Editorial Endorsements for Nevada's Marijuana Initiative
Question 7, the Nevada marijuana initiative I wrote about this week, has picked up an endorsement from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the state's leading newspaper. "Opponents argue passionately that the initiative sends the wrong message to children," says the Review-Journal. "But arguing that in order to protect kids we must limit the rights of adults to make their own personal choices is to advocate the creation of an infantocracy and a return to alcohol Prohibition." The initiative, which would legalize sale and possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults 21 or older, also has the backing of the Reno News & Review.
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Not too surprised that the RJ endorsed this.
Rick Henderson used to work at the RJ, it is pretty libertarian in it’s outlook although not in so many words, like the OC Register.
Infantocracy. I like it.
If it is legal for adults, kids are going to be able to obtain it. For reference see: cigarettes, alcohol. The only realistic solution is for marijuana to be illegal for everyone.
You’re right, that is the answer, Dan! I mean, it’s illegal now, and as we all know, kids can’t find pot ANYWHERE!
So, Dan, how’s life as a troll?
I like the new Dan T. I’ve been laughing for two days straight.
Hey TWC, is the OC Register really libertarian-leaning? Orange County doesn’t strike me as a hotbed of orneriness, but I’ll check it out!
Yes, Dan, we must strive to keep dope illegal; burning one on the couch is so much worse for you than being in jail.
If it is legal for adults, kids are going to be able to obtain it. For reference see: cigarettes, alcohol. The only realistic solution is for marijuana to be illegal for everyone.
Yes, thank god the kids can’t get it now!
OK, is someone posting under Dan T’s name as the new incarnation of Juanita? That post just sounds too much like a parody, even by his lofty standards.
If it’s really, really, real…wow. Dan is kooky in kind of a sad way.
“CenterForAdvancedSarcasm.blogspot.com” my foot. If that’s advanced, I’d hate to see simplistic.
Suppose this passes. Won’t the feds enforce their laws regardless of what the state of Nevada enforces? Didn’t go through this in California & Oregon already?
Have the casinos put odds on this passing?
Yes, thank god the kids can’t get it now!
Well, I fail to see how legalizing pot will improve the situation. Some things are illegal, and people do them, but they should stay illegal. The fact that marijuana is illegal now does prevent some kids from abusing it.
zach,
I’m with you. The best thing about this endorsement is the coining of “infantocracy.”
Now, whenever anyone says, “It’s for the children,” we can say, “Fuck you, infantocrat.”
Orange County is a hotbed of libertarianism. Besides the OC Register, David Nolan, founder of LP, lived here. Judge Gray lives here. Until last election, we had the most libertarian leaning representative, barring Dr. Paul.
That is how we do things in the OC, bitch!
The only realistic solution is for marijuana to be illegal for everyone.
… cause it was so effective for alcohol, wasn’t it, no one drank during prohibition and there was no organized crime, hah, hah, hah.
It’s a good thing pot is illegal because no one has done it since 1933 (?) when it was banned.
I can tell you right now that when I was in HS, 2+ decades ago, it would have been easier to get pot, acid, speed whatever than beer. Getting beer required false ID, theft, or bribing an older person.
I don’t remember the kids that dealt proofing, though since of course I never did these things I may not know :-}
Why do people still insist on feeding the troll? Cmon now.
The fact that marijuana is illegal now does prevent some kids from abusing it.
ROTFLMAO!!! When I was a kid, we smoked a lot more pot than we drank beer for the simple reason that if we wanted beer, we had to stand outside the convenience store and try to talk an adult into buying it for us. The dope peddler didn’t card.
Now, back under your bridge, troll!
That is how we do things in the OC, bitch!
And don’t forget Saddleback Mega-Church, a hotbed of sheeple with breast enhancements and suspiciously white teeth.
Seriously, I did not know that stuff you’d mentioned. I only read the Sports pages in the OC Register because the LA Times is so dismissive of the Angels. I’ll register online and check them out. Thanks, GBMD.
“Legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message to children”
Your darn right !
And what about adults who are working a minimum of 40 hours a week. Shouldn’t that be illegal ? I mean, what if some kid finds out about this. Then he’ll think it’s okay to drop out of school and work like adult’s do. Ever heard of “child labor law’s” ?
If you were driving down a two lane road late at night would you want the driver in the car comming at you to have drank six pack or smoked a joint????
If you were driving down a two lane road late at night would you want the driver in the car comming at you to have drank six pack or smoked a joint????
Kind of a tricky question really. Eyes are pretty light sensitive after a smoke, so oncoming headlights can make things tricky. I’ll conduct an experiment this weekend and report back.
As for federal enforcement, they’ll probably take down those publicly selling, but they don’t have the resources to go after the individual user. So the measure won’t eliminate the black market, but at least adults can feel secure in simple possession.
“But arguing that in order to protect kids we must limit the rights of adults to make their own personal choices is to advocate the creation of an infantocracy and a return to alcohol Prohibition.”
Perfect. And I like that “infantocracy.”
here’s to holding and smoking an ounce on my coffeetable without any sort of paranoia…
I see legalization in NV creating a meltdown for the feds.
The local cops can enforce the federal law, just as they would arrest a person suspected of, say, interstate kidnapping. But the suspects will be dropped off at the federal building, creating a massive caseload.
Or, the local cops can de-emphasize pot. If the feds tolerate this, they are basically setting themselves up for further experiments in other states. If they come in strong to enforce the pot laws themselves, it will (1) create a resource crunch for them and (2) probably lead to some sort of atrocity that spurs a backlash.
