Department of Justice "It would be easier to Legalize marijuana"
Submitted by celeste on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 09:04
Mexican Marijuana Trade Gaining Ground In US.
Take the profit out of it. It would reduce the crime. Tax it and balance the budget.
I've got friends in high and low places.
Cannabis is truly beautiful in its application for mankind.
I prefer to ingest a small amount, like a "salt-packet" size in pill form.
It's food for me. Just like you had a fine meal, and you feel refreshed and see things from a birds eye view.
Yep, adds to my raw food diet.
Oh, yes and do legalize.
celeste RE: Obama and Marijuana
This article by Freg Gardner is on counterpunch http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner02042009.html
Good Article~Thanks
"If and when impediments to medical marijuana use are removed and the American people begin to avail themselves of it en masse, the pharmaceutical manufacturers will lose a third or more of their sales"
I've heard that marijuana
I've heard that marijuana helps people with all sorts of ailments... so, what would happen to the pharmaceutical industry if it were to be legalized?
My guess is that big pharma is against marijuana just the same as the sugar cane industry was against that stevia plant based sweetener.
It's all about money.
"Drugmule" Marijuana smuggled inside donkey statues
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/02/post-2.html
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“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement” - Thomas Jefferson
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Ron Paul Supporter Since 1997
"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson
BUMP BUMP BUMP
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“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement” - Thomas Jefferson
----------------
Ron Paul Supporter Since 1997
"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson
I really don't understand
I really don't understand how a man who murdered his wife, his lawyer got him out of it with only 3 years in prison. Now, if I happened to get caught with a plant I can get life in prison in some cases. I can't see how murdering someone has a smaller penalty than someone who grows or smokes cannabis. I'm in no way a Christian but the majority of the people who make these laws say our country is a Christian nation, "In God We Trust", etc...yet you can go to prison for something their "god" created. So let me get this right, we don't allow "gods" plants but allow man made alcohol to ruin peoples livers and kill people while driving drunk, not to mention the many other problems. I also don't see why we have in go we trust on our money but Obama said in his book that we are no longer a christian nation. How can christians still support their "leader" if he no longer believes our nation is a Christian one.
To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas. - G. Brock Chisholm, former director of UN World Health Organization
Summary of Religion
"My made up bullshit is better than your made up bullshit!"
I didn't come up with this, but I think it applies nicely.
Stop blaming christian
And start taking responsibility for yourself !
____
"To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders" - Lao Tzu
That's not actually what he said.
~jaq
~jaq
Visible51 has no reading comprehension skills whatsoever
I'm reading his/her posts to see if I can figure it out. The first one I came across was the "Pelosi says 500 million to lose their jobs"..http://www.dailypaul.com/node/81767
To which "it" replies... "WTF? are you idiots - there is not 500M Americans in the US"
This is of course without reading ANY of the comments or following the link that exposes Pelosi for her ignorance..
So I have to ask...who is the idiot here? I'd say the one that joined the DP about 12 hours ago and instantly started attacking people...my personal pet peeve.
God never chose us as His nation
the Bible says that Israel(Jews) was His nation(not today's israel)until the coming of Jesus, where the gentiles(everybody else)that believed in Jesus would be His nation(including Jews that believe). He did not mean in the sense of an actual state. Most people, at least as far as I have met, dont understand the religion they claim, and that is what has allowed many of the evils that have been done in the name of christiandom to occur, even though Jesus stood against them.
"The state is the great myth where everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Frederic Bastiat
Correction
The House of Israel does not mean Jews automatically. All Jews are Israelites but not Israelites are Jews !!! Jews means the House of Judah.
This is an important distinction~Just for the record
The northern Kingdom of Israel separated itself from the Kingdom of Judah at the beginning of the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. The northern tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel. The tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi made up the Kingdom of Judah to the south.
And that is where we get into
tribes of Israel.... "Israel" is everywhere the people are. We live in this world but we are not "of" this world.
