Policy Mic: The City You'd Least Expect Has Just Decriminalized Marijuana - Washington D.C.

Lo and behold: Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States and the center of federal government, has decriminalized the possession and consumption of small amounts of marijuana.

By a near-unanimous vote, the D.C. city council has decided to eliminate laws that made possession of up to an ounce of marijuana a criminal offense punishable by a fine of $1,000 or a six-month prison sentence. When the new regulations go into effect this summer, possession will be punishable only by a fine of $25; public consumption will remain a misdemeanor, but with a maximum fine of $500 or 60 days in jail. D.C. joins the 17 states that have decriminalization laws on the books, and has become one of the most lenient cities in the country when it comes to marijuana offenses.

"This means that, outside of Washington and Colorado, marijuana penalties are now less punitive in our nation’s capital than anywhere else in the country!" Marijuana Policy Project federal projects director Dan Rifle wrote in an open-letter.

Council member Tommy Wells, chief sponsor of the legislation, says that "This is a major step since we are the nation's capital, and I am proud of that."

Source:  www.policymic.com

Dr. Sanjay Gupta Explores Politics Of Pot In "Weed 2: Cannabis Madness: Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports"

At Least Marijuana Never Killed Anyone: Girl Smokes Marijuana, Leaves Her Baby On The Roof Of Her Car, And Drives Away

By Dominic Kelly, Wed, February 26, 2014

A 21-year-old Phoenix woman has pleaded guilty to charges against her after a 2012 incident in which she left her baby on the roof of her car and drove away.

Catalina Clouser was reportedly under the influence of marijuana at the time of the incident. She has been charged with single counts of child abuse and DUI.

According to reports, Clouser, then 19 years old, was at her friend’s home smoking marijuana after finding out that her boyfriend was arrested on DUI charges. When she left her friend’s home, she unknowingly placed her baby boy, who was strapped in his car seat, on the roof of her car and drove away.

Clouser drove 12 miles home before realizing that her son was not with her.

Witnesses discovered the baby still strapped in his seat lying in the middle of the road. The baby was taken to the hospital but did not sustain any injuries.

Following the incident, the child was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Source:  www.opposingviews.com

USA Today: Feds Worry That Drug Cartels Are Moving Into Colorado With 400% Increase In Drug Cartel Activity

Kitten & The Hip: "Don't You Worry" Song About a Chick Trying to Score Some Weed, Ends Up In Jail

Don't You Worry by Kitten and The Hip.

I got no papers, got no smoke 


Damn this night wont let me toke 


Wanna get hooked up with Mary Jane


She ain’t got none, missed the train


Pushy pusher, got no friends 


Until she’s got her s**t in again 


Got no crystals gleaming bright


I just wanna get high tonight


Feel that green go to my head 


Wanna get blazed fore I go to bed

Tried old Jonny down the road 


Says the feds just nicked his load


He told me that there’s none about


Damn I’m clucking fuck this drought


Looking for another clue 


Got the name of some dodgy dude 


Meet him at Builder’s Arms


Not that dodgy, full of charm 


He’s too spangled, in the zone 


Gonna have to grow my own

Bought some seeds from the internet 


2 working days and I’ll be set 


Light my lamps and sow my seeds


Snip and trim that sticky cheese


People told me watch your back 


Peel an eye for the boys in black


Police come knocking at the door


I’m out sparko on the floor


My mates ran out leaving me 


Now I’m in jail with nobody

If You Like Your Drug Policy, You Can Keep That Too!

By Alexandra D. Datig

Remember how the President promised if Americans like his or her health insurance plan, they can keep it under Obamacare?  Then it turned out millions of Americans were denied coverage from their own plan providers?  Only months after the President’s statement turned out to be false he does it again with a statement so shockingly against his own policy, it can only lead us to conclude that if Americans like his and her drug policy, they can keep that too! 

