NEWS: More Dumberer Than Potheads

POLITICS: More Dumberer Than Potheads

Our pot laws in the US are so backwards and idiotic, it is astounding. It is unbelievable that arrests for marijuana violations are actually going up. But it seems everywhere you look, the US has its priorities completely backwards. We are some seriously stupid motherfuckers. But that all may change because of a fat, gay guy from Massachusetts named Barney Frank.



I'm for the legalization of all drugs. People are going to get them anyway, so there is no point in keeping them illegal. When I was growing up, I had no problem getting my hands on pot, magic mushrooms, LSD, cocaine, speed, or anything else I wanted. It is my understanding that heroin and meth have now been added to the list of easy access drugs. For me they were all one phone call away, or they would come to me at a party, or football game - hell, one time I got my drugs in a high school Spanish class. Muy bueno! The point is, if you want drugs, you can get drugs - especially pot.



Pot is the least dangerous drug out there, but the government keeps cracking down.

The government is seriously stupider than stoners. In the past 15 years, pot arrests have gone up 188%. You'd think the government would have something better to do, like sit around and diddle their balls. Or maybe they could punch themselves in the face. I would rather my tax dollars pay for that. The last thing I want happening is people, like Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island," getting arrested.

WTF? That poor woman was stuck on an island with a bunch of retards for years. Dawn should always be high. She should wear a glass helmet with a tube attached that constantly feeds pot into her poor brain. By the way, awesome mug shot, burnout.



Six months probation doesn't sound bad, but for many people it's not just about the sentence. Their lives can be turned upside down.

My wife is a therapist. If she smoked pot and was caught, she would lose her license to practice. The punishment for smoking a natural plant does not fit the crime - it more fits the crime of murder. If I were a student who lost his financial aide and was looking at a life working at Home Depot, I would go on a shooting spree. The California Supreme Court recently ruled that employees could be fired for smoking pot, even if it has nothing to do with the job.

The pot laws vary from state to state. 12 states have passed medical marijuana laws. California passed a medical marijuana law in 1996. Now we have pot stores and even pot vending machines. But that does not stop the Federal Government from raiding our pot stores, because George Bush has a serious hard on for pot.

And it doesn't help that in 2005 the douchebags on the Supreme Court ruled that the Feds could overrule state pot laws.

Sweet. I know one of the "broader implications" is that people will be more relaxed. And more video games will be played. And quite a few more lemons may be stared at for over 10 minutes. Oh, and shows like Two and A Half Men may actually be somewhat tolerable. Actually, strike that. The creators of Two and A Half Men should be murdered.



As far as the "financial implications," as a country we spend $7.5 billion annually enforcing pot laws. And that doesn't include taking care of the poor fuckers who are in jail. Maybe we should act like adults, legalize pot and rake in the taxes from all the herb that would be legally sold. Hell, we could probably fund universal health care with the tax profits.



Thankfully, Barney Frank is on the case.

That would be awesome. It will never happen, but it sounds awesome. For whatever reason, America likes to cater to the most retarded amongst us - which turns out to be most of us. Although, we have been moving slowly towards legalization over the years.



Of course, the vast majority of people arrested for smoking pot are minorities - even though the rates of marijuana use are the same for whites and people who are not whites. Plus, we do like to keep our black people in jail and pot makes that easy.

Thank God. All those people were getting high and not doing anything wrong. Motherfuckers. Nothing is more infuriating than a guy going to a park and getting high. You may as well shit on the baby Jesus. An influential physician group recently called for pot to be declassified as a "Schedule I" drug.

Holy shit. Pot is classified the same as heroin? Why not classify murder the same as trespassing? How about classifying rape the same as jaywalking? The people who first made pot illegal should be beaten about the head with a large wooden object. If they are dead, they should be dug up and set on fire. But they won't be, because they have made billions of dollars keeping pot illegal. Plus, it would be weird to dig up a body and set it on fire. And I doubt anyone would understand the political statement. By the way, "They" are people like Du Pont and Hearst.



Corporations like Du Pont and industrialists like William Randolph Hearst were concerned that hemp would cut into their pulpwood paper and synthetic products profits. So, they launched a campaign.



In the '30s, Du Pont had just patented a new process for making pulpwood paper and was working on something called "nylon." Du Pont financial backer and US Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon made sure his nephew was in charge of the new Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. They combined with the Hearst newspaper business to create the new monster: Pot. Then came the "Marihuana Tax Act of 1937," which was the end. Yay big business.



It's amazing Barney Frank is actually going to introduce legislation to legalize small amounts of pot. It has no chance, especially in an election year, because the majority our politicians are spineless creatures, with no ability to take a strong stand. We are basically represented by sea cucumbers.



Even everyone's great hope, Barack Obama, won't come out for medical marijuana. He did a few months ago, but then recently backed off.

Really? Because I've experienced both and I'm going to go ahead and say there's a huge fucking difference. Morphine is the great "pain go bye-bye." Pot is, "hey, shit is weird." And Obama's statement that he can't favor "legalization without scientific evidence" is pure bullshit. There is loads of scientific evidence that pot aids in the treatment of health ailments. And even if there wasn't, who gives a shit? Hemp and pot were a big part of the early days of America.



Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew marijuana, and smoked it. Today, they'd be locked up in jail.

Whatever, hippy.



Let's hope Barney Frank gets somewhere with his legislation. But I seriously doubt anything is going to happen. Because we are morons.

all drugs!?! really? yeah yeah, people will get em no mater what but seriously some drugs should be illegal. maybe not possession of them but manufacturing for sure...like meth, that shit destroys people, and anyone making the shit needs a bullet in the face. period!

I wonder how Tom J. would feel bout the FDA.

For Obama to come out and say he favors decriminalization would be political suicide. Sad but true.

I personally can't believe we are still having this discussion in 2008. Sure everyone likes to make jokes about stoners, but having your life fucked because of a little pot is not funny.

If they ever managed to embrace common and fiscal sense and pass this law, I would personally lobby for the removal of indecency laws for elderly people. Because then, when old folks are finally free and naked all the time, maybe Marge would get off my case.

Anyways, I don't see any results coming anytime soon. Pot is bad. Pharmaceuticals are good (and wealthy).

if you were a student who had lost financial aid because of smoking pot, you couldn't get a job at home depot without quitting smoking- they drug test.

i wanted to work there at one point, ha.

I'm for legalizing anything in its natural state. I think it's completely moronic that I can smoke a tobacco plant but not a marijuana plant. I can chew mint leaves but not cocoa leaves.

I do not support the legalization of manufactured or refined drugs.

Meth, for example is extremely dangerous to make and injures innocent people in the process. I don't really care if some tweaker blows himself up in the middle of the desert...but we all know (or should) that meth is cooked in residential neighborhoods as well.

Decriminalization of meth would not stem the production of it...so I am not for the legalization or decriminalization of any drug like meth.

I do, however, think you should be allowed to grow as much pot as you can...so long as it's for personal use.

I used to have similar sentiments towards meth. I could not fathom why anyone would do that drug on purpose, and had seen drug bust after drug bust on the news and shows such as Cops, and other specials. I too couldn't figure out why in the fuck someone would do such a destructive drug - until I realized that I was completely ignorant about the drug and that I myself use (and love) a drug that is very similar to the high you get from it.

I do MDMA. Street name: ecstasy.

MDMA was originally legal through a prescription. Like many prescription drugs, people would double or quadruple the dosage and get high or in the case of MDMA: "roll." So the government said "no no no" and took the little happy pills from legal existence.

I don't do it in excess, and I don't know anyone who does it in excess. You might even be surprised how many professionals including those in the medical field do illegal drugs.

I was "turned on to it" through my brother when he was in med school. This stuff was supposed to be 99% pure like the 2ci he had later introduced me to. I couldn't ever imagine not doing it.

So back to this meth stuff. As you may or may not know MDMA/ecstasy is rarely pure. It's usually cut with other shit...er....low cost product to lower the manufacture cost and to increase the profitability of ecstasy on the street.

I picked up a testing kit because I was just getting some really crappy batches of E. Sometimes I wouldn't feel anything...other times it was just a really good roll.

As it turns out, many of the batches have 1/4 or up to 1/2 parts of meth. Meth is very, very cheap.

I would still never purchase meth for the sake of doing meth - as odd as that may sound, but I have learned that meth is simply a knock-off drug for another that is rather rare and expensive.

If drugs were legal - and I mean all drugs, then maybe the more harmful drugs wouldn't be the first choice of many users as I'm pretty sure the pharm companies would jump on the production bandwagon.

There was also an interesting report a year or two ago where an English university reported some of the most dangerous and problematic drugs (including cigarettes). If I remember correctly, alcohol made the top 5.

So... the more dangerous drugs are the ones that are legal? And you suggest making more drugs legal?

I didn't say that at all.

What I was saying (or thought I was saying) is that alcohol was among the most problematic of all drugs and alcohol is legal.

But in other news, I hear we're winning this war on drugs......thanks, Reagans!!!

i hope everybody actually reads this article all the way through. the number of arrests of non-violent drug is staggering and completely unacceptable. c'mon people, get off your butts! join the medical marijuana group, sg420, or a local branch of NORML. march in the global marijuana march in your city (or one close by) in may. get involved.

That can be said for anything that has been made illegal.


In fact, that can be said about any law in general. Why do we even have laws? People are just going to break them.

I don't really have a stand on marajuana, other than the smoke gives me a headache and pisses me off. But the sheer wastefulness of time and money in drug courts is stupifying! Even here, in the middle of fucking nowhere, a bond issue was just passed to expand the county jail from 75 beds to 250 beds, and all because of minor drug charges. They are spending something like 25 million dollars on this expansion. Now, I admit that this area does have a bit of a meth production problem, which does account for some of the arrests, but if they really want to spend that much money, why not spend it on a drug/alcohol rehab center. And if they still insist on punishing people for nothing-charges, sentence them to spend a weekend cleaning up after the people who are going through withdrawl symptoms.

