Cannabis has been decriminalized in New York for over 30 years. Yet New York City is the cannabis arrest capital of the world, with over an eighth of America’s cannabis arrests. Most of these are for low-level, non-violent possession with no intent to distribute. Decriminalization is a flawed and failed attempt at ignoring the issues of regulation and control. It is time for us to re-examine our current policies and take the brave step forward to end the longest running war in our nation’s short history. We need to stop trying to solve this with an overwhelming law enforcement approach and look at other more sensible means of regulation and control. Under decriminalization, we lack these means all together.

Decriminalization does not allow for the regulation or control of cannabis: either for quality or for limiting sales to minors. Schoolchildren still have more access to illegal (decriminalized) drugs, than legal (regulated) drugs.

Legalization means regulation and control, which means safer drug use and less health problems and risks, or harm reduction.

Decriminalization sounds good and is easier for politicians to support, but does not solve most of the problems associated with cannabis use and its prohibition. Legalization solves most of these issues.

New tax revenue can fund drug education, treatment and other services. Decriminalization will continue to cost us billions upon billions of dollars.

Legalization will free up much needed law enforcement resources. Decriminalization will continue to drown our law enforcement in an unwinnable street war against its own citizens.

Legalization would help heal the ties between the police and the community. Decriminalization will continue to keep a huge portion of our population in constant conflict with our law enforcement community.

Legalization will start to move our nation back to respect for the rule of law. Decriminalization will continue to breed disrespect for rule of law.

He better watch out talking like that, he might just get re-elected. If Patterson Legalizes weed for us here in new york, god bless him. The only other time any NY Governor has done something good in New York was Pataki raising the thruway speed limit to 65. Plus we could use a little extra tax revenue here in NY as well.

How many traffic deaths have been attributed to the use of marijuana?
Now think about how many people are in jail due to possession of marijuana.
Things just don’t add up.
If THE GOVERNMENT will Allow you to Smoke Tobacco and Drink Alcohol, why would a Omnipotent Government not permit it’s humble citizens to partake of something that has grown naturally in America for longer than Humans have left a footprint on this continent.

Yes,, this is America,, Land of the Free.
Home of Freedom..
Country of Freedom Loving People..
Where Freedom and Liberty govern all…….

As Todd Snider once said,,
It’s not ” Which Drugs ” they are against as much as ” WHO’S Drugs “..
Yes, if it’s Tobacco and Alcohol, well they support the Politicians who are on the committees who decide What Drugs are Illegal and what Drugs are not..
Joe Kennedy once was a Rum Runner ( the drug dealers of their day ), but his son become President of the United States of America. WHAT A FREEKING JOKE!!
MARIJUANA IS BAD…
PROSTITUTION IS BAD…
BOOZE IS GOOD…
TOBACCO IS GOOD…
OH,, DRUGS ARE ALRIGHT AS LONG AS SOMEONE GIVES YOU PERMISSION TO USE THEM,, RIGHT,, I MEAN,, YOU CALL IT A PRESCRIPTION AND I CALL IT PERMISSION.. SAME THING..

Jed Clampett

don’t legalize and put it in the hands of corporations, decriminalize and make it’s exploitation illegal. Keep those Mexican, Colombian and American drug lords of war away from the cash.

Why any acting politician would say no to the legalization and regulation of a HUGE HUGE HUGE potential cash cow like this is beyond me. But, then again, the intelligence level of most of our politicians shouldn’t surprise me. Remember back in high school? All the nerds are the ones who ended up being career politicians……and legislators.

Plain and simple. Be the first North American country to full legalize and tax marijuana. Not just for the money, but for the ability to control it to a degree. If you flood the market with a product the prices plummets, exacttly what you would want to do with marijuana making the Mexican cartels focus on something that would be easier to stop. Arresting truckers load with marijuana to the top happens every day. America is NEVER going to slow the appetite for marijuana, and they shouldn’t have to! It is America.

Cannabis Prohibition is EVIL.

Jed Clampett

In my case it was the silver spoons that wound up as politicians, the nerds typically wind up getting stuck in programming so they can play video games all day long, or in the MIC programming tracking systems and the like. Occasional exceptions of course, but that was basically how it went.

The real reason they a$saulted Mary Jane and it’s users was because of it’s medicinal properties and the fact that Blacks and Latinos were the principal users, it became a convenient vehicle for oppression and enslavement in the prison system. A crooked warden can make lots of money with a captive chain gang. Remember “The Shawshank Redemption”? does life imitate art or the other way around? Why do extremists dislike the arts, music and unbiased news?

Jed Clampett

BTW- did you notice the coup at the state house in NY recently? All it took was some well placed bribes to a couple of selfish hearts to give up the leadership of an entire state, against the people’s will, and hand the purse to those who like to spend like they don’t understand the value of wealth.