Make no mistake, President Obama’s recent statement in the New Yorker regarding drug legalization was a calculated attempt at persuading Americans to favor legalizing of drugs without coming right out and saying it, in conflict with his own policies as well as the Controlled Substances Act.   That is why he took the closet-legalizer approach by being careful to say to the New Yorker “if someone says” this or that, meaning he didn’t say it, yet he encourages drug legalization advocates to go-ahead and say it,… you know, wink-wink, sort of… LOL.    

Take for example his comments “if we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine.”  I am sober more than 15 years thank God, and just like the President who admitted to cocaine use in his book “Dreams From My Father” (1995), I too have used cocaine.  Knowing this, the President also knows that any cocaine user is aware, there is no such thing as a “negotiated dose of cocaine,” because to even a first-time user cocaine creates a fiendish craving for more.  A lot more.  Therefore, to suggest there is an acceptable dose of cocaine to a cocaine user is like saying there is an acceptable amount of gas to drive 1500 miles even though your gas tank that only holds 18 gallons.   It has also been scientifically documented that cocaine can create permanent unhealthy changes in the brain, even for first-time users.  The same goes for marijuana and many other drugs.  

Here’s where the calculation starts.  After making these remarks Americans should theoretically be thinking cocaine may be harmful, but wouldn’t it be safer if it were legal?  Would that make it “better” for cocaine addicts?  No one is talking about how we should curb use except drug prevention organizations who are seemingly falling on deaf ears.  To the President, however, that is not the point.  After all, Americans have a right to do what they want with his or her body, wink-wink... LOL.  Caveats of cocaine addiction and death should not be mentioned by the President of the United States?  Really folks, this is what it has come to.

The President also said, “if marijuana is fully legalized.”  With that statement he showed zero confidence in his own drug control strategy that speaks against the legalization of marijuana by which he is expected to lead the country!  What Americans should be asking is, if President Obama is no longer president, will marijuana be given the same nonchalant and casual leeway?  My immediate guess is, no, it will not, regardless of whether a Republican or a Democrat is occupying the White House.      

To his comments about marijuana not being as bad as alcohol?  Bad?  Is that the best he can do?  For a Harvard Law School graduate to use the word 'not as “bad”' seems plebian.   How about marijuana is not as impairing and intoxicating as alcohol, though it does impair the user’s ability to reason at times.   As a former member of the Choom Gang, the President also knows what it means to be an experienced marijuana user.  He likely knows how to self-dose and drive stoned.  He probably knows the difference between Indica and Sativa and likely has had his fair share of Maui-wowie when he lived in Hawaii.  Does that make his closer-legalizer approach more persuasive?

Sadly, the entire recreational marijuana movement is built on the premise of alcohol prohibition.  Instead of making a reasonable consumer-based argument, drug legalization advocates have taken a model of radicalized rebellion and personal right because, to quote the President, “marijuana is not as bad as alcohol.”  Like alcohol, marijuana is slowly being made legal by dividing communities with radicalized pro-drug propaganda and with his recent statements President Obama has shown he is in lock-step with the hoodwinking pro-drug lobby.

If there ever is a negotiated amount of legal meth as the President suggests in his interview with the New Yorker, he should be the first to try some right before he gives a State of the Union Address.  Maybe then Americans can decide if they think it is bad or "ok" or  not.  At the end of the day, we do need to figure out how to take the black market away from ruthless drug cartels.  By dividing Americans with conflicting drug laws and an outdated radicalized alcohol prohibition model to aim at legalization, the President is only doing what he knows how to do best.  Divide America by sounding like a crackpot.

Reflection

President Obama’s Passive-Agressive Approach To Drug Policy Is Destroying America

By Alexandra D. Datig 

The National Drug Control Strategy of 2010, signed by the President of the United States, clearly states that the President of the Unite States, Barack Obama was firmly opposed to the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.  But look what a second term as President can bring.  Silence to get more votes in Colorado and Washington State?  Muzzling of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein who was once clearly publicly outspoken against the legalization of marijuana?  Statements like “we need to learn more about medical marijuana” while at the same time shutting down countless marijuana dispensaries all across the nation?  An Attorney General who can’t make up his mind on mandatory minimum sentencing for what he calls “non-violent” drug offenders?    A passive-agressive approach to drug policy perhaps? 

