Legalization of sin and vice

Quote: petroglyph

The WOD, never was about drugs, it is and has always been, about control. What the trillion dollar wasted war on drugs has done is keep the price up.

Price support and barriers to entry. In the sixties hippies were moving pot and they were doing it fairly cheaply...then it was biker gangs and Mexican gangs with Mexicans finally moving in and evicting the hippies who were growing on federal lands.

water air? I have to pay for water... I don't even give my tap water to my cat or my maid.
air? I pay for air at gas stations seventy five cents or one dollar a squirt.

Quote: CNN

CNN ANCHOR: Secretary Clinton, you told Christiane Amanpour you didn't smoke pot when you were young, and you're not going to start now. When asked about legalizing recreational marijuana, you told her let's wait and see how it plays out in Colorado and Washington. It's been more than a year since you've said that. Are you ready to take a position tonight?

HILLARY CLINTON: No. I think that we have the opportunity through the states that are pursuing recreational marijuana to find out a lot more than we know today. I do support the use of medical marijuana, and I think even there we need to do a lot more research so that we know exactly how we're going to help people for whom medical marijuana provides relief. So, I think we're just at the beginning, but I agree completely with the idea that we have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana. Therefore, we need more states, cities, and the federal government to begin to address this so that we don't have this terrible result that Senator Sanders was talking about where we have a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana.

No?!? You have no position on the issue?

In some ways, this non-answer is the worst possible answer Clinton could give, it's actually worse than Chris Christie's. Originally she refused to take a position because she had a wait-and-see attitude regarding Colorado & Washington.

Colorado voted on it in November 2012, and legalization took effect on Jan 1, 2014. So we're at 22 months. Is it a success? A failure? What's the definition of success or failure? How many years will it take before we know if it's a success or failure? 5 years? 10 years? As far as Clinton is concerned, we'll never know, we need more data, she has no opinion.

Then Clinton ends her answer with a vague "we need the federal government to begin to address" the injustice. Ok, she wants to stop imprisoning users, but she won't say how. Maybe she wants to legalize using, but criminialize selling. She won't tell us, her views are all top secret. Should growers continue to be imprisoned? If we imprison growers, how will users get pot? If we imprison growers, the price will stay high, providing an incentive for criminals to enter the market.

Give us specifics, Mrs. Clinton! She can't of course, because everything about her is phoney and scripted and poll-tested.

I think what she's trying to say is: "I will continue the status quo, nothing will change, stop asking questions, just vote for me."

I remember getting into a debate with a friend over Obama's promises on DOMA. Groups like Act Up were protesting pretty early in his administration for not taking executive action like the first day in office.

I just assumed he was calculating for the right moment, which is what I think he did, with some extra bumbling help from Biden he went faster on the gay issues, but he got there. My friend assumed he was going to do nothing.

But then, I don't really know Clinton's real weed assessment and how much she really wants to do, whether she's faux holding back, so I won't argue the same point.

But seeing as she can't do anything right now, there may be no advantage now to committing to a policy. Yup, she's trying to max the number of votes on issues, probably.

BTW, Obama may up and pardon a lot of drug offenders with no violent past. Presidents do some bold things at the end of the terms, and pardoning has been controversial before, and probably will be again. Nothing anyone can do either.

The whole thing falls apart when 14 DEA agents are caught hiring & using prostitutes for DEA sex parties in Colombia. We are told that these particular DEA agents are "just a few bad apples," they don't represent the entire organization, and it's unfair to criticize the entire agency for the corrupt actions of 14 rogue agents. But the excuses don't matter: the DEA has no credibility, no moral authority.

And then comes the punchline to the joke: 8 of the 14 agents are rewarded with bonuses after the prostitution bust!

Quote: Washington Post

The awards ranged from $1,500 to $32,000, with the high end going to senior executives disciplined for their role in the scandal.

Your tax dollars at work...

Quote: rxwine

BTW, Obama may up and pardon a lot of drug offenders with no violent past.

I've done some reading on "discarceration." The mere phrase "non-violent" opens up a really nasty can of worms.

For instance, suppose Joe is dealing drugs and carries a gun for self-defense only. One day he's caught dealing, gets arrested, and due to the gun he's tagged a "violent" offender. If that's not bad enough, a regular person buying drugs who might also be carrying a gun for self-protection, would be equally tagged as "violent" if busted buying drugs.

But if anyone proposes parole for "violent" drug offenders, watch out!

The obvious rule of thumb is: will my actions endanger an innocent bystander?

So I would criminalize texting while driving because it endangers innocent bystanders. But if you want to smoke marijuana in your living room, that ought to be legal.

Good ol' Rick Perry has it backwards. He does not want to legalize marijuana, but he's totally cool with texting & driving.

Ha! That guy cracks me up!

Although I have reasons to think it wouldn’t work very well, what if you tied the legal purchase of many currently illicit drugs to working? And made them legal.

In other words, money alone wouldn’t purchase these drugs, but you had to produce proof that you did some legitimate work during a week.

This would attack other problems often created by drug culture: like doing nothing or committing crime to support a habit.

I mean, jobs like carrying food trays to prisoners are probably safe enough for even people who are often intoxicated.

At retirement age, if you’re still alive, the work requirement drops.

If you’re caught using these drugs without meeting the requirements or by fraud, you are treated like a criminal.

Introducing contraband into prisons is meritorious work?

Arbitrary and capricious qualifications is what drives people to drugs in the first place.

Quote: reno

Quote: CNN

CNN ANCHOR: Secretary Clinton, you told Christiane Amanpour you didn't smoke pot when you were young, and you're not going to start now. When asked about legalizing recreational marijuana, you told her let's wait and see how it plays out in Colorado and Washington. It's been more than a year since you've said that. Are you ready to take a position tonight?

HILLARY CLINTON: No. I think that we have the opportunity through the states that are pursuing recreational marijuana to find out a lot more than we know today. I do support the use of medical marijuana, and I think even there we need to do a lot more research so that we know exactly how we're going to help people for whom medical marijuana provides relief. So, I think we're just at the beginning, but I agree completely with the idea that we have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana. Therefore, we need more states, cities, and the federal government to begin to address this so that we don't have this terrible result that Senator Sanders was talking about where we have a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana.

No?!? You have no position on the issue?

In some ways, this non-answer is the worst possible answer Clinton could give, it's actually worse than Chris Christie's. Originally she refused to take a position because she had a wait-and-see attitude regarding Colorado & Washington.

Colorado voted on it in November 2012, and legalization took effect on Jan 1, 2014. So we're at 22 months. Is it a success? A failure? What's the definition of success or failure? How many years will it take before we know if it's a success or failure? 5 years? 10 years? As far as Clinton is concerned, we'll never know, we need more data, she has no opinion.

Then Clinton ends her answer with a vague "we need the federal government to begin to address" the injustice. Ok, she wants to stop imprisoning users, but she won't say how. Maybe she wants to legalize using, but criminialize selling. She won't tell us, her views are all top secret. Should growers continue to be imprisoned? If we imprison growers, how will users get pot? If we imprison growers, the price will stay high, providing an incentive for criminals to enter the market.

Give us specifics, Mrs. Clinton! She can't of course, because everything about her is phoney and scripted and poll-tested.

I think what she's trying to say is: "I will continue the status quo, nothing will change, stop asking questions, just vote for me."

???????
I was satisfied with her answer and her position
"I do support the use of medical marijuana"
Cool, we have it here in FL. Totally cool with medical MJ legal in FL
Thanks Hillary