Ron Paul and Marijuana

[CurtisLow]

Drug arrests = felon. / felon's can't vote.

So that's over a million people that can't vote. Do you think the right wing agenda was thinking about this on the war on drugs. U-Bet your ass.

 

[CurtisLow]

RE:

Equal Justice?

Mary Winkler is out of jail. She served 67 days after her conviction for shooting her husband in the back as he lay in bed and killing him. Now she’ll go back to work at the dry cleaners in McMinnville, Tennessee, and seek to regain custody of her children.

Meanwhile, Will Foster was sentenced to 93 years for using marijuana to relieve the pain of his acute rheumatoid arthritis. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years, and Gov. Frank Keating made him serve more than four years before granting him parole.

A few miles from Mary Winkler in Tennessee, 57-year-old Bernie Ellis has been confined for the past 18 months to a halfway house. His crime? Growing marijuana to treat a degenerative condition in his hips and spine. A public health epidemiologist specializing in substance abuse, he also provided pot to some other sick people. 10 officers of the Tennessee Marijuana Eradication Task Force swooped in to put a stop to that, and to try to seize his farm as well.

In a more just world, Tennessee would set up a Murder Eradication Task Force, leave Bernie Ellis alone, and give Mary Winkler a tad more than 67 days for shooting her husband to death.



Whens this injustice going to stop!

 

[devil21]

When I broach this topic I always go straight to an analogy regarding alcohol and prohibition. Alcohol was outlawed as evil and it subsequently turned the trade of alcohol into an organized crime operation that caused more problems than it solved. Once people woke up and realized prohibition was pointless alcohol was again legalized as it is today. Are there people with alcohol problems today? Yes! But are there enough problems to justify banning it again? No! The same argument applies to drugs, particularly marijuana. Prohibition causes more problems for society than it fixes. People are going to (ab)use substances whether they are legal or illegal, its just human nature.

EDIT: Forgot how to tie it in to Dr. Paul's views. Dr. Paul believes that drugs should not be a legal or illegal designation by the federal government but rather a decision by each respective state and that state's citizens. If Connecticut wants to ban cocaine, fine, it will still be banned. The issue is about your right to do what you wish to yourself without the feds trying to protect you from yourself. Numerous states (12) have medical marijuana laws on the books but recently California has been getting stormed with DEA shutting down dispensaries! Dispensaries that the citizens voted FOR! Dr. Paul believes this type of action by the feds is outside of the scope of the Constitution and therefore should cease.

 

[itsnobody]

People don't realize how many problems legalizing marijuana would solve, the drug dealers and drug lords are all very happy that drugs are illegal, they'll keep making their money...if drugs were legalized there would be no more drug dealers on the streets, there would be less crime, the drug usage would probably be the same as it is right now (which is pretty high), the economy would grow tremendously, it would be just like how cigarettes are legal...

I don't understand why anyone thinks that drugs being illegal really does anything...right now drugs are illegal and drug usage is at it's highest, drugs being illegal doesn't make less people use it nor does it make the world safer nor better...it really doesn't do anything positive at all...

 

[hard@work]

I believe drugs should be banned, just like killing yourself is, the government has to have a say in certain parts of what you do. but ill still support paul

So in this case the government can regulate your diet and penalize you for not following the strict excersize routine they have mapped out for you? What about the supposed benefits of certain controlled substances or existing legal substances that alter consciousness? Also, should you have a right to dictate what the pros and cons are over a medical doctor, a friend, or a family member? And, how much have the costs been for criminalization? How much has the taxpayer spent over the last century on prohibition? What about incarceration? Is it legal, constitutional, or etehical to have secret police amongs the populace as well? And what of the cost to the families and friends of ours who have been destroyed not by "drugs" but by the system that outlawed them?

How is "the war on drugs" not a war on the American people?

 

[Marceline88]

Hi my name is Jamie and I am now a statistic in the "War on Drugs". If your interested in my family's story please read it here. http://pray.groovy.org

Thank you.

 

[Wendi]

can you say ron paul blotter (i am joking)?

Hehe... you might be joking, but I have a baaaaad feeling it could happen in certain neighborhoods

 

[devil21]

its a proven fact that using marijuana will increase you to try other drugs, so are ytou willing to legalize meth, coke, and other drugs? and yes i do believe the government should have control of your diet, IN SCHOOLS, my school only serves junk food fries and cheese corn dogs, without those wed be healthier, they cant control you at home, but when you go to a school ground at a young age youll learn how to eat healthier in thbe long run, our country is in a EPIDEMIC, 60% are overweight, will have to do something, before it turns to 75% of us...

