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Parker on Phelps' Pot Smoking: 'A Crime That Shouldn't Be One'
Conservative Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker advocates marijuana decriminalization (and maybe even full-scale legalization?) in a startlingly sensible piece about the Michael Phelps bong affair. A few excerpts:
Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we've been alive....
The U.S....boasts the highest percentage of pot smokers among 17 nations surveyed, including The Netherlands, where cannabis clouds waft from coffeehouse windows. Among them are no small number of high-ranking South Carolina leaders (we knew us when), who surely cringe every time a young person gets fingered for a "crime" they themselves have committed.
Other better-known former tokers include our current president and a couple of previous ones, as well as a Supreme Court justice, to name just a few....
Understandably, parents worry that their kids will emulate their idol, but the problem isn't Phelps, who is, in fact, an adult. The problem is our laws—and our lies....
It's time to recognize that all drugs are not equal—and change the laws accordingly.
Over at The Corner, Andrew Stuttaford observes: "This broken wreck of a man's failure to win any more than a pathetic fourteen Olympic gold medals (so far) is a terrifying warning of the horrific damage that cannabis can do to someone's health—and a powerful reminder of just how sensible the drug laws really are." Nick Gillespie and Radley Balko on the Phelps flap here and here. Me on what President Obama should have learned from his youthful drug use here.
[Thanks to Robert Stratton for the tip.]
BDB|2.4.09 @ 11:37AM|#
Remember, if you use marijuana it's a slippery slope to
cocaine!
And if you use cocaine, you might end up being President of the
United States!
Three of our last three Presidents have used drugs, and two of them
used cocaine. Yet we still don't change our drug laws?
New World Dan|2.4.09 @ 11:40AM|#
People, we need to remember that for every Michael Phelps out there, there are more than a dozen Ricky Williamses out underachieving. Wait, what was I saying here? Or nearly the entire NBA. Let's see you try and sort out and analyze that mess.
|2.4.09 @ 11:46AM|#
So why are the conservatives suddenly being sensible about weed?
I smell opportunism here. They figure that Obama will pretty much
stay status quo with the WOD and they want to be able to hit him
for it.
I'm not complaining that they're being sensible, I just find it
curious that he's been in office two weeks and people at the Corner
are suddenly being sarcastic about dope smoking.
|2.4.09 @ 11:49AM|#
Parker has had it with the extra-chromosome, kulturkampf,
"Operation Leper" wing of the conservative movement after what they
did to her, and is just writing whatever she thinks,
regardless.
Good for her.
Timmy|2.4.09 @ 11:49AM|#
Nothing but overt racism. A black man would have been hauled off to jail to experience a full cavity search by now.
|2.4.09 @ 11:50AM|#
Actually, Epizee-eep, National Review has been good on drug legalization for quite some time.
|2.4.09 @ 11:52AM|#
Dude, if the Republicans want to be hypocritical, and
oportunistic and advocate for legalization, I wholly welcome that
event.
If we could get 1, just one of the major parties, to advocate for
legalization, it just might happen. Even when the other party holds
a super majority.
Also, we need to use electrical shocks to punish people who
advocate continued prohibition. It is for their good and ours.
|2.4.09 @ 11:55AM|#
Dude, if the Republicans want to be hypocritical, and
oportunistic and advocate for legalization, I wholly welcome that
event.
Me too; that's why I said I wasn't complaining.
Actually, Epizee-eep, National Review has been good on drug
legalization for quite some time.
Hmm. But aren't several of their people shrill drug warriors? I was
pretty sure that people like Lopez were.
|2.4.09 @ 11:57AM|#
Epi and joe,
No, the position of National Review from William F. Buckley to
currently has and is against the criminalization of marijuanna as a
result of expanding the Leviathan. I'm sure some individual
contributors are for marijuanna criminalization, but as far as I
know NR has been against it from day one.
I don't know about The American Conservative, but since they are
generally all some form of localist, I can safely assume they are
against it as well.
Seemingly, the only people for it are law-and-order conservative
politicians, liberal politicians who want to show they are tough on
crime, and all the vested special interests who benefit from the
Drug War, which I can safely assumes the entire Drug Enforcement
Administration/the military-industrial complex that benefits
providing weapons and tech to local police departments/etc.
Everyone who isn't getting money from the Drug War is against it,
but when you got large, entrenched special interests making their
living from it...
BDB|2.4.09 @ 12:00PM|#
Law-and-order conservatives and public health liberals are for the drug war, localist/small government conservatives and lifestyle liberals are against it. That's generally how it breaks down.
