Barney Frank and Ron Paul will Introduce Legislation on Thursday to Fully Legalize Marijuana

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce "bi-partisan legislation tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference," according to a press release from the Marijuana Policy Project that just hit my inbox. More from that email:

Other co-sponsors include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal. The legislation is the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.

Rep. Frank's legislation would end state/federal conflicts over marijuana policy, reprioritize federal resources, and provide more room for states to do what is best for their own citizens.

I called Morgan Fox at MPP to ask about the chances that this bill will get any serious debate time in the House (a fair question, considering that it has only one Republican supporter at the moment). "It's definitely going to get a serious debate, probably more in the media than on the floor of the House," Fox told me. "But I think it needs to be debated on the floor."

What does MPP see as obstacles?

"Someone in the prohibitionist camp could hold it up as long as they wanted, but the slew of opinion pieces that came out last week calling for the end of the failed drug war will give this momentum," Fox said. 

While Paul's status as a declared presidential candidate should help with media pick-up, Frank is leading the press teleconference tomorrow, and Paul's not even on the call.

Previous Frank-Paul partnerships include a 2010 op-ed to reduce military spending and a marijuana decriminalization bill introduced in the House in 2009. In the intervening two years, Arizona and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana, and the Connecticut legislature has moved to decriminalize it. Now former U.S. Attorney John McKay and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes are organizing to completely legalize marijuana in Washington State. The time is ripe. 

Comments

[The Truth]

The "war on drugs" was never really fought.

Want to see what a real war, with real results looks like? Look to Singapore. Summary death penalty for dealers and public, painful caning for degenerate dopeheads. Seems to to do the trick--there's no "drug problem" in Singapore.

[SugarFree]

Please stop feeding the troll.

[The Truth]

Tell me, SugarFree, does Singapore have a problem with drugs? The whining about "prohibition doesn't work!" is a myth. It DOES work with the correct punishments.

[rather]

Yes, it could work but I don't know anyone who would want that barbarism-well, sugarfree might

[La Verdad]

Because a small, geographically constrained, ethnically homogenous nation is EXACTLY analogous to our situation in the US, with vast borders and a huge geographic dispersion of major population centers.

The level of police state needed even in your sick visions would grossly overbalance the cost/benefit ratio in terms of money spent on police v. lost productivity due to drug use.

[The Truth]

Singapore is "Ethnically homogeneous"? Uhhhh.....not really.

anyway this enforcement would obviously be on the local level. New York City is about as big and "ethncially diverse" as Singapore, it could institute such a program if it wanted. Drug use would drop like a stone.

[howabout]

summary execution of prohibitionists sounds like a better option personally.

can i lobby for that?

[iagree]

Oh please do lobby for that 😉

[Grey]

The is Truth is a sick man.His masochistic views prove that. Hell why not just kill off all the drug users including young pot smokers who actually have an original thought for the first time in their life after smoking pot.We can't have people using their minds ya know.The Truth belongs in Singapore, maybe he can get a job caning young peoples butts. I'm sure he would find this the career of his dreams.

[Ornithorhynchus]

I wouldn't call Singapore 'ethnically homogenous'.

I agree with the rest of what you said, though.

[La Verdad]

From Wikipedia:

"In 2009, 74.2% of residents were of Chinese, 13.4% of Malays, and 9.2% of Indian descent."

Much more homogenous than the United States.

[The Truth]

Just barely, and that's only if you believe that hispanics aren't essentially white.

[Phlogistan]

I actually "Boggled" reading that

[Logic]

I guess it is the governments job to decide for us.. Or death!

[cynical]

I believe Chinese, Malays, and Indians are essentially Asian. What's your point? White isn't an ethnicity.

[Paul K]

pwned

[Zeke Hyle]

And the best part is, we can't even keep drugs out of our prisons.

[Matt C]

As I am sure Sharia countries have fewer problems with divorce because infidelity gets you stoned in public. Maybe we should go that route too??

[Ender]

This guy is just a troll. Pay him no mind.

[KPres]

1. The US doesn't have a problem with drugs because drugs aren't a problem. Throwing people in jail when they've done no harm to anybody is the problem.

[megapotamus]

Word. The thing to always ask these Gadsden Flag drug warriors is, what is the Constitutional foundation for federal drug prohibitions? At the least they will be teasing the Commerce Clause as brutally as any aspiring socialist. Also, this travesty costs scads of money. But reason is in low repute across the board these days, it seems.

[Dave Price]

The basic test for laws used to be that a citizen had the freedom to do what he wanted UNTILL it took another citizens freedom.. If I smoke a joint in the privacy of my home, it doesnt infringe on anyone else but the police now can bust my door down, treat me and mine like comon criminals, without a warrent. Home of the Free? bull$#it

[Pat]

Since Singapore has refused, for decades, to participate in international surveys of drug use by the U.N. I would bet that you don't know the answer to YOUR question.

[Duncan20903]

That nonsense isn;'t even on the table for discussion. If you prefer Singapore, then move there. Anyone that would even suggest that the death penalty for pot is right is just a kook authoritarian. Our country was built on the promise of freedom and personal autonomy.

We're not going anywhere.

We're not going to quit enjoying cannabis.

There's 98 years of evidence supporting the assertion that it's a fool's errand to try to stop us.

Toodles!

[Cunctator]

---"If you prefer Singapore, then move there"---

Actually, The Truth prefers China.

[We NeedMoney]

you're an idiot.

[TheFacts]

Singapore? Really? You have no idea how much money is going to be generated by taxing marijuana. That is money for the state as well as the country. Meaning funding for education, preventing real crime, as well as your local community. CBS CARES

[TheFacts]

Singapore? Really? You have no idea how much money is going to be generated by taxing marijuana. That is money for the state as well as the country. Meaning funding for education, preventing real crime, as well as your local community. CBS CARES

[Agammamon]

Have you ever *been* to Singapore?

I have, and yes, Singapore still has a drug "problem".

They also have an eating and drinking on public transportation problem, a voilent movie problem, a chewing gum problem, a littering problem, a can't get a goddamn cab when it rains problem.

Its funny how their notoriously severe punishments don't seem to be detering people from doing this shit.

[Sam]

Sure, lets just kill all marijuana smokers and be done with it. Let's just encourage huge consumption of tobacco and alcohol and pharmaceuticals instead. After all addiction to tobacco, alcohol and designer drugs bring in tons of money in so many ways doesn't it? That supports big government and isn't that what we all want? Lots and lots of government controls? Hey, how about we pass a law enforcing cameras in all homes to monitor people and what they do? That way we can catch the little buggers right at home and kill them there.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

What America really needs is public, painful caning for degenerate internet trolls.

[Episiarch]

Nah, a painful ignoring hurts them much more.

[OO]

truth - i seriously doupt there's "no drug prob" in singapore...otherwise why the executions & floggings? its just deeper underground

[Etymologist]

^^THIS^^

I have a friend who works in Dubai and the booze and drugs flow freely.

[Barry D]

I wonder what Richard Florida would say about Dubai as a "cool city"... 🙂

Oh wait, he's two busy sucking on the genitalia of his niche market of readers, and the politicians who like to tax them.

[Brett L]

And cities like Tallahassee that desperately want to pretend they are on the edge of being cool places where people will want to move and live. Yet don't have a downtown that stays open past 9pm. He must have made millions off our economic development guys in consulting fees.

[Barry D]

I'll bet his real name isn't even "Florida"!

[The Truth]

There aren't that many floggings. The public example of being humilated and painfully flogged in public (done to very few people) deters the vast majority of drug use, and quick execution of dealers with no mercy effectively reduces supply.

Anyone caught carrying illegal substances over the border from Mexico should be shot on sight. I bet that would stop them right quick.

[fish]

No...but I bet prices would go up.

[The Truth]

Nobody, or at least a miniscule amount of people (and the vast majority of them would end up as a corpse in the desert) would attempt trafficking drugs across the corner if the penalty were instant death. Supply would be so constrained that junkies would be forced to quit and dealers would go out of business.

[Kroneborge]

Ahh yes the solution to freedom is always the police state.

It could also solve other pressing problems like too many smokers, or obese.