Jed, those two democrats they got to go turncoat are about to be indicted anyway.

Stoners would never act like that! (last comment was to make sure I stayed on topic)

The destruction and devestation the war on drugs has caused in every community in this country,is the ultimate goal of the war on drugs.

The logical,intelligent and ethical uses of cannabis are numerous and undeniable.Unfortunately, logic ,intelligence and ethics has little to do with domestic or foreign policy in this country.

Legalize it. Treat it like alcohol plain and simple. End black market and violence.

1st of all, I’m so sick of the Gateway Drug Argument. Alcohol is the ULTIMATE GATEWAY DRUG. It’s probably 90% of people’s first buzz. And if they like it, the want more. None of my successful friends that smoke got into heavy drugs like coke.

It’s a shame that the people who get addicted and kill themselves with crack & cocaine get wrapped in the same category as an adult that want to smoke a joint on a Friday night….. What a weird world.

Once it’s legal it will be exciting for the first 3 months. After that, the people who smoke now, will probably smoke the same amount. And the people who won’t, simply won’t. Not much will change.

And if treated like alcohol. Kids will have as much access to it as a 6 pack of beer. In otherwords, if regulated, kids can’t get it.

So legalize it. And to the folks that say NO and that have never done it, what right do they have to judge it?

Urrr! Uhhhh! Wowwww Dudes!!!
Rad idea bros! I mean, you know. Like, Wow. I mean, you know. Uhh? Umm!! Like Wowwww! Righteous!

Know what I mean Bro?

Dear Jed,

PLEASE, name some of your unbiased news sources, PLEASE.

As well as your info about extremists (besides muslims) that dislike the arts and music, BTW thats redundant.

Articles like this and comments by rocket scientist like “taxpayer” convince me the movie “Idiocracy” isn’t a comedy, but more like documentary each day.

Way Off Topic:

Had a conversation with someone last night (they vote republican party line), and they told me how fired up and patriotic they felt when George w. Bush stood on top of the rubbish at Ground Zero with his megaphone.

When I informed him that Bush was standing on thousands of dead people, he felt conflicted.

Then, when I reminded him that Bush outsourced the hunt for the perpetrator of that 9/11 plot, he, again, was very conflicted.

In the end, he said he was going to rethink his stance about republican ideals, and take a break from Fox News for a while, WITHOUT any prodding from me.

Which brought me to a general question: Didn’t it bother any of the Bush ’supporters’ that he, indeed, was standing on the ashes of thousands of recently murdered people? It bothered me, but then again, 99% of everything Bush did bothered me.

Dear Coach,

Did you vow to give up MSNBC or Kos? And, standing on the rubble of 9/11 is a Republican ideal? He was standing on the ashes of dead people…if thats how you looked at it, you must be slightly retarded, in other words, just like Joe Biden. Bush outsourced the hunt for the perpetrator of that 9/11 plot? That person you talked to was an idiot.

I also spoke to a person ( He votes straight Democrat) yesterday that said he was angry that Bush ran such large deficits, when I reminded him that Obama just quadrupled the deficit he looked puzzled. He also liked Obama’s stance on gay rights, when I reminded him that Obama is against gay marriage, he ran away crying.

Jed Clampett

Excellent work Coach, that’s all some of them need, a little illumination without hystrionics or getting frustrated at their innability to understand. It’s hard for them to get past their training. But if there is a chance, the Earth will help them out, or off.

Did you see what happened in Iran? When the lie is too big and difficult to swallow, there will be a backlash. Our government needs to now STFU and stay out of their business other than to support the youth in their quest out of bondage. They don’t need the ‘wingnuts’ shrill to make things more difficult.
Can you feel the wave spreading. We need to put the cone of shame on the Builderbergers and change their voice to the shrill it really is. No more stealing from indigenous people of their natural resources.

Jed,

Can you please name some of your unbiased news sources, I would really like to read them and get past my training.

The Earth will help them out or off, WTF?

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?

MIC Jed. MIC. Their voice is definitely waning.

Also, did you see a judge is allowing a civil suit against Yoo? And the game begins…….

yeah i like legalizing drugs and then taxing them i think we could actually balance the budget doing this prohibition on anythiing highly desired has never worked however the taxation of it has always produced a net benefit for society hopefully government just wouldnt get bigger from an influx of new money but probably would

yeah i like legalizing drugs and then taxing them i think we could actually balance the budget doing this prohibition on anythiing highly desired has never worked however the taxation of it has always produced a net benefit for society hopefully government just wouldnt get bigger from an influx of new money but probably would

Jed Clampett

Only when we go after the real criminals, the ones who make us dependent on tyrants with the stroke of a pen, will we find true freedom on this planet. The freedom our ancestors had to explore the human mind and soul, explore nature and the cosmos.