Elemenope|2.4.09 @ 12:01PM|#
Seemingly, the only people for it are law-and-order
conservative politicians, liberal politicians who want to show they
are tough on crime, and all the vested special interests who
benefit from the Drug War, which I can safely assumes the entire
Drug Enforcement Administration/the military-industrial complex
that benefits providing weapons and tech to local police
departments/etc.
The biggest beneficiaries besides the cops seem to be the prison
industry and the "drug treatment" industry.
Just yesterday, the Baltimore drug czar (yes, they have a fucking
drug czar) said something along the lines of "MJ causes by far the
most cases of young people requiring drug treatment".
Mad Max|2.4.09 @ 12:01PM|#
'So why are the conservatives suddenly being sensible about
weed?'
The late William Buckley made it respectable for conservatives to
be for legalizing drugs. This was as far back as the 1970s. And it
might explain why National Review takes such the attitude it did.
Note that Obama wasn't president in the 1970s, so Epi's
'opportunism' theory needs some work.
Not all conservatives have gone along with the Buckleys and Parkers
- some of them simply have a Cartmanesque
attitude toward hippies. If hippies had spent the Sixties going to
saloons, Prohibition would have revived by now. I'm surprised
granola isn't a Schedule I drug.
|2.4.09 @ 12:01PM|#
Thanks joe for the note on NR.
Epi,
Wouldn't be suprised if she went either way on the issue or even if
she's paralyzed into indecision about the whole thing.
Doesn't matter since if NR wanted to do more, they should have a
LOT more coverage on the issue. Oh well, one more area of the
Leviathan/History to yell "Stop!" at will wait for another day.
|2.4.09 @ 12:03PM|#
Think of the sponsorship!
Legalize it
and Phelps will advertise it
"Hi, I'm Michael Phelps and if you smoke marijuana try Ganja
Greenhouse's White Widow*. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to win
14 gold medals! Be like me, smoke Ganja Green."
(*or Kimo, Nordern Lights, Bubblegum, etc... whhatever)
Seriously, if it takes the Repubs to be knee-jerk anti-Obamamachine
regarding marijuana, if Obama stays the current course, then I'm
all for it. Do I think most of them will jump ship if another Repub
Drug Warrior wins the oval office? Of course, but I'll take what I
can get when I can get it.
That's actually true about politicians, pot, money and sex. You
know, that I'll take what I can get.
Reinmoose|2.4.09 @ 12:08PM|#
I wonder if anti-marijuana legalization organizations have approached Phelps to tank his next few races and publicly admit it's because he tried pot, even just that one time.
|2.4.09 @ 12:09PM|#
I've never totally understood the conservative support for the drug war. In the end it's just an enormously expensive gov't program with no success and zero accountability.
Zeb|2.4.09 @ 12:11PM|#
"MJ causes by far the most cases of young people requiring drug
treatment".
Almost. Should be "MJ causes by far the most cases of young people
required by courts to go through the motions of drug
treatment".
Zeb|2.4.09 @ 12:15PM|#
If I were Phelps, I would rake in as much endorsement cash as quickly as I could, then having completed any contractual obligations to my sponsors, I would sign Balko's letter and tell people what I really think. Having some millions of dollars really makes the idea of ruining a future career a lot less scary.
Billy!|2.4.09 @ 12:20PM|#
NR has had a LOT of marijuana coverage it seemed to me. Way back when I had a subscription seemingly every issue had a little pro-weed item or at least snarky pro-weed remark, and there have been several pretty big cover stories. You just had to pick 'em out from between the creationist rantings. Frankly I can't remember anything but pro-legalization talk from them except for an occasional low key grumble from some paleo in The Corner. (Although I haven't read the print version for about six or seven years. Maybe things have changed.)
dhex|2.4.09 @ 12:20PM|#
"I've never totally understood the conservative support for the
drug war. In the end it's just an enormously expensive gov't
program with no success and zero accountability."
to quote some of my favorite british homosexuals, "there's a beast
of prey at the threshold of pleasure" and as such needs to be
enshrined in law.
|2.4.09 @ 12:20PM|#
Three of our last three Presidents have used drugs, and two
of them used cocaine. Yet we still don't change our drug
laws?
I'd steer clear of this line of argument. Citing our past
Presidents as drug users may do more to convince people that drug
use will, in fact, make you a parasite on society.
|2.4.09 @ 12:25PM|#
why isn't michael phelps in jail? i'd say it would be worth the personal sacrifice to phelps if his legion of tenn girl supporters wrote to their representatives to change marijuana laws.