You eat too many twinkies, why a good caining will fix that.

[fish]

If there is demand and the product is "expensive" (even more so if you get your way) someone will always figure out a way to move the product....always! Prohibition is a sure route to more problems (police corruption and increased militarization, prisons stuffed to the rafters.etc)....hey Truth....just say no!

[MWG]

Not all of those things you listed are 'problems' for the truth.

[Zeke Hyle]

Well, I'm all in favour of an indirect subsidy to American-grown grass. Mexican brickweed is shitty and nobody should be smoking it unless they have a really, really good reason (i.e. they can't get anything better).

[Wweller1]

Man you make me so mad. Btw the governement already tried to do eliminate the drug issue by getting rid of the dealers and all they did was make more dealers. When you break up a monopoly many more men will take it's place...

[Derp]

You obviously don't understand basic economic principles. Where there is demand, there will be supply. You can't hand wave this away. If physically walking across the border becomes nonviable, they will simply mail or do air drops. Either that or recruit/coerce people they don't care about to do deliveries.

You're delusional if you think the cartels will simply give up that profit.

[localidiot]

TheTruth. What you have easily failed to do is account for the biggest drug runners in the world. Which is the US government. Are you suggesting we execute government officials? What do you think opium in afghanistan is 90+% of the worlds supply of opium. The united states is the biggest consumer of drugs.

And you in your childlike, infant mind think that our government doensnt know of this?

What I like about your trolling is that is more laughable than anything. You're idiology fails reason and execive force and sounds like the days of kings and queens who get authority directly from God.

Know this, you take drugs. Its just that certain drugs, you deem ok, and others, you want to put to death. What about alcohol, nicotine?

You couldnt debate truth. Your closed minded judge / executioner isnt for free people. So since you cant handle freedom, find a country more deserving of your ignorance.

[Phlogistan]

As I considered the actual amount of shootings taking place inside mexico, I failed to find any relevance to your post.

However if the US where to use artillery pieces such as the MLRS to deploy area denial bomblets....

[jasno]

The cartels are already doing this to each other. The threat of a very painful, humiliating death has been proven not to dissuade people from participating in drug smuggling operations in North America.

[porsadgai]

Full employment for barristas in Redway, California.

Heh heh heh

[Ender]

I can assure you that beyond the serious issues with personal freedom, that wouldn't work in the United States.

Your argument is hilarious because you cite such a tiny little country as your example. Yes, Singapore is like 1/30th the size of the United States. I'd hardly call that a useful example geographically.

At the same time, find me some reasonable statistics about drug use, possession, and distribution going down. I believe they hanged 400 people last year for drug trafficking alone. While their drug offense rate is lower than the US it's still statistically in the middle tier for developing nations.

[jasno]

Singapore area, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore: 268 mi^2

USA area, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usa:
3,794,101 mi^2

So Singapore is 1/14,000 the size of the US of A.

[Isaac Bartram]

Actually, I think Ender was referring to population.

He's closer on that at 1/30. But with Singapore a ~5M and the US at ~300M it's actually more like 1/60.

Anyhoo, regardless of the measure, the larger point that the sizes of the two countries are so vastly different that any meaningful comparisons are going to be virtually impossible to draw.

[curiousgeorge]

I doubt he's referring to population when he says "I'd hardly call that a useful example geographically."

That would make me, and most others lean towards land area as the topic at hand.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"There aren't that many floggings."

They just continue the floggings until morale improves.

[In My Opinion]

The Truth, why don't you go smoke a "J" and chill out with all of your hate!

[Brooke]

Exactly!!

[Duncan20903]

Funny that China, Taiwan, and India are in process of reforming their barbaric practice of executing people for preferring (some) substances over drinking alcohol. So Singapore is "drug" free you say? Here's the story of a guy sentenced to death for smuggling in heroin. Now who the heck was he going to sell it to, since they don't have anyone who uses heroin in Singapore?

[Duncan20903]

oops, linky:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....lenge-kong

[Derp]

Most of the Marijuana on US streets is actually grown in this country. Medical states have cloning and selective breeding systems setup. And it's well known that Cali, Oregon etc are notorious for shipping "medical grade" to other states for blackmarket prices.

[TANSTAAFL WAFFLE]

troll it up bro!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

My experience in Singapore would beg to differ.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

However, I think the question on everyone's mind is: how are the Mandarins crushing us in drug statistics?

[Brett Ruiz]

"there's no "drug problem" in Singapore."

Yes, but they have a pretty serious killing and caning innocent people problem.

[The Truth]

Better that 1 innocent person should be caned than 1,000 guilty of drug use allowed to go free and destroy society.

[Barry D]

Dude! After we're done with this bowl, let's go out and destroy society!

Yeah! Let's do that. Hey, pass that thing, bong hog.

....

Ten hours later...

Fuck, man, we're out of Doritos.

[La Verdad]

Please describe how drug users "destroy society", and be sure to not include elements which are only a consequence of prohibition.

[The Truth]

By using drugs, one can obtain pleasure without doing work or accomplishing anything real. It separates pleasure and satisfaction from the act of work and effort, which undermines the work ethic and ultimately society. It's a dangerous short cut that should be prohibited.

[Barry D]

Like video games, popular novels, gasoline-powered lawnmowers, spray-on tanning products...

[The Truth]

Video games require at least rudimentary skills (hand eye coordination, logic, pattern recognition) and popular novels at the very least improve reading comprehension. In both things, one must work for them. And neither directly, physically shortcut the natural reward pathways of the brain like narcotics do.

[Barry D]

Videogames most certainly do physically shortcut those reward pathways. And drug use requires hand-eye coordination, logic and pattern recognition, too, unless you want to be overcharged for low-quality shit, or, worse, pick the wrong mushrooms.

[ptth]

Have you ever tried to make a bong out of the stuff in the garage or kitchen junk drawer? That takes some serious creativity,ingenuity, and engineering skills.

[Duncan20903]

China may not have a "drug" problem, but Shanghia is swimming in drunk drivers:
http://shanghaiist.com/2009/08.....nk_dri.php

[Lol]

What about masturbation? That's a shortcut to the natural reward pathways of the brain. Are you going to argue that it should be outlawed or that it "inspires a good work ethic"?

[theMike]

So you are also a proponent alcohol prohibition?

[Derp]

Marijuana is not a narcotic. You're clearly pulling "arguments" out of your ass.

[The Real Truth]

I work in a shitty job to make money to pay my rent, and my school... i then have a tiny little bit left to spend on myself, i buy weed... It is alot cheaper than alot of other "legal" activity's

[wowza]

Are you aware of any of the benefits of Marijuana, or are you just obsessed with what you perceive to be it's shortcomings? Did you know that you can use a Sativa strain in place of drugs like Ritalin for ADHD? Did you know that a good Indica strain will relieve a migraine faster than Vicodin, and it's got far less side effects? Do a little research on what the Medical Benefits are to the drug, before you go spouting off like you know it all.

[Jersey Patriot]

By using drugs, one can obtain pleasure without doing work or accomplishing anything real.

Sort of like trolling internet forums.

[fish]

WINNER!

[La Verdad]

Unless a significant enough percentage of the population 1) engages in use, and 2) uses to the point of slacking off in other areas of their lives (neither of which has ever been true), the cost/benefit analysis still doesn't favor spending the money needed for enforcement. The vast majority of users are also productive members of society; if they weren't, you'd never be able to square the numbers of self-reported drug users with the fact that the streets of all cities are not overrun with mobs of zombie addicts smashing windows looking for their next "fix".

Not to mention the fact that, like when castigating believers in rights for not having an empirical basis for their beliefs, you have nothing besides your opinion that it's wrong to undermine society. Who cares if it's undermined by people chasing pleasure? Sounds like a fun place to live.

[The Truth]

streets of all cities are not overrun with mobs of zombie addicts smashing windows looking for their next "fix".

Ever hear of the crack epidemic, moron? People in places Detroit were doing EXACTLY WHAT YOU DESCRIBE HERE in the midst of it in the 1980s. "Mobs of zombie addicts smashing windows looking for their next fix". Some addicts even crashed cars into the front of people's homes so they could run off with some copper to pawn for their next crack fix.