Marijuana is NOT a gateway drug and has never been such. Its a plant that has been around for a very long time and grows wild all over the world. You have been fed the government lines. The only studies you see are sponsored by the same people who have outlawed them. Guess who that is? The FDA and the DEA both must sign off on marijuana studies for private organizations. Take a stab at how many they have approved? Its in the ballpark of ZERO! Can't have independent studies call them liars. And once again, you miss the entire point of how this ties into Dr. Paul's views. He is not necessarily saying "let all the meth junkies get high" but rather leave it up to the states and their citizens to decide what is legal or illegal. You will find that if left in the hands of the citizens, marijuana would quickly be legalized. Coke? Nope. Crack? Nope. Heroin? Nope. The hard drugs would stay illegal. Ending the War on Drugs means getting the feds out of the issue. And lets be realistic, most people realize weed isnt a deadly substance. The real issue is that if it is legalized big business is the loser since hemp farming becomes legal and pharma companies lose a lot of business when people start smoking weed and stop popping pills. And guess what industry has one of the largest group of lobbyists on Capitol Hill? Yep! Big Pharma! Dont you get it?!?

As for the food part, theres a lot of blame to go around. Kids are overweight but they learn it from their parents! How about we take better care of ourselves and serve as an example to our children? Its not the government's job to ensure you set a good example. It is YOUR job.

 

[Nihilist23]

Please call it by it's actual name: Cannabis. The term Marijuana was associated with Cannabis during the Reefer Madness era in a propaganda effort to associate it with causing crime among Hispanics.

And yes, I do smoke, for pleasure, very often, and I'm high right now.

End the war on drugs and let the states make their own laws.

Drug arrests = felon. / felon's can't vote.

Not always. Use and possession of a certain amount of Cannabis is only a misdemeanor in most or all states.

 

[hard@work]

its a proven fact that using marijuana will increase you to try other drugs...

Please source this from a not for profit independent research institution. The "Gateway Theory" has been disproven in many cases, and in addition it has been shown that use of cannibis reduces the desire to try other drugs including alcohol.

So your point here while well meant is fundamentally incorrect. In addition, this is not justification whatsoever of incarceration of American citizens.

so are ytou willing to legalize meth, coke, and other drugs?

I am a sponsor of decriminilization, there is a huge difference. Also in reference to "other drugs", the answer is yes. I am pro legalization of some and recriminilization of others. I am also for the outright banning of mass medication of the American citizens.

and yes i do believe the government should have control of your diet, IN SCHOOLS, my school only serves junk food fries and cheese corn dogs, without those wed be healthier, they cant control you at home, but when you go to a school ground at a young age youll learn how to eat healthier in thbe long run, our country is in a EPIDEMIC, 60% are overweight, will have to do something, before it turns to 75% of us...

While I agree that corporate food in our education system is wrong, I also believe that the government stepping into the caffeteria is a mistake in the first place. Aside from the sad truth that our country's most important decision makers - the parents - are mysteriously absent from this process I would say this is really just a minor issue compared to what I actually asked you.

Now I did not ask you about the school system, I asked you about you and your personal life directly. So let's say I chose to use a pure dose of MDMA in a regulated environment once every four to five months, purely for social use. With your logic even though you could be eating enough transfats and watching enough television to cause yourself a very low IQ'd heart attack at a young age I should be the one thrown in jail. The adverse effects of casual use of one substance like MDMA is much less detrimental than the prolonged effects of your own diet. The positive effects of "casual" MDMA use in controlled settings include a litany of psychological re-enforcements. The negative effects of an unhealthy diet results in premature loss of health and in many cases life. Prolonged couch surfing to FOX news network has shown to cause late life Trisomy 21 (it's true look it up). Ultimately by your logic we should be able to monitor your diet and excersize daily, let's say at your place of business, and if you do not meet the standards you will stand trial.

