Marijuana.com

Pompo

Editorial: Making marijuana legal is wrong move
8/1/08|The Daily Courier| Editorial

A new bill in the U.S. House this week is calling for an end to federal penalties for Americans carrying less than a quarter-pound of marijuana.

Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, and punish sick Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who introduced the proposal.

"I cannot think there are many people who are in favor of using limited federal resources in law enforcement to arrest people because those people decide to smoke marijuana," Frank said.

Let's be clear on this. Americans continue to display a serious lack of judgment. Could people using marijuana do so without affecting others? Do we want more people driving while intoxicated? Do we want our children to go to a friend's house, where their friend's parents use "only a little" of this substance?

Our take on this is simple - "no" on all counts.

To take this one step further, employers have every right to know about drug use that may affect the job their employees do. All workers - many of whom operate machinery - can't drink on the job, can't smoke in the office, and can't come to work high on drugs.

Consider also that a new Arizona court ruling this week says no constitutional right exists to use marijuana for religious purposes, according to the Associated Press. The state Court of Appeals' ruling upholds the conviction and sentences of Danny Ray Hardesty in Yavapai County for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. His appeal contends that he's entitled to use marijuana under religious freedom protections of the state and federal constitutions.

The court's ruling says marijuana use is more pervasive than peyote, use of which is protected under religious beliefs, and that "the uniform ban on possession and use (of marijuana) is a legitimate restriction imposed by government."

Besides, a quarter-pound is a lot of marijuana. If Frank wants to help people who need the drug for medicinal uses, we feel that he overshot this one.

 

SpiralArchitect

yes, they do, case in point, this author.
Alcohol is legal, it's widely tolerated throughout society. You still have people going to work drunk, you still have people driving drunk, and you still have children going friends houses, who parents drink.

It doesn't mean alcohol should be illegal.

Quite the contrary, if you make it illegal, it means your just going to have those same problems listed above, but instead your going to have millions and millions of dollars being leaked into prohibition which could instead be put into harm-reduction, education, addiction-treatment among other things...

Ya' gotta understand, marijuana isn't going away. Prohibition is doin' *jack shit*. It's just funneling more money, and setting yourself up for constant failure.

Marijuana use off-the-job doesn't affect an employees work. How could it? Your not hungover and your brain isn't 'slowed down' by smoking marijuana. Of course you can't come in inebriated to the office, that's fucking ridiculous. If your insinuating a marijuana user is 'high' all the time, your flat out, wrong.

There will always be people with substance abuse problems. Why not instead of treating them like criminals, we offer them genuine help instead of fines, and jail time? Sounds a lot more productive then keeping marijuana illegal and we all just act like the problem will go away.

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Broliette

Just more spun ignorance perpetuating itself. I will say I agree with one statement that is made...
Lack of reason and sense in judgement at that.

Just like what Pompo's sig pic says, You write what your told.

On a side note, it's very interesting to read the responses under that article from it's homepage.

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Buzzby

24,000,000 Americans are already doing so. The only marijuana users anyone recognizes are those who use excessive amounts, use it publicly, or go out of their way to appear to be blatant potheads.

No. Driving under the influence is illegal and immoral. We haven't banned alcohol because people might drive under its influence. Why shouldn't we give our citizens the same right to be good citizens or bad citizens with marijuana?

Why not? Do we get upset if our children visit a home where the parents have an occasional drink?

Your "take" has nothing to do with reality.

Really? Do employers have the right to tell employees that they can't have a drink outside of work? Employers have the right to discipline employees who turn up on the job impaired. They don't have the right to tell people what they can and can't do when off the clock.

And that's exactly how it would be if marijuana were to be legalized.

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Pompo

This is a trait shared by all humans, not just Americans. I'm sure even you, dear editorial author of the Daily Courier, have had your fair share of bonehead moments Actually, responsible MJ users dispay a better sense of judgement when they choose the logical, safer choice of using MJ compared to a legal substance such as alcohol.

Yes, if you would pull your head out of the sand long enough to notice, this happens every single day all across the planet. You simply attempt to vilify all MJ users by pointing out the misdeeds of the irresponsible users to further your own agenda

No. I've witness first hand, the potentially devastating results of intoxicated drivers. But your argument doesn't hold up. It's not an issue of what intoxicated the driver. It's an issue of driving intoxicated, regardless of what the intoxicant is.


Yes, any day of the week. Quite frankly, my personal experiences have proven to me that, many more times than not, marijuana consumption is more conducive to an enjoyable family environment than alcohol It's become more than apparent that rude, obnoxious and sometimes violent behavior occures far more often with alcohol use, which isn't a characteristic displayed while using MJ.



And this would not change in any way, shape or form if MJ was legalized. What's your point?

No it isn't A 1/4lb isn't even close to being "a lot of marijuana"

Once again, as Buzzby pointed out, what you feel and what reality is are 2 totally different things. If you were paying attention you would know that Barney Frank has drafted 2 bills.

HR 5842 - The Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act

and

HR 5843 - An Act to Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults

So as you can clearly see, Barney considers these to be seperate issues, both of which needs to be addressed. He hasn't overshot any mark. He believes the unjust laws governing MJ use (both for medicinal purposes and recreational use) need to be changed.
As you would say "To take this one step further", the persecution must end for the responsible use of MJ, for both medicinal and recreational purposes.

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Freedom_User

Says the guy as he finishes up this story, shoots back a couple of shots of bourbon and finishes off his second pack of cigarettes that week.

My family drank hard liquor on occasion. The scariest days when I was younger, is seeing the spirit from my dads eyes leave as he gets drunker. When I was younger, I knew a very real difference from when my father just got done drinking alcohol, to smoking a joint. If I sent my kids off to a hippie family, then yes... I'd love for him/her to go over there. Instead of worrying about some drunk tripping over himself.

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runamukk

Buzzby, this message is for you: You sir are a very sensible, intelligent, and articulate individual. I'm very happy to see people like you devoted to the cause. I think it would be great if you were to post your comments where you tackle the individual issues in the comments section of the actual site that posted this one sided propaganda. Although, that might be too labor intensive. Kudos anyhow!!!