounts of recreational drugs and were generally no threat to society and those with serious drug dependencies who needed a good rehab program instead of a jail cell.

It may have taken 30 years to prove, but it seems we were on the right track way back when: on Wednesday, the White House announced a new direction in the War on Drugs, where stopping drug use before it starts and treating drug addiction as a health issue will now be priorities." 

From News One 

Paul Shepard is just dead wrong here about two pretty important facts. And that's as nice as I can be about this. 

President Ronald Reagan, didn't start the War On Drugs, President Richard Nixon did that. And these anti-narcotics policies have continued with every President since. President Jimmy Carter flirted with legalizing marijuana in the 1970s and treating users and addicts like patients and not criminals, But he didn't get very far on it. 

The other thing that Paul Shepard is dead wrong about: just because the President of the United States declares that a war (if you want to call the War On Drugs a war) is over, doesn't mean it goes away. Remember President George W. Bush declaring mission accomplished in Iraq in June, 2003? How did that work out? 

Taking the word of any career politician, anywhere, as gold, is like buying 20 year old used car, from a used car salesman, without even test driving it, (perhaps not even looking at it) paying the original price on the car, plus 20 years worth of inflation. You are screwing yourself blindfolded by doing that. The fact is Americans can still go to prison today for simple possession of illegal narcotics and Barack Obama is still President. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.

Mises Daily: Mark Thornton- 'Nullify The War on Drugs'

Source:Mises Daily- with a piece about Uncle Sam's War On Drugs.

“Public opinion now favors the outright legalization of marijuana with nearly three-out-of-four adults in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. These numbers should continue to grow, because the polls exhibit a type of “generation effect,” in that people are not changing their minds as they grow older. Some prominent and diverse figures, such as Joycelyn Elders (Bill Clinton’s Surgeon General) and the Reverend Pat Robertson now openly support the legalization of marijuana.

Ideally, libertarians want to end the war on all drugs, fully and immediately, but in reality that will only happen after necessary initial steps are taken. Colorado and Washington have already taken some steps by legalizing marijuana. Other states will surely follow.

Marijuana, of course, is still illegal everywhere under Federal law. Will the Feds do something about Colorado and Washington? You bet they will. They have already announced their intentions to target large-scale growers and distributors. They claim they will not go after consumers, if only due to a lack of resources. As President Obama said, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

However, don’t be too sure that your president is telling you the truth. Candidate Obama said that medical marijuana was a state issue. However, under President Obama, raids committed on medical marijuana dispensaries have occurred at four times the rate as under President Bush. The government has also threatened landlords and banks that deal with medical marijuana dispensaries.”

From Mises Daily

Does marijuana come with real health risks? Well to answer that this way: playing with fire comes with real health risks and not just with your lungs. Anytime you are dealing with narcotics (legal or otherwise) and you are injecting them into your body, you are taking a risk with your health.

The fact that marijuana comes with real health risks is not why it’s illegal under United States law. If you want to know the real reasons why it’s illegal, just ask the alcohol and tobacco industries (speaking of legal narcotics) and expect a lot of non-answers, as well as bullshit (to be frank) in response. They don’t want the competition and now have more than enough members of Congress living in their back pockets to ever prevent that from happening.

If facts and evidence had anything to do with the illegal narcotics debate in America, the so-called War On Drugs would’ve ended a long time ago. 40 years later what have so-called taxpayers gotten for this bogus (to be kind) war? 2 millions Americans in prisons, two-trillion dollars in taxes to pay for that and now more Americans than ever (including per-capita) who are either addicted to illegal narcotics or are under some type of legal supervision by law enforcement.

So I guess we can thank Uncle Sam and his millions of nephews and nieces for that, as well as the tobacco and alcohol industries, as well as the Christian-Right and the nanny-statists on the Far-Left. Who I’m sure are all proud of their work at taxpayers expense. 

You can also see this post on WordPress.