It is very easy to demonize substances or ignorantly paint substance use as substance abuse when you have no real knowledge of the toxicology comparisons between those same substances and what you intake naturally. Even so, citing detrimental effects does not in any way justify the gross neglegence of our society in ripping apart families and sending good honest men and women to prison with child rapists and violent murderers. If this is what you honestly support then please reconsider what it is you believe is true, and do some research into the statistical data collected by independant organizations outside of the governement run beurocracies.

Now before you get angry and think I am some hippy on drugs, I'm not. I am really just someone aware of what is happening with the "war on drugs" and the sponsorship of the American people of this "war" on itself. You really should consider reviewing your position on how to fight substance abuse, and the successes our society has and hasn't had over the last century with prohibition and addiction. There is plenty of information out there in regards to the success against substance abuse.

Very little of that success comes out of the prison system.


That said, you go ahead and drink your liver to death and smoke your lungs into tar. I think occasionally I may join you in a frothy mug of brew but really I prefer to stay healthy. It's my right to make that decision, not yours.



@

 

[dircha]

Unless someone asks about his view on the legalization of drugs, I won't bring it up.

Going to agree with several others who have already posted and say this sentiment is right on.

Don't bring the issue up with a potential supporter unless the supporter asks about it or you know it would play favorably with them.

Statistically, alcohol - a drug itself - is far, far more dangerous and destructive to our nation than any illegal drug. Should we ban alcoholic beverages? Been there, done that, it made the problem worse, and created and sustained entire criminal organizations. It should be no surprise that banning other drugs has had the exact same effect.

But again, use that argument wisely and don't bring it up if it isn't appropriate. Joe Sixpack isn't going to like you if you suggest that his PBR is more destructive to society than marijuana.

 

[Revolution9]

Tell potential voters the cops don't like drug prohibition either. It hurts their respect and standing in the communities they enforce it in.

COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS!

ASK US WHY

After nearly four decades of fueling the U.S. policy of a war on drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug offenses, our confined population has quadrupled making building prisons the fastest growing industry in the United States. More than 2.2 million of our citizens are currently incarcerated and every year we arrest an additional 1.9 million more guaranteeing those prisons will be bursting at their seams.

Every year we choose to continue this war will cost U.S. taxpayers another 69 billion dollars. Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far easier to get than they were 35 years ago at the beginning of the war on drugs. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than ever before. We would suggest that this scenario must be the very definition of a failed public policy. This madness must cease!

The stated goals of current U.S.drug policy -- reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use -- have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of "war on drugs". This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has had little or no effect on the levels of drug addiction among our fellow citizens, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world's population, America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners.

But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs". With this in mind, we current and former members of law enforcement have created a drug-policy reform movement -- LEAP.

We believe that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction. as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition. LEAP believes that a system of regulation and control of production and distribution will be far more effective and ethical than one of prohibition. We do this in hopes that we in Law Enforcement can regain the public's respect and trust, which have been greatly diminished by our involvement in imposing drug prohibition. Please consider joining us. You don't have to be a cop to join LEAP!

Find out more about us by reading some of the articles in our Publications section or by watching and listening to some of our multimedia clips,.

You can also read about the men and women who speak for LEAP, and see what we have on the calendar for the near future.

Check out the LEAP page: http://leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Content&pid=2

 

[Duckman]

its a proven fact that using marijuana will increase you to try other drugs, so are ytou willing to legalize meth, coke, and other drugs?

I feel like I'm piling on here, but I haven't heard the argument mentioned that the true gateway drug is alcohol, most people try alcohol before they try any other mind altering substance.

But to answer your question... Yes, I am in favor of legalizing all drugs. I believe you have a fundamental right to put whatever substance you want into your own body. It's a question of who owns your body... do you own it? If so, why is there a restriction on what you can do with it? I believe responsible use of all drugs is possible. Yes, some drugs are highly addictive, but so is nicotine, and nicotine use is unhealthy but was never made illegal. If someone uses, say, meth or heroin, and becomes addicted, that was their (probably bad) choice but with a legal market for the drug, chances are they could maintain that addiction without the significant amounts of money currently needed and therefore could probably maintain some sort of productive life in addition to their addiction.

Legalizing all drugs doesn't result in perfection, but I would argue it is infinitely better than the system we have.

 

[devil21]

as many of you are older than me, maybe i was fed this propaganda, while you grew up in the marijuana years, regardless, i smoke Hookah, which is a water pipe, i say if you want to smoke marijuana go do hookah, doesnt get you high, and not illegal, and if i own my body, why cant i drink? should we cancel the dirnking age and if marijuana is instituted would you put a age limit on it?