[Barry D]

Good thing we have the Drug War, because it's wiped out all of those problems.

[The Truth]

It did send a good amount of them to prison, which is what ultimately ended the crack epidemic. Of course, this is after most of our major cities were utterly trashed and destroyed by it, looking as though a war had taken place (in a way, one had). Places like Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Camden, Flint, and Baltimore still haven't fully recovered.

[The Truth]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what widespread drug use does to a community:

http://www.detroitblog.org/?p=405

[La Verdad]

You stupid piece of shit, I've been in an actual war (if you want to call Iraq that), and "run down", which is how I would describe those cities, IN NO FUCKING WAY SHAPE FORM OR FASHION resembles the results of an actual war.

[The Truth]

This pic doesn't look like the place has been bombed into oblivion?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.aut.....r-zone.jpg

How about this?

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs7.....3cijvf.jpg

Just "run down"? Whatever.

[Contrarian P]

Take it from an emergency medicine physician: the crack epidemic isn't over.

[Dkflont]

Can someone remind me why we shifted this from marijuana to crack? Obviously these drugs are two totally different things...

[La Verdad]

Isolated media scare stories do not an epidemic make.

First off, Detroit is still there. Since roughly 1/3 of Americans admit to having used drugs at some point, and your contention is that all drug use must lead people to becoming violent addicts, please explain why roughly 1/3 of Americans are not violent addicts, destroying cities in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. The numbers of people who did that in Detroit are a small number of the total people who use crack...so explain the vast majority who are not violent zombies. I believe I specifically said "mobs", which, given the numbers we're talking, would have to be substantial. Not individual wackos.

Secondly, crack is arguably only around due to prohibition of other substances. You can't argue for prohibition by citing problems caused by...prohibition.

Third, you never addressed my second point in the previous post. Explain to me, without invoking an unsupported opinion (because that would be coming from your "sky daddy"), why I should care if society is undermined while I smoke crack and enjoy myself.

[The Truth]

"Detroit is still there". The population since 1980 has dropped more than Berlin did in the Second World War.

[jasno]

Wow, so please explain your theory of how drug use destroyed the automotive industry in detroit?

You're a great troll - good enough to make me think you actually believe a few pictures of abandoned factories covered in graffiti look like war zones.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Hiroshima too!

[Duncan20903]

The method of making crack was started by black market cocaine wholesalers who needed a simple, reliable test so they didn't end up buying a ton of milk sugar. You better believe that crack is indeed one of the bastard progeny of prohibition. Methamphetamine, and recently "synthetic" cannabis and "synthetic" cocaine have increased that anti-social family to house filled with red headed step children.

You know, if we executed our ignorati in a summary fashion maybe these idiots would give minding their own business a try.

[Troy]

So if a zombie apocalypse happened in Detroit, would any one notice?

[Paul Krugman]

"Mobs of zombie addicts smashing windows looking for their next fix".

Stimulus!

[Duncan20903]

In Shanghai, the driving schools teach people how to drive when drunk. The instructor is no hypocrite, he does his teaching only when three sheets to the wind.

http://shanghaiist.com/2011/03....._instr.php

Have you ever heard of 4 drivers in one vehicle getting arrested for impaired driving in the US?

It's absurdity to not include drinking alcohol in the equation of the alleged "drug" problem.

[Joe the Mole]

Funny, I live in Detroit and I can't seem to remember this epidemic you speak of. Maybe you just saw video of the riots after we won the world series in 84. But hey, don't let a little thing like the truth get in the way of your zinger there pal. And btw, pot ha been decriminilized in nearby ann arbor for years and the only result has been a huge uptick in frisbee golf and sales of pink floyd CD's.

[wtf]

You're comparing crack and marijuana and claiming they are equivalent...

[wow]

we're talking about marijuana...not crack

you are by far the least intelligent person on this forum right now.

with that said, please please PLEASE, pack yourself a bowl of some heady nuggets and calm down pal, it'll do you good. (even if the lies about marijuana making you stupid were true, you couldn't possibly get any less intelligent)

have you ever even smoked it? if not, you have no business passing judgements on anyone regarding marijuana.

thank you and have a nice day 🙂

[The Real Truth]

CRACK... CRACK EPIDEMIC NOT POT...

[Casual User]

Haha you silly troll. I can tell you from personal experience that Marijuana doesn't turn you into a drug zombie, it chills you out but that is about it. I am on the dean's list at my university, participate in a few extra-curriculars, and work multiple jobs. Your stereotyping of all pot smokers is laughable at best. By the way, you are referencing just about every drug except for marijuana, I am pretty sure crack is just a tad bit different from Marijuana. You might as well quit now because you aren't swaying anyone with your "logic" the US will NEVER use caning or executions to punish drug users and/or dealers because we have plenty of rights preventing that. This country was founded on pot, Truth. Don't believe me? George Washington made it a law that everyone had to grow x amount of plants in their gardens. Marijuana plants' usefulness doesn't just end at smoking the buds but hemp itself is a fantastic product that has been proven time and again to be stronger, and longer lived than cotton products. But hell, there is no convincing you since I suspect you to be a forever alone troll who really doesn't care then I don't care if you read or agree with my comment. The U.S. is on the verge of legalizing marijuana, get over it. Alcohol and nicotine have both been proven to be worse for you (in terms of personal harm, and harm you can cause to others) and they are both legal. Your hatred of marijuana is unfounded and a product of the anti-drug propaganda machine the government developed when we started this whole failed "War on Drugs." Now run along back to your basement cave dwelling and have your mommy make you some bagel bites.

[diels alder]

If one cannot understand that different substances have different biological effects and addiction potentials, their opinion on such matters is meaningless.

[Derp]

Authoritarians don't want you to have fun in unapproved ways.

I thought the right was anti-statist, and yet this doof is here running the gambit of fascist arguments.

[BigT]

Why not execute wankers?

Oh, right, that's YOUR guilty pleasure.

[Holy Cow]

Obviously sobriety has not helped your knowledge acquisition or reasoning skills.

[Derp]

What a good little authoritarian statisyt you are.

[diels alder]

Deriving pleasure from accomplishing nothing is bad?

Then how do you justify your trolling?

[fish]

Better that 1 innocent person should be caned than 1,000 guilty of drug use allowed to go free and destroy society.
reply to this

Oh my god...you're the Shrike of drug policy.

[kdark101]

Wow "truth". That is one of the most awful things to say. "Better 1 innocent person be canned" that's horse shit. I hope that innocent person is you.

[The Truth]

If that innocent person being caned deters 1,000 people from ever using drugs, and prevents them from becoming addicts, isn't that worth it in the big picture?

[Ray]

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

[Zeb]

Of course he is. No one is that stupid. I have to believe.

[RandomJackass]

Truth - let's find out. Bottoms up, big boy!

[Phlogistan]

This actually has merit.. If you publicly torture and kill The Truth just imagine how much deterence that have on The Lies!

[Kroneborge]

+1

[Randy]

As you believe this to be so, you should offer yourself up for caning and punishment. If I believed as strongly as you do, I would get hold of some contraband and then make sure to get caught by the authorities.

Yes, technically, you wouldn't innocent as you would be in possession of contraband. But morally you'd still be "innocent" as you only possessed the contraband to serve the greater good. You'll happily do this, right?

[Brandon]

No, you fucking douche. Individuals are not simply means to your fucked-up imaginary perfect-society ends, and you're lucky more intelligent people than you don't believe that, because you would just be an organ bank.

[TANSTAAFL WAFFLE]

u mad bro?

[Fixitt]

So why don't we have Truth be that innocent who gets caned in public... wanna take it on the ass to better society, bub?

There again, he might get off on it...

[Mark]

There's no Gay problem in Iran either, right?

[jasno]

Destroy society? Citation please.

[Sy]

successful troll is successful

[Almanian]

Welcome back, Teh Troof! You're like the Candyman, aren't you? You returned b/c a number of us were talking Trolls and I mentioned missing you.

Well - GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK, BROTHER T!

[Michael]

Single-cause fallacy. Please look at the harsh punishments and ignore all other cultural influences in my simplistic, empirically unsupported claims of cause-and-effect.