Our leaders keep telling us we need to prohibit this or prohibit that, they tell us Alcohol is bad, then that it’s OK, that drugs are bad for you, yet allow all the infirm to be pumped full of them without thought or concern for their interaction or what they do within the body. Yet they refuse to see, or prefer to ignore, the real problem. A lack of education and the real freedom to pursue the life that truly helps build a strong population and therefore planet, rather than seek artificial escape from the exploitation imposed on us.
They allow the idiot box to send out all sorts of negative messages that multiply the ANT population which eat up our brains.
They have joined in ‘the turning away’ and have made the rest of us the weak and downtrodden. They have convinced themselves they are helping us and providing our souls with the path to paradise… in reality they telling us to ‘go to hell and go fukk ourselves’, they own it all and will exploit it till the tree of life is dead, just so they can say they held it all in their grubby little hands in the end.

Depose the true tyrants before you can taste real liberty, rather than just dependence on a few exploiting Libertines. Freedom means independence, always remember that. Never allow them to scare you or cajole you into believing otherwise.

Robin Meade and HW went skydiving…. I guess pigs CAN fly.

Coach,
If your friend was persuaded to may be change his views by the statements you repeated in your posting, I really have to question his ideological grounding and intelligence.

Bush went to Ground Zero to be with the rescue workers and to rally the nation. I`ve been there and the site takes up multiple city blocks.
Where did you want him to address the recovery workers, a couple of miles away at some deli?
I could imagine the criticism he would have gotten from you and your friends if he did.

And by the way, they are ruins not rubbish. That`s when you take out the trash.

So who`s being disrespectful?

With your premise, Barack Obama was being disrespectful when he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. He was standing on top of a fallen troop.

You`re really reaching.

Jed Clampett

I wonder how much of that thermalite got stuck in his shoes and hands. Was his brother more than just the owner of a security company overseeing the reconstruction of the elevators? Some clean up huh? Ship it off to China for reprocessing. Easier to hide the body of evidence and obfuscate the truth.

Nice try, but it just doesn’t compute. The grave of the unknown soldiers is a monument, the WTC area was a crime scene. What about building 7… an earthquake brought it down? Maybe it was gremlins. Or perhaps the BCCI? Did you watch ‘the international’?

BTW – in the Inca empire, we understood that nature tried to reach us through our artists. That’s why they hate the arts and only appreciate it’s ability to make them money… and spread hate.

Crasher, you’re a joke. To compare the ‘ruins’ of a still-burning murder site to a cemetary is ridiculous at best. And, yet, you say I”M reaching.

You ask me what I wanted him to do, well I’ll tell ya. I wanted him to declare all three crash sites as a crime scene and keep people OUT. But, NO, he stood on top of the pile to ‘rally’ the country. Rally? Rally? Really? Oh, so, let’s rally them to find the perpetrators. And, then once we find out who it is/was, we’ll outsource the hunt for bin laden (since he’s a friend of the Bush family, which every supporter of Bush seems to ignore) and we’ll go invade Iraq.

Plain and simply put (in my own opinion, ofcourse):

Dick Cheney has been trying to invade Iraq for the last 30 years, ever since Hussein kicked out western oil. 9/11 was seen as a ‘jumping off’ point to be used as justification to invade Iraq. Evidence leads all rational people to the fact that the CIA knew the attack was imminent, and in fact, knew the day. Fast forward 8 years, and Iraq is about to ‘award’ oil services contracts to many western oil companies. Job done.

The problem is, the ‘patriots’ who saluted Bush on top of the ‘ruins’ have been duped again. Just like Nixon did and Reagan did. Use and abuse patriotism to forward a power grab through the monopolizing of resources.

Well, if you want to legalize pot, it has to be grown and distributed by corporations, otherwise you’re lining the pockets of shady “businessmen” and drug lords. Judging on the liberal reaction to the Tobacco industry and “Corporations” in general, it would seem that A) no one has really thought this through or B) there’s a good deal of hypocrisy taking place. Personally, I’m not against legalizing it as long as a safe industry evolves to grow and distribute it. Making capitalism work seems a hell of a lot better than anarchy.

Jed Clampett

HAS TO BE?

Go throw some seeds out there and watch how Johny Appleseed helped the spider build the web.

How many days a week are the black helicopters over your house, err trailer park, Coach?

Over at TomDispatch they’re calling it the Ir-AF-Pak war. That may be something surfacing elseware but it’s the first I’ve seen of it.

I don’t think they need the hypens, however. Irafpak? And when Iran gets ‘folded in:’ Irafpakir War. And when NK gets … ah, never mind.

No, I have to say it, the Irafpakirnok war.

Give the dog a bone …

Jed Clampett

The tail keeps wagging the dog. I guess next they will want us to ‘bomb, bomb, bomb… bomb, bomb, Iran’ and prevent the youth from driving out THEIR tyrants; and at the same time keep us occupied so we won’t bother the one’s here.