Recently, President of the United States Barack Obama made the following statement.  "If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, well, ‘We can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka,’ are we open to that?" Obama wondered. "If somebody says, ‘We've got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn't going to kill you or rot your teeth,’ are we O.K. with that?"  Maybe we should begin by asking the various nations the United States has signed drug treaties with?  Does the President even realize that the U.S. is now in violation of several international treaties due to drug decriminalization in various states?  The zero-tolerance approach to drugs in the U.S. has certainly taken its toll on the prohibition of drugs, especially marijuana.  When searching a little deeper, legalization of marijuana would also cost police department’s vast amounts of money because legalization would also change and void asset forfeiture laws.  But then again, we already know the President plans to make up the difference by taxing the rich and aiming for single-payer universal healthcare with Obamacare. 

Off in the distance, somewhere in Northern California, members of a Mexican drug cartel have set up shop on public land to grow marijuana.  Destroying the eco-systems by creating dams to divert water for their crops, they use toxic and dangerous pesticides in the form of “edible” pellets that kill birds and they shoot the deer that like the taste of marijuana leaves.   Even bears are attracted to the site from the scent of food in the grower camp and when they come near, are shot dead.  To pass the time, dead bears and deer become trophies and the growers like taking pictures next to their kill, posing as if he just won a giant stuffed animal at a family carnival.  

They have guns and knives and have no hesitation using them when they spot other drug gangs or cops  in the area.  Gunfire from black market growers has sparked many spot and even wildfires.  When a rival cartel is spotted, drug gangs have also been known to detonate small bombs to smoke each other out. 

Depending on light and growing conditions they stay at the site about 100 days.  That is usually the turn around period it takes for a crop to reach harvest and acceptable drying conditions.  When they are finished, they leave trash and toxic waste behind and the eco-system to fend for itself.  All they care about now is turning the marijuana into fast cash to anyone willing to pay the asking price on the street.  Legalization of marijuana has made things easier for Cartels that have also been caught working with marijuana doctors.  

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the City is fighting to shut down over one thousand marijuana dispensaries because people are abusing medical marijuana laws.  Instead of buying from the cartels and drug gangs, patrons seeking recreational marijuana in California, find him and herself claiming false illness to obtain a doctor’s recommendation to legally obtain marijuana under state but not federal law.   These recreational users would rather lie than buy marijuana from a drug gang and many believe by doing so they are engaging in a noble cause by choosing to buy pot from a regulated lawful source.  The question is, can we truly call these people criminals and lawbreakers knowing the alternative of how drug cartels operate to get drugs onto America’s streets?

Americans have chosen to use marijuana long before the question of drug legalization became a daily topic in the news.  Politically, legalization for recreational use has been before voters for more than 41 years.

According to the latest Gallup poll, 58% of Americans now believe marijuana should be legalized.  Evaluating the risks of introducing marijuana as a recreational drug into the legal market has proven roads would be more dangerous, on-the-job accidents more prevalent and has shown that teenage use dramatically increases.  Do these factors prevent us from stopping drug cartels and drug gangs who push marijuana on citizens that have no clue where the pot he or she is buying came from, or what is in it?

Let’s face it, there are those among us who have decided that at one time or another marijuana will become a recreational habit.  One we can take or leave alone.  I have yet to see a pro-drug group outspoken about drug addiction so that we can curb drug abuse.  That is simply not the intention of the drug lobby and apparently it is also not the intention of President Obama.  

Being sober more than 15 years I can say I have already had my fair share and in my case, it didn’t increase the quality of my life.  Therefore, I don’t use pot or anything else unless I am so ordered by my physician and even then I may not use what is prescribed.  Yet I also know that I am not like everyone else and that people have a right to choose what to put in his or her body.  People have a civil right to want their own experience with marijuana whether it benefits the quality of life or not and they are exercising that right whether we like it or not.  As it stands, the only thing can prevent these choices is the law, which condemns and outcasts drug users, taking away quality of life and liberty.  

