Poll: Why is marijuana illegal?

[Moosehead]

Libertarianism is about supporting freedom. Who wouldn't want that?

I thought we went over who wouldn't want this...

[michelle in alaska]

you know, my good people, that it used to be LEGAL up here.
still is. to possess a certain amount.
you just can't buy or sell it.

so, it's all well and good to imbibe...but to aquire it causes one to have to have connections with sometimes somewhat unsavory types.
........I have enough trouble getting on the military bases here, as a civilian, as it is........it's a 'job' thing, you understand.
Guess we can't all live in the Castro or on Geary Street, in San Fran.......
......or Costa Rica, for that matter ;)

[Moosehead]

Guess we can't all live in the Castro or on Geary Street, in San Fran.......
......or Costa Rica, for that matter ;)

You are nice. We would be happy to have you in Canada.

[michelle in alaska]

thank you, sweetheart.
i consider you calling me 'nice' one of the highest of recommendations. :)

[friendlyskies]

you know, my good people, that it used to be LEGAL up here.

Man, the best weed I have ever smoked was in Alaska, I dream about that weed every time I crack open a block of Colombian low-grade shwag. That's where I learned to use an acetylene torch to heat two steak knives, and use them to pick up sticky rolled buds of this shimmering purple goodness unequalled in all my experience as a stone, Matanuska Thunderfuck. After you pick the bud up with the red, glowing knives, it starts to smoke, a pure bliss plucked from the pure Alaska air and inhaled through a 40oz bottle with the bottom broken off. Some of the most beautiful memories of my life.

Anyway, I want all of you who love the good herb to take special note of Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass), who just introduced HR 5843. Please take some time to email your congressperson, and other people's too, if you're bored.


Dude, you like totally photoshopped Barney
Frank's head on Superman's body. Heheheh cool
man. But, like, can he still fly?

Rep. Frank says he'll file bill to legalize marijuana
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – +
March 22, 2008
BOSTON—Rep. Barney Frank said he plans to file a bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana.

Frank announced his plans late Friday on the HBO show "Real Time," hosted by Bill Maher.

"I'm going to file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all federal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Maher.

Frank didn't define "small amounts." Efforts to reach Frank on Saturday were not immediately successful.

Frank said he'd filed a similar bill in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s, but hasn't tried since he was elected to Congress.

"I finally got to the point where I think I can get away with it," he said.

Frank said he thinks "its time for the politicians in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly."

He told Maher he'd call the bill the "Make Room for Serious Criminals" bi

ll.

[Woodsman]

you know, my good people, that it used to be LEGAL up here.

Man, the best weed I have ever smoked was in Alaska, I dream about that weed every time I crack open a block of Colombian low-grade shwag. That's where I learned to use an acetylene torch to heat two steak knives, and use them to pick up sticky rolled buds of this shimmering purple goodness unequalled in all my experience as a stone, Matanuska Thunderfuck. After you pick the bud up with the red, glowing knives, it starts to smoke, a pure bliss plucked from the pure Alaska air and inhaled through a 40oz bottle with the bottom broken off. Some of the most beautiful memories of my life.

Anyway, I want all of you who love the good herb to take special note of Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass), who just introduced HR 5843. Please take some time to email your congressperson, and other people's too, if you're bored.


Dude, you like totally photoshopped Barney
Frank's head on Superman's body. Heheheh cool
man. But, like, can he still fly?

Rep. Frank says he'll file bill to legalize marijuana
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – +
March 22, 2008
BOSTON—Rep. Barney Frank said he plans to file a bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana.

Frank announced his plans late Friday on the HBO show "Real Time," hosted by Bill Maher.

"I'm going to file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all federal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Maher.

Frank didn't define "small amounts." Efforts to reach Frank on Saturday were not immediately successful.

Frank said he'd filed a similar bill in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s, but hasn't tried since he was elected to Congress.

"I finally got to the point where I think I can get away with it," he said.

Frank said he thinks "its time for the politicians in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly."

He told Maher he'd call the bill the "Make Room for Serious Criminals" bi

ll.

It's always good when someone tries to get rid of a ridiculous law.

[Penta]

Ex-drugs policy director calls for legalisation

* Duncan Campbell
* The Guardian,
* Wednesday August 13 2008
* Article history

A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the government's anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office's anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the "overwhelming majority" of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government.

He also claimed that New Labour's policy on drugs was based on what was thought would play well with the Daily Mail readership, regardless of evidence of what worked. Downing Street policy advisers were said to have suggested stunts such as sending boats down the Thames to catch smugglers to coincide with policy announcements.

Critchley - not be to be confused with the late Tory MP of the same name - was director of the UK Anti-Drug Coordination Unit in the Cabinet Office, with the job of coordinating government policy across departments and supporting the then drugs Tsar, Keith Hellawell. In a contribution to the debate on the "war on drugs" on a BBC website, Critchley spelled out his reasons for now supporting legalisation and claimed the government's position is hypocritical. Yesterday Critchley, who is now a teacher, confirmed that the blog posting accurately conveyed his views.

