Rand Paul on marijuana: ‘I made mistakes’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hinted to a local Kentucky television news station that he smoked marijuana in college. […]
“Let’s just say I wasn’t a choir boy when I was in college,†Paul said, “and that I can recognize that kids make mistakes, and I can say that I made mistakes when I was a kid.â€
Just stop that, will you?
I also smoked pot in college. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a conscious, informed decision that provided numerous measurable benefits to me during my time in school. I don’t regret it, and if I could go back in time, I would do it again.
Let’s stop making excuses for something that needs no excusing.
One of the things Obama did that still stands is his admission to drug use but even he ended up acting like it was a mistake,,the government made the use of marijuana a crime and that was the only fucking mistake made,,everything after that is not a mistake but a protest of having an ignorant government..
Obama fit his pot smoking into a narrative of how he dealt with personal problems before he finally grew up and didn’t need the pot anymore.
The outlines of the story are not so different from the morality tale that is Reefer Madness–some good kids fall in with a bad crowd, but eventually realize the error of their ways.
Those who fail to repent either die or get busted. Mutatis mutandis and all that…
It’s OK to smoke pot and like it. It’s also OK to smoke pot and not like it. Regretting a decision to smoke is OK. I have friends who tried it, and had such a bad experience they wished they hadn’t,
Rand Paul’s comments are only not OK inasmuchas they perpetuate a bit of marijuana stigma.
I don’t hear the same apologetic hogwash about politicians having drunk alcohol when they were young and restless. The President can hold a conference over a beer without a repercussion. Lets stop the theatrical hypocrisy and get real. None of our politicians or the hopefuls were ever choir boys.
Besides, as an ex choir boy myself I have known many of them who have smoked pot.
“a bit of marijuana stigma” my ass. Aqua Buddha is grooming himself for a presidential run and knows full well he’s going to yoke himself to The Corporation. Reminds me of a certain Choom-y president who turned his back on a righteous cause at the speed of light. President Choom had better not give any speeches at NORML after he’s retired…but I have a feeling he won’t even want to anyway.
He has to win the Republican nomination. What do you expect?
My expectation is that he will be no worse than any other President we had in the last 20 years. In other words – terrible. And IMO he is the best of the current lot on cannabis.
Presidential hopeful Rand Paul is speaking out of both sides of his face. Rand wants to reach voters who will think he’s cool because he smoked pot, as cool people do. But he’s also speaking to the uncool crowd, the ones who didn’t partake, people who subsequently lived out their pointless, miserable lives, never getting a chance to be president because they didn’t smoke marijuana like the last three presidents.
The uncool crowd expects their errant candidate to provide a penance, something extreme, like a public flogging with bamboo sticks. What they get instead is the standard George W. Bush copout: “as a white kid with wealthy parents, I did crazy shit and didn’t suffer any consequences for it.â€
What Pete said.
I was a veteran when I started college (thank you GI Bill) and had plenty of experience w/ weed, including some of the world’s dankest herb, Thai.
I’m still friends w/ several of my mates from then – and we ALL still smoke herb. One of my instructors a few years ago told me “Allan you guys used to come to class reeking of weed, but you were my best students, active and interested… how could I complain about that?”
So Rand Paul, gfy. Asshat.
We are lucky that it’s winter or we’d have communities on fire. 2015 gonna be a very interesting year. The establishment has started to piss off the young’uns and a whole nation is witnessing what we get when we let the local police become a branch of the military (the Homeland goon squads).
Pot will be the least of gubmint worries come summer… just sayin’…
and here’s the SNL sketch that wasn’t broadcast this last weekend, Saturday Night Live cut Ferguson skit for time, now lives forever on YouTube. Thanks to Daily Kos for that one!
there was big fire in l.a. last night that looks like arson to me. big enough to melt nearby road signs.
You’re prophet, Allen. Thanks for that SNL clip. I’m old enough to remember that SNL used to be “counterculture” in the 70s, and angry enough to feel that the show is a tool of The Corporation (why hasn’t SNL lampooned “Meet the Press”? Against NBC’s Code of Exxon?)
Who’s Really Fighting Legal Weed By Ben Cohen Dec. 8, 2014
The fight against legal marijuana is about big money, not public health.
The problem is that we have two big government parties. The Right got in over near the whole nation on the basis of the overreach of the left.
And the right will do their best to pound cannabis consumers. And it is our fault.
We (as a nation) love government too much. Forgetting that every law will require enforcers. Taxes and death or jails.
I do agree about this summer. “Light My Fire” will again become the national anthem as it was in ’67.