It is pretty likely that within the next two years more than half the country will have states with medical marijuana laws.  In other words folks, the train has left the station and there is no point in chasing the train down the tracks trying to reverse the irreversible.  That means the national poll numbers are likely to increase, especially when looking at polling trends of favoritism toward the decriminalization of marijuana in the last ten years.  A tragedy?  Yes, because the movement, like President Obama, is aimless and wants not just to legalize drugs but also to liberalize them.   

Therefore, the question we should be asking is no longer if pot should be legal.  But rather, are we going about legalization in the right way?  Are drug policy advocates selling a reckless agenda and succeeding just to get their foot in their door?  Is America going to keep falling for the same arguments of back-door marijuana legalization by getting states to jump on the bandwagon with medical marijuana laws?   Or are we going to get smart about this issue and figure out a way to get control of it?

Starting at the top with the President of the United States, we are increasingly no longer a nation that wants to get tough on drugs or drug users.  If legalization methods and polling trends continue, it is quite possible that marijuana and even other drugs will be legal for recreational use within the next five to ten years.  Without clarity and leadership from the Commander in Chief, the chaos with conflicting drug laws in America’s communities is only going to continue.  We either find a way to create clear drug policy and create a safe and regulated market or we make the on-going free-fall liberalization of drugs worse.  

UK Daily Mail: 'And I smoke weed': Disturbing footage emerges of drunk and abusive 9-year-old on a scooter claiming to have downed EIGHTEEN cans of 7% whisky and cola

For more visit:  www.dailymail.co.uk

CNN: Colorado's Pot Boom

Even Robin Didn't Know...

Salon.com: Confessions of a Pot Addict: After 13 Years Of Daily Use, I Stopped Smoking Weed. But Quitting Only Made Me Feel Better About The Drug

Salon, by M. WELCH  

My relationship with pot started off badly. I lost all my high school friends after self-righteously refusing to smoke. I preached at everyone until our friendships evaporated. “I know if I try it, I will like it too much,” I remember saying — perhaps the only smart, true statement I would utter for many years to come.

The hardest friend to lose was a guy I’ll call Kevin. Kevin got me off Ratt and onto The Smiths. He got me playing guitar, which continues to provide me with happiness and social adventures at the age of 39. Without Kevin’s musical influence, I surely wouldn’t have moved from Florida to my beloved New Orleans after college. I worshipped Kevin until junior year, when he began smoking weed and abandoned me and my antidrug bitching. That same year, Kevin’s parents bought him a very nice car, which he crashed while skipping school and tripping on mushroom with his new drug buddies. At the time, I felt depressed but also extremely right.

When I finally broke down and tried pot in college at the age of 20, I realized I’d judged it totally wrong. Judgments regarding weed never prove factual, since the drug affects everyone differently. Some people plant themselves on the couch with snacks. Others grow manic and suffer panic attacks. I think of weed as a relaxant, a simple inverse of coffee — and not just because I smoked every morning for a long, long time.

Weed never made me unproductive. In fact, it helped me work. I’d leave fun parties because, within moments of smoking, I had to rush home and produce something: record a song, write a story. If asked, doctors might claim I suffer from ADD, although I’ve mostly lived by the advice “never ask a barber if you need a haircut.” I did visit a counselor once in hopes of replacing weed with a nonsmokeable drug that my daughter couldn’t see me take and that wouldn’t get me arrested. I told the counselor we could skip all the talking if he could refer me to a psychiatrist with a prescription pad. First though, I told him how much weed helped me. He nodded, confidentially agreed, then gave me a number I never called. I feared pills would kill my libido and my desire to record music and write, whereas weed made me more horny and creative. So, no thanks, doc.

Most important, though, weed made me calm and nice. I grew up in a tumultuous, mildly violent Irish household, which burdened me with lifelong anger issues. Before becoming a real and true pothead, I fought ferociously with my long-term college girlfriend — a fiery girl herself who was prone to throwing punches. Like my mother, I had trouble getting along with everyone. Unlike mom, though, I refused to ignore the common denominator: me.

