I’ve seen a lot of statements from the usual prohibition-types that goes something like: “Every country that has legalized marijuana has found it to be a disaster and reversed course.” Naturally, that’s absurd on its face since no country has fully legalized marijuana except Uruguay and that’s still being implemented.
But what they’re really trying to say is that the Netherlands has found that they don’t like “legalization” (decriminalization) and are trying to undo the policy.
Steve Rolles at Transform points out that it’s nonsense. Cannabis policy in the Netherlands: moving forwards, not backwards
Misunderstandings and misreporting of actual and proposed changes to Dutch cannabis policy in 2011 have led some opponents of cannabis reform to suggest the country is retreating from its longstanding and pragmatic policy of tolerating the possession, use and sale of cannabis.
This is not the case. In reality, most of the more regressive measures have either not been implemented, have been subsequently abandoned, or have had only marginal impacts. Additionally, there is growing public support for wider, progressive reform, including a system of legal cannabis regulation similar to that adopted in Uruguay, and efforts are underway by numerous municipalities to establish such models of production and supply.
The article goes on to spell out the details.
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I wonder what it must be like to live your life in such a way that you desperately hope that a policy of liberty will lead to mass destruction, sky-falling, and regret.
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Maybe it’s like waiting for Godot?
When these statements are trotted out to defend the indefensible, the correct response is to point out just how absurd and ridiculous they are, then ridicule the speaker, pointing out their lies and obfuscations to all. I saw Alan St. Pierre do that on an interview show, and the other guy was positively green when the show ended. Haven’t seen him since. Once they tire of being whacked, and nobody wants to be ‘mole du jour’, prohibition will be seen in its true light, as a great evil, and those advocating as either stupid or malicious.
Or both stupid and malicious, as is often the case.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-secret-staff-sent-home-amsterdam-042147135.html
It seems one of the problems in the ‘dam is American SS
agents abusing legal drugs like alcohol.
This one is a real chuckle.
This one line from Steve Rolles is what separates the Dutch approach to cannabis from us freedom loving Americans;
“The Dutch approach to cannabis policy has always been fundamentally pragmatic, rather than politically or ideologically driven.”
Exactly as it should be.
Amsterdam, at the mouth of the Rhine, is a very polyglot city. That means you can not go all Draconian over laws of choice. What I scene was a pretty profitable milking of neophytes.To think the rulers give a damn for a bit of smokers cough is strictly an American delusion.How you can drive into an American city and pass the crowded pen with barbed wire and still think sweet thoughts of warm government care is a triumph of the silver screen and food bank.
we don’t milk neophytes here in the U.S.? And not many here on the couch are all warm and fuzzy about our gummint… but thanks for the incite.
“incite” I sawed wot you did.
the greatest plant in the universe is almost free, LET FREEDOM RING! 13
without the netherlands and BC, we never would have passed the medical marijuana prop in cali in 1996….norcal, BC, and the netherlands, the marijuana centers
the worst parent is a freedom denying parent, nothing in eternity is worse
“any doctor against marijuana is a doctor of death” – cali secret 420
from 0 states to half the country, from low 20% approval to almost 70%, cali runs this planet by 2 decades, time to tie marijuana to the 2014, 2016 elections, out with the old, in with the new
20 years behind us southern states, sad and scary….nobody denies freedoms like the south, nobody…the top ten incarcerators on the planet are southern states…even if marijuana reforms did pass the republiCANTS in charge would deny you all your freedoms, centuries of practice…no matter though, we never planned on getting your backwards brethren from day one, half the country already but not one southern state, lol…not 1….my turn, I gave you 20 years, watch and learn
Deaths by Alcohol and Tobacco: Millions
Deaths by Prescription Drugs: Quadrupled in last decade
Deaths by Guns: Millions
Deaths by the food we are fed: Millions
Deaths by Marijuana: 0, ever…they are killing my American family while denying freedom
love and freedom forever
AMERICA’S WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON AMERICANS! 33
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I remember how it broke my heart when I first heard that the Dutch had realized they had made a huge mistake and were going to re-criminalize back in 1990. I was puzzled at first when I heard it again in 1991. Didn’t they do that last year? But then I was assured that it was just a procedural snafu and was inevitable this time. I think it was in 1995 or ’96 when I first started chuckling when I heard that nonsense. I wonder if the youngsters will ever have a true appreciation for the value of Internet search engines. It certainly appears beyond the ken of the prohibitionists, old or young.
