Marijuana.com

Suetaz

Marijuana legalizers not giving up yet

Nevada Appeal | LTE by Guy W. Farmer | June 20, 2004 | Submitted by Greenbud

I'll say this for the drug legalizers - at least they're persistent in their single-minded pursuit of legal marijuana in Nevada. But my hope is that Nevada voters still aren't buying what they're selling. We'll have the answer in early November.
[Greenbudnote: To start with, anyone who disagrees with prohibitionism is attacked as part of the problem. No dissent is allowed.]

Despite a humiliating 61-39 percent defeat in 2002, following a victory on the "medical marijuana" issue in the 1990s, the Las Vegas-based Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana - Committee to Legalize Marijuana would be more like it - announced last Wednesday that it had obtained 70,000 signatures to put its latest drug legalization measure on the November ballot.
[Greenbudnote: Any mention of lessening the harshness of drug laws is portrayed as a sinful "legalization". Only total prohibition (or more jailings) will be righteous and good.]

This committee is an offshoot of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project , which is funded in large measure by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, who has already spent more than $13 million to legalize drugs and defeat President Bush in November.

The current marijuana legalization campaign - which has nothing to do with medical marijuana - began last year with TV spots showing happy teenagers in the Netherlands, where drugs are legal, and sad Nevada teenagers, who are the alleged victims of Nevada's tough anti-drug laws. The ad posited that marijuana use among Nevada teenagers is higher than it is in Holland, but the statistics utilized to support this shaky assertion are highly suspect, and Dutch authorities are re-thinking their pro-drug policies.
[Greenbudnote: Prohibitionists are the self proclaimed champions of "the chiiiiildren". Only continued or increased punishments of all adults caught using drugs will send the correct "message" to "the chiiiiildren". Also, the rhetoric of prohibition will assume that "use" and "abuse" are identical.]

Nevada MPP spokesman Bruce Mirkin told veteran journalist Dennis Myers of the Reno News & Review early this month that "the fact that an initiative went forward can be taken as an indication that we had reason to believe another effort was merited." When it comes to obfuscation, John Kerry couldn't have said it any better. For his part, Myers observed that "the (TV) argument seemed to confuse some Nevada reporters ...." No kidding! But then, that's the idea.

In recent months the MPP conducted a low-key campaign in Northern Nevada, paying volunteers to collect signatures at shopping malls and gas stations. Personally, I had the pleasure of declining to sign their petition at a local cheapo gas outlet last weekend.
[Greenbudnote: Gee. Want a gold star?]

Although drug legalizers always argue that marijuana is "harmless," recent medical research takes issue with that claim. In May, the Los Angeles Times (not exactly a right-wing journal) reported that "the high-potency marijuana now widely available in cities and some small towns is causing an increasing number of teenagers - and some pre-teens - to land in drug treatment centers or emergency rooms." The Times quoted Michael Dennis, a research psychologist in Bloomington, Ill., who found that kids "are not only smoking stronger stuff at a younger age but their pattern of use might be three to six 'blunts' - the equivalent of three or four joints each - just for themselves, in a day."
[Greenbudnote: Right wing/Left wing journalism has nothing to do with how the drug war is reported. Nearly all of the major newspapers greedily lap up stories about the "heroic" actions of police officers "reducing the supply of drugs on the streets." ER admissions for other reasons are counted as a marijuana admission if marijuana is simply mentioned during the visit. Increased drug treatment for marijuana is due to the choice of jail or treatment, not any particular change in potency. Besides, the whole "increase in potency" myth is a load of propagandist garbage.]

Moreover, an analysis published by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse revealed that the treatment rate for cannabis (marijuana) dependence or habitual use in youngsters had more than doubled in the last decade. And recent (2001) data from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department show that marijuana or hashish use "is by far the most common reason why children aged 12 to 17 were placed in licensed public or private (drug) treatment centers, accounting for more than 60 percent of reported cases."
[Greenbudnote: Prohibitionist justification that use=abuse. More inflated statistics based on erroneous information. I'm sure a lot of those kids weren't sent to these treatment facilities because they wanted to be there or had a choice. Parents/school administrators/courts put them there.]

As if those statistics aren't worrisome enough, the American Academy of Pediatrics just came out against marijuana legalization, declaring that the consequences of acute and/or long-term marijuana use "include negative effects on short-term memory, concentration, attention span, motivation and problem solving." The Academy also noted that marijuana is now classified as a "schedule one" drug, "which means that it has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in the U.S. and lacks accepted safety standards for use under supervision by a physician." Does that sound "harmless" to you?
[Greenbudnote: Not if you are a bleating sheep like Mr. Farmer here. If there is no "medical use" for marijuana, explain to me why doctors are recommending it to patients and pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing products like Marinol and Sativex. The lack of "accepted safety standards" is the result of prohibition. Legalize marijuana and regulate it and you fix the so-called "problem".]