Why not point out that Sweden has harsh drug policies, and has low addiction rates? Oh yeah, because Norway has a far more liberal policy and precisely the same addiction rate.

[Paul Adams]

I am sure when they catch you children smoking cannabis with their friends, you wouldn't be ready to 'execute the druggies'. Moron. It's called empathy.

[Duncan20903]

California passed the Compassionate Use Act (CUA) AKA medical marijuana in 1996. Through the end of 2009 their cohort in "treatment" for opioid addiction fell 46.88% and the rate of Californians in "treatment" for anything has declined almost 10%.

http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ca96.htm

http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/ca09.htm

[Duncan20903]

Recently Illinois declined to implement a medicinal cannabis patient protection law because they "don't want to be like California. Illinoisans must be some seriously weird people, since between 1996 and 2009 their cohort of junkies in "treatment" increased a whopping 565%, and the total number of Illinoisans in "treatment" for anything rose 137.15%.
To top it off, Illinois is the only State of which I'm aware that has actually increased the number of crack users in treatment for that time period, with an increase just a tad over 40%.

http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/il96.htm
http://wwwdasis.samhsa.gov/webt/quicklink/il09.htm

[Brandon]

You really think a woman would sleep with that dipshit?

[gg]

"degenerate dopeheads"

Says the guy who wants to kill other human beings who have done no harm to anybody.

[Smurfette]

And there's virtually no gun violence in the UK or Japan so clearly getting rid of guns and punishing their 'degenerate' owners would also make the country a better place. Perhaps if we just executed or caned everyone with a gun it'd be a better country.

Me though, I'll take personal responsibility over authoritarianism. I don't own guns or smoke pot but I know responsible adults who are productive members of society that do.

[Prohibition is for losers]

If they are going to put ya to death for growing mother nature, maybe they should put your ass to death for eating cheeseburgers, or maybe stone you for drinking. Prohibiting someone from mother nature is just insane and its done with greedy intentions. The only reason it is prohibited in the first place is because big money would have competition, not because it's right to prohibit humans from plants.

[gao xia en]

I guess things have changed since I've been there a few years ago. Anything was available, but a a bit pricier.

[Chuck]

Apparently you have never been to Singapore . Drugs are easily found at dirt cheap prices. It's a sad fact that mankind will always be waging war on other people for what they can think of a reason to do so !!! If the money man spends to kill and lock up people was used for other things to help each other this would be a much better place. We have hit the self destruct button long long ago and no one is willing to hit the abort button. It's mainly bible thumpers who have no concept of what it really means. Everyone can not and will not be just like you Thank God !!! Live and let live and stop worrying about what every body else is doing !!! Grow up , live your life the way you want to and let the rest of us do the same

[Shrugs]

Wow, Jesus is getting intense nowadays, eh eh?

Nah seriously, I think we all know prohibition of marijuana has only negative effects on us all.

Except for the pharmaceutical industry, amirite?

[mrintegrity]

you are an idiot.

[Anonymouse]

This is fantastic news. To celebrate the fact that this will never pass, I'm going to take a huge face-shredding bong rip.

[David]

My reply to your statement is:
Fooking awesome!

[Casual User]

Sounds like somebody is going to have a good night!

[Hugh Akston]

A preemptive word to all the haters this thread is sure to attract?No, it won't pass, but that's not the point. The points are:

1) Legislation like this never would have been conceived, let alone co-sponsored, ten years ago. This is progress.

2) Having to vote down stunt legislation like this means Congress has less time for rubber-stamping real laws.

[Hater (Jim)]

Actually I was opening my mouth to talk about what a useless piece of theater this is...but then I realized your point #1. It really is being treater more seriously right now than it has in the last 50 years. I didn't expect this at all; I didn't even hear any leaks that they were working on something like this. I'm astounded.

[liquor cos]

wait, mary jane juanas is mucho addictive, drives people into madness, & makes all the white womens get nekkid & orgy w black jazz musicians

[Garrett.]

...that's right. Everybody knows it... but then who is it that doesn't want white womens to git nekkid. If you don't want white women to get nekkid then you shouldn't even be in government.

[Aresen]

liquor cos|6.22.11 @ 3:19PM|#

wait, mary jane juanas is mucho addictive, drives people into madness, & makes all the white womens get nekkid & orgy w black jazz musicians

OK. But what about the problems that MJ might cause?

[Aresen]

Seriously, there are only 535 Americans stupid enough to believe that shit.

[Barry D]

And lots of other shit.

[Brooke]

Unfortunately Amerikans are among the most religious/stupid people on earth. Too many already belong to the "Too Stupid for Science, Try Religion" group and there are millions who believe everything some one else tells them to believe.

Anyone who follows a cult will believe any amount of siht they're told.

[Duncan20903]

Agreed, we can't forget all the sound reasons which Congress heard in testimony before passing the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which was struck down as unconstitutional in Leary v United States of America, 395 US 6 (1969). Some of the more horrific reasons presented in testimony in favor of that unconstitutional law came from Harry J Anslinger, head nutcase at the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, to whit:

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others." (except Harry J.)

"?the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."

"You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother."

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."

http://www.drugwarrant.com/art.....a-illegal/

[Duncan20903]

Can we really afford to take the chance of having uppity Negroes and all the other degenerate races thinking the can get away with miscegenating with white women? What's next, gay people marrying each other? What kind of message would that send the cheeeldrens?

Thank god for the Texas and Florida GOP. It was a desperate struggle that took 3 full years for the Florida GOP to get Florida to criminalize bestiality. What kind of message do nervous sheep send to the chillldrens?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....58884.html

The Texas GOP still has to keep up the struggle to re-criminalize oral sex in Texas.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/.....w_jobs.php

[gao xia en]

That's why I became black.

[localidiot]

EPIC

[Ken Shultz]

Around here at Hit & Run, we've heard before about the unholy alliance between bootleggers and Baptists...

What do we call the weird coalitions that develop to oppose the bootleggers and Baptists?

I know "Rednecks and Fairies" isn't politically correct. How 'bout "Bumpkins and Fairies"?

[Jim]

Fags for Federalism? That's pretty bad too, but I'm straining for some alliteration.

[SugarFree]

It can't be able Federalism. Because federalism is always about going back to slavery. State's rights is always coded racism. Always.

[Jim]

Ah, you're right, I forgot. And since we're both from former slave-holding states, we're auto-implicated. Maybe if someone from progressive Boston, which has never, NEVER, had racial problems in it's past, suggested the federalism angle, it would go over better?

[SugarFree]

Nope. It's always racism according to MNG. Who is the final word on anti-racism. Unless is involves pushing Jews into the sea.

[MNG]

JOOS! Wait, what?

[Duncan20903]

Horse hockey.

[Otto]

"Bumpkins and Plump Queens"?

[SugarFree]

Bumpkins and Blumpkins.

[Joe M]

Nice!

[Joe M]

Tea Baggers and Tea Baggees.

[cynical]

We would have also accepted "Tea Baggers and, um, Tea Baggers".

[fish]

"Tea Baggers and Tea Faggers".

(sorry...my poetry always has to rhyme!)

[Dagny T.]

Via the link about the WA decrim. effort, there is this statement from Rick Steves re. why he supports it. I was surprised and disappointed to see him adamantly state he isn't pro-legalization of "hard drugs." I mean, an ally is an ally and pot decrim is a good place to start, but I thought most anti drug war folks had gotten past the "hard drugs are different" phase.

[Brett L]

Its kind of like how they are gay tolerant but don't like 'the gay lifestyle'. Basically, men hooking up with other men with abandon is icky to soccer moms. Similarly, pot is okay b/c soccer moms use it is in large minority, but hard drugs are icky.

[Dagny T.]

It's just frustratingly dumb to see arguments about how pot prohibition leads to violence alongside the refusal to talk about everything else that is prohibited. Like, the violence that cocaine or heroin prohibition causes is no big deal?

I know it's a good sign that there seems to be movement in the right direction, I just sort of detest inconsistency and general wussiness/fear of sending said soccer moms into hysterics. Conventional wisdom says that's how you get things done, but I prefer the Ron Paul unabashed shove-in-face approach.

