Romney will fight marijuana legalization 'Tooth and Nail'

[Nemesis 1]

It doesn't matter , For an odd reason these laws are not being inforced were I live . Pot groweing everywhere real easy to find . It does help that our mayor was a drug dealer. He is also the weed inspector LOL

 

[Moonbeam]

I love how the people that always say they are about freedom want to regulate the fuck out of everything that they don't do. Freedom is obviously only important if it directly relates to your insignificant existence. Since I don't care about guns make them illegal! I don't smoke pot, ILLEGAL! I don't want to marry a same sex person, ILLEGAL! How about all of you nosy busy bodies shut the fuck up and let people live their lives how they see fit.

Would you let your under-aged daughter have sex with a heroin dealer if she wanted to?

If not why not?

 

[Ns1]

gogogogogogo washington. 0% state tax and MMJ legalization makes for a compelling state.

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state is on the verge of becoming the first in the nation to let adults over 21 buy taxed, inspected marijuana at state-licensed shops.

It might not clear up more than a decade of confusion that resulted from the state’s medical marijuana law, or reverse the proliferation of dispensaries. But supporters say passing Initiative 502 on Nov. 6 could make drug laws more reasonable, prevent thousands of arrests a year, and bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for schools, health care and basic government services.

It could also set up a big fight with the federal government.

Voters in Colorado and Oregon are considering similar measures. But based on polls, Washington’s initiative might stand the best chance of passing. The measure has drawn slim organized opposition and gained support from some former federal law enforcement officers. The campaign has raised $4.1 million.

“There’s a real disconnect with pot,” said Brooke Thompson, a retired teacher from Bainbridge Island who found marijuana innocuous when she smoked it as a young adult. “It’s been criminalized and criminals are making money on it. The state could be making money on it, and using the taxes to go into education. It seems like a win-win, and it would be nice for Washington to be the testing ground on this.”

“Testing ground” is the right phrase. Washington could become a laboratory in easing the nation’s drug war, which has cost more than $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives in the past 40 years while doing little to dent demand.

Just as likely, it could bring on a protracted fight with the federal government. Marijuana remains illegal under U.S. law, and when state and federal laws conflict, federal law takes precedence. The Justice Department has kept mum, but if I-502 passes, many lawyers believe the DOJ is likely to try to block the law on the grounds that it frustrates the Controlled Substances Act.

That could leave just part of the initiative standing: decriminalization of up to an ounce of pot under state law, with no way to buy it legally, and a driving-under-the-influence standard that opponents consider arbitrarily strict.

The federal government could also prosecute growers or retailers licensed under the law, seize Washington’s new marijuana revenues as proceeds of illicit drug deals, or withhold money from the state.

Nevertheless, I-502′s sponsors, including former Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and travel writer Rick Steves, say the measure has been drafted to withstand a federal challenge. Alison Holcomb, I-502′s campaign manager, said at a recent debate that she would sit down with representatives of the federal government to explain how the measure could complement, not frustrate, federal efforts.

The initiative, promoted by New Approach Washington, would create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and stores, and would impose a 25 percent excise tax at each stage. Adults 21 and over could buy up to an ounce of dried marijuana; one pound of marijuana-infused product in solid form, such as brownies; or 72 ounces of marijuana-infused liquids. The cannabis would be subject to testing to establish its THC content.

Sales wouldn’t begin immediately. The state Liquor Control Board would have a year to establish guidelines.

Holcomb, who concedes that marijuana is addictive for some, says I-502 would allow authorities to treat it as a public health issue, as has been effective in reducing tobacco use.

“We don’t arrest adults for tobacco use to try to keep kids from using it,” she said.

State revenue experts have estimated that I-502 could bring in as much as $1.9 billion in the next five years. Some of the money would be dedicated to the state general fund, while other portions would be devoted to health care, education and substance-abuse prevention.

If the initiative passes:

—Public use or display of marijuana would be barred.

—No marijuana facilities could be located near schools, day cares, parks or libraries.

—Employers would still be able to fire workers who test positive for pot.

—It would remain illegal to privately grow marijuana for recreational use, though medical patients could still grow their own or designate someone to grow it for them.

—It would be illegal to drive with more than 5 nanograms of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis, per milliliter of blood, if the driver is over 21; for those under 21, there would be a zero tolerance policy.

There would be no legal effect on medical marijuana dispensaries. However, it could have a political effect, Holcomb said. If recreational pot sales are allowed, prosecutors and investigators might take a more critical look at whether those operations are truly serving sick people.