I guess if you want to get all hung up on technicalities, it’s the:

Afirpakirnok War. But given that the Taliban is now considered to be world wide, why don’t we just cut to the chase and call it WWIII, and be done with it.

We’ve been wanting to get ‘into’ that one for the longest; let’s quit mincing words.

straight? the guy goes on as if he is this liberal-minded friend of doobage smokers and then stops short of actually supporting and end to prohibition. sorry, this is the same convoluted, talking-out-the-side-of-the-mo uff blsht that is business as usual in the halls of power today. just because he’s a handicapped person of color doesn’t mean he’s got something to say.

Jed Clampett

DD, please brother, try to shut off the internal voice. I gave you some excercises a while back that hopefully you can remember. Shut the ants out. Or maybe learn the power of OOOOHHMMM!!!

We are already in it and we need to stop it, that’s not helping.

Jed,

I’m still waiting on your unbiased news sources.

Coach,

I just had a conversation with a guy (He votes straight Democrat) and he told me how proud he was to have Obama in the White House and to have a leader the world respects.

When I reminded him that Obama excoriated Bush during the campaign about his large deficits and then quadrupled them he looked puzzled.

He then told me how pround he was to have a president that supports gay rights, I then reminded him that Obama doesn’t support gay marriage, he ran away crying saying that he would never vote for a democrat again.

Any 4th grade student understands this country was founded on the principles of individual freedoms.” A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” -Abraham Lincoln U.S. President.
These same people pushing prohibition would be targeted for treason investigation had they been around during the founding of our country! Don’t Be fooled American people any prohibition enforcement against us is as UN-AMERICAN as Hitler!!

Coach,

Your the joke with your silly little liberal conspiracies.

“Fast forward 8 years, and Iraq is about to ‘award’ oil services contracts to many western oil companies. Job done.”

Iraq and all the other Gulf States have always used western oil companies, way before the first gulf war.
They have the know how.
We didn`t need to go to war.

Besides, if these contracts are awarded, it will be done under the Obama Adm. Who could stop them in a heart beat if he wanted to.
Think that will happen?

I wasn`t trying to get you to agree with Bush`s motivation for going Ground Zero. That would be impossible. You are set in your beliefs.
Besides the whole subject bores me. “Bush lied, people died” blahh, blahh, blahh, yawn, yawn, yawn.

I was just saying your objection to him standing on the rubble with hundreds of rescue workers is idiotic.

So your plan, let`s see declare it a crime scene. Clear out all the recovery works to keep them from contaminating the scene.
Forget that there might still be survivors buried alive.
Bring in CSI NY with their rubber gloves and little baggies. They could spend the next 50 years dusting all the mangled metal for finger prints. They could draw chalk outlines of any bodies they found and put miles of yellow tape around the site.

Are you f***ing wacked??

I say legalize pot and tax the HELL out of it. It would generate so much tax revenue that it might even pay for Obama’s wasteful entitlement programs.

The only thing that can be said about beer is this, you cant get second hand drunk, but you can get a contact hight from pot..If a drug effects someone else it shouldnt be leagal..simple as that..i am suprised that americans want out future genertations to grow up being stupid and comfartable being a cook or washing dishes…there is nothing wrong with that…but add pot into the mix..that is all you will ever want to be..trust me…i know from experience…this is not just a harmless drug like people say..it makes you dumb, and can set back your life if you have BIG dreams or aspirations…anyone who says other-wise is talking the same old jive and is wrong…Now I am for the of making medical marijuana legal for cancer patients etc…it does help with that, but there should be more laws that restrict other people from being able to purchase it through the medical system legally….aka potheads!

Legalize the ganja. If you don’t, I’ll keep burnin’ some up anyway.

to shakespeare…

so are you saying smoking tobacco should be illegal too?

shakespeare said “it makes you dumb, and can set back your life if you have BIG dreams or aspirations”

You mean like Barack Obama? He’s so dumb and set his life back by smoking pot huh?

I hope the next Green Day cd is as good if not better than their last one

might as well, hasn’t stopped me yet.

Besides recreational use,which is totally awesome,it has been extremely popular up until around 1937, with the marijuana tax act. The main debate tool for the legalization of cannabis is its hemp products. It is very cheap yet very strong material. A known fact is that hemp produces 4 times as much paper as wood, uses less water, and gives minimal damage to soil. Keeping this illegal is dumb, not just because i’m a pothead but because of the value of its products.

Jed Clampett

Farts in the wind, all you are is farts in the wiiiiiind.

Shaky, does that mean that if someones greed and selfishness affects other people, we should make it illegal as well? or is it ok because they introduce arcane laws hidden in unrelated legislation in order to legalize crimes against humanity?