So the discovery of pot was, for me, a mellowing godsend. Weed severely dampened my anger. My volatile girlfriend and I enjoyed more mindblowing sex while high. Also, once I officially gave in to a pot lifestyle, my brain slowed down by the perfect amount to let me, for the first time ever, sit and enjoy a book. I was even able to organize my thoughts enough to write a few books of my own.

Weed always provided outstanding musical companionship. Life never felt more perfect than when it was reduced to just me, pot and a four-track recorder. I remember wearing headphones and smoking a fat joint at the moment I received the phone call telling me I’d failed the drug test required to sell guitars at a Florida music store. That sounds ridiculous, but businesses whose employees pass drug tests get nice insurance breaks. “We all smoke here,” admitted the flustered guitar store manager. “How could you let this happen?”

Years later, I passed a drug test at New Orleans downtown public library with the aid of an orange drink called Vale, and then I began counting down six months of probationary days until the second test. Unfortunately, my library bosses loved me so much that, after five months, I arrived at work to news that they wanted to make my employment permanent immediately: “Just walk around the corner to the clinic and get the stupid drug test out of the way, and you’ll be ours forever!” announced my sweet old-lady boss. Despite first ducking into Walgreens and purchasing a tiny bottle of bleach to hide between my butt cheeks (I’d been told bleach confuses piss tests), I lost that job. It felt like being fired for drinking coffee.

Humiliated, sad and broke, I nonetheless refused to quit smoking, vowing to never again apply for a job that required drug testing. I’d also, by that point, realized I should never, ever try any “real” drugs (“I know if I try it, I will like it too much”). I have stood by both of those convictions ever since.

In 2005, my weed need was exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina. Lots of locals fared far worse than I, but watching everyone lose their homes and families poisoned even the unscathed with severe mental anguish. I began carrying a one-hitter pipe that I used every waking moment. As a busy freelance writer working from home, I took a pull off the metal cigarette roughly every half-hour until, by the end of the day, I had smoked the equivalent of a big joint (a bit more on band practice days).

New Orleans had previously boasted shitty and expensive weed. After Katrina, some entrepreneurial spirit realized this — someone from Houston, we suspected — and suddenly luscious, fragrant weed became available everywhere for $50 an eighth. For the next seven years, I spent roughly $200 a month — not a ridiculous amount for what I considered to be successful mental health medicine.

I always made a point to speak honestly about my habit to medical doctors. At the end of any physical, after being told my lungs sounded pink, I derived perverse delight from admitting I smoked weed 20 times a day. My doctors never showed surprise and never gave me any real warnings, which I took to be further proof of pot’s innate harmlessness.

I never tried to quit, but whenever I ran out, it would only be a matter of hours before I’d end up in a loud argument with my girlfriend-now-wife or with an editor or with whoever else had previously pissed me off but had eluded my wrath when I’d been too stoned to care. “Jesus, go buy some weed!” my wife would shout back at me. And, unhappy with the angry intensity of my “real” personality, I did as instructed.

The birth of our daughter in 2009 did nothing to curb my use — not even when the baby would find and bring to me my dirty one-hitter, announcing, “This is yours!” Once, she got hold of a paperclip gooey with resin (which I’d used to unclog a pipe) and ruined her very cute pink onesie. But I just couldn’t bear the possibility she might ever hear me shout like an angry maniac. Stoned, funny daddy did nothing but right by the little girl.

Finally, this holiday season, my wife planned a 10-day trip for us to visit her family in DC, which meant 10 days without medicine. The idea intimidated me, but for the first time, I looked forward to a break — my longest in maybe seven years.

Real weed withdrawal occurs only in serious potheads, who are so used to feeling mellow and content that neutrality prickles. Vacation preparation consisted of reading up on what to expect: irritability, loss of appetite, insomnia. That first week up north did indeed feel like the “Basketball Diaries.” Not really. But my brain burned for five sleepless nights and days and, had we not been in her parents’ house, my wife and I would have argued constantly — that need to fake sanity proved a blessing.