[Brett L]

Not disagreeing. I think its far better to make them justify, with evidence, the parts that they take as axiomatic, too. You can't have General Relativity without re-examining Euclid. Just explaining how I view the phenomenon.

[Barry D]

What laws banning consensual behavior have ever been subjected to justification based on evidence?

[Duncan20903]

Well there were the laws against having sex outside of marriage which had as a catalyst for their creation venereal disease, particularly syphilis. Well at least in Western European culture. Since they had no lab test to determine if someone was infected, and had no treatment to mitigate the harm from the disease I can actually see arguing that for the times it was in fact it was a well reasoned law. You did know that syphilis in the middle ages is where the roots of popular prudery originated, right?

[Troy]

Hey, if guys want to fuck guys up the ass, that is OK with me. But God damn it, no more gay fashion designers. Let real men design clothes.

[Phlogistan]

Have you seen The Jacket?

[Troy]

Whoa Whoa Whoa..... I won't even go that far. The first cardinal rule is no dissing of THE JACKET?

[Josh]

I have to give it to the gays on this

[Josh]

Or, as I meant to say:

I have to give it to the gays on this. Those clothes are FAAAABULOOOOOOUS!

[Barry D]

You don't HAVE to give it to the gays. But as a libertarian, I fully support your right to do so if you want to.

[despindle]

Yes, but the public hasn't. While the general public is very close to accepting marijuana legalization, they will not accept cocaine, heroin, meth, etc being legalized.

So the key is to support legalizing just pot, while reassuring the public that we aren't considering legalizing the hard stuff.

Then after 10 years or so with pot legal, as people see the sky hasn't fallen, that crime, murder and gang violence has dropped, they will reach the logical conclusion that if it worked for pot it will probably work for the other substances as well.

[Barry D]

Just like Sarah Brady has come around to realizing that bans on certain military-looking rifles didn't have any impact on crime?

Yeah. Sure.

[cynical]

Don't conflate obsessed lunatics with the general public or "the political climate".

[Barry D]

Conflate, no. Compare, yes.

In this context, especially.

[Duncan20903]

Alaska reinstated de facto decriminalization of petty possession and petty cultivation in 2002. The sky hasn't fallen in Alaska.

Another interesting fact about Alaska was seen in the NSDUH report from SAMHSA published on 12/10/2010. It gave the incidence of "drugged" driving with a study period of 2002-2009 inclusive. There were 7 States that enjoyed a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of "drugged" driving, which in turn caused a statistically significant decline for the entire country. Alaska was one of the 7 States and what a coinky dink, the study started the same year as Alaska's de facto re-decriminalization of cannabis.

Oh, BTW California was also 1 of the 7 with a study period which saw the number of Californians claiming the protection of California's medicinal cannabis patient protection laws at least quintuple.

http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/205/DruggedDriving.htm

Remember the report is a survey, not a documentation of who got caught.

[Duncan20903]

In 2008 the Swiss voted by a margin of 2-1 to keep heoin legal and supplied to their junkies for free. Give the people an undistorted view and they certainly will accept that prohibition is just as much a failure with hard drugs as it is with cannabis. The Swiss vote was at the end of a 10 year trial period to see if the Swiss HAT worked well.

Perhaps the most important part of this argument is to point out that the choice is not between summary executions for anyone even suspected to be involved with (some) drugs, and being forced to allow the sales reps from the heroin factory to put promotional displays and hand out free samples to the kiddies at the local elementary schools.

Oh, BTW, both cocaine and methamphetamine are legal in the US by prescription. Heroin isn't but we do have access to fentanyl which is some 80x more potent than heroin. Fentanyl makes heroin look like pablum in comparison.

[Joe M]

Yeah, it's unfortunate, but one positive thing to consider is the number of users of all the different drugs. MJ users are greater by an order magnitude, at least. So ending prohibition of that one drug would have maybe 80-90% of the total impact possible.

[ClubMedSux]

I had the same reaction to his statement, though I try not to let perfect be the enemy of the good. And from a practical standpoint, opposing the legalization of "hard" drugs makes cannabis legalization much more palatable to more conservative types.

[Dagny T.]

I feel you. It does get tiresome having to mince and cajole "the public" into agreeing to an end to oppression, though. If cops were raping errrybody up here and the strategy was: "let's see if we can convince them to stop raping kids, first, and see how it goes" that would be a pretty unacceptable approach. (That's right, I just Steve Smith'd.)

[Brett L]

Based on the PREA statistics, I think this approach is being used in addressing prison rape. "Well, everyone agrees that juvenile offenders shouldn't be raped until convicted as an adult..." Ugh. I feel sick having typed that even in hyperbole.

[Michael Pack]

I wonder how much the cartel's would spend to fight this bill if possible.I don't buy the 165 of drug profits for MJ as seen on a post here this week.Besides,it's a plant,not a drug.

[JD]

I do, since we are talking about Mexican cartels. Pot is hard to hide in any quantity and likely doesn't provide the profit margin of hard drugs. Why would the cartels bother smuggling tons of pot into the US when it's easy to grow in our climate and domestic producers don't have to worry about having to get it across an international border>

[Michael Pack]

Mexico is one of the largest growers of pot.Also,the cartel have have growing operations in the states.Besides,growing pot is much simpler then making coke or meth,no lab needed.It's also the # 1 illegal ;drug' in the U.S.Tons of it are seized at the border each year.I'm sure much more gets through

[Troy]

It would be cool to learn that the Zeta hired some big lobbying group to keep MJ illegal.

[Michael Pack]

meant 16%,sorry

[Michael Pack]

meant 16%,sorry

[Aresen]

So, now you're up to 32%?

[ola]

I would love the sponsors to shout that this is only at the federal level therefore each state could still choose to enforce any insane marijuana law they wanted. But with this legislation, it would cut the federal budget, and citizens in one state would only pay taxes to support the policies and laws in that particular state. So for the anal republicans, they can still go back to their home district and lobby all they want for the policy in their own state. As for the "inter-state smuggling", that's a hoot. Shouldn't the particular state which is being "smuggled" into be responsible to deal with that menace? Why should I in a marijuana producing state have to pay the federal government to patrol the state boundary lines looking for "smugglers"? Are they state fruit inspectors at California borders or are they federal?

[ola]

Or more arguments might be, we are bringing home the jobs that Americans weren't allowed to obtain in the past. Or since we in congress are debating the elimination of ethanol subsidies, oil company subsidies and foreign war subsidies, this just eliminates a huge foreign subsidy to those nasty drug cartels.

[FlyoverCountry]

Plus, since ending the ethanol subsidies will put the hardworking american farmer out of work, he can now raise MJ instead of corn!

I'd love to see the John Deere Marijuana Harvesting machines... 36 row weed planters...

And, it would provide new uses for all of those barns in Kentucky and VA that were originally built to dry tobacco...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It would seriously financially damage the innumerable police departments with WOD grants to buy SWAT gear, helicopters, tanks, M50's etc....

That in of itself is a worthy cause.

[Mad Scientist]

If this passes, what's poor Juanita going to do? Her excuse for being a statist cheerleader on the drug war seems to be "it's illegal and that's that."

[Hugh Akston]

It will be interesting to see whether Juanita sticks to her story that pot is a murderous death-weed and that her beloved police state erred, or if she says that things are only bad and deadly if they are illegal.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It's a piece of legislation sponsored by Ron Paul -- of course it's not going to pass.

[sevo]

"It's a piece of legislation sponsored by Ron Paul"

That'd be Dr. Yes?

[Joe M]

So, yeah, this won't go far, but it would be really interesting to see how many yes votes it could get.

[R C Dean]

Not one. Because it will never even be brought up for a vote in committee, much less on the floor.

[Joe M]

Ya I know, I was just wishing we could get a headcount.

[The Truth]

Singapore, actually, buries the myth that authoritarian state capitalism can only be successful in "ethnically homogeneous" societies.

[La Verdad]

From Wikipedia:

"In 2009, 74.2% of residents were of Chinese, 13.4% of Malays, and 9.2% of Indian descent."

Much more homogenous than the United States.

[Kroneborge]

Probably the first piece of legislation from Frank that I've ever hoped would pass.