Jed Clampett

Shaky, does that mean that if someone’s greed and self.ish.ness affects other people, we should make it illegal as well? or is it OK because they introduce arcane laws hidden in unrelated legislation so as to legalize crimes against humanity?

well i live in the netherlands…(or sodom and gomorra to some of u more stupid people)
and we allow softdrugs. and hey guess what? we have no problems whatsoever. in fact criminal numbers lowered since its legal. (legal to own i might say, u cant grow it. now there is a stupid law!)
what i am trying to say is, look upon the netherlands as a giant testcase. it works here, it can work in your country. by removing softdrugs from the shadows, u will kill a large criminal component.
but i guess it will never happen. in some areas the u.s. is so ignorant.

Ashkorsair,

Not that I`m for making criminals out of pot smokers. But to your point.

Ah yes the Netherlands, isn`t that where women are displayed in store front windows like pieces of meat.
Now that`s progress. I wonder why us stupid people ain`t thought of that?

If Patterson does this, as a NYC resident i will vote for him for re-election. It’s time to quit treating pot smokers like criminals. It’s my body, it’s my decision. If you’re against it, don’t do it! Simple as that! I personally LOVE pot and want it legal NOW! I hate alcohol but I wouldn’t want the government to take away your option to drink it.

Partycrasher…on the prostitutees in windows….you mean like Vegas or the back of any entertainment magazines in America (massage and escort ads) or craigslist. Time to stop these victimless crimes.

I’ve been to the Netherlands at least 7 times and I love it! My favorite country in the WORLD! Best people too! The coffee shops are simply the BEST! Great vibe, great people, great time! Compare that to bars in the u.s….i’ll take a peaceful coffee shop anytime.

Jed Clampett

DD, I’ve been ask to apologize for being harsh with you. I mean no harm by it, please believe me.
She cares deeply about you, apparently, despite the past, you’ve done your best to help others in any way you can. That goes a long way bro.
If Ohm, or Bach or imagining light arent your cup of tea, try laughing inside your mind, quietly and softly, let happiness come into you slowly and feel it build, it drives the ghosts away. Don’t let the puppets bother you, they are merely being manipulated, do what I do, manipulate them.

Peace.

Legalize it. Treat it like alcohol plain and simple. End black market and violence.

Once it’s legal it will be exciting for the first 3 months. After that, the people who smoke now, will probably smoke the same amount. And the people who won’t, simply won’t. Not much will change. \

I’m so sick of the Gateway Drug Argument. Alcohol is the ULTIMATE GATEWAY DRUG. It’s probably 90% of people’s first buzz. And if they like it, the want more. None of my successful friends that smoke got into heavy drugs like coke.

It’s a shame that the people who get addicted and kill themselves with crack & cocaine get wrapped in the same category as an adult that want to smoke a joint on a Friday night….. What a weird world.

And if treated like alcohol. Kids will have as much access to it as a 6 pack of beer. In otherwords, if regulated, kids can’t get it.

So legalize it. And to the folks that say NO and that have never done it, what right do they have to judge it?

ya wat ive been waitin 4 best thing of all time and i hope they make 420 a natinal holiday

Jed clampett

For me, the gateway drug was tobacco. I can still remember the high I got from the first couple of cigarettes, and how I tried in vain for years to reach it again, developing a pack a day habit. Then I woke up one morning and lit one and started coughing and realized my body wasn’t designed to breathe smoke so much of the day, nor was I willing to put money in the pockets of ‘the pusher’. It was one of the most difficult tasks of will power to break a 10 year habit, but after two or three weeks the body stops craving it and the brain starts to reject it. Now I have trouble sitting in a room with smokers because of all the man made chemicals in it. I don’t have that problem with the jane. Her main drawback is that she’s oily and slows the movement of light through the body, something that can be avoided if not overused or mixed with powdered calamus root(sweet flag, also helps cure smoking).
I can understand why people try to use Jane to medicate themselves, I did it too, but it’s a crime and a sin to vilify the plant and ignore the causes of the illness that drives people to it’s abuse.

Jed,

I don’t think you were/are particularly ‘harsh.’ Anyone posting herein seeking reassuring props is sadly misguided. I am not THAT misguided nor did I take affront to anything you said.

Sometimes I find the ‘need’ to wax, how should I say it, disjointed? The whole absurdity, in my humble opinion, of this country’s warlike mentality requires names in kind.

Certainly no intent to belittle a deadly situation that threatens the lives of millions of innocents was meant.

Jed Clampett

BTW – freshly dried tobacco without stabilizers and other chemicals always gives a high, it’s an alkaloid

aren’t you people forgetting the long and short term damage weed can do to your mental health. Especially seen with skunk (really strong weed) I know people who have gone crazy from smoking to much. The mental health damage done by alcholol is far lower. Good day.