Organized opposition comes from a group of medical marijuana patients who object to the DUI standard and say that if people can’t grow their own, it’s not really legalization at all.

Other public health and some law enforcement officials also oppose it, even if they haven’t raised any money.

Mitch Barker, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, said his organization is concerned about increasing availability of marijuana, especially for teens, and the difficulty of enforcing the DUI provisions.

The initiative’s biggest financial contributor is Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis, who has given more than $1.5 million. Lewis also contributed to Washington’s medical marijuana campaigns in 1997 and 1998.

Other donors include New York-based Drug Policy Action and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.

The former head of the FBI in Seattle and both candidates for King County sheriff have voiced support.

Voters like Terry Lavender, a retired 61-year-old from Woodinville who used pot decades ago, say they’re intrigued by the idea of being able to walk into a state licensed store and buy marijuana.

“I enjoy a bit of scotch, I enjoy a beer, so maybe I would,” Lavender says. “But that’s not my motivation for doing this. My motivation is to stop locking people up.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

 

[BudAshes]

Would you let your under-aged daughter have sex with a heroin dealer if she wanted to?

If not why not?

I would let her because I'm full of self hate. Stupid questions get stupid answers.

 

[piasabird]

So your main issue is promoting the use of illegal drugs?

 

[Lemon law]

My question and comment on this thread, is why is no one questioning the rationality of classifying of marijuana as an illegal drug?

Which had a far longer prehistory dating back to our civil war, if not not before. As many wounded civil war soldiers became addicted to morphine. As the 19'th century progressed, and new classes of opiate drugs were invented, opiate bases drugs were added to food products and various snake oil type cure alls. By the time the 20'th century dawned, the era of yellow journalism was gaining critical mass. While much of yellow journalism boiled down to witch hunts, there were ground breaking books like the JUNGLE exposing the abuses of the meat packing industry. As paramedicals also came under that same US national microscope with all kinds of abuses being exposed. And soon there was a national demand to regulate US drugs of all kinds, with addictive drugs being just a sub set of the movement.

But in terms of addictive and harmful drugs of that class, the US congress soon appointed a commission headed by a fellow named Anslinger as I recall, to draft national legislation regulating that class of drugs. Why Anlslinger included hemp in the that optional classification is still questioned today, simply because hemp, aka marijuana is an international crop that grows all over the world. And hemp has useful utility in fibers such as rope and clothing since the time of dirt. With the additional complication becoming, the hemp grown on George Washington's farm had damn near zero TLC content. Meaning you could smoke a barn full of the leaves and still not get "high."
But other varieties of hemp naturally growing much closer to the equator, tends to have a far higher TLC content.

But still, US marijuana usage did not really hit the national US radar screen until about 1960. As prior to that Marijuana use was mainly kept alive by "hip" Jass musicians as it became an additional drug of choice to add to alcohol as a method of unwinding after a concert.

Later as the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, and as birth control
finally gave women control over their bodies, along with the giant demographic explosion of baby boomers all questioning their parents values, pot use became almost a generational gap badge of belonging.

And here we are, 50 years later, and we still are no closer to a rational discussion. I can still recall, as a young college student, laughing my head off at the government propaganda firm called REEFER MADNESS.

Which INMO is exactly the problem. As too many people, even today, somehow decide, that if our government totally lies to them about the effects of Marijuana, they also are lying about the effects about more real destructive drugs in the opiate class.

Because dying human beings in the last days of their lives can't get opiates to relieve the pain of certainly dying anyway. Why are we worrying about addicting someone who will be dead in anyway in end stage cancer? As we also discover marijuana can help other patients with problems and at least allow them to at least eat. Meanwhile we fill prisons with basically harmless people, while making the same mistakes we made in trying prohibition. Because prohibition ended up being God's gift to organized crime.

Please MR. Romney, show us your powers, rally your army of Mormons and do gooders, stand at the Ocean shore of your choice, and demonstrate to us that you can stop the tide from coming in.

 

[bfdd]

Obamney is for prohibition, color me surprised.

 

[Lemon law]

Obamney is for prohibition, color me surprised.

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As somehow bfdd, is totally right, and that Obummer is the only person that matters in what amounts to a 100+ year national debate.

And if we can somehow make Obummer a one term President, somehow Jesus Christ and Obama will have died to redeem all of our sins. Which perfectly explains why a Mitt Romney with same thread position, is more correct on the marijuana question.

Or maybe I am confused here bfdd, as I shall eagerly await you enlightening us all.