Then, on the fifth day, I began to calm. By the eighth day, the monkey vanished, and I haven’t seen him since.

During the following month of sobriety, I’ve turned down weed a dozen times, sans temptation. Which says a lot for pot. To put it in perspective: I also love milk, and upon the birth of my daughter, I ceased buying cow’s milk, wary of its corporate hormones. But soy never satisfied my intense lactose craving, and I caved within six months. Even though I’m not a big boozer, after Mardi Gras every year I abstain from alcohol for only 30 days (a sort of agnostic Lent) because the prescribed 40 is just too long. And two weeks after Fat Tuesday, I simply must gulp down one big glass of red wine to get me through the final two weeks.

But after 13 years of heavy daily marijuana usage I, miraculously, do not crave it at all. Which leads me to believe even more strongly that pot is as harmless as coffee. I simply abused it. It was me. Had I eaten as much peanut butter as I smoked weed all those years, I might have died of peanut butter overdose.

I can’t deny feeling smarter and more productive now. I wrote and published four books while high, but I might’ve written eight sober. By now, my brain feels permanently baked to perform at a slower, more comfortable speed, and I feel nowhere near as insane as I expected. I feel in better control of my emotions than at any other time in my life.

Or maybe I just feel temporarily good right now, having grown tired of a wonderful thing. I similarly love snorkeling, exploring the psychedelic depths and strange, colorful creatures therein. But if I could somehow stay under the beautiful water for 13 years, I imagine my eventual time back on land would feel fresh and interesting and that I could gladly avoid the ocean for a long, long time.

M. Welch is a New Orleans author and journalist. His work has appeared at Newsweek, Oxford American, McSweeney's, Vice and many other publications.

Source:  www.Salon.com

CNN: Miley Cyrus: "Weed is the best drug"

Christian Science Monitor: Kevin Sabet of Project SAM - 7 big myths about marijuana and legalization

Just days after President Obama told the press through his spokesman that he was not prepared to change federal marijuana laws, the Justice Department announced last week that it would defer its right to challenge state laws legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado. Its decision not to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in those states mark a significant change for the administration, and Americans can now expect the creation of large, for-profit commercial marijuana enterprises that will threaten public health and safety.

As a former drug-policy adviser in the Obama administration, I’m often asked why anyone would oppose marijuana legalization. The answer is found in my new book, “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.” In short, my work has shown that marijuana legalization would pose too many risks to public health and safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations in which I have worked, here are seven widely held myths about marijuana that Americans need to know.

Marijuana activist Brian Vicente speaks in Denver Sept. 4, advocating for Proposition AA, which would enact a 15 percent excise tax on the wholesale distribution of marijuana as well as a 10 percent sales tax at the retail level. Op-ed contributor Keven A. Sabet writes: 'Legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs.' (Brennan Linsley/AP)

1. Myth: Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive

Admittedly, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but to say it is harmless or nonaddictive is to deny science. TheNational Institutes of Health reports that 1 out of every 6 adolescents who try the drug will develop an addiction. This may not amount to the experience of the Woodstock generation, but scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some five to six times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s (and some strains are upward of 10 times stronger than in the past). This translated to almost 400,000 marijuana-related emergency room visits in 2008 due to things like acute psychotic episodes and car crashes. 

In fact, according to the British Medical Journal, marijuana intoxication doubles your risk of a car crash. Mental health researchers are also noting a  significant marijuana connection with schizophrenia. And educators are seeing how persistent marijuana use can blunt academic motivation and significantly reduce IQ – by up to eight points according to a very large recent study in New Zealand. Regular marijuana use hurts America’s ability to learn and compete in a global marketplace.

2. Myth: Smoked or eaten marijuana is medicine

While the marijuana plant has known medical value, that does not mean smoked or ingested raw marijuana is medicine. Just as patients don’t smoke opium or inject heroin for morphine’s medical benefits, they should not smoke marijuana for such reasons.