Hey anon @ 6/17/2009, 10:16 am EST.

Do you have any evidence of skunk (really strong weed) or any type, actually damaging peoples’ brains? Or do you just “know people?” I’m sure you like to drink since alcohol is far less dangerous, but if you could show me how many people die a year from alcohol related to weed i would like to see.

Jed,

Tried to respond; got ‘MCPED.’ I weary of the lameness herein.

Not to worry. Not the least bit offended. By your posts at least.

Jed Clampett

Understood, and happy to receive.

Peace brother.

Cannabis psychosis.

Look. It. Up

Jed Clampett

The psychosis was there before cannabis was used to try to mitigate it’s effects. They merely cranked up the volume when they saw a body electric become self aware.

This is a topic that only effects the drug addicts of our country. For anyone….Let alone a political figure to even debate legalizing the use of any drug is ridiculous. It seems that the legalization of marijauna is fast becoming the band wagon to jump on if you are a ” hip person ” in todays culture, but ask yourself this question. If your mother was struck by a vehicle being operated by someone high on marijauna would it still be so hip? and if you are offended in some way by this comment then GOOD! People like to joke about marijauna never hurting anyone except it does. Wake up people. seriously.

Yes,I’m all in favor of legalizing marijuana as well as lowering the legal drinking age back to 18.

Point to POnder:Why do we tell the Class of 2009 or 2010″Your’e 18.By Law,Your’e An Adult.
That Means You Can Vote;Get Married;Get a Job;Go To College;
Be Legally Tried As An Adult and Sentenced To Prison;Go Legally See Any R;NC17 or X Rated Movie;Join The Armed Forces and Lay Down Your Life In Afghanistan or Iraq!!
BUT You Can’t Go Into 7-11 And Buy a 6 Pack!!!”.
Yes,I Know That MADD and Some’Dr.Phil’Types Try To Say That”18 Year Olds Can’t Handle Alcohol Like Adults Can!!”.
But In All Fairness and Honesty,What’s The Difference Between an 18yo Drunk and a 48 yo Drunk??
Besides 30 years,not too much!!!
“You know somethin’?If you couldn’t read,you couldn’t look up what’s on television.”-The Beaver
(Jerry Mathers)”Leave It To Beaver”.

Jed Clampett

If my mother was struck by an alcoholic driving drunk and MJ would help alleviate her pain without having to resort to the crap those that tortured the German Jews would pump into her, then I’m all for it.

Great Article!

Dear Michael Kennedy!

Do you really think that a doctor in our society would risk everything to operate on a person drunk? I really don’t think that would happen. I’m sure it has but… So why would it be any different if Marijuana was legal. There would still be laws and regulations re: DUI and Public Consumption. Duh!

to anonymous who spoke to michael kennedy : swing and a miss

still, you could examine almost everything and say it will harm you. too much cheese = high in fat.
too much exercise = overexhaustion.

let’s face it, everything’s bad for us, so let’s just enjoy it as long as our own decision and no one else is at risk.

Jed Clampett

And therein lies the key, too much of anything is bad for ya… (gonna shoot a MaddaFukkin Moose!)

Things in moderation are good for us, when they are natural; When overdone and abused (unnatural), they will hurt us. As anything else, it’s a matter of personal choice. And a free society allows their people to have personal choice, but doesn’t leave them out there adrift without the right information to make an appropriate and valid choice.
Americans(?) had choice taken away from us by pigs who very craftily used the tools at their disposal to take information away from us and converted it to spin.

Restauranti. It’s an Italian word, Roman if you prefer, means to restore, to replenish. In the old days we understood the power of food to restore, to heal, to renew. We knew this because we knew it was alive. Full of the energy of the organisms that make the whole, and we knew how to promote the growth of the good, that which nourishes us, which by the way also outshines the hurtful.
Along comes the corporation and to protect their bottom line, they see an insect and poison it, mindless of it’s purpose; they see birds eating the insects to protect the fruit, and being the bottom feeders that they are, they desire to kill the bird as well. So they bring up the black goo Earth relegated to the depths and Heat to convert it, thinkin that by doing that they kill the hurtful living things that reside within it, it does not, then spread it over the land.
Mindless of what they do to the Earth, the birds, the insects or any of the other parts of the web of life, including themselves and their brethren.
To be mindful is to be in spirit, to be mindless is to have given up spirit completely, willingly, that makes them into empty shells ripe for manipulating, and that’s all the TITANS are, thus, they must be stripped of their power and taught to live how they have made the rest of us live. They lack the sense of responsibility for others to have that kind of power, and if the populace doesn’t stand up to stop them, and they won’t allow the one mind of source to move them to help others, then they will be set adrift, FLUSHED if you will.
“I remember back in the day, you used to say… flush me J, yea every Friday you would say flush me… you used to love being flushed” J to K -Men in Black 2

Humans evolved with Cannabis in thier diet/pharmacy.How else do you explain the existance of Cannabinoid receptors in the brain.To criminalize one of the most usefull food, fuel,fiber crops is foolish never mind the medical uses of “maryjane”.I just hope if legalised people will still be able to grow a few plants for home use without government involvement.Overgrow the government and free Mark Emory! peace

Michael Kennedy (prior post) must think that all doctors are drunk! I can’t wait to go to the doctor’s office and share a hooka with him!

