What, no outrage or mention that Obama changed his mind about releasing torture photos of detainees? Afraid to challenge your hero? Typical.

The first smart observation from a “drug czar” on this issue in a very long time.

Gil, lets try that program where evrything is legal and in some cases even Gov subsidized—works well for the european countries that have gone that way! Could be a solution to economy problems as well! rehabs will be like McDonalds and Starbucks—one on every corner! People don’t kill people—GUNS kill people–solid rationale.

war is over, if you want it. thank you Gil Kerlikowske and President Obama. marijuana prohibition has done more to damage my life than the “drug” itself.

Why would he release the photos? He is trying to move forward into a new era and leave a horrible part of American History behind.

I’m sure everything gets the gist of what happened without photos.

Why would he release the photos? He is trying to move forward into a new era and leave a horrible part of American History behind.

I’m sure everything gets the gist of what happened without photos.

Oh my god drug rehabs are going to be bigger than the Dot com boom!Lots of new jobs will be opening up in the drug rehab field and investment opportunities!

Thank God, I am having a huge craving for some Methadone.

Considering that, in the past, most rehabs never considered marijuana an addiction severe enough to warrant treatment, I doubt rehabs will be popping up everywhere. The only reason rehabs take marijuana users now is because workplace drug testing doesn’t usually catch hardcore drug users, but primarily pot users due to how long the drug remains in the system. Rehabs know that employers MUST offer a stint in rehab at least once before terminating an employee for drug use. Cha-Ching! You can bet the drug treatment providers will fight the legalization of pot. Right now that’s their cash-cow. People who really want to do ANY drug will do so whether it is illegal or not. Those who seek treatment will do so whether drugs are legal or not as well. Also, the decriminalization of all drugs by Portugal has actually led to an overall decline in drug-use. Check out the in-depth report done by the Cato Institute on that subject.

btw. The costs that companies pay for drug testing are insane .It’s estimated that it costs $70,000 for every positive drug test, when compared to all the negative drug tests. Hardcore drug users know they can snort up an 8-ball on Friday night and pass a test on Monday. Pot-heads, not so lucky

“I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.”
-Keith Richards-

Considering that, in the past, most rehabs never considered marijuana an addiction severe enough to warrant treatment, I doubt rehabs will be popping up everywhere. The only reason rehabs take marijuana users now is because workplace drug testing doesn’t usually catch hardcore drug users, but primarily pot users due to how long the drug remains in the system. Rehabs know that employers MUST offer a stint in rehab at least once before terminating an employee for drug use. Cha-Ching! You can bet the drug treatment providers will fight the legalization of pot. Right now that’s their cash-cow. People who really want to do ANY drug will do so whether it is illegal or not. Those who seek treatment will do so whether drugs are legal or not as well. Also, the decriminalization of all drugs by Portugal has actually led to an overall decline in drug-use. Check out the in-depth report done by the Cato Institute on that subject.

btw. The costs that companies shell out for drug testing are insane .It’s estimated that it costs $70,000 for every positive drug test, when compared to all the negative drug tests. Hardcore drug users know they can snort up an 8-ball on Friday night and pa$$ a test on Monday. Pot-heads, not so lucky

“I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.”
-Keith Richards-

What the hell are you talking about.

stupid this is not a discussion about the photos. typical stay on topic poor loser

that is off topic fool

the topic is drug czar

First off, he isn’t ending the “war on drugs” all he is doing it changing the name. Obama isn’t going to legalize marijuana. Money speaks, and that would probably by why he flipped on his stance of marijuana. They SHOULD legalize it and regulate the potency though and TAX the plant. Marijuana isn’t a processed drug, just dried to under 15% moisture content.

Oh and if they close drug testing for marijuana. Wow such a decline in a small sector of business.