A pill, Marinol, based on marijuana’s active ingredient, is available by prescription at US pharmacies today. Nearly two dozen countries have approved a new oral spray comprised of marijuana extract. The spray, Sativex, produced in Britain, does not get you high, contains levels of ingredients rarely found in street-grade marijuana, and has proven its effectiveness for relieving cancer pain and muscle spasticity. It will be available in the US soon, and in the meantime, the federal government should start a research program to allow medications like this one to be used by qualified patients under physician supervision.

The point is not to deny patients a medication to help them, but to prevent smoked or eaten marijuana from becoming a smokescreen for recreational use, or from being misused. Patients should be able to access a medication that is both scientifically approved and obtainable at a pharmacy – not “medical marijuana lollipops” at stores that feature bouncers, bongs, and a neon green cross on the door.

3. Myth: Countless people are behind bars simply for smoking marijuana

Reducing America’s high incarceration rate is a lofty goal, and one that I wholeheartedly support. But legalizing marijuana will not make even a small dent in America’s state or federal imprisonment rates. That is because less than 0.3 percent of all state prison inmates are there for smoking marijuana.

Moreover, most people arrested for marijuana use are cited with a ticket. Very few serve time behind bars unless it is in the context of another crime or a probation or parole violation.  At the same time, society shouldn’t saddle low-level marijuana users with criminal records. But legalizing marijuana in order to solve that problem is not the answer.

4. Myth: The legality of alcohol and tobacco strengthen the case for legal marijuana

“Marijuana is safer than alcohol, so marijuana should be treated like alcohol” is a catchy, often-used argument in the legalization debate. But this assumes that America’s alcohol policy is something worth modeling. In fact, because alcohol and cigarettes are used at such a high rate due to their wide availability, the country’s two legal intoxicants cause more harm, are the cause of more arrests, and kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol happens to be legal for cultural reasons, and it would be difficult to turn back the clock on its legalization. But why add a third drug to the list of legal killers?

5. Myth: Legal marijuana will solve government budget problems

A motivating factor for some legislators and voters who favor legalization is a well-intentioned desire to raise government revenue. After all, why let the drug dealers and cartels make all the money in a time of depleted budgets?

Unfortunately, neither states nor the federal government can expect any net gain with marijuana legalization. In fact, legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs, according to a complication of US government and other studies cited by the White House. Additionally, two major business lobbies – big tobacco and the liquor lobby – work hard to keep taxes on these drugs from rising and to promote use. The last thing the country needs is the “Marlboroization of marijuana.” But that is exactly what we can expect if we let marijuana into the open marketplace.

6. Myth: Portugal and the Netherlands provide successful models of legalization

Contrary to media reports and partisan think tanks, Portugal and the Netherlands have not legalized drugs, including marijuana. In Portugal, someone caught with a small amount of drugs is sent to a three-person panel and given treatment, a fine, or a warning and release. The result of this 2001 policy is less clear. Treatment services were ramped up at the same time the new policy was implemented, and a decade later there are more young people using marijuana, but fewer people dying of opiate and cocaine overdoses.

In the Netherlands, officials seem to be scaling back their marijuana non-enforcement policy (lived out in “coffee shops”) after witnessing higher rates of marijuana use and treatment admissions there. The government no longer allows non-residents to buy marijuana. What all of this says about how legalization would play out in the hyper-commercial US, which is obsessed with advertising, is another point entirely.

7. Myth: People have always smoked marijuana and always will. Why try to stop it?

Less than 8 percent of Americans smoke marijuana versus 52 percent who drink and 27 percent of people who use tobacco products. Instead of normalizing marijuana, we should be keeping it illegal and continue to spend resources on reducing demand. These efforts work. Communities that implement local anti-marijuana strategies by area-wide coalitions of parents, schools, faith communities, businesses, and, yes, law enforcement, have shown significant reductions in marijuana use. Brief interventions and treatment for marijuana addiction also work, as do probation reform programs and drug treatment courts.

Marijuana policy is not straightforward. For some, using pot is not a dangerous issue. For others, marijuana use is a serious problem. For society as a whole, its use is a large and growing public health issue with significant costs.