[Warty]

Amerijuanican

[Fixitt]

NICE!!! thanks!

[Monterey Bud]

Thanks Guy's... it's about time!

"The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
- Carl Sagan quote on Marijuana

[KPres]

Of course, all those insights don't seem so insightful once you come down.

[Ben Bernanke]

Kind of like my insights.

[Fixitt]

yeah. Same here.

[Joe clephane]

I,as a pain paitent who has been managed by our states #1 hospital after suffering a spinal injury leading to a lifetime of chronic pain,I for one am at least greatful for the sciencetific evidence and hope it leads to less crippling suffering.It is time and God bless those who understand and care enough to start the dialoge .I have taken many pharmicy pills over the last 15 years with all the bad that happens to your body.At least let us give it a chance to save lives before we judge.

[Fixitt]

Two words, my friend... (our situations were alike, were..) Rick Simpson.. google it

[Benediza]

Just a minor point but decriminalization at the federal level is not full legalization. Full legalization would be at the federal level and leave the States out of it. Decriminalization leaves it to the States which is the Constitutional and right way to go.

[Legate Damar]

This is great and all, but as a poker player who isn't a marijuana user, I'd have preferred that Frank and Paul use their team up for something else.

[R C Dean]

First they tried to legalized pot, and I didn't support it, because I'm not a pot smoker.

Then, they never got around to trying to legalize poker, because, fuck it.

[Almanian]

The End

[Dan]

I AGREE with Barney Frank?!? WTF IS GOING ON?!?

Am I dead?

Is this heaven?

[fish]

Is this heaven?

No it's Maui.....now get the fuck out of my pot field before I shotgun you to death and use your body as fertilizer!

[Phlogistan]

The largest untapped voting block available to him to curry favor with

[Duncan20903]

Perhaps you're coming to grips with just how absurd it is to stereotype people and to think you can predict all of their beliefs just by knowing their "profile".

Perhaps you might find it disturbing to learn that Messrs. Frank and Paul have been co-sponsoring bills in Congress for more than a decade, and that you're just now figuring it out.

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3888

quoted from link above:
"Ninety-Three Members of Congress Stand Up For Medical Marijuana"

"September 17, 1998 - Washington, DC, USA"

/snip/
"Representatives William Delahunt (D-Mass.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Ron Paul (R-Texas), and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) led the charge against the resolution, sparking a heated, forty minute debate."
/snip/

[Pigbitin Mad]

We need to legalize it because there is nothing wrong with smoking pot and it will stimulate business and tourism. We don't need a death penalty for pot. Stupid. Legalize all drugs and then you will see Crystal Meth go away. Nobody will want to snort drano when you can get pot, peyote and mushrooms legally.

[Joe M]

Plus, you'll see the return of products like the original Coca Cola.

[Phlogistan]

I still have a bottle of unopened original formula. Scared to have it appraised.

[Kroneborge]

I wouldn't say nobody would do meth. I was always a big fan of it. Great high, just lasts too long IMO. But that first rush when you smoke it !!!

[Almanian]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's a great April Fool's column, Riggs!

Also -

"RIIIIIIGGS!! COP KILLERS!!!"

*throws gun to Riggs*

[Matt]

Dr. Paul is the candidate for people who actually think for themselves.. and act for themselves. A lot of people believe they are thinking for themselves.. When they are only thinking as part of the socio-political group/minority/party they've been branded into. It's easier to control a few hundred groups of people than 270 million free thinking individuals. They're pushed into acting on behalf of their group, often to oppose the stereotypes of other groups in an effort to distract them from seeing we are free individuals with the right to do anything we please without directly harming others.. While the powers that be dwindle our rights down to nothing when we're too busy fighting each other on individual life choices that shouldn't affect anyone but the ones making those choices. It's time to leave social policies out of federal politics. All 270 million of us are never going to fully agree with one another's decisions.. But there will definitely be no American unity if we are all pushed into being soldiers for socio-political armies. American unity is about pride in our free market economy (which no longer exists because of the implementation and corruption of the federal reserve), our innovation, and our freedom to live as a collection of states throughout a large, diverse landscape of peoples who live life the way it is was taught to them by their parents, and their parents before them.. within their own communities. My parents are from NW Ohio and their morals and definition of character comes from the life lessons they have learned there.. And they often have varying opinions, as we all do. And a combination of those varying opinions are then nurtured into me..  And those ideals are what I act upon in my life decisions.. So i sometimes am my mother and i am other times my father.. So if neither one can always speak on behalf of me, then there is no lobbyist to speak on behalf of me, because there is no group to define me. I am only defined by my actions. What about community then? Isn't that a group? Yes, it is the company we keep in which other individuals share the company that they keep.. In which we may or may not hold the same values as the majority of other individuals. It's a philosophy where the individual empowers his community, and the community is not empowered by the politics of another community many miles away.  I seriously doubt there is a lobbyist in Washington vying for the interests of everyone born from NW Ohio.. Reps? Senators? In title only, they are bought and paid for by the establishment.. They somehow all become one monotonous voice once they reach washington. The only groups we truly belong to socially are our communities.. And our communities do not stretch to Washington DC. The ideals of the majority in one community should not affect the ideals of the majority in another. So if Washington is too far for our communities to stretch, then how far out are the borders? Well, that's the tricky part. Right now we have to get the power back to the states.. Thats the first step to breaking up the establishment. 

Anyway, there is no Constitution to deny me of my right to be me and only me.. don't tread on me bitches.

[JD]

Fucking paragraphs, how do they work?

[Matt]

I apologize for the grammatical errors. I wrote this on my iPod in between working accounts at work.

[MWG]

Are you gonna be posting this ad throughout the primaries?

[squishua]

+1!!!

[Clich? Bandit]

Herc 2012! You should help with our campaign.

more bracke[ts]

[Jersey Patriot]

cool story bro

[Curt L]

Contact your states US Representative and tell them they need to get on board and support this legislation. http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/

[Rich]

The measure, entitled an "Act to Remove Federal Penalties for Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults," would eliminate federal penalties for the personal possession of up to 100 grams (over three and one-half ounces) of cannabis and for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of pot ? making the prosecutions of these offenses strictly a state matter.

I'll wait to *read the actual legislation* to find out what else "fully legalizing marijuana" entails.

[Troy]

ARFPPUMRA doesn't sound very cool.

[Phlogistan]

ARF!

[JoergeMon]

Should be interesting to see how that all turns out lol.

http://www.real-privacy.no.tc

[Shannon Weirich]

I pray this goes through. When I smoked I had low anxiety (I left my house, socialized, mood swings were not drastic), as I became older, (and particularly after I had my first child) I was afraid of her being taken by the state as I was a single parent--I had people who sucked down beer, took mood stabilizers, and Zoloft scripts making commentary on pot users being "drug addicts", even my boyfriend referred to it as being a "junkie" (hypocrites at their finest huh?). I quit. My mood swings are terrible and my anxiety levels are through the roof. I will not put pharmaceutics companies products in my body as such things as Tylenol and aspirin cause me nausea, and compared to my counterparts of similar age I am indeed in excellent physical health by comparison (excluding the back issue from a messed up epidural). Being a mother of 2 and a full time college student-- I don't have the money to pay for a "green card" and risk the government labeling me as a criminal mother because I seek a homeopathic treatment not through the conglomerate companies that support a lot of their lavish living. I really hope this goes through-- for me it really would equal to a piece a mind-- and back.

[Troy]

My roomate (it was her house) has this fucking 4 x 6 in tray of meds. No shit, no less than 8 different meds for axiety, bi polar, ADHD, blood pressure (she is a fat bitch that smokes), and cholestel. She chokes down a pack of cigarettes a day and drinks soda all day long (caffiene). And she had the nerve to call me a drug addict just because I might smoke weed.

[jasno]

Friend of the family is this 70 year old, racist asshole from Michigan. Blue collar kinda guy, made a ton of money owning a car dealership. He's against drug use, but has no problem 'popping a couple vicodin' so he can play a few rounds of golf.