Legalizing marijuana could:
1. Create money for someone besides corrupt drug dealers and king pins (pick any country)
2. Jobs in lighting business (ie GREEN HOUSE products increase sales)
3. Another agricultural crop our farmers can plant to reduce risk in a very fluctuating market of corn and soybeans (industrial hemp)
5. A regulated product every American who uses marijuana can feel COMFORTABLE in using
6. Building materials
7. Plastics (sorry DuPont, one of the reasons why it was made illegal in 1937)
8. Medicine… obviously
9. Paper products (and I am a forester)
10. A less stressed Department of corrections system in the United States, no matter what the politicians tell you!
11. A police force that is able to better use it employees in stopping more severe problems such as murder, rape, molestation, and speeding.
12. Make it harder for teenagers to gain access to the plant.

***Any American who doesn’t feel this plant should be legal should do some research if they have any openness left in their mind.

Very few cops or sheriffs or jailers like Obama. They are going to be pissed!

Very many cops, sheriffs, jailers are racist. Ofcourse they don’t like Obama.

Who cares what the cops, sheriffs & jailers think? Obama is the President of the United States of America, and you can’t outrank any cop, sheriff or jailer any higher than him. He says jump they best respond “how high?” and start leaping the useless pigs.

Hey To Jeffrey – nice stereotype regarding the people who help keep you and your loved ones safe and protected. Just because someone doesn’t like Obama, that does not make them a racist.
Jeffrey Gillette – what evidence do you have that very few of them like Obama?
Gil is right on the money. From the dawn of the earliest civilizations, people have used substances to make them feel good or get them high. That will NEVER go away, no matter how stiff you make the penalties. It is the human condition to gravitate toward things that make us feel good and drugs certainly do that, even the legal ones like caffeine.
By fighting this “War on Drugs” we have created a black market for drug cartels, terrorists and gangs to thrive and rake in obscene amounts of cash that they can use for weapons, assassinations, bribes, etc, etc. It is high time (pun intended) to take a look at the real results of the War on Drugs and re-evaluate it. I think Gil is taking a step in the right direction.

Carol Cooper,
Actions will speak louder than words. As far as words go, expect the Drug Czar to get some very pointed words from those with an economic interest in continuing the war on drugs.

Stoners, to date, do not make very effective lobbyists.

It won’t be that easy.

How many people are busted just for possession and not busted for something else along with possession? I would say the reasons why people went to prison would change, but the number of new prisoners wouldn’t.

Would selling drugs require a license and what happens if the dealers don’t bother with getting a license?

How would this affect legit medication because now what is a dangerous drug? Contaminated asprin and cough medication may now be legal as LSD, cocaine and heroin under any switch.

How would this affect universal health care and other programs? After all, self responsibility is a Republican concept and making social programs to treat any and all ills is a Democratic concept. What incentive does the users have to quit and what incentive do the taxpayers have in supporting a person who purposely fried his brain and other body parts and or got in an accident while under the influence?

Off topic thought:

Couldn’t Dick Cheney, himself, released these ‘alleged’ classified documents that ‘prove’ torture works one out of every 186 times? Weren’t those documents originally ‘classified’ by him?

Angle: He knows there’s no documents, and Obama wouldn’t release them if they WERE there anyway. Releasing them doens’t accomplish anything. It would only support the argument that torture works once or twice out of every 186 times.

Heck, Bob Uecker had a better batting average than that!

I am always nervous whenever I hear the phrase “WAR ON…..”. This always indictes that money is going to be flushed down the drain! With that said, I did see Attorney General Holder on C-Span and I do agree with many of the points the administration are taking on drug law disparities.

Well. Stop waving the flag for a moment and do a search on Portugal and drugs.All were made legal and the abuse issue has DROPPED dramatically. Wont happen in the Idiot Empire. Jesus dunt like them thar drugs. Hang them sunzabriches….in Jesus namme ! God Bless Amurka…stan

In accordance with the law your body does not belong to you but to the State.

“Big Brother” will tell you what you can put into it and how you can use it best to benefit the State.

Anyone caught doing otherwise will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law which may result in death.

Legalizing drugs would make many good people happy but “unfortunately” a whole Industry of — those evil “filthy” people who snoop into citizen’s private lives to punish them would be out of a job.