Vicodin, etc.
Morphine, etc
valium, etc
alcohol

Legal drugs that can’t be taken in the workplace………Nice work Kennedy.

plain and simple…if alchohol is legal then marajuana should be too,
it’s not a drug it’s an herb
if they legalized it the govt could tax and regulate it, prisons wouldn’t be as full and therefore we would have lower taxes
and maybe get us out of a recession

I’ll vote for any politician that even considers legalizing marijuana. It’s about time. Just as alcohol prohibition didn’t work and instead created criminals, so to with marijuana. 65% of Mexican cartels profits would be cut off if we legalized marijuana. The states need the tax money. Those who want to smoke it currently obviously already are; legalization will not magically make those who do not wish to smoke want to.

Marijuana will be legalized as soon as the pharmaceutical industry goes along with it. They’re the ones who stand to ‘lose’ in this, unless they can become a part of it. But, at its current pace, private dispensaries would be the ones distributing the weed. But, if weed is legalized, that ‘pain killer’ isle in the grocery store would shrink considerably…….and tremendously cut into profits.

Jed Clampett

A modern doctor goes to school to learn about healing. But is met with years of instruction, and misinformation, then in internship is taught that ‘you can’t save them all, face it and carry on, some don’t even deserve it’. That is truly demoralizing and later it shows. He sees a patient coming through his door and he sees a bag of money coming at him and thinks about his little red corvette. Not his fault, the system is designed so he doesn’t pay attention to what is obvious, that something ain’t right. But being complacent doesn’t bother to check his own facts.

A healer takes a different path. He tries to understand the nature of illness, he digs and digs and finds out hidden knowledge and secret agendas and says, that sh!t ain’t right.

So the healer goes to the doctor knowing full well what the problem is. But the doctor thinks himself grand and does things according to training.
‘”take these antibiotics, see you in two weeks’
‘but antibiotics don’t work on mold’
‘trust me, I have 30 years experience’
So the healer follows instructions and only gets worse. Goes back to the doctor.
‘need stronger medicine’
‘but it won’t work on parasites’
‘we don’t have any here’
So the healer tries again, only getting worse. Then goes back.
‘try a stronger ‘anti-biotic’ (anti=against, biotic=life)’
‘but it keeps disrupting the symbiotic system, I won’t do it’
‘oh, OK, uncooperative patient doesn’t want to get better’
‘but even after surgery, all systems getting worse’
‘trust me’
‘hell no, good buy’
And so they have ignored two phylums that can hurt humans out of pig’s ignorance.

Healer takes to digging deeper and finds others before had made healing machines, and being also and engineer heals himself. But if he tries to share with others, he’s labeled and insurrectionist, danger to ‘national security’. Perhaps it’s only the bottom line of bottom feeders being endangered.

Modern healthcare, much like war, is a sham, a racket as Mr. Butler put it. It does not promote life, in fact quite the oposite, it extracts value from the patient.

Should the healer care if the pigs at the top loose their wings?
Should the populace accept what is being done to them?
Should the value of a system be stripped and placed in the hands of industrialists and corrupt, entrenched legislators that help them steal?
Term limits prevent the pigs from becoming too full of hot air to fall.
What are the articles of impeachment regarding a supposed representative of the people instead of the corporation?

Cannibis psychosis? NO SUCH THING.. Wake up people, take responsibility for what YOU do! We are far more advanced than the reefer madness days to think that marijuana is a gateway drug or at least as damaging as alcohol. I don’t smoke oregano when I am out of weed, but I have known an alcoholic or two to drink mouthwash when they can’t get whiskey. When the show Intervention does one on Marijuana you call me. Legalize it, theres plenty of money to be made, MONEY remember that, Call Amsterdam to see how it is done properly!

After reading most of these comments I’ve got a terrible headache!! Some Marijuana would help, but I digress.

It’s been 40 years since the summer of 69, how about instead of yelling at each other in the bloggs and You Tube arenas we actually get out in mass and march!!

Yes, I’m well aware of the amazing police state we all currently reside, but trying to arrest three thousand to ten thousand Marijuana smokers all at once would be a nightmare, and would further empower the people to believe that WE might actually have the power and not the bleeping politicians and corporations…or maybe I’m just stoned!!!

