News is that the folks who opposed gay marriage and supported Prop 8 in California are now coming out with STOP PROP 19 DOT COM to oppose marijuana legalization. Those who have sneaked a peak at their messages say:
There’s no announcer or sound bites, but the production is dramatic and the messages are powerful. One claim reads marijuana is “The number one addiction for 60% of teens in drug rehab.” Another claims marijuana is “50-70% more CANCER-CAUSING than Cigarettes.”
Messages are powerful? I guess that assumes that the truth doesn’t matter.
Russ Belville has some fun with Tossed SALAD: Stoners Against Legalization Article of the Day, where he takes a look at the rather bizarre antics of those who “got theirs” now and don’t want the rest to have it legal.
Over at the RBC, Keith Humphreys makes the case that the remaining states that mirrored the federal governments bad crack-powder cocaine disparity in sentencing should follow the federal government’s recent moves and reduce that disparity statewide. He notes that in California, that could save $60 million annually. Excellent suggestion and one that is, unfortunately, likely to be fought every step of the way by the prison guards union.
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This is an open thread.
What a bunch of “Reefer Madness” all these statements are outdated false information. For the people that believe Marijuana causes cancer where are all the bodies? Every year more than 400,000 people die due to cancer caused by tobbacco and more than 200,000 people die due to the direct use of alcohol. There have NEVER been any deaths associated with the direct use of Marijuana for its 2000 years of known use. America needs to stop wasting millions of tax dollars a year for a prohibition against a plant.
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Where is the study that proves marijuana is a weapon of mass derision? I liked Russ’s thought on Stop Prop 19
supporters,they don’t want to lose their chance for a good roomy in prison.
[There’s no announcer or sound bites, but the production is dramatic and the messages are powerful. One claim reads marijuana is “The number one addiction for 60% of teens in drug rehab.†Another claims marijuana is “50-70% more CANCER-CAUSING than Cigarettes.â€]
Just more proof that America is full of liars and crooks.
Us :”Hey look its bright and sunny.”
Them: “No it isnt!”
Us: “Wheres your proof?”
Them: ” We dont need any !We are right and you are wrong. Now shut up and blindly follow!”
Well we wouldn’t have to worry anymore about whether global warming is true or not.
Have you ever noticed that prohibitionists will automatically dismiss any idea if it’s posted on a cannabis friendly site because of ‘bias’, regardless of how well supported by factual research it is. But they lap up undocumented claims from the ONDCP and others and present it as proof.
Seriously, don’t joke about it, that last CME? It’s because god hates stoners.
“likely to be fought every step of the way by the prison guards union.”
How much longer before the rest of America realizes, as most of us here already do, that the REALLY BAD programs and policies, the expensive and fruitless and violent wastes of money are all supported by the prison guard/police cabal? Each and every one, what a track record of dysfunctional decision making!
How long would you or I last if all our decisions were as disasterous as the War on Drugs? Not long.
How come that standard isn’t being applied to prison guards/police? When whatever they want turns out to be demonstrably disasterous (and it does), just assume any further ideas will be equally as stupid so we never have to allow them to make policy again.
Why haven’t the politicians figured this out?
Yeah, I know. Preaching to the choir.
The purpose of preaching to the choir is to get them to sing.
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Truth. If truth had anything at all to do with this arguement, it would have been settled in 1937. What we can hope for is that the forces of prohibition continue to trot out more and more transparent justifications of the status quo. The more desperate and absurd they sound, the better. That these claims are more and more demonstrably false is a sign we’re winning, and they are just quacking louder.
I wouldn’t expect Obama act, however, regardless of public sentiment. He has show a clear unwillingness to go up againt moneyed interests (banks, insurance companies, wall street, BP, should I go on?). It seems he has completely forgotten the small 50-500 dollar donors who put him in office, in favor of corporate America. Who, I shouldn’t have to add, will never support him, no matter how much he kow-tows to them. Watch a great hope turn into a dissapointing one-term presidency. To be followed by more of the same from the GOP. A cynic is never dissapointed.
It just hit the “stop19” page link above and landed on a statically dead page. Must have been something you guys said.