It’s just another example about how it never phases the certainty of the enemies of freedom in their predictions of the the future, no matter how many times their identical predictions have been proven wrong, wrong, wrong in the past. It’s always different this time
It reminded me of the old furniture stores in America holding going out of business sales,,,,for 5 years.
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A friend of mine owns a business with those so called billboard trucks and he got into that crowd, he actually married a woman that was a wholesale supplier and got to travel the world with her going on buying trips. None of the typical tourist traps; she was after the cheapest crap available so they were mostly traveling to Laos, Vietnam, China, Outer Mongolia and then all those here today gone tomorrow countries in Eastern Europe.
But the point is that those furniture stores do go out of business. Sure, if you just go by appearances you might be fooled into thinking it’s the same place but if that were true they’d be risking criminal fraud convctions, or at least sanctions for false advertising. Next time check with whatever they call the bureaucracy that manages corporate entities in your State and you’ll see that they do in fact dissolve their corporations and start new ones. These guys are nothing if not law abiding. To the letter.
OT
I’m beginning to worry about the state of Florida…
http://tinyurl.com/mqmhws9
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Do you think that they might go sane? I really don’t think there’s much risk of that.
P.S. the felony murder rule isn’t anywhere near as broad based as it’s portrayed in the media. I used to worry myself silly thinking that someone somewhere might accidentally start his home on fire in his grow room, resulting in the death of his wife or a firefighter and end up with a felony murder conviction. A little research first showed that co-conspirators don’t count, and later that there’s a blacklist; what the law makers call “predicate felonies” and growing pot isn’t on that list. I must say that I spend to much time worrying about hypothetical situations.
Giant THUD over at huffpo.
This should freak out all the dummies who didn’t realize that cannabis has never left popular use.
Doctors, ambulance drivers, EMT’s, teachers, etc……
Relax prohibitionists, it’s going to be OK!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/marijuana-use-confessions_n_5009645.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
From that page this article was linked:
http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/26/if-you-dont-want-a-swat-team-at-your-doo
“What can the Dutch teach the U.S. about selling pot?†Video here from PBS Newshour.
UT Dallas study: No correlation between medical marijuana legalization, crime increase
http://tinyurl.com/nbjn8cs
“The main finding is that we found no increase in crime rates resulting from medical marijuana legalization. In fact, we found some evidence of decreasing rates of some types of violent crime, namely homicide and assault.”
“The results are remarkable,” Morris said. “It’s pretty telling. It will be interesting to see what future studies hold.”
crikey! so what should falling myths sound like?
*poof* ?
And, as usual, the best is saved for last:
“While it’s too soon to say if there are definitive drawbacks to legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, Morris said, the study shows the legalization does not pose a serious crime problem, at least at the state level.
“This new information, along with continued education of the public on the realities of the negative aspects of smoking marijuana — which there are considerable negative attributes — will make the dialogue between those opposed and in favor of legalization on more of an even playing field,” Morris said. “It takes away the subjective comments about the link between marijuana laws and crime so the dialog can be more in tune with reality.” (Emphasis mine – k.)
I can just hear the inhabitants of Cloud-Cuckooland, a.k.a. Prohibitia, to be screaming their lungs out in denial any day now.
fort lewis,island of sanity in a sea of reefers and shoals: http://tinyurl.com/n788pnu