"I joined the unit more or less agnostic on drugs policy, being personally opposed to drug use, but open-minded about the best way to deal with the problem," he wrote on the blog. "I was certainly not inclined to decriminalise. However, during my time in the unit, as I saw more and more evidence of 'what works', to quote New Labour's mantra of the time, it became apparent to me that ... enforcement and supply-side interventions were largely pointless. They have no significant, lasting impact on the availability, affordability or use of drugs."

He said that his views were widely held in the government but rarely expressed in public. "I think what was truly depressing about my time in UKADCU was that the overwhelming majority of professionals I met, including those from the police, the health service, the government and voluntary sectors held the same view: the illegality of drugs causes far more problems for society and the individual than it solves. Yet publicly, all those intelligent, knowledgeable people were forced to repeat the nonsensical mantra that the government would be 'tough on drugs', even though they all knew the government's policy was actually causing harm."

Critchley believed that the benefits to society of the fall in crime as a result of legalisation would be dramatic. "Tobacco is a legal drug, whose use is declining, and precisely because it is legal, its users are far more amenable to government control, education programmes and taxation." Anyone who wished to purchase the drug of their choice could already do so. "The idea that many people are holding back solely because of a law which they know is already unenforceable is simply ridiculous."

His intervention was welcomed yesterday by drugs law reformers. "Julian Critchley is one of the brave few to tell the truth about the failure of prohibition and the need to replace it with a system of regulation," said Danny Kushlick, of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. "It is truly shameful that there are so many more who know that the war on drugs is overwhelmingly counterproductive, and yet continue to remain silent, tacitly endorsing a policy that they know creates misery, degradation and death for millions across the globe."

[ktrout]

I just watched Cheech Marin's story about his incarceration because his likeness was on some bongs that got sent to Pennsylvania. The DEA set up a front that practically had to coerce his son's company into sending them there. Highly recommended story.
Marijuana doesn't really do it for me, but I'm whole heartedly for decriminalizing it. There are a lot more harmful things that are legal.
I'd like to see it legally grown to get the cartels out of our parks.

[denise]

just out of curiousity, are there any documented benefits of marijuana use for prevention of disease in healthy people?

we all know the downsides of alcohol abuse but moderate use has documented health benefits in preventing cardiovascular disease and stroke with red wine being particularly healthy. i've even heard that cigararette smoking is preventative for alzheimer's disease.

i know that marijuana use has been prescribed for people with glaucoma or for those undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, but are there any long term health benefits in preventing disease?

[Fansy]

yeah, it helps prevent diseases like war, thriving illegal drug trafficking markets and their associated crime, angry guy fights, bad times at parties and clubs, chronic pain, and being annoyed by your girlfriend.

[SRR]

It also prevents your apartment block being burned down and your cable guy getting shot dead because he freaked out at the multiple execution going on down the hall.

[sparrow]

I just watched Cheech Marin's story about his incarceration because his likeness was on some bongs that got sent to Pennsylvania. The DEA set up a front that practically had to coerce his son's company into sending them there. Highly recommended story.
Marijuana doesn't really do it for me, but I'm whole heartedly for decriminalizing it. There are a lot more harmful things that are legal.
I'd like to see it legally grown to get the cartels out of our parks.

That would be Tommy Chong.

As we reported back in September 2003, Tommy Chong was sent to prison for nine months, had to pay a fine of $20,000, and was forced to forfeit $120,000 in assets after being busted for selling mail order bongs

Just like a movie

Chong then described the bizarre experience of being raided, how the police "came running in the house and they're running around with flashlights and they're running with their guns, they're running from room to room, you know, just running. It was weird, they're going, 'clear' and � I really said this too, I said, 'If you're looking for the light switch, it's over there.'

"But, they finally got around to it and I said, 'what's going on?' And they said, 'we'll tell you in a minute.' Then my wife came downstairs and she said, 'what's going on?' and then she said, 'wow, this is just like a movie!'

"Then the guy goes, 'This is not a movie.' And so now when they bust Hollywood celebrities, that's what they gotta yell, 'This is not a movie!'"

Leno declared that Chong's case "is especially disturbing," because arresting Chong because he had a bong would be like arresting Leno for owning a fast car. Just because a tool has the potential to be used for a crime, it does not mean that the person who possesses it is automatically a criminal.

Prison life

When Leno asked Chong to describe his experience behind bars, the funnyman responded with typical humor, saying, "Federal time was hell, man. There was like a two-hour wait for the tennis courts."

Chong then explained prison life more seriously, saying, "It was camp humiliation, what they do. They strip all your soul away from you, they try to humiliate you. A lot of strip searches."

Chong described his cell as a dorm with "a row of bathrooms on one side and metal bunks... and they're narrow and you get a thin little mattress." He describes what inmates call "waterfront property" as the row of bunks nearest the toilets.

[sparrow]

I just noticed that you can't edit in this section. Oh well. Here's the link...

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4028.html