Warty|2.4.09 @ 12:28PM|#
Parker has had it with the extra-chromosome, kulturkampf,
"Operation Leper" wing of the conservative movement after what they
did to her
What did they do to her?
state school graduate|2.4.09 @ 12:30PM|#
there's a beast of prey at the threshold of
pleasure
what does this mean? a prey beast, like a rabbit, is at the
threshold of pleasure? Is that something similar to lemmiwinks? Or
the beast of prey preys on prey beasts, so it's like a tiger at the
entry to pleasure? Yikes!
Mad Max|2.4.09 @ 12:30PM|#
'his legion of *tenn* girl supporters' (emphasis added)
What's the definition of a Tennessee virgin? A girl who can swim
faster than Michael Phelps.
Elemenope|2.4.09 @ 12:30PM|#
I'd steer clear of this line of argument. Citing our past
Presidents as drug users may do more to convince people that drug
use will, in fact, make you a parasite on society.
Oh please. Most people, despite their opinion of politicians
generally, would cite "becoming the POTUS" as a personal success.
Nobody says "he screwed up his life so badly that he became a
congressman".
|2.4.09 @ 12:31PM|#
I remember seeing a drug legalization debate on TV in the
1980's. I think Michael Kinsey was the moderator. Buckley was on
the pro-legalization side and ate the other side up.
"""""I've never totally understood the conservative support for the
drug war. In the end it's just an enormously expensive gov't
program with no success and zero accountability.""""
It's a cash cow for law enforcement. Republican's love law
enforncement. Does that clear it up?
|2.4.09 @ 12:32PM|#
If hippies had spent the Sixties going to saloons,
Prohibition would have revived by now. I'm surprised granola isn't
a Schedule I drug.
Max, I am in total agreement with you here.
I suppose I would say that culture warriors like Rush and other
populist assholes like to use MJ as something that the other side
supports/uses, and it's therefore a marker of "the enemy".
Unfortunately, these guys have tremendously loud voices.
|2.4.09 @ 12:33PM|#
"""""I've never totally understood the conservative support for
the drug war. In the end it's just an enormously expensive gov't
program with no success and zero accountability.""""
Isn't it partly racist as well?
Mad Max|2.4.09 @ 12:34PM|#
'a prey beast, like a rabbit, is at the threshold of
pleasure?'
It's obviously this
rabbit.
Elemenope|2.4.09 @ 12:38PM|#
I suppose I would say that culture warriors like Rush and
other populist assholes like to use MJ as something that the other
side supports/uses, and it's therefore a marker of "the enemy".
Unfortunately, these guys have tremendously loud voices.
From the Book bequeathed regarding the Judges of Ceiling Cat,
Chapter 12:
4 Jefthah den tell Gilead kittez to zerg Efraim. gilead kittehs not
mind, cuz Efraim kittehs say, "yuo does dramaz wif Efraim an
mannaseh."
5 All jordan base are belong to teh Gilead kittehs, so dey go to to
Efraim; wen Efraim kitty not pwned want cross an say, "i can crosez
ovar?" Gilead den ask, "yuo = efraim?" den he say, "NO, DUH"
6 den has test, "ok den, say shibboleth. " but he sai "sibboleth"
cuz hez stupid and cant sai rite, so dey aggrod him. 42000 efraim
kitteh got aggrod cuz dey ALL stupid like dat.
Clemsonuee|2.4.09 @ 12:46PM|#
That's what he gets for going to the other state University to party. Hey Michael, at Clemson we'd never have taken that picture and published it.
astral disaster|2.4.09 @ 12:47PM|#
Here, Nature is naked, her acrobats bathed in blood. There's a beast of prey on the threshold of pleasure and the giantess, sea priestess, beckons the passers-by: "Do not lose sight of the sea. Do not lose sight to the sea."
BakedPenguin|2.4.09 @ 12:52PM|#
I haven't read her columns in years (since about 2003), but in the past I was always impressed by Parker in that she never wrote WTF? type columns. Even when I disagreed with her, she presented a logical and intelligent point of view. Glad to see she's on the right side here.
justinslot|2.4.09 @ 1:44PM|#
@Warty: I think they turned on her after she admitted Palin was an idiot.
Cabeza De Vaca|2.4.09 @ 1:54PM|#
"Oh please. Most people, despite their opinion of politicians
generally, would cite "becoming the POTUS" as a personal success.