DdC
December 8, 2014 at 3:08 pm
Med pot got 57+% in Florida. So the commercials were not that effective. They intend to try again in ’16.
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile and I have something to say. If you truly want change from what we’ve been seeing for the past 50 years or so, then, in the next election, actually vote for real change, forget the democrats and republicans vote for libertarians instead. In the meantime, work to help get libertarians on the primary ballot in every state, and into ALL the debates from the local level on up to the federal. We’ve seen over the past century that the situation in this country has only grown worse with each new election, no matter if it is the republicans or the democrats who control congress and the presidency (or the State legislature and governorship). Since neither the republicans nor the democrats seem to be able, over the past 100 years, to make the kinds of laws that allow American individuals to be more free, businesses more profitable, or to maintain a properly functioning economy, it seems insane to keep electing people from the duopoly that has failed America in every aspect. So let’s stop this insanity and do something completely different in the next election, and the one after that, and the one after that and so on, and so on, and so on.
If only it was that simple.
People on an individual level will say they want change, but are internally fearful of change. Fear is too powerful of a motivator, and unfortunately, too easy to invoke on the ignorant and complacent.
The insanity will continue regardless of the change that I/we want as long as it’s still profitable to foment that insane fear in the manipulable.
I would go ahead with another ballot initiative in FLA but there will be a MMJ program crafted by the legislature before the election or the Republicans will die trying to write one,,it will be worthless and expensive enough to keep the generic medical marijuana providers working for decades,,,
SKIP the GD medical and go legal,,,can you imagine the competition for quality and lack of regulations required for a MMJ license if marijuana was legal when the policy is written????
All the regs trying to keep MMJ out of recreational users hands would be dropped,,the biggest thing will be zoning and city councils to fight with,,or elect new ones.
Mistakes? Marijuana may be a lot of things, but for me it was never a “mistake”. Not when I first started, not now when it helps me maintain a steady weight and deal with PTSD, not even during the seven years in the ’90’s when I didn’t partake.
Marijuana remains one of the best things I have ever done for my health and happiness.
This is a brilliant article from the Harm reduction Journal via Dominic Corva at the Center for Cannabis and Social Policy. http://cannabisandsocialpolicy.org/
It’s a brilliant take, (since we’ve pretty much already endorsed these ideas here on the Couch) and you can see why I call Dominic the Anti-Klieman.
In a nutshell, the best regulation for cannabis is light regulation. It should be commensurate with the harms of cannabis, and use the least restrictive framework. Otherwise, you have prohibition lite. http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/11/1/32
I saw that article earlier this evening on FB and sent the link and an excerpt from it to the 16 WA State legislators for whom I have email addys. I hope they take it to heart, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
darkcylce, thanks for the link to beyondthc.com and O’Shaughnessy’s. I read that site frequently and have for years.
The people who put it out are local to my area (Sonoma County) and I used to pick up the paper version of their work at my local cannabis dispensary.
The physician referenced in the linked story, TOD MIKURIYA, M.D., is LEGENDARY in California MMJ circles and history.
He understood early on that if patients in California didn’t have some ownership of the new law that over-aggressive law enforcement would do their Drug-War thing and wipe it out before it got started.
So, he was responsible for a very big percentage of the first several thousand cannabis letters of recommendation. And by being so aggressive he put himself squarely in the cross-hairs of law enforcement and the medical boards.
His initial government position was what allowed him access to much of the “hidden” and censored history of cannabis research and policy.
If you now live in a state where cannabis can be purchased medically OR legally, YOU OWE DR. MIKURIYA A HUGE THANK YOU. If California’s experiment with medical cannabis had failed miserably it’s doubtful it would have spread like it did.
Dr. Tod, may he rest in peace, is an AMERICAN HERO.
Anyone who ventures to this site, do yourself a big fat favor and bookmark it for future reference.
“This commentary argues that an examination of the reasons for prohibition’s failure—to wit, the inability of government to control the production of marijuana—completely undercuts the basic premise of a tightly controlled market, which depends on the ability of the government to control production.”
California is going to be very interesting, as it’s the biggest producer of high-quality outdoor cannabis, and this argument applies a fortiori to the state.
What will make it more interesting (in a watching-a-train-wreck kind of way) is the fact that right now a giant backlash is underway in California’s producing counties, especially in the Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothills counties, such as Fresno, Sacramento, Nevada, Butte, and Shasta.
You just can’t stop people from planting in these areas, but several of these places have determined to try.
darkcycle
December 8, 2014 at 4:47 pm
It should be regulated like tomatoes.
