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Marijuana on your election ballot?
Jeffrey
Veteran
In my city (GR MI USA) we had a proposal on the ballot that was marijuana friendly. I think it said that city police shouldn't send someone to the state police and maybe some other things.
I am curious if anyone else saw a proposal in other states/cities?
I voted yes to the MJ friendly proposal.
I am curious if anyone else saw a proposal in other states/cities?
I voted yes to the MJ friendly proposal.
3
Comments
One reason is that the government's 'war on drugs' is an epic failure, and all it's really done is increase our prison population with low-level drug offenses. Looking at the statistics, the so-called 'war on drugs' is little more than a war on minorities and the poor used mainly to funnel massive amounts of people and money into an increasingly privatized, for-profit prison system, as well as into federal and state run institutions that siphon off taxpayer dollars.
Another reason is that I believe drug use should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal one. For one, prohibition exacerbates the problem by creating a black market that generates obscene profits for those involved in the production, transportation, and sale of these 'illegal' substances. We've seen it with alcohol in the 1920s; and drugs are no different. In addition, decriminalization policies elsewhere have shown positive results. In Portugal, for example, their decriminalization policy has led to a dramatic drop in street drug related deaths from overdoses, as well as in the rate of new HIV infections from sharing dirty needles. Instead of going to jail, these people "are going to treatment centers and they're learning how to control their drug usage or getting off drugs entirely."
All in all, I support anything that chips away at this failed policy and makes things like marijuana possession a low-priority for law enforcement. Plus, I support the use of marijuana for its medicinal purposes, like pain management, reducing nausea, and increasing appetite.
I just woke up very happy this morning with the way the country is moving...
But seriously, I have met pot smokers that were nice people though. Mostly medical marijuana patients. One lady had Lou Gehrig's disease. One other guy had Tourette syndrome. Irvin Rosenfeld, who live in my home town, has Multiple Congenital Cartilaginous Exostoses, is a very nice guy! He's one of the leading medical cannabis activists in the country. Also, I'm sure they are plenty of grandmas out there with glaucoma, who are pretty nice.
I only know one burnout, now. I gave him a pass for a few months for being my husband's childhood friend, but made him smoke outside the building. Now he's throwing his life away, as burnouts are apt to do, and we had to cut him out of our lives a couple of weeks ago.
I was a burnout loser for years, all my "friends" were burnout losers. I know burnout losers inside and out. I don't like them
http://justcrunchy.blogspot.com/2011/02/10-famous-intelligent-admitted-smoking.html
I personally know at least 12 people who smoke weed for many years- I'm talking 10, 20 or even up to 40 years now, like myself.... and they are ALL employed & productive. Some are even long-time married & family oriented. All are law-abiding people.
Well, except that the act of smoking weed (for the vast majority of them) makes them a 'criminal' in the eyes of our ignorant and $$-wasting WOD.
Not saying there are no burn-outs. I know there are. Not saying there are no losers. I know there are. But what came first? Their character flaws (for lack of a better term) - or the weed? I suspect their character flaws are the real issues, not the weed itself.
So the problems or flaws came first.
But rather than work on these problems, they run from them and use these things to escape. And when people don't deal with their problems it fucks them up.
So you look at a pot smoker and you know they're running from something and you know they haven't dealt with whatever issues they have. The weed itself isn't really the problem, it's abuse is a symptom of an underlying issue and the smoking actually exacerbates it.
Maybe it is your age. Just about everyone I knew when I was young smoked pot. Some still do.
They have worked and raised their families. If they smoke some weed, it's their business.
My kids are about your age. Neither of them smokes weed. Both of them have friends that do though.
I'm not saying I never meet people who smoke pot, simply that I don't befriend them. I'm picky about the people I invite into my life and I choose my friends carefully. It works for me
Why marijuana smokers, why not people who drink wine or eat meat? What'
It seems more like a prejudice to me.
But people who smoke pot are weird. They're really touchy and are prone to hurt feelings because of the paranoia. They have this look in their eye, and you know that their brains are just working overtime. They're like, totally stuck inside their own heads. It's freaky and massively uncomfortable.
You see in my case, as a fisherman, my day to day interactions with other guys has to do with fishing and seagoing. Whether a person smokes pot means nothing about his fishing ability or seamanship. Or whether or not he can be depended on in a life or death situation.
I can not afford to judge someone on based on if they smoke pot or not. It's not important.
On shore I am friends with many men (and women) that I work with. When people start to get drunk, or if the pot smoke is too thick, I go home.
If you are at home most of the time or only touch the world on your own terms, you can afford to be choosy. You might lose out on the company of some good people but as you said, you are satisfied with your group, so no issue.
I also believe in responsibility and consequences. Thus if they drive under the influence of marijuana as determined by open container or a 'sobriety test' and/or reckless driving they should get some penalty but certainly not jail time. How about raise some money for the police department? And limit their license, like many points on the license. Pot is much more gentle on driving than drunk driving. Maybe spend the night in jail, but not ruin their life or family. Oh, and community hours.
If I were doing a debate topic: Resolved that the federal government substantially legalize and substantially limit Marijuana, I think the debate could go either way. The 'harms' to marijuana could be: liberty value argument (i forgot term), avoid a criminal underworld (big), an easier climate for medicinal use, and the harms to lives of responsible smokers due to incarceration. The inherancy (are the harms solved by the status quo?) would be easy aside from medicinal. The solvency would be pretty obvious too. What would make the topic interesting would be the disadvantages such as traffic accidents, 'burn-outs', health bills on the tax-payer.
It's not a black and white topic for me. Like caz I would refrain from intoxicants. I might test if it relieves me of side effects to my anti-psychotic drugs, but frankly I would wait 5 years for some research to be conducted in other psychotic/mood disorder people.
For me the disadvantage caused by jail for pot outweigh most anything else. Oh, and the criminal underworld caused by the illegality.
I don't like a lot of things, but I can like and have friendship with those engaging in it. Promiscuous relationships, theft, Islam, Christianity, the Conservative party, Rihanna, the wearing of V neck tshirts, etc. I don't like any of that, but I have friends who're involved in it.
Not liking things is natural, being opposed to certain lifestyles is natural, but I think when you cross that and start being prejudice against people for doing something you don't like, well then you start to move into the realms of irrationality and antisocialism.
It seems like a fallacy on a massive scale. I don't like X, Y supports/uses X, therefore I don't like Y. If we were talking about something that really matters then I could get with it, but the smoking of marijuana is trivial to the nth degree.