The Justice Department’s decision to allow for-profit marijuana businesses to take root is dangerous and misguided, inconsistent with international law, and undermines the president’s own objectives to promote health and education. A greater effort should be exerted to make nonsmoked, scientifically approved medications derived from marijuana available, but we should not let myths guide marijuana policy. America can do better.

Source:  www.csmmonitor.com

Denver FOX 31: Pot tax protesters plan to hand out thousands of joints at Civic Center Park

TBAC - Roger Morgan: Obama/Holder Serving Soros, Republic Enemy Number One

By Roger Morgan, Take Back America Campaign

Obama, faced with his “redline” declaration, is about to bomb Syria to avenge the 1500 people who were heinously gassed to death in Syria. 

How about, Mr. President, we Americans “redline” you for turning your back on America’s drug problem, even perpetuating the problem by ignoring your obligation to enforce federal CSA laws.  Almost all of the 1500 Americans who die every two weeks started their drug journey with marijuana.  While you punish Assad, maybe America should punish you.

The reality is America has been hijacked by Republic enemy number one, master of subversion, billionaire, sociopath Drug Lord George Soros.  Soros hates America, and is the principle financier behind the pro-legalization movement, and Obama’s campaign.  Soros’ purpose is designed to destroy a significant percentage of our population to help fulfill his messianic vision of a new world order. Unfortunately, due to the corruptive powers of his money, he controls the President, the press and the Democratic Party. 

Obama’s first act was to downgrade the Drug Czar position from cabinet level to reporting to the Vice President, a nice buffer so he wouldn’t have to face America’s biggest problem directly.  The result was we ended up with two national drug policies: 1) Drug Czar Kerlikowske’s official national drug policy, for political cover, and 2) Holder’s “do nothing” policy in terms of enforcing federal law. The result is a 15 to 20% increase in marijuana use, and an unenlightened nation being led down the path of destruction by legalization efforts for a drug that causes permanent damage to adolescent brains, and myriad other adverse outcomes.

Marijuana doesn’t kill by overdose, but overdose isn’t the only cause of death.  Marijuana is a causal factor in psychosis, including schizophrenia, paranoia and suicidal depression.  It is a major factor in armed robberies, violent crime, traffic deaths, testicular cancer, respiratory problems including cancer of the head, neck, throat and lungs, just to mention a few.

The mass shootings of late, like Tucson, Aurora, the Pentagon and more are a result of marijuana induced psychosis.  Even the Boston Bombers were both pot heads.  Marijuana isn’t the only cause of psychosis, but it is a major cause.  And rather than find resources to treat it and shovel up the damage, we should be preventing it to begin with.

Nationally 53% to 87% of arrestees test positive for drugs.  The average addict commits 100 crimes a year.  America has declined to 26^th in the world academically, with a one-third drop out rate.  Each drop out carries a life time cost of $392,000 … which equates to $470 billion per annum considering we have 1.2 million dropouts. 

In August 2012 research at U of Texas San Antonio revealed that today’s high potency pot can kill a baby in the womb within two weeks of conception, before the mother even knows she is pregnant.  Research from 40 or 50 years ago showed marijuana caused still births to ruse from 12% normal to 44%.  Babies that survived child birth often had physical deformities and brain damage.  What’s worse, because of mutations to sperm the problem could result from the male partner, and because it led to chromosomal abnormalities, it was mutagenic, which meant the problem could leap one generation and effect the next. 

Obama’s administration REFUSED to issue a health alert.  Of course that was pre election. How many babies have died, and/or will die, because Obama is serving Soros instead of the American people? 

By doing nothing, Obama has intentionally allowed the proliferation of “medical hoax marijuana,” to spread to 21 states, and marijuana use to grow by 15 to 20%.   Now he and Holder have arrogantly condoned recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, in direct contradiction to the federal laws they are expected to uphold

Drugs, starting with marijuana, kill, destroy and inflict more economic harm on America than all events in modern history.  If the Commander-In-Chief is unwilling or incapable of fulfilling his oath of office to protect the American people, then it is time to replace him with someone who will.

More at:  www.tbac.us