The current ballot measure would legalize possession of "only" one ounce of marijuana at a time and increase penalties for providing pot to minors and for driving under the influence of the drug. But it would also make marijuana even more widely available throughout our state, further exacerbating enforcement problems for police and school officials.
[Greenbudnote: There's that prohibitionist "assumption" again of a widespread marijuana "addict" epidemic if weed is legalized. Despite what this character thinks, the Netherlands are not having a big problem with it, so shut up about it already.]

As White House Drug Czar John Walters told members of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in Milwaukee earlier this month, "The belief that marijuana is a 'soft' drug is a myth. Marijuana is the single biggest treatment need .... We're living in the past if we believe marijuana is not a serious drug of abuse."
[Greenbudnote: I've been reading reports that methamphetamine addiction and abuse is becoming a much larger problem than the purported treatment need for marijuana "addicts". Also, considering that there are many, many more people abusing drugs like alcohol and tobacco, this statement from Walters seems to ignore that fact.]

And I haven't even mentioned the deaths caused by marijuana-smoking drivers; recent victims of drugged drivers include Las Vegas Sun executive Sandy Thompson and Reno police officer Mike Scofield. In 2002 we had the deadly case of a retired California firefighter who was high on marijuana and booze when he drove the wrong way on I-80 east of Reno before smashing head-on into a van and killing five members of a Utah family, including four young children. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you the gory details because this is a family newspaper.
[Greenbudnote: As I recall, all of those drivers also had large amounts of alcohol and/or other drugs in their systems as well as marijuana. But we just know it was the marijuana that caused the accidents, right? Puhleeze.]

Marijuana a "harmless" drug? Forget about it!
[Greenbudnote: Mr. Farmer just needs to "forget about it." We won't stop fighting against propaganda garbage like this article until we win.]

Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, spent more than 20 years in the front lines of the War on Drugs in several Latin American countries.
[Greenbudnote: Nothing like unbiased commentary from someone whose livelihood comes directly from destroying others.][/quote]

__________________

 

FitShaced

How, exactly was the 61-39 humiliating?Gee that looks like about a third of Nevadas population wants marijuana legal.Another 11% and it would have been half the population.

Cassius

Every time I hear that "three to six blunts per day" figure, I nearly fall out my chair laughing. Are they that out of touch with whoever's children they asked that they would believe them when they said that? And spread it around as the "average" amount for teenagers?

I have to ask. What percentage of the population makes enough money that their kids can get away with smoking that much weed daily? I've gotta believe it's less than 10%. And so how could that possibly be the average amount?

Kannibal

I'll say this for the drug legalizers - at least they're persistent in their single-minded pursuit of legal marijuana in Nevada.

They need to be I think considering how persistent and consistent the prohibitionist are that hunt,persecute,prosecute,incarcerate,and eradicate anyone involved with cannabis usage.
The tenacity of the prohibitionist against this kind plant is so extreme they need to carry on campaigns of outright lies and mis-information,trample on liberty and free speech,spend billions of tax payer dollars,terrorize our kids with random drug searches in schools,humiliate our kids with random drug testing in schools,keep honest people from an honest living by selling yet more drug testing to the public,seperate children from parents, destroying families,assuming all the time that anyone and everyone is guilty until proven otherwise.
And all for nothing.So go ahead and teach your children that cannabis is an evil,highly addictive and deadly drug.Hope they never try it and find you to be a liar or at least mis-informed.
Then hope they do not use that information to try meth,heroin,cocaine or any other drug,wondering what other myths and lies they might dispell for themselves.
Hope they just don't turn to alcohol because at least it is legal and end up being popped for underage drinking or worse,DUI or even kill themselves or someone else.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,go ahead and cheat a friend,do it in the name of heaven,you can justify it in the end.

How, exactly was the 61-39 humiliating?Gee that looks like about a third of Nevadas population wants marijuana legal.Another 11% and it would have been half the population.

It was a defeat for the legalizers but humiliating for the prohibitionists that they only got 61% of the vote.Proly not what he meant but I thought i'd help.

__________________
Keep the wall of reality and fantasy high enough not to fall over but low enough to see the other side.

PotShot

I think I might be getting past the point where this stuff makes me angry, because everyone I talk to, and everyone I know, understands its complete and utter B.S.

Its just more of the same rhetoric and misinformation rehashed and repackaged, "todays pot is more potent, puts more people in the hospital, and they smoke 3-6 BLUNTS a day" It's just damned silly.

But what would I know?

-Peace

__________________
Posting Guidelines

Carl Sagan Goodness Richard Dawkins Goodness

 

PsYch0siS

Now there's an important fact.

And that has absolutly nothing to do with regulation, right?

Yep. And I care. And how nice that you bother to point out that a 'cheapo' (which is one of those exquisite journalistic words, by the way) gas station had the petition. I bet if it had been a "tougher laws" petition, it would have been a "top of the line fuel facility."

It's either the high-potency marijuana, or the threats of expulsion/jail/beatings...

Because regulations made it so much easier for the chillin' to get beer and cigarettes. Like it or not, the WE ID campaign works!

Again, regulation and age requirements anybody? No? Hmm...

Well, at least he mentioned the alcohol. I'd have figured Farmer would have 'accidentally' forgotton to mention it.

What a pompus cock.

__________________
I Toke and I Vote!