See my comments below
further down this here very page, for arguing this issue with Christians, complete with Bible verses.
~jaq
~jaq
So where in the World
Besides Amsterdam is it legal ?
California
In 1996, 56% of CA voters passed Proposition 215, Medical Marijuana. It is legal to grow 6 plants in Mendocino. CA has dispensaries where registered medical marijuana patients with a drs recomendation can purchase their medicine, a varity of hybrids designed for different ailments, pain, nausia, sleep, from both indoor and outdoor, as there is a movement to stop indoor grows as being energy consumers and messing the environment, and products are also available as dessert items.
To grow you must be registered and buy a tag from the sheriff, you should be insured, the professional operations are, and you must follow the letter of the law to a tee. It's BIG money and allot of people want a cut.
I believe 11 states have marijuana laws, but I have not checked up lately how well they are doing. It's a constant battle.. Mendocino could grow 25 plants last year... if I were to check I would go to vote hemp www.votehemp.com
Granger~
Good info and a great link.
More Importantly
don't focus on where it is illegal, look to WHY it is illegal and what forces in history drove it there. The question of illegality of a plant then solidifies into the realm of idiocy.
As a sailor, involved in yacht racing at the world class level, I can't tell you with enough importance how many brilliant, successful individuals that I have met (I am now in my 50's) that not only used marijuana in the past, but still used it on a regular basis.
The detrimental use of marijuana is a fallacy, propagated by those who benefited and still benefit from its continued illegal status. The same powers that distribute it for black market profits, profit on the side of interdiction and imprisonment.
Those souls who suffer from addictive natures will always find their crutch and is is far better that a less dangerous avenue for their addictive nature exists.
You can't overdose. You don't destroy bodily organs. You don't develop physical dependencies. Find another substance that is abused that has the same properties.
Look to Dupont and Hearst for the WHY's of this thing and ask yourself why a marijuana user, now in the White House, would not favor legalization...
**“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” ~ Mark Twain **
"...there is no doubt that it (socialism) could not possibly have affected us so widely and so deeply as it has, had it not been heavily financed". - B. Carroll Reece
I got friends in high and low places.
Cannabis is truly beautiful in its application for mankind.
I prefer to ingest a small amount, like a "salt-packet" size in pill form.
It's food for me. Just like you had a fine meal, and you feel refreshed and see things from a birds eye view.
Yep, adds to my raw food diet.
Oh, yes and do legalize.
Sounds like
Quite the life ! And great observation.
These arguments
don't work. They haven't worked for however many years NORML has been in existence.
What you need to do is ultimately to compete with "Reefer Madness" and some of the other over-hyped, melodramatic disgraces of propaganda.
How?
Isolate the various audiences and beat them on their own terms.
Here's a suggestion for arguing with the religious right:
From Genesis 1:30:
"I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it."
And then from Acts 10:15:
"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean!"
It's neat and complete. The first quote is a little out of context, leaving out "They will be yours for food," but this could at least help out arguments regarding ingested cannabis, or even hemp oil.
~jaq
~jaq
The "religous" right?
I am a very devout follower of Christ, and I work very hard to walk the walk at all times. The religious right is made up of individuals..some read and understand the Bible as the Word of God...some listen to a man standing at a podium who tells them what to believe and how to think. It isn't up to the minister or preacher, it is up to the individual to figure out which person they will become.
The Word tells us to have a personal relationship with God through Christ, to study hard, and to be in constant prayer. The people that need to hear the arguments that you present, in all honesty shouldn't even need to hear them..if they read the Word of God and used their brains this would be a non-issue. Unfortunately as you point out..this is not the case.
Be sure to know who you are arguing with before you start pulling out the big guns. If these people have had the wool pulled over their eyes, and they won't even read the Bible for their own personal salvation..they sure as heck aren't going to read it to understand why "reefer" is a wonderful thing sanctioned by the All Mighy, and it certainly isn't a "madness"..LOL I still watch that thing a few times a year just to laugh my derriere off.