Pretty much what the article says, but with more bigger words. Remember, every thing has more gravitas when a guy in a white lab coat says it.
We all did. Mistakes are how we learn. I still remember how hard I got ragged on for not knowing to cover the carb on a pipe. And nobody, and I mean nobody, rolls a respectable joint on their first attempt.
I was taught to roll by an elder friend back when in the USAF in the ’70s.
Miles was a semi-pro golfer, gambler and a lover of good pot. One night after watching us butcher a few doobs he said, “look. You can’t treat a joint like that, you have to be gentle, handle it like a woman, gently. Give it hips and boobs and press them down… roll… gently and voila!” He had a perfect hooter every time.
Miles was in his late 40s and we were all early 20 somethings. He used to talk about driving into Mexico when he was younger, buying a kilo for $50, throwing it in a paper bag on his front seat and driving back across the border with no questions asked, just a wave. Mayberry indeed…
Try to avoid the groid in prohib states: http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/31487408-537/police-pot-deal-led-to-lansing-teens-shooting-death.html#.VIZ5tDkob19 I know it is It a molasses slow process to reform in the vast majority of this troubled land!
Ed Miliband, the leader of the “Opposition” in the UK parliament has reaffirmed his prohibitionist credentials with an idiotic declaration that he has never taken illegal drugs but has “read about them.” (He does admit to not being a “teetotaller” though). He opposes decrim because, wait for it, “it sends the wrong message to teenagers.” He has read that cannabis has mental effects we “didn’t know about ten years ago…etc” and is clearly reading from the SAM handbook, written by another wierdo who “has never taken illegal drugs,” Kevin Sabet. It really is the blind leading the blind.
(Sorry about the long URL)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/ed-miliband-on-drugs-i-havent-taken-them-but-i-have-read-about-cannabis-9912148.html
Ayn Rand Paul? Cannabis is a controlled substance on a political ground, not science. Obama said it was safer than legal booze or pills, who am I to argue. Life for possessing what every President possessed since Bush senior, inhaling or not. That’s just wrong. No one “sells” cannabis. People want it, there is a demand for it. No ads, demographics or fancy packaging required. So those providing this service for the public should be treated with respect and thanked as any public servant from the police to the garbage collector. Free all Political Prisoners of the Drug War.
There is no mistake about it. If Randy didn’t enjoy the experience, then he would not have continued. If he didn’t enjoy the experience, and still continued. He’s an idiot or a faithful obedient sheep. So he enjoyed it, but stopped because of prohibition. Not because cannabis wasn’t enjoyable or good therapeutically for stress. Yet like so many things, he pretends and blames and concedes that he is as insane as the prohibitionists. Trying to live their lives based on lies. Still, he’s better or a lesser evil than most trying to escalate the insanity. Mad Money. Meanwhile Gary Johnson is heading to Antarctica to climb his 7th of the world’s highest Mountains.
Gary J ☮ PotUS 4 2016
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1975
He’s climbed six of the seven peaks, including Mt. Everest, w/a broken leg.
U2b’s Gary Johnson: marijuana
Gary Johnson 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIIoaNGrmnc
Gary Johnson: “I’ll Run in 2016 to Provide Libertarian Option” That Rand Paul Doesn’t Offer
thanks D, I am so glad to see Gov Gary back in the race..
FYI, Rand’s full name is Randal Howard Paul, he was NOT named after Ayn Rand, his father is NOT an objectivist (follower of Ayn Rand), he’s a Constitutionalist libertarian; Rand is not as strongly Constitutionalist, or libertarian in comparison to his dad, but he’s FAR and away better than ANY other republican and triple that better than any democrat. I get mighty sick of people who deliberately try to defame people by linking them with someone who is not popular, or even is out and out vilified (though Ayn deserves better than the vilification she gets from progressives, who are anything BUT progressive, and liberals, who are more socialist-leaning-toward-communist than classical liberals like Jefferson). I won’t be voting for Rand unless Gary Johnson is not on my ballot, but please stop acting like he’s something yucky stuck on the bottom of your shoe.
OT
Some thoughts on the American Libertarian Party.
David Koch of the infamous dirty tar sand Koch brothers ran as the libertarian Vice President candidate in 1980.
Here’s some of that 1980 Libertarian Party Platform:
NO Social Security
NO Medicare
NO Medicaid
NO income taxes
That was 1980, has the party grown or changed in any way?
Here’s the 2012 Platform: “We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the IRS and all federal programs and services NOT required under the U.S. Constitution.
I’ll let the credo that headlines O’Shaughnessy’s Journal of Cannabis in Clinical Practice speak for me on what I think.
“FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITY, TO EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR NEED.”
I don’t have a problem with you posting your views on the American Libertarian Party (or any other subject), but I would suggest that you keep in mind that the coalition of those of us who oppose the drug war is an ideologically broad one that includes a lot of big- and small-‘L’ libertarians. In fact, self-described “libertarians” are probably the drug war’s most consistent and reliable opponents.
I used to identify myself as a “libertarian.” I still do to an extent although I’ve crossed over into full-blown anarchism. (No more half-measures for me! 🙂 ) As such, I too oppose Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the income tax. I do so not because I oppose providing assistance to the elderly, the poor, or the sick, but because I don’t believe in the legitimacy of the entity that operates those programs by claiming for itself a monopoly on the initiation of force.
tis why I am an independent. A full blown conservative radical libertarian indigenous anarchist that also happens to be a reformed Luddite. There ain’t no party can represent me.
Well… there have been some pot parties I’ve attended where I fit in…
Independent works for me too. I hate labels.
I think the Kochroaches invest in Libertarian candidates but remain Neocons. For profit traitors enslaving Americans to low wages or in Koch private cages. Libertarians goals for 16 seem to be continued attempts to get 5% to qualify for Fed matching funds. Gut SS that is paid by us. Shelter their responsibility for taxes and then take taxes on the bogus drug war. As I said to Harry Browne many moons ago. When Libertarians go back to we the people and divest themselves from Wall St I’ll go back to the party. Harry was a stock broker so he didn’t get it as much as he seemed to understand the devastation of the drug war. Seems they can’t make themselves believe corporations can lie or cheat. Or that Hemp and Ganja could be competition and that prohibition keeps them from having to deal with it. Can’t just say no or write off logic. So I’m glad to support Gary as a citizen but still weary of Libertarians umbilical cords attached to Wall St. Government is no longer the oppressors, they are employees of the oppressors in the G-20 with no allegiance to us or the Constitution. So just attacking the employees and not the company ordering them scapegoats all but the guilty, as they do so well with Ganja and even tobacco while the chemical poisons are left out of the discussion. But given a choice of GOPervert or Hilary. I would probably give it to Gary.
Congress won’t block marijuana legalization in Washington, DC — but it will prevent sales http://news.yahoo.com/congress-may-block-marijuana-legalization-
So it will be legal, but totally unregulated. Way to protect the children!!!!
It’s a way to protect their investments and campaign financing. Someday that will make the news, and then I’ll go get drunk. Haven’t since 1980.
OT
Some folks crashed Sabet and the Heritage Foundation’s anti legalisation event: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/12/09/hecklers-crash-anti-pot-legalization-forum-on-capitol-hill
Czarbarry McCaffrey? WTF is he still doing with a microphone? Someone put that old horse out to pasture or send him to the glue factory.
Yeah, just because legalization advocates have a coherent argument and opponents don’t, doesn’t mean politicians should embrace the formers’ position. No, wait, that’s actually incoherent… although I suppose that makes sense… in a sense. (Great, now I’ve got a headache.)
*raises one eyebrow*
Oh, goddamnit. You fucking hypocrites.
Yep, when I hear the words “nuanced conversation about marijuana,” I instantly think Kevin Sabet and Barry McCaffrey.
oh Francis… I certainly hope you didn’t hurt your tongue or your cheek on that one.
A little, but it was worth it. BTW, that thumbs down was my mistake. It was supposed to be a thumbs up, and my phone wouldn’t let me change it.
All these prohibitionists are suffering from low THC
http://youtu.be/WpYYK5cr_W0
Cop Steroid Rage Caught On Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATWr0295QJY
Roids, compounded by Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency
http://fb.me/3c37fEq6V They Have Larger ‘Fear Centers’ in Their Brains
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1690
Feds Propose Taxing Marijuana, True Cash Crop
http://onforb.es/1weZYUE via @forbes
With all the upheaval in Washington, it isn’t likely that federal proposals to tax marijuana will pass anytime soon. Yet as Professor Paul Caron catalogs, economists are looking anew at the proposed Marijuana Tax Equity Act (H.R. 501). It would end the federal prohibition on marijuana and allow it to be taxed. Growers, sellers and users would not to fear violating federal law. But dealing with taxes would be another story.
Fuck them right in their taxes,,if they can’t stop us now with it banned almost worldwide what can they do once it is legal worldwide?
All this prohibition has made us very good at stealth growing.
i don’t know how stealthy i am, but i do know all my neighbors know. and i haven’t been snitched off in the last ten years.