The Legalization of Marijuana. Will boost the economy.
Taxes paid a year on marijuana for one business was 11 million dollars. Just for one year. Marijuana is a billion dollar industry.

I’m all for the legalization of marijuana…I don’t feel as though Uncle Sam should be the one to tell me what I can or cannot put into my body. However, there are long-term chemical changes that can occur in the brain from chronic use of marijuana, or ANY substance for that matter. People should be informed of the facts and risks, so they can make informed decisions for themselves. But just as they should be given the responsibility to take care of themselves, the rest of us shouldn’t have to pay for them when they show up at their local drug and alcohol program looking for state-funded treatment.

On devrait instaurer une Taxe si bien sur on l’accepte …

Whether or not marijuana is legalized does not determine if someone smokes it or not. The prohibition of marijuana is relaive to the prohibition of cotton or corn. The plant itself has numerous uses: clothing, paper, oil, lotion, not to mention the medical purposes.

Imagine what we could learn if it were studied openly, and all its potential explored.

The harful side effects of marijuana are basically nonexistent compared to alcohol and tobacco.

Annual American deaths attributed to marijuana – 0. In 2000, tobacco was blamed for 435,000, and alcohol 85,000. Nothing else need be said.

Jed Clampett

Yes, a taxing of it would be good if it would be accepted, but that’s one of the ways they get you now. ‘No tax stamp? SLAM!!’

Coffee is an interesting drug. It’s such a complex alkaloid that as soon as you cut it off the plant, it starts breaking down. If roasted, and imbibed quickly, it’s even sweet.
When it hits the brain, all kinds of sparks go off, and if you seldom use it, it can take you for a ride.
But if you misuse it and abuse it, as modern man has chosen to do, it dries the brain, shrinks blood vessels, sends the heart into overdrive, and a host of other changes in the system, including intestinal plaque… yet no war on that drug. HMMM??

Perhaps the key is whether Sanka is vertically integrated into the operation that determines legality or candidacy for war.

Marijuana psychosis????
Are you serious!?!?! You mean I might become apathetic??? How terrible! And what about the millions that are apathetic without THC…

WETBRAIN!
Look. It. Up….1000x worse than anything marijuana can do!

legalizing would solve many problems in r country create jobs in customer service and help farmers turn more money which im am sure will inject back in to the economy

Only pot heads want it legal. Like all the ones below this post.

Bunch of pot heads here.

Jed Clampett

Go have another drink and wallow in your joy. Let the grown ups have a conversation.

I truly believe the world would be a better place if smoking pot became more accepted in society. It mellows you out, how could it not!!

“Well I would not feel so all alone…EVERYBODY must get stoned”

Bob Dylan

legalize it so as to let scientist do more research on it, to understand its “potential”…
legalize it for medicinal use…

general use? for what? for people can abuse it as much as people abuse alcohol?

There’s really no difference between alcohol and marijuana. In fact, you could argue that weed is more safe because no one can physically die from an OD on weed. It is possible to drink onesself to death.
That said, I will never vote to legalize marijuana, it makes people retarded. This is coming from someone with years and years of weed smoking. And from someone who loves being high. I don’t do it anymore though because of said negative effects. I will never condone such an activity for legal use. Or drinking for that matter, but alcohol is already legal and we all know what happened when they made it illegal.

say partycrasher,
u actually condemn my country for having window prostituting??
wtf!
look at your own country, where hookers have to walk the streets, fair game for every psycho out there.
so yeah, maybe legalized prostitution isnt everyones fancy, but they pay their taxes, get health inspection and so forts.
but i digress.
some people here claim pot is so bad for your brains and u get insane or whatnot.
mmm alcohol doesnt do that? hell even coffee is bad for your health, where is the crusade against that?
nay, let it up to the people themselves to decide if they want to smoke pot, i dont need no government peeps to tell me what to do to my own body. i am an adult i can think for myself thank u. thnk god i live in a country where they know this.
long live the netherlands!
and to you holland haters out there in the us:
up yours, good chance your country wouldnt be here without mine.

Jed Clampett

Now there’s a good topic to get into… how they turn out little girls who have nothing to loose. Send them into the porn industry and cajole them into sickening acts.
Now they are being ravaged by HIV and the guys at the top are raking it in while they spread more poison to lure more of them in.
What a racket. HMMM

Wonder who is invested to the gills.

Jed Clampett

Perhaps they prefer to display those they forced into pros.ti.tution through a different window.

How about that, now you can get your porn directly from you i-Phone… isn’t technology wonderful in the right hands?
Those are not the Good Hands, people.

I for one thought that this was a poor article as it failed to capture the Dickensian aspect of the drug war.

its less harmful than alcohol or tobacco yet its illegal. it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure somethings wrong. its time to move on and start bringing in some extra captiol to the country and help get out of the recession.