Anyway I guess my main point is that the "religious right" are WRONG. I know many many people who are religious without needing to feel "right" or "left" they simply follow the teaching of Christ....We give thanks, and then we pass to the left. :O)
1st Thess 5:18
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Not a bible thumper myself...
but I like the way you think...
The indoctrination of the public through the use of all of this "for the children" crap will be our downfall. It is the easiest inroad to the emotional state...the state that is easily manipulated by adepts.
Can you imagine if we all turned off our TV's and began to think? It is the total control over the media that ensures that NORML can't make headway. It is hard to make headway when what little reporting that exists is ALL accompanied by "Yeah but's" that twist the emotional state and throw all arguments into the dumpster inhabited by criminals, murder and addicts.
**“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” ~ Mark Twain **
"...there is no doubt that it (socialism) could not possibly have affected us so widely and so deeply as it has, had it not been heavily financed". - B. Carroll Reece
Exactly
The war on drugs is convenient for the breaking down your door part of confiscating your bong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_country
Thanks Neo
Legal in India who'd have thunk it ?
It's legal anywhere
that you're not going to get caught :)
~jaq
~jaq
What does that have to do with anything?
America is the land of liberty. Since when do we look at other countries for solutions to social problems? Tyranny is not a solution.
_________________________________
My liberty-minded home base of thought:
www.ponderthis.net
_________________________________
"Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God." - Matthew 5:9
My liberty-minded home base of thought:
www.ponderthis.net
Tax the imported
Tax the imported cannabis,the plant grown here and purchased in this country should be tax free.
Also,any products made here should be tax free to the american citizens.
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The government throws the people bones while keeping the treasures of this country.
You face the same
You would face the same licensing issues that anyone trying to "legally" grow tobacco in their own back yard currently face.
Not a strategy for freedom, in my mind.
~jaq
~jaq
You shouldn't need a license
You shouldn't need a license for growing tobacco or cannabis.The problem is selling it.The seller has the responsibility that the product won't harm anyone beyond the common dangers.The buyer has the same responsibility.Sure a license can be offered,but not required.The buyer would probably feel safer with buying the product from a licensed dealer.
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The government throws the people bones while keeping the treasures of this country.
It's more than that
As a crop, it's worth more than gold, so one of the problems is being ripped off. When it is legal, you have a right to persue some justice, beit through insurance or catching the criminals. We just had a case here where some young men robbed the cannabis dispensary, armed robbery. The sheriff got the robbers and they are going to do time and pay retribution. If cannabis was not legal here, that would not be the case. Our county has worked very hard to work together in establishing cannabis laws that work for the majority. Today, three countiues depend on cannabis economically. If you are legal, you have few problems. If you are not legal and you are busted, youre so fucked. I don't like that word, but I'm telling you, don't come here and think it's some orgy. Far far from it.
Wow
A real property-rights-driven case involving cannabis, where the real villains got nailed and the rightful owners were vindicated.
I'm astonished. Who coulda thought it, in this day and age?
~jaq
~jaq
jaqphule
I FULLY believe that cannabis is the keystone to Revolution, just as it was to the framers of the constitution. Cannabis for freedom, fuel, food, fiber, feed, medicine, we need cannabis, not global corporations protected by government forcing us to consume their products.
Property rights are very important here... least we forget the Libertarians who fought to make this happen and keep it happening.
AHA!
Says the feds. Can you PROVE that the demon weeed you've got in your hand wasn't smuggled IN to this here land o' the reasonably cheap?
Damn smugglers, stealin' our reefer addicts...
Note also that "reasonable suspicion" only holds in cases against people. It would still be legal to confiscate the goods and "prosecute" them for being smuggled without a license.
An entire anti-drug establishment industry will take any crack, any tiny twist of law to their advantage to turn REAL ownership of cannabis into a crime. Bear that in mind.