Maybe I should keep my trap shut on this, since I have no desire to even try marijuana, let alone anything stronger (after surgery, I threw away my prescription for darvocet because I hated the reaction I had), but clogging the courts and overworking the police over something as mundane as marijuana is really idiotic. Particularly in these days where hardcore criminals are being released early due to overcrowding.

Not at all. I think it shows tolerance and openness to others being able to have their rights. I seriously have mad respect for people who think like that.

A lot of people can't differentiate between "what's right" and "what's right for me...but I'm going to enforce my morals and beliefs on you."

I'm not gay nor do I have the desire to have a penis stuck in me but that doesn't stop me from fighting for gay rights. (OK, not related to the drug issue but hopefully you get where I'm coming from.)

I see nothing wrong with growing small amounts of pot for personal consumption, or even large amounts for distribution as long as, like Cash said, it's kept in it's natural state and their is no violence involved with it. Most of my stoner friends just sit around, smoke lots of pot and eat mass quantities.

Bwah ha ha ha ha !

Yeah. I was going to mention that too. Forget Home Depot stoner.
Hell, you probably won't even get a gas station job.

Crazy shit.

even Wally*Hell does drug tests.

not quite the same actually... there are acts that we've made illegal and goods that we've made illegal, and they're very different.

murder is illegal and benefits no one. pot is also illegal, but since it's a salable product people continue to make money off of it -- usually unsavory people, since they're the only ones willing to traffic something illegally.

aside from the obvious reasons (medical use, it's safe and impossible to OD on, it's a goddamn plant for chrissakes), legalizing weed would also allow it to be produced by regular people and businesses and taxed accordingly. legalization would, in effect, funnel a huge amount of money away from gangs and lowlifes directly back into state and federal coffers.

sure, that just means that pot would finance another F-16 or two, but in a perfect world that'd mean more money for social programs and schools. imagine the irony: pot = smarter kids.

Even wal-mart does pre employment pot screening. They should be happy that a pot head want to put up with the bull shit they throw out.

Whenever researchers try to demonstrate the benign or even positive effects of marijuania they are castigated within their own profession by other colleagues, and their studies are picked apart.

Anecdotally, I am going with the longitudinal study by Block & associates in 1990 that claims :

The data is still being picked apart

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Of course, I have no personal bias here...

I fully agree with Fear_The_Reaper. Drug Laws are oppressive and wasteful. All drugs should be de-criminalized.
First of all, if all drugs are legal, there's a good chance Big Pharma will start producing them- which means they'll be too expensive to get your hands on. Drug problem Solved!
Secondly, drug users are funnier than sober people (I liked George Carlin better before he went to rehab)
Thirdly, we're all going to die anyway- People should be allowed to kill themselves as quickly or slowly as they wish. Especially if I don't have to deal with their shit once they're gone.

In Genesis "God" says:
"Behold, I have given unto thee every plant, every tree and every herb-bearing seed..."

But this has been over-ruled by a "higher authority."

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I don't think I'm throwing anything out here that isn't obvious to everyone, but...

Pot has numerous therapeudic benefits. Indeed pot has been used for millemiums by Chinese, Ayurvedic and tribal healers and has been credited with CURING numerous maladies. In my own practice, I have used pot to treat stress, hypertension, and emotional disorders; as well as neuralgia, heart palpatations, lung-diseases and even used it to successfully reverse the growth of "incurable and untreatable" lung tumors in my mother.

Pot also has much commerical value in hemp products and fuels. The American economy was once partially hemp-based. Sails, paper, clothing, shoes, lamp and heating oils etc, were made from hemp. And FYI, the original Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper... possibly while TJ was high (damn us freedom-loving hippys).

The criminalization of pot serves not only the chemical and paper companies, but the pharmaceutical companies as well... and the politicians that are in their pockets. They also seem to benefit an administration intent on securing unilateral federal juristiction over every aspect of our lives...

I agree with you on pot. But I disagree about other drugs. They should all be legal. The current system proves to me, without a doubt, that the threat of incarceration is not a deterrent to what people put in their bodies, nor is it a deterrent to the criminals who traffic drugs. Lots of kids in shitty neighborhoods think that drug dealing is their only option. What if we took away that option?

All drugs are a public health issue. The only way society will learn to steer clear of the hard stuff, or maturely manage the light stuff, is the usual way: parenting, friends, and to a lesser degree, public education. The law has failed miserably on this matter.

I would disagree that murder benefits "no one" since someone is obviously getting something out of it.



All that aside, I'm a little unclear why we should be caring about $8 billion spent fighting drugs when we're spending how much overseas in a war that no one but our government seems to want...

I don't agree that marijuana should be classified the same as heroin, but I'm not entirely sure I'd want it to be completely without some sort of control. Hell, as long as it's illegal, I have the option to avoid people smoking it, unlike all the fucking smokers lighting up in the streets and blowing their carcinogenic crap all over the place.

That really made me laugh. Thanks!