[endthewaste]

I have the same thing with it removing my anxiety. When I was younger I went through something that has given me nightmares/insomnia, a complete lack of appetite, just the whole thing. I can take one or two hits, not enough to get high- I don't even enjoy getting high. Just enough that my paranoia and anxiety stop and I am able to enjoy life. Sucks I have to deal with people who do real drugs to get weed, I'd rather not but that's the only way. I avoid it most of the time just because I hate that aspect. Wont touch pharms I know what they do to people, and I don't want to support the corrupt bureaucracy of the fda, I'd rather support someone locally who could grow it. All the best.

[Shannon Weirich]

**piece=peace haha and to think-- I am a honor roll student and DO NOT currently consume THC. So let's just blame it on a brain fart.

[Paul Adams]

I think it is disgusting that some comments suggest I should be executed for smoking a joint. Disgusting. This is not the country I fought for in the military.

[tarran]

Actually, it is the country you fought for...

When they asked you to help make the world a better place by carrying a rifle, they were lying to you. And yes, many of those people who sat at the top of the order chain would quite happily put bullets in the heads of drug users if they thought it would make them more powerful and they could get away with it.

[Cytotoxic]

And tarran would know this because...?

[Carmen Senz]

If you don't like drugs, then don't use them.

[Kent]

FREE MARC EMERY!

[James R. Simmons]

I don't care what they say, Jesus needs our minds and pot takes it away. It is NOT GOOD TO DO SORCERY. And the use of drugs are the addicts and the sorcerers are the drug dealers.

[lol wut]

Gosh darn sorcerers.

[Pat]

I hope that everyone who supports this law consider writing to your members in congress as soon as there is a resolution number published and tell them that you support this law. Fax is the most immediate way to send any correspondence to congress. It gets into their office immediately.

IF CONGRESS DOESN'T HEAR IT FROM US THEY WON'T HEAR IT!!

[GS]

WTF does Singapore have to do with the US ? Nutjob. Just end the federal brainwashing already...

[trbl mkr]

To start with, cannabis is an herb, weed, and grows from a seed.. not like the drugs the doctors give to people that make them unfunctionable.. It doesnt go through a process like many other drugs such as cocaine, heroine, meth,etc.. no chemicals are added.(accept maybe fertilizer as it is growing). It has been used as medicine for thousands of years by countries of all nationalities.. People down it but yet look at what their doctors give them, the cigarettes they smoke, the alcohol they drink... Weed dont make you die from cancers, it dont make you drive down the road and kill someone, it wont kill you from an overdose.. So now all you haters look at yourself and the reality of what the real dangerous drugs are..... Last of all, if god didn't intend for man to use weed, it sure as hell wouldnt grow from a seed.......

[SIV]

Last of all, if god didn't intend for man to use weed, it sure as hell wouldnt grow from a seed.......

Tobacco and heroin come from seeds too. God's bounty is great!

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Many of my favorite beverages also come from seeds or fruit, coincidentally....

I swear. I imbibe in THC myself. But if one more stoner/hemp-dude gives me the "natural, it comes from a plant" argument, I'm going to drive a spike through their forehead.

Deadly Nightshade is a plant too, morons...

[Joe]

RON PAUL: WINNING @ liberty

[Melissa McDaniel]

it's about time .... the worst drug on the market is alcohol ... no medicinal purposes to it ... and you use our taxpayers monies to buy ur alcohol for your parties .... take it away or legalize it all

[SIV]

"Give me Librium or Give me Meth!"

Alcohol is great, although I think it is more of a beverage than a drug. There are many drugs far worse than alcohol. It isn't popular just because it is legal.

[Lynnice]

It should be decriminalized. I am a 8 time Professional cancer Survivor. 7 out of 8 cancers have been cured by cannabis. I have been a medical study cannabis cancer participant for 31 years. Please read my story to find out why I want you to Know The Cure! http://www.lynnicewedewer.com

[SIV]

Getting paid for getting cancer is a hell of a way to earn a living.

[wow]

SIV, you are a terrible person

[SIV]

I hear that a lot.

[wow]

unless i took this entirely the wrong way...if that's the case i apologize

[SIV]

You did. Apology accepted

[BoscoH]

Am I the only one who noticed that this could be called the "Paul Frank Weed Legalization Bill". I see a monkey logo in its future.

[trbl mkr]

Yes tobacco and heroine come from seeds but then so does cocaine via the coca plant.. my point is to make heroine and smoking tobacco or cocaine they have chemicles added to them and go through a chemical process where weed is grown, harvested, dried and smoked.. it is not put through a chemicle process to make it smokable....

[SIV]

What's wrong with chemicals? They're what we're made of!

[SIV]

Acetic anhydride increases the psychoactive yield of opium poppies. Tobacco can be processed without the "chemicals" but it is inconsistent product and you have to keep relighting it when it goes out.

[Bruce Palm]

It is so time, the War of Drugs has cost to many lives, it is time for peace. Like Prohibition as soon as hemp is legal it will become so routine in American life that people will wonder what the war was for, not to mention we won't have to worry as much about trafficking issues. If we would of spent the money to help and educate all those lives we ruined we would have a better world, but, let the healing begin.

[AlmightyJB]

dude

[SIV]

SLD:but sometimes I wonder if there isn't a kernel of truth behind the "brain damage" scare claims. I guess I just got lucky.

[AlmightyJB]

Just like anything else you abuse through consumption there will be negative consequenses. But that should be my choice, whether it's weed or soda pop or both.

[A.Smith]

America's Failed War on Drugs took the US Medical Community OUT of having a siginificant impact on drugs legal and illegal across America.

Such from the beginning was completely intended by failed corrupted Pres.Nixon to imprison his most vocal opponents to the illegal war on Vietnam. Now with US the largest Prison State on Planet Earth, the US Taxpayers are hosed and soaked with enormous costs to keep non-violent offenders being prison bars for 1/2 their lifespan paying at least 50,000 dollars per yr per prisoner. Far,far more than US pays to help a student attend college a year.

Many innocent US citizens have been killed by Sheriffs,State Police,DEA and ATF agents in this failed war on drugs. Few realize the US Consitution was written on HEMP PAPER, many of the founding fathers were HEMP FARMERS and Grew HEMP for many purposes.

NOW US citizens are FORCED to pay China hundreds of Millions each year for their Chinese child slaves to grow, cultivate HEMP for fiber and then sell that in exports to US citizens. How messed up and utterly corrupt can US Politicans be?

[SIV]

The feds (and states) locked up plenty of people for drugs before Nixon ever graduated from college.

[Jinx1338]

@ The Truth, Is that what you want for America? Is that truthfuly your vision of the best country in the world? If Singapor is so great, you should go there and live in your idealistic paradise.

[Jinx1338]

Singapore (sorry I was home schooled by a right winged freak).

[SIV]

Better than being state-schooled by a left winged government lackey.

[SIV]

Why do you think they call it dope?

[the REAL truth]

the truth was coming very close to describing a dictatorship several times throughout this blog...some people really scare me

[SIV]

He's trolling, but yes there are scary people out there. They think government, "experts" and central planning are the answer to everything.

[the REAL truth]

and heroin is called dope...not marijuana

[SIV]

I grew up "smoking dope". Marijuana has long been referred to as "dope".

Noun: A drug taken illegally for recreational purposes, esp. marijuana or heroin.

[the REAL truth]

fair enough...i just hate the phrase "dope fiend" if we're going to connect marijuana to the word as well

[Doesntmatter]

Okay, where's the cameras? We're all being Punked, aren't we? There's no way a Republican would ever do something that would result in massive benefits for America in anyway, and not disable this country and destroy it from the inside, out.

[A.Smith]

Some Xbox Kiddie stated many were jailed before the utterly corrupt Pres.Nixon. BS!

It was Nixon that started the entire morass scheduling of drugs to slam as many of his very vocal protesters of his very unpopular Vietnam War into Prison to shut them up.

I lived in Humboldt County THEN, don't tell me about your couch potato fantasy's. I've lived it and walked the talk. Very few were arrested PRIOR to drug scheduling, ton's afterwards and some were sent to long prison terms over relatively small amounts of marijuana. All to discredit and lockup America's brightest future, it's outspoken youth.