~jaq
~jaq
I would like to state that i
I would like to state that i do not use drugs,but people should be free to do so at their own risk,just as i have the option to wear a seat belt or not at my own risk.I was a hard anti-drug supporter but with a revelation of freedom,the Constitution,RP and many others,my perception has changed dramatically and for the better.
Your pointing out the policing aspect regarding taxing the imported stuff.Other then levying the tax on it coming in,thats should be the extent of policing.If the government wants more tax money then tighten the borders.
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The government throws the people bones while keeping the treasures of this country.
Nor do I
but that's not the point.
The point is that every pack of cigarettes sold is done so only after it is licensed -- partially for excise taxes, but also partially to prove that it was not smuggled illegally. I'm not certain, but I believe that there is still "illegal" cigarette smuggling into the US going on.
The power to tax is the power to destroy -- and the power to license is the power of ownership. An owner can always change their minds on the terms of that license at a later date. It implies that any piece of cannabis anywhere in the country might or might not be truly owned by our federal lords and masters.
This does not remotely strike me as a nice, happy private property solution.
It might start out as only taxing at the border, but it would devolve very quickly thereafter.
~jaq
~jaq
Makes sense
To me !
The word "marijuana"
We the people need to take the courts to task for employing the SLANG word "marijuana". The word is CANNABIS. CANNABIS sativa is native to the Americas. Cannabis indica is native to Asia, and this ONE PLANT, that's right, ONE PLANT, is CULTIVATED to produce MEDICINE, and hemp for fuel, food, fiber and feed.
ALL CANNABIS medicinal, recreational and hemp, needs to be addressed, and I suggest it is the fodder for a rEVOLution, just as the framers of the USA employed CANNABIS for their revolution.
Finnally, I believe we all know the prison nation and police states came into existance by the war on drugs and the demonization of cannabis. I fully believe cannabis is going to become legal, but not as cannabis, as "marijuana", and as "marijuana", more people than ever will go to prison.
I prefer "HEMP"
It's got more of an Anglo-Saxon, four-letter word feel to it. "Cannabis" sounds all posh and over-refined.
~jaq
~jaq
four letter word feel?
LOL allrighty then! In China it's called Ma, in Mexico, Mota, maybe we need an interrnational word to get us out of this bind?
That's Da Ma in Mandarin...
it means "Big Numb". LOL. But I have found in my travels that the word "Ganja" is quite universal.
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” -- John Quincy Adams
Ganja
Ganja would probably do the trick during an Obama presidency.
Hella, Mota!
I can hear the commercials now...
~jaq
~jaq
We Do Not Need
yet another regulated industry. Regulating and taxing implies permits, oversight, regulation, lobbyists, and then ultimately a "Big Marijuana" industry.
Taxing it implies the right to make illegal the act of growing a potted plant in your own home without a tax stamp. In fact, this is how anti-marijuana laws got started.
Genesis chapter one says, "Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it."
Then the IRS muscles in? Claims authority?
Think about it. I don't care if you're of a religious bent or not. Taxing the growth of a natural potted plant in your own home is ridiculously tyrannical.
~jaq
~jaq
it would be a step in the right direction, every year 1 million
non-violent cannabis users are imprisoned. Regulations can be amended with enough pressure.
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
"Human beings with love and compassion are some of the most beautiful creatures in the universe... Those without are a plague on us all."
I disagree
I think it would be a step in the same direction.
How often has re-writing of regulations gone *right*? How often has "deregulation" really meant "more regulation" in reality?
The only proper course would be if the federal government officially forgot this silly plant ever existed. Let the market, and the states if they absolutely must, figure out what to do with it.
~jaq
~jaq
I would much rather be subject to fines for failure to comply
properly with a regulation that be jailed for a criminal offense. From a moral and a fiscal point of view this would be a step in the right direction.
I understand your point of view and agree that any legislation will still reduce our liberty.
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
"Human beings with love and compassion are some of the most beautiful creatures in the universe... Those without are a plague on us all."