Marijuana Debate on CNN
Rob Kampia's closing line is right on target. As the debate heats up, we're seeing our opposition desperately invoke the horrors of alcohol and tobacco in a cynical attempt to frame legalization in a familiar and negative context. The simple response is that those drugs are far more dangerous. The harms they cause are only relevant to the discussion insofar as they illustrate the mindless hypocrisy of our marijuana laws. If the most workable alcohol and tobacco policy is legalization, then the same must absolutely be true of marijuana.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
Trying to oust a reasonable
Trying to oust a reasonable argument is like bashing your head into a wall, all you end up with is a headache. Same bullshit points, same circular speaking rhetoric..worse comes to worse, they use what I've described to a friend as "hippie talk": the ability to hypothetically (or sometimes literally) paint the person who's speaking on the issue no matter how affluent as an addle brained wing nut by waving a few peace signs and adding in a "righteous dude" or "peace, love, etc."
Change is coming, but it will likely take a few generations and even then it's 50/50 that the right people get in..people have been predicting legalization for years just to be told to "just say no".
so marijuana has already been decriminalized?
The guy says it's not true that people go to jail for possesion of marijuana and that the cops don't look for people with marijuana. He is basically saying that it is already decriminalized, and that that's why it should remain a criminal act.
Because the FDA always gets it right.
That line should be thrown right back in his face. How many FDA approved drugs have been recalled years after they have affected hundreds of thousands of people with grave consequences? It seems their efforts now focus on fast tracking drugs out into circulation to increase profits, not warn the public about dangerous ones.
Memo to David Evans: Madison Avenue is already involved
The PDFA is a great cash cow for Madison Avenue ad agencies, and the irony is that there a hell of a lot of tokers in that industry.
re "trying to oust" post: it's different this time
There has been a pretty dramatic increase in public support for legalizing weed. I think the ability of so many people to benefit from medicinal marijuana, without any notable problems, is very helpful in making people more comfortable with the plant. And the extremism of the opponents of MMJ is probably backfiring regarding opinion on recreational weed. If so many pols and cops are being so ridiculous on the subject of MMJ (like in Minnesota where they couldn't handle the thought of even terminally ill patients being allowed to use MMJ), why have any confidence that they are thinking any more clearly or reasonably regarding non-medical use? There is also the matter of the alarm bells going off regarding the power of the drug cartels, legalization is the only plausible route to curbing their power. I think relentless repetition of the indisputable fact that alcohol is way more deadly is having an impact, and a new factor is the catastrophic state of public finances.
In states with referendum power this doesn't depend on the right people "getting in", the public can bypass the pols and the power brokers and special interests behind the pols.
-newageblues
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