Laws against Marijuana and Hemp are largely a political crime against the US citizens. Budweiser and other Beer Corps. poured Millions into the pockets of Republican lawmakers to pass Marijuana Laws. Now that money has dried up and the anti-Marijuana lobbying funding has slumped, it's no surprise to see fewer GOP politicians touting that jack wagon view.

Millions of Federal and State Acres that are unused and unsuitable for anything should be sown with Hemp (non-THC) Marijuana for fiber and clothing. It is a nitrogen fixer that naturally fertilizes the soil returning fertility to useless millions of acres of public lands unsuitable for anything presently.

[jasno]

I'm pretty sure it's not a nitrogen fixer. Sure, non-symbiotic nitrogen fixers might steal a few carbs from it to power the reaction, but it's nothing like a legume, for instance.

[curiousgeorge]

You mean very few white people were arrested prior to drug scheduling.

[redbloodblackflag]

There go your "government gods," working to alter morality again... "Government" has nothing to do with liberty. ... "Libertarian government" is a contradiction. This news about "legalizing marijuana" says "the on-high masters might let the lesser masters let you, the subjects, grow marijuana (with regulations/"taxation" etc)."

[JTorn]

Obama probably still fires up to this day!

[Kaydee]

I love the social jusstice and political freedom banter, and would anyone care to touch on the economic and environmental benefits for growing Hemp for paper, clothing, rope, The Declaration of Independence (look it up if you don't believe me), etc, etc, etc...potentially fuel some day. Look at our agricultural history...what was the number one crop before, cotton?

[jasno]

We all heard enough of that in college. Keep it on the quad, hippie!

[MSal]

Finally, a step in the right direction. Congratulations to all who worked for this.

[ut oh]

Legalized weed will backfire against everyone...it will give corporations more power to tell you what you can and can't do that is legal,it will only help the welfare crowd and end the debate about them getting a random U.A. while the taxpayer is now being told by his employer he can no longer enjoy tobacco or any alcohol...wake up to the corruption,just decriminalize it,don't let it be a felony.States shouldn't be deciding what is and isn't a felony anyway.

[Theshag]

Dems and Republicans are the same!!! -No-Republican co-sponsors with the exception of Ron Paul.

[Chuck]

I think all these people who think the use of pot is so wrong should have their name on a national list and when they go to the doctor for Drugs they should get a glass of water a good whipping with a cane and sent home. Medical cost would proberly go down to a more affordable price. All the people I know who have this same opinion about pot have a medicine cabinet full of pills and refrigerator full of beer, and a closet full of wine, and hard liquor. Praise the lord let's shoot all the pot heads while we eat our pills and drink our booze. These people are the ones who need a good cane ass whipping. The real sad part about this these people voted and serve on jury duty !!!! We should make every one take a I Q test before they can vote or be on a jury.

[Judson Witham]

I think the use or the Weed should be limited to 18 years old and up AND NO DRIVING CARS or Like Other Equipment. I think ALL the Lawyers and Jails and Courts that got RICH for years SHOULD return all they STOLE from people. POT is Not An Evil but LAWYERS and Koppers and Jailers and Courts are that SCREWED People All these Years. GOOD WORK FOLKS

[Justin Baker]

How about they fight heroin and meth instead of pot? Pot isn't even bad, or addicting. If you think it is addicted ask yourself, "Would I suck a dick for that?". People don't give fellatio for pot, but meth, coke, and other hard drugs.

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

My wife gives fellatio for pot all the time, although I may have cause and effect confused.... ;^)

[Justin Baker]

Addicting* oops.

[Chris]

I can't imagine it will get much time on the floor either, given that it's a VERY risky move to back this bill politically. But, as I mentioned in this post today http://is.gd/4iA8KK, I really think just the fact that the bill is being introduced is a monumental step forward. Sometimes pot proponents seem to want it all immediately. But this big of a shift needs to happen over time through a series of steps like this one.

[Glassyeye]

Just think of all the jobs it would create.

[Timmy]

This vote is going to go 0 yes, 98 no in the Senate. The two no-shows will be drunk,

[wash-voter]

I love the postings here. 99% of you get it. The leo's that use my tax money to troll these posts crack me up even more(LMFAOAPMP). They sound more desperate every day. The people who want to keep prohibition in place get paid because of the bad laws. They sound like me in the great down-sizing era, trying to justify keeping my high-paid american (civilian) job. Now that their high paying american job (that cannot be outsourced) is threatened they're looking real desperate. I know the feeling.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

'the truth' is stupid. personally, i'd like it to be legal. but the drug war failed in the sense that it supplied the cartels with money, and that tons of pot smokers were imprisoned for a substance that you cant hurt yourself with, let alone another human being.

[Pat]

Just to clarify, this issue is NOT for the legalization of marijuana. It is to put the decisions about the regulation of mmj to the states. This way state will be able to set there own laws and regulations in place without worrying about the feds coming in to say what is and is not ok. It is not up for legalization, just a step to federally deregulate it and put the power in the states hands.

[Dark Knight Rises]

Good point Justin, the War against drugs should be against real drugs. If they wanna ban marijuana, most behind the counter drugs should be banned too.

[Gunseller]

So who cares what bill "my boy lollipop" and the old person want to see passed into law.

[words]

Probably a troll, but if you really disregard someones political policies solely because theyre old, then good grief, people really are more fucking retarded than I thought.

[Anthony Lanzetta]

When Marijuana was criiminialized it was done so by surreptitious machinations of ambitious politicial hacks pandering special interests of bigots and unscrupulous business men and pandering politicians . Google Why Marijuana was criiminialized. Penda Sol

[Warren]

Don't forget cannabis is more than MARIJUANA. Hemp, which doesn't have enough THC to get a baby high, would be legalized too. Hemp is the product that will bring billions of dollars of revenue to the State by producing industry products and consumer goods. We will see the benefits from the legalization of marijuana with the reduce cost of enforcing the prohibition laws and increase in tax revenue.

[malcolm kyle]

Some simple facts:

* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs, such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

* Due to Prohibition, the availability of mind-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered, that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

* The massive majority of people who use drugs do so recreationally - getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.

* A small minority of people will always experience drug use as problematic.

* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement, even whole governments, and induced an incalculable amount of suffering and death.

* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste hundreds of billions of our money in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the prohibited drugs have ever done.

* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes.

* The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it.
- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American editor, essayist and philologist.

* In 'the land formally known as free', all citizens have been stripped of their 4th amendment rights and are now totally subordinate to a corporatized, despotic government with a heavily armed and corrupt, militarized police force whose often deadly intrusions into their homes and lives are condoned by an equally corrupt and spineless judiciary.
* As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, or even simply tolerate it by looking the other way while others commit it, you are an accessory to a very serious moral transgression against humanity.

* America re-legalized certain drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment re-legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result, and, very soon after, the American economy climbed out of that same prohibition engendered abyss into which it had previously been pushed.

[Amsterdam girl]

It's about time that Marihuana gets legalized in this country... Mariuhana is innocent compared to many "legal" drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and doctor prescribed painpills.. I say GO NATURAL!!!!

[Brooke]

Let me just light this fatty I just rolled and think about all of this.........oh, sorry, so many other better things to do like smoke another fatty............

[Constance]

Can't these people think of more important issues to handle right now? THIS is so important? It won't pass - that's number one. It would cause a cluster muck in the states - that's number two. This alone should give Ron Paul supporters reason to pause and rethink their hero. Good grief.

[fred]

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BuzzSave.(c)om

[fred]

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BuzzSave.(c)om

[xxx]

I dont know how this natural plant can make somthing bag to somebody...

[Kay]

Lobbying Opportunity for MedMJ: Now (Feb 2012) is time to contact WV delegates who can schedule a hearing and take MedMJ on next step towards legalization in West Virginia. Email and phone contacts for committee delegates are here: http://wvnorml.org/content/con.....hones-here please disseminate this information as much as you can. Thank you

[Moe]

I cannot believe that they are doing this. All this means is that there will be more marijuana out on the streets. It will be even more easier for children and teens to get exposed to it. I was talking to a neighbor on my patio last night and we both thought that this would not be good for a lot of people. Sure there are legitimate medical uses, but I think that most of the time it will be overused and sold on the black market.