Let’s suppose for a minute that 60% of the cohort is addicted to merryjewanna. I’m going to presume that’s just for ‘drugs’ and that alcohol abuse isn’t included. OK, now let’s figure out the actual use percentages for highly addictive drugs that doesn’t include alcohol. I’m thinking perhaps 2 for heroin, 2 for meth, 3 for cocaine, and 4 for Rx. That leaves 89 for cannabis. So wouldn’t it at least show that cannabis users are significantly less likely to end up in rehab. 89% of drug users prefer cannabis but make up only 60% of the rehab population.
One of the things that is highly suggested to people who join 12 step groups is that they do a 90 in 90. That’s 90 meetings in 90 days time. I found it interesting that in order to do that using Merryjewanna Anonymous in the DC Metro region I’d have to drive hundreds of miles and visit 5 states and the District. AA or NA you can make the quota less that 10 miles from home. Even a couple of years back I looked it up for SF Bay area, the de facto capital of cannabis consumers in the US and I still had to go as far north as Santa Rosa and south to San Jose, twice to Oakland and 3 times to San Francisco. The only criteria that I used was that meeting had to be scheduled on a day of the week which needed to have a meeting so I could ‘do the 90 in 90’. All academic as my response to actually doing so was ‘you’ve got to be kidding’.
@ezrydn
I just watched “Is It Always Right To Be Right?” as you recommended in a previous thread, and as you predicted, I do love it.
What is truly right is not about any given perspective.
What is truly right naturally pushes people apart and brings people together.
Reality is truly right.
What each one of us sees as right is what drives each one of us. The resulting agreements and conflicts help shape what each one of us sees as right.
Our movement is right in that driving sense. Being right in that driving sense is not enough, if change is desired, because we need to convince people that we are truly right (they need to naturally agree with us).
For people to be naturally convinced that we are truly right, we must present our perspective right too, and I respectfully think there is a lot of room for improvement on this front in our movement.
I think prohibitionists have done a better job presenting their perspective of right, in part because the presentation is all they have (they are actually wrong based on all available solid evidence), and in part because the advertising industry (which is all about presentation) has strongly supported them.
They have to lie using simple ‘ad-like’ messages grounded in fear to persuade the masses. They also often occupy positions as community leaders, naturally adding a presentation benefit in the form of (at least perceived) credibility.
I think we will present right and then experience more of the kind of truly right that brings people together.
Cop gets drunk, kills self in automobile collision.
http://tinyurl.com/24ou6xo
I like that the StopProp19.com website is brought to us by the Campaign for Children and Families.
What, was Society for Protection of Puppies and Orphans taken?
A defective with the police farce. No seat belt and a BAC of .22 and kissin’ trees. And these are the people who are out to protect us?
Hey Russ, nice to see you here. Love the blog.
nice to see you stopping by Russ…
I’ll lay money on our gal Calvina being the funding for StopProp19… (or the Semblers, or the Bennetts) but my guess is Calvina.
go easy on the bennetts allan — we aren’t all prohibitionists
oops, wait a second, i see you said “money” — whew, i’m totally off the hook ;^)
yeah b…, you have money like me. Someone asks for spare change and you say “there’s such a thing as spare change?” What a concept.
There’s an org ‘ere in OR called Protect Our Society… they’re operating on $50,000 from Save Our Society, operating out of FL, or in layman’s terms – Calvina.
Old Sandra B gets my dander up occasionally with her letters in the Columbian, I generally lob one back. As the veil of deception is lifted and these prohibition hacks rely more and more on bald faced lies (if we’re legalizing cannabis we might as well legalize child porn and human trafficking) the sillier they look.
I’m a medical volunteer (rock med) but I’m totally clueless on how many times one can shoot themselves in the foot before they fall over.
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. The New Jersey Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association is OK with medical cannabis produced at Rutgers.
http://tinyurl.com/2de244j
It is kind of sad that he thinks that the DEA is rational. I pointed him to the saga of Dr. Lyle Cracker.
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@allan — maybe we should answer the “may as well legalize …” crap with: “if you don’t understand the difference, you probably don’t belong in a voting booth.”
Dude you don’t even have to smoke pot if you are concerned with the health risks of smoking.
You can VAPORIZE.
Why do these idiots never mention vaporization technology, or edibles?
Cause then they would be arguing FOR legalization….
Anybody ever realized the only real reason most of us “smoke” weed, is because of the cost of eating/vaping. So, if weed wasn’t illegal, our lungs wouldn’t be hurting.