Tony Newman and Stephen Gutwillig have a really nice OpEd in today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel: California’s marijuana legalization initiative is already a winner
Basically, the point of the OpEd is that, regardless of the outcome, Prop 19 is already a winner because it is contributed to a major national and international discussion on the importance of legalizing marijuana (and not just medical marijuana). Excellent point, and well argued. It’s a good, quick read.
On the other side, we have a really ignorant (or perhaps willfully deceptive) OpEd in the Palm Springs Desert Sun by Donald S. Karvelis: No, legalizing marijuana would cause more problems than it would cure. The unsupported claims in this are truly amazing, but here’s the one that made me laugh out loud.
Marijuana is a dangerous drug. It may have treatment value for some conditions, but as with most pharmaceuticals, dangerous side-effects are possible.
The fourth-leading cause of death in America today results from reaction to prescription drugs. Recreational use of marijuana will make this situation worse.
Pharmaceuticals? Marijuana is a natural plant.
This is like saying “Chicken soup has verified medical benefits. Therefore, if we legalize it, we will have additional deaths from chicken soup since pharmaceuticals (of which chicken soup is one by nature of its medical value) can cause death.”
What a brilliantly twisted mind it takes to reach that leap of logic.
Prop. 19 is the first breach of the cartel’s wall!
Sorry for double post. I had to laugh at the comments on the second story. Mr. K states that people who use and are over 50 get heart disease. I find it hard to connect cannabis with the heart disease angle. Now, people over 50 with heart disease most undoubtedly acquired it from something call “Agent Orange,” as I did. At least half the population would fall under that catagory. Plus, heart disease becomes “normal” after the age of 50. So, where’s his data? What does he base such a baseless assumption on? The VA is currently adding Ischemic Heart disease to the Agent Orange “presumptive” list. File NOW!
I used to think you had to be either ignorant or lyeing to oppose pot legalization. Now I realize you can be both.
One thing I find funny is that they used to design their scare tactics to frighten kids and teenagers. Now they are spending their effort trying to frighten 50 something adults! My guess is that the fifty-somethings are already hip to the bullshit.
the obviousness of the gap in the presentation of factual information grows… their “points” are both dull and easily rebutted. The claims of cancer, heart disease, increased driving fatalities… is all countered with one of our oldest questions – “where are the bodies?”
And the truth is, there aren’t any…
The Prohibs have long been King of the Hill. Them dang uppity legalizrs tho’… they keep winning more hearts and minds and more voices and more groups are joining in the chorus. Remember David Krahl (sp?) jumping ship from DFA? How many from our side are going over to their side? 0…
If ever we can asemble the top names in one place, at one time, to say, in one voice, “the drug war is a lie” and trumpet the call for public debate… to challenge the demigogues, to flaunt the failures of Prohibition, to nam the names of the innocent drug war deaths… and then to make that fatal stab of “you hid a cure for cancer for 25 years”… then we’ll hear the death rattle in their voices. Soon ain’t soon enough.
And… props to LEAP, they are on a roll w/ their writing and media work. Way to go guys and gals!
I cannot find any opposition sites with comments allowed.
That pretty much says it all. Every pro site I have visited had ways to respond to our issues and the people that think pot is dangerous drive a one way path,with no redemption.
It is too bad we can’t make pot smoking mandatory.
Palm Springs keeps sending Mary Bono to congress, so you can’t expect much logic in their op-eds.
It’s a strange place. Palm Springs has lots of golf courses, beautiful mid-century modern homes for the rich, and is also very gay tolerant.
The “drug war” has lead to the militarization of police forces, swat goons on no knock raids, and is a mortal enemy of civil rights. It is obsolete. The trough feeders who make their career off of it will just have to learn some real skills or find a new line of work.
The Palm Springs Desert Sun (PSDS) Board has posted a co-editorial (Aug. 29th) that spews more lies and assorted crap about cannabis. In a typical paragraph the editorial board claims:
“It [cannabis] can impair mental health. ‘A number of studies have shown an association between chronic marijuana use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and schizophrenia.’â€
The illustrious PSDS Board fails to mention that medical cannabis is successfully used by patients to medicate for anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and symptoms of schizophrenia, not to mention autism. That’s the real association for whomever the Board is quoting: not impairment, but symptom relief. Could it be the editorial board doesn’t check primary sources? Maybe. It could be something else.
The PSDS Board and Donald S. Karvelis Ed. D. could be an example what the desert sun in Palm Springs does to a person’s brain.
There’s a huge amount of alcohol consumption in Palm Springs because it gets hotter than a two-dollar pistol there in the off season. The resort area generally attracts a corporatist boozer culture in all seasons. Palm Springs is Bob Hope country, or it was when Hope lived there. Hope is dead now.
There’s a of mini-Rodeo Drive that runs through the city center with designer label garbage designed to snag $500 off the wealthy tourist for a used pair of blue jeans or something made in Bangladesh for 35-cents. The approximately 100 golf courses in the area soak up irrigation water that could otherwise be used for agriculture in the Central Valley of California to grow hemp and cannabis. The underpaid, mostly white employees at the hotels and bars have a hundred ways to steal from the hotels and guests. And they’re rude.
Of course, some people really like the place. So be it. The population comprises a majority of politically conservative retirees age 55 and above. But I suggest that any who read the editorial pages of the PSDS abandon all hope of finding any credibility there.
Chicken Soup DOES cause death. Just ask the chicken!