The war on drugs has lasted longer than the First and Second World Wars combined. The result has been cheaper, stronger and a greater variety of drugs than at the start. Its cost has been high, crowding prisons. students refused grants, people evicted from homes, jobs lost to name a few. Legal drugs have always been available although called and meds, available to the middle classes, its not a drug war, its a class war. Its created thousands of Al Capones, its corrupted EVERBODY from the CIA down to preteen lookouts and cornerboys. Start with cannabis for ten years, legalize it,tax it, the money collected in tax, spend on drug education. It will save a fortune on incarceration and be a barrier between hard and soft drug dealers.

I hope and pray that prohibition is ending, at the very least for hemp and marijuana. I’m really tired of living in the Republic of idiocy and ignorance.

You’ll have to pardon my skepticism though. Didn’t you hear? Obama ended the War on Terrorism… It’s now called the Overseas Contingency Operation. Didn’t you hear obama laugh at and deride the people that bothered to participate in his online town hall?

I’ve had enough of both of these parties and their politicians. They serve no one’s interest but their own. Public servants, that’s laughable. Ending prohibition for marijuana and hemp makes all the sense in the world, but until it’s a non issue until it is to their political benefit.

The FEDs should legalize all drugs and allow selling and taxing marijuana and hemp on the state level. Drug abuse itself is a public health issue, not a criminal one unless committing crimes in the process of obtaining drugs is done.

However i’m not holding my breath about ending the drug war, because many powerful special interests including the prison-industrial complex which provides employment, slave labor for corporations, and huge profits from locking up as many people as possible, including drug users, will use all means possible to ensure this doesn’t happen.

The drug czar also faces entrenched opposition from state, local, and federal police and government bureaucracies who use drug seizure laws as their personal cash cow at the expense of taxpayers who pay their salaries. Since legalization of formerly prohibited substances generally results in a decrease in crime (See crime rates in the US before and after Alcohol prohibition) a lot of high paying law enforcement jobs would be lost by the people and organizations who depend on drug seizures and the consequent high crime rate for their job security.

The multi-billion dollar drug testing industry will likely be secure considering most US CEO’s would be reluctant to give up a mechanism of controlling their non-union workforce especially those uber-dangerous potheads. For other drug users its generally harder to catch them using standard urinalysis tests so unless a company tests for drugs using hair analysis, then consume away.

Drug treatment facilities will grow with legalized or decriminalized drug use because judges would have more leeway in directing substance abusers into drug treatment programs instead of prison.

Some industries lose some win; most importantly, personal freedom would be expanded because as long as you don’t engage in criminal activity, you could use drugs without fear of persecution from the police and prosecution from the legal system.

Prohibiting drugs does far worse damage than the drugs themselves; what other argument do you need?

BTW. The Great Crash of 29 happened during Alcohol Prohibition.

The longet the WOD rages, the better dope gets…. Why stop?

I am curious what other long standing laws that prevent activities males like should be revoked? 1/3 of girls in America are sexually abused. We should we legalize incest? 60% of women in a relationship have been a victim of domestic abuse, so should we legalize men beating women?

BTW women are more likely to be abused when their boyfriend is a drug user, but “drugs hurt no one”.

Can we also end the War on Poverty?

Or at least get an exit strategy.

JUDITH, Please go back and read your post!!! :quote” legalize incest HUH!!! “QUOTE” legalize men beating women WHAT!!!.
Everything you just posted has something to do with 2 people. Me smoking Pot has nothing to do with either. Smoking is something that only takes 1 person to partake in and i have never smoke a joint and beat my wife or my dogs or anyone else for that matter. Alcohol kills 100,000 a year, cigarettes 500,000 a year. Hell, Big Mac’s kill more people every year then Marijuana. If you beat someone up or have sex with a minor then you should be locked up, i don’t care what your on. But don’t lock me up because i like to smoke a joint ever now then, plus i’m tried of spending my own tax dollars to lock myself up. Pot smokers work too.