Go Nevada! Do it!
Hell, I was able to get high in prison.
got knocked down once by a guy that had shared in some smuggled grain. He was going around sucker punching some other fellows.
That’s grain as in grain alcohol or 190 proof.
“The fact that marijuana is illegal now does prevent some kids from abusing it.”
No. No, it really doesn’t. At all. If a teenager wants marijuana, s/he will have marijuana. I know some high school kids I could call right now and half a dub in thirty minutes or less. The legal status of marijuana has absolutely no negative effect on its availability to kids.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say it would be harder for kids to get pot if it was legalized for adults. Why? Because widely available, cheap and plentiful mass-produced marijuana (see: being sold in packs like cigarettes, hell, maybe even for around the same price) would put most of the home growers out of business. Now, do you think dealers card? Fuck no. Would legitimate stores card? Hell yes. I’m 25, I still get carded on occasion.
I think that’s as good an argument as any for its legalization. Will more adults probably use pot if it’s legal? Definitely. But will making it legal for adults to smoke pot have the side effect of making it harder for minors to acquire pot? I think it’s a very real possibility.
We already live in an infantocracy – look at forced helmet-while-riding-bicycles and other eye-rollingly intrusive laws, and – our President, who is surely infantile, or at least subnormal in intelligence.
I think the debate would have more teeth if the drug we were talking about were more serious, such as cocaine. Marijuana is so harmless that its illegalization is ludicrous. Alcohol is far worse.
When California legalized Medical Marijuana it was a huge relief not to have to sweat serious legal hassles by the locals, but the Feds still bust the Cannabis dispenseries from time to time. And I still have to give the doctor $200 every year to revalidate my “recommendation”, or licence to toke, but it’s better than nothing. The problem with Medical Marijuana is that it’s a lie to combat a lie; the Feds pretend weed is a dangerous drug, we users pretend it’s medicine. What a farce, sends a great message to the children.
The Dan T comments aren’t really there, they’re hallucinations. Ignore them.
The DEA will go ape shit when/if the Nevada Ballot Measure passes, expect loud cries of outrage from hallowed halls of injustice. The SWAT teams are probably gearing up right now. Tanks in the streets, bazookas, flamethrowers!
The illegal growers won’t go away, they’ll just become the semi-legal growers like here in the Golden State, all that marijuana has to come from somewhere. Distribution will take on a new face, however. This transition for the dealers from criminal to merchant should be interesting to watch. It”ll be Historic! The marijuana distribution network as it exists in
America today is the purest form of capitalism I know of. Thousands of independent operators, no real top-down organization, no Kingpin. Invisible hand, indeed.
The Cannabis Clubs in San Francisco are much nicer than the Amsterdam Coffe Shops, even though they have to deal with their semi-legal status. The stores in Oakland have bad vibes. With a legal status not requiring a doctors permit, Nevada has the chance to create a whole new exotic scene of drugs and decadence, what better place than Sin City? Marijuana stores for the tourists might be hard to pull off because of the DEA problem, so all you East Coast potheads will have to bring your own stash next trip to Las Vegas. I wonder if the Domino Effect applies to state marijuana laws?
I don’t even think that many more adults would start using marijuana. The legal status of marijuana has less to do with my nonusage than the fact that I have young children, a house, a demanding job, etc.. I don’t have time to get high at this point in my life and it’s not a high enough priority in my life to make time. I don’t think I am alone.
This is my first time on this site, and i have to comment on this. Marijuana is not only used as a drug, but it has thousands of other uses that are beneficial to this country. It makes a cheaper fuel, cheaper paper(instead of cutting down the rain forest), even plastics, etc… HELL ITS A MIRACLE PLANT! It’s just been given a bad name. Most importantly, research shows that it’s the safest drug. There are no known side effects, and they’ve been researching this shit for years. Might as well be considered a herb. Besides, read the court memos on when they were making it illegal. They are based mostly on racism and facts scientifically proven wrong(take my word for it and look it up). I’m not trying to throw that in here to piss people off, but how can we have a law based on that… Marijuana is 20x’s easier than getting alcohol as a kid, and most of the time its easier than getting cigs… Try to smoke enough to O.D. from it. You can’t!! It’s not possible; however, this year alone, 5 teenagers going to the same high school in my small town have already died from the consumption of alcohol(each different dates). Now tell me why it should not be legalized.
Bee, yes, the OC Register has a forthright libertarian op-ed page. Alan Bock (see antiwar.com) is one of the three opinion masters over there. In fact, OCR has always been libertarian, even before there was such a thing.
Gimme my dog, The OC still has a pretty libertarian leaning former anarcho-capitalist and friend-of-Reason in Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. He ain’t perfect, but he got high marks for spending restraint.
CR – you’re going to find a lot of rather knowledgable people on this board concerning the wonderful marijuana plant, its uses, its effects, etc.
We’re libertarians, afterall, and a few of us get branded as libertines every now and then as well. 🙂
CR,
Welcome.
You are Reasonable. You are not given to hysteria. Thus you wonder why your government serves up what it does.
H&R is the Temple of the Vestals… a spiritual retreat… a refuge… a bomb shelter.
Because a war on drugs is just one of the wars your government incites. Hysteria is government’s key ally.
It’s dangerous out there!
A veritable Axis of Hysteria is bearing down on us.