Nobody says "he screwed up his life so badly that he became a
congressman".
That's the problem with people. People look up to politicians when
they should be treated like child molesters.
coffee|2.4.09 @ 2:01PM|#
Dear News of the World magazine:
You Suck. I hope this publicity stunt backfires on you.
|2.4.09 @ 2:08PM|#
Everyone who isn't getting money from the Drug War is
against it...
I think this overstates things. There is surely an
economic-interest argument to be made, but Nixon actually had to
create the drug war before there was an organized lobby with an
economic interest to maintain it. When he did, it was very popular,
as it was when Reagan expanded it, due to people connecting drug
use with crime and disorder.
Also, I second the agreement with Mad Max. A great deal of support
for the drug war can be traced to hippies vs squares campus slap
fights in The Sixtiesman. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see
some progress on this front as the boomers get replaced in the
government.
|2.4.09 @ 2:12PM|#
Hmm. But aren't several of their people shrill drug warriors? I was pretty sure that people like Lopez were.
True, Lopez does state (and did on the Corner) that she doesn't
fully agree with the magazine's editorial position on pot. But
National Review and many of their writers are
pro-decriminalization, pro ending the drug war, and some are for
outright legalization. They've had a few issues on the topic,
even.
But they don't have uniformity among all writers on that issue,
like some others.
|2.4.09 @ 2:21PM|#
Most people, despite their opinion of politicians generally,
would cite "becoming the POTUS" as a personal success.
C'mon, El. Humor, remember?
qrstu|2.4.09 @ 2:42PM|#
C'mon, El. Humor, remember?
Lmnop's charming earnestness in response to clearly lighthearted
posts is one of the many things that keep me reading the
comments.
dhex|2.4.09 @ 3:04PM|#
i don't buy the hippie hating bit very much; the drug war persists on both sides of the aisle, and as we all know includes people who smoked weed, snorted coke and lord knows what else. that former drug users can stand in front of us and argue about who's going to put more current drug users in jail is...well, it's special.
|2.4.09 @ 3:06PM|#
I said Juanita, my sweet Juanita, what are you up to?
My Juanita. I said Juanita, my sweet taquita,
what are you up to? My Juanita.
renniejoy|2.4.09 @ 3:21PM|#
The drug wars (including Prohibition) have always had some
racist, classist, elements. Anti-opiums laws were framed as "those
heathen yellow people use it", while respectable white women (and
others) used laudanam and morphine. Anti-cocaine laws were framed
as "those wild uppity Negroes use it". Anti-marijuana laws were "
those dirty Mexicans" and support for anti-alcohol laws were, to a
point, based on opposition to "those Irish and German (lower class)
and their hard liquor, which is totally different from our genteel
wine".
I remember reading that DuPont strongly pushed fro marijuana
prohibition, because they had just patented a new plastic for rope,
and they wanted to get hamp off the market.
renniejoy|2.4.09 @ 3:24PM|#
I mean DuPont wanted hemp off the market.
There's your profit motive, right there joe, long before
Nixon.
Of course, there was a tax and license scheme for physicians to
prescribe any of these for a long time as well; I'm not sure that
most people would have foreseen the total prohibition regime we
have now.
save the weed!|2.4.09 @ 3:42PM|#
They talk about wanting more jobs, and giving the economy a
major boost, but they keep shutting down Head shops that have been
in bussiness for 5-8-10-25 yrs. Taking growing shops out of the
market.
If they really want to save our country, cut the spending they will
cease this war on drugs, and the community will boom.
Look what happened when they gave back us our beer!
jasno|2.4.09 @ 3:55PM|#
Anyone else see "Marijuana Inc: Inside America's Pot Industry"
on CNBC last night? (It looks like they'll run it again in the next
few days)
I only caught the last half, which was choc full of race-baiting -
"Look at this can of menudo, some tortillas and hot sauce we found
in this field of marijuana!" But the bit at the end was priceless.
They got a helicopter pilot for the DEA to admit that the pot
culture in Northern California was unstoppable and that they were
losing the war on drugs.
jasno|2.4.09 @ 3:57PM|#
"Look what happened when they gave back us our beer!"
I think it's spelled Bacchus.
I'm sure glad we got it back from him.. that bastard.
|2.6.09 @ 7:01PM|#
who cares the guy won 8 gold medals, he hasnt been a kid he has been training and training let the guy take a bong rip, who hasnt smoke a little ganja in there life
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