Im 31 so I dont think I grew up in the "marijuana years", which I assume you mean the 60s and 70s. Cannabis should be regulated just like every other "legal" drug out there...with age limits, prescriptions, etc. It is a substance that can be abused and should be treated as such with necessary safeguards. You are welcome to your hooka but I smoke weed to get high so it defeats the purpose.

 

[Duckman]

if i own my body, why cant i drink? should we cancel the dirnking age and if marijuana is instituted would you put a age limit on it?

You do own your own body, even before adulthood, but there is a conflicting legal premise that states that until you reach full adulthood (the age of majority) that others (parents, guardians, or the government) can legally make decisions for you "in your interest." In this case, the state decides it is in your interest to avoid tobacco and alcohol. I have no objection with adding cannabis or any other currently illegal drug to that list. The bottom line: until you reach age 18, you are NOT free.

I don't object to this general concept because I believe a line needs to be drawn somewhere: clearly a 2 year old cannot make his/her own rational decisions concerning freedom. But does the same conclusion arrive when considering a 16 year old? I am open to considering that the age of adulthood should perhaps come earlier than 18. I definitely believe the drinking age should be 18 and not 21 because age 21 comes after the legally-established age of majority (adulthood), therefore it makes no sense to me why a legal ADULT needs to wait 3 years to have a beer.

 

[Nefertiti]

Stress how many people are in prison for drug consumption who have never committed any other crimes and how we as taxpayers are paying for their incarceration. How we are warehousing them rather than investing those taxpayer dollars in programs to rehabilitate them and get them off drugs when they do get out of prison, which would be much cheaper than locking them up. Investigate your state prison budget vis-a-vis your state education budget. In California at least, the former is larger than the latter, something that might get some people thinking about how the drug war is hurting all of us, not just the drug addicts.

I'm against the use of drugs and alcohol, but I am not for the criminalization of their consumption. We would be better off taxing them to the hilt or doing as Mexico wanted to do, go after the drug dealers rather than the consumers, and provide programs to help people get over their addictions. I also think it is a huge hypocrisy that cigarettes and alcohol are legal and the rest of the drugs aren't. Cigarettes are probably the most damaging to the body and alcohol affects people's behavior in ways that can be harmful to others more than any other drugs.

 

[Nefertiti]

as many of you are older than me, maybe i was fed this propaganda, while you grew up in the marijuana years, regardless, i smoke Hookah, which is a water pipe, i say if you want to smoke marijuana go do hookah, doesnt get you high, and not illegal, and if i own my body, why cant i drink? should we cancel the dirnking age and if marijuana is instituted would you put a age limit on it?

Hamadeh-Do you realize how bad hookah is for you? It may be legal, but it is worse than cigarettes because while people feel they are smoking something lighter you actually are consuming more bad stuff, 1 hookah is like a pack of cigarettes. And if you share hookahs with others there is a risk of contracting TB or other diseases. I know here in the US it is still so uncommon you don't hear so much about the health risks but if you check out the Arab press you will find lots of information about this.

A recent study showed the danger of pot to the future mental health of people your age smoking it but overall it is safer than cigarettes and certainly safer than hookah. Yes, it may make people high but it generally does not make them dangerous like alcohol would.

 

[Nefertiti]

Marijuana is NOT a gateway drug and has never been such. Its a plant that has been around for a very long time and grows wild all over the world. You have been fed the government lines. The only studies you see are sponsored by the same people who have outlawed them.

Back when I was in high school (this will date me a bit), I saw people progress from one drug to the next, with a strong correlation between their musical tastes. It went something like this:

Duran Duran (cigarettes) -> Depeche Mode (pot) -> to Cure (LSD)

 

[Nefertiti]

I don't object to this general concept because I believe a line needs to be drawn somewhere: clearly a 2 year old cannot make his/her own rational decisions concerning freedom. But does the same conclusion arrive when considering a 16 year old?

When it comes to drugs and alcohol, I suspect the 2 year old would make a more rational decision than the 16 year old because his decision would be made purely on the taste and feeling he got from the drugs and not the social pressure.

 

[Nefertiti]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul155.html

Read under "alcohol prohibition" and you will find some talking points that might appeal to those who do not use drugs.