Did we not learn anything from alcohol prohibition?
Marijuana prohibition has been an indisputable failure. Legalize it and take the money out of the black market. Marijuana is less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco yet both of those substances are legal (and should be). Every year our prison system releases violent offenders to make room for non-violent pot smokers. That is just plain insanity. Think of how better society would be served if our law enforcement efforts were directed more towards dealing with violent individuals. We would also save BILLIONS of dollars on prosecution costs and jail expenses every year.
There is also substantial evidence indicating marijuana has numerous medical uses as well.
We need to look at this issue using nothing more than basic common sense. Isn’t it time to drop the “Reefer Madness” stupidity?

Jed Clampett

when you have your law enforcement agencies involved in preventing people from pursuing their favorite method of attaining an altered psychological state, they can’t contain economic crimes… like corporate malfeasance or destruction of the environment via pollution or stopping fraud or investigating corrupt politicians. They are merely a reacctionary force rather than a preventive entity.

The ‘War on Drugs’ is a fantasy that allows police to imagine they are doing something worthwhile instead of just writing traffic tickets or dealing with the byproducts of alcohol consumption… domestic violence, automotive accidents, destroyed families, murder, etc. when in reality they are merely becoming more and more acclamated to being used as a tool of oppression rather than protection. When we allow an entity that is suppossed to protect the public to become a tool for protecting the oligarchy and the state, we have shown the seeds of totalitarianism. Enjoy the harvest, it has now come home to you, you are on the menu. And you have the nerve to call yourself AMERICANS?? Little more than selfish European rejects, little tyrants that wanted their own opportunity to oppress those less fortunate than them.

The War On Marijuana Consumers is a montrous fraud that fleeces Americans’ pocket books and rights. The way the powerful gain more power is take power away from the people. Marijuana prohibition serves that goal well. But the public desire for and end to this witch hunt has acheived a majority and keeps growing!

It’s time for the marijuana prohibition-industrial-bureauc ratic-black market complex to see the writing on the wall and get its affairs in order.

Professor Julien Heicklen never cared about marijuana, but when he retired, he led marijuana smokeouts at the Gates of Penn State every Thursday for a year at the end of the last decade. Why?

“Marijuana is the messenger, not the message. The lit marijuana herb is the torch of freedom!”

Amen!

Judith

There’s that low prohibitionist tactic of equating smoking pot to activities that harm others. Let’s be honest, please. Helping runaway slaves was also illegal. Marijuana prohibition shows us once again that often, the law is an a$$.

The drug that causes the most violence is alcohol, of course.

Every year, the European soccer championship is held in a different country, but they always had the same problem. Horrible alcohol-fueled violence between fans of the opposing teams. All years except one, that is. That was the year they held it in Amsterdam. Authorities marveled at how friendly, and happy everyone was, with almost NO incidents of violence!

I wonder why.

Judith is back:

Should we criminalize everything else that doctors already prescribe? It’s already legal to virtually anybody who wants it. The only thing legalizing it would do, well, increase the amount of money to the treasury, and lessen the amount of drug trafficking. But, if you’re against those two things, well, not sure what to tell you……..

Marijuana does not cause people to fight, Judith.

Historically the American police
culture has voted democrat!
I wonder why?
Maybe because the neocons favor
no laws or regulation for guns/weapons yet they vilify THC!
Enough over 60 % on the nation has ingested or is currently ingesting THC! The hypocrisy is too much!

There are signs that the ice is cracking. Meanwhile if you are seated on a jury judging someone for the “crime” of marijuana possession, the only verdict should be “Not Guilty” no matter what evidence there may be, because you can judge the law as well as the application of it to a particular case. Learn about the fully imformed jury and how we can nullify idiotic marijuana laws.

“BTW women are more likely to be abused when their boyfriend is a drug user, but ‘drugs hurt no one’”.

Do drugs make people violent. Or do violent people, Ie those with phychological problems, find drugs appealing?

I get a really good laugh out of alternative poppy crops for some reason.that would be about effective as the 44billion dollars wasted on the on war drugs/citizens