What is up with this double standard?

[RSMemphis]

From http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/04/09/bloomberg.marijuana.ap/index.html:

The quote: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." [...] Bloomberg's remark, made to a New York magazine reporter last year before he was elected mayor, has become the centerpiece of an advocacy group's advertising campaign urging New York City to stop arresting and jailing people for smoking marijuana. [...]
"I'm not thrilled they're using my name," he said. "I suppose there's that First Amendment that gets in the way of me stopping it."

So let me try to recap that. He used Mary Jane, he liked it. He's not going to jail. Other people smoke it, they are going to jail...

How does that not strike anyone as wrong? I am truly sick of double standards.
Well, a law is a law you may argue, and I would agree, so he should turn himself in, no?

But he is still setting a good exemple for other people right? Just like an authority figure like him should, correct?

 

[Hubris]

Has he been caught smoking it? Far as I know, you can't be arrested for smoking marijuana because you said you did in the past, if you aren't caught actually doing it, or posessing it.

Course, he's also a politician, and we all know what happened with Marion Barry when HE got caught. So even if he was caught, all bets are off.

 

[Jzero]

<< But he is still setting a good exemple for other people right? Just like an authority figure like him should, correct? >>


So he should lie about it instead?
It's not like anyone believed that Bill Clinton wasn't an avid toker or GW CLEARLY didn't partake of a few "substances" in his wilder college days.
As for the poster, his image and name was used without his permission. I, for one, appreciate his candor.

Finally, it's you really can't get arrested for it unless you're caught with it in your posession or in your system. It's not illegal to proclaim you are or were a pothead.

 

[DaiShan]

I too am sick of this double standard, when he said that he did it and enjoyed it, that was an admission of guilt, end of story, I don't know about the statute of limitations on tokin up, but if he is withing that time period, he should be charged IMO (of course we all know that will never happen) hence I wish to be a politician, I want to make laws that do not apply to me.

 

[Mister T]

just dont get caught

 

[RSMemphis]

Finally, it's you really can't get arrested for it unless you're caught with it in your posession or in your system. It's not illegal to proclaim you are or were a pothead.

Of course you are right. I did not say he should be arrested. For all I care, people with substance abuse problems need help, not jail.
You missed the point of my post, deliberately or not.

 

[LaBang]

Yeah, i'm sick of double standards also. Blumberg shouldn't be thrown in jail for smoking. Many people smoke. We should end the double standard by decriminalizing marijuana. For peets sake, our last two presidents have smoked it! We should put an end to this rediculous law as soon as we can. I full support NORML and I think that the ad campaign is a good one.

 

[Jzero]

<< Finally, it's you really can't get arrested for it unless you're caught with it in your posession or in your system. It's not illegal to proclaim you are or were a pothead.

Of course you are right. I did not say he should be arrested. For all I care, people with substance abuse problems need help, not jail.
You missed the point of my post, deliberately or not. >>


Perhaps explaining your point more plainly then?
You state:


<< He used Mary Jane, he liked it. He's not going to jail. Other people smoke it, they are going to jail...

How does that not strike anyone as wrong? >>



You also comment on him setting a good example, which is why I point out, I'd rather have him be truthful--everybody can guess at the truth anyway.
Further, everyone has skeletons in their closet. Why do we have this inexorable need to shred politicians?

 

[Russ]

For a double standard to actually exist, non-politicians would have to be arrested for admitting PAST drug use. Since that isn't the case, there is NO double standard.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Did he inhale?

 

[Jeffwo]

Dude...I think you should pass ever once in awhile as that thing is passed around.

Give your brain cells a chance to regenerate.

It's not illegal to use hooch, it is illegal to possess it.

Besides, I find it refreshing to see a politician who didn't lie about smurfing that stuff.

Jeff

 

[Sir Fredrick]

<< For a double standard to actually exist, non-politicians would have to be arrested for admitting PAST drug use. Since that isn't the case, there is NO double standard.

Russ, NCNE >>



Thank you Russ, exactly the point I was going to make.

I don't smoke pot but have a friend who does. Her apt was robbed and one of the things the thief took was her bong, but he dropped it when he was running away. The cops found it on the side of the road and asked her about it. She admitted to smoking marijuana, and they didn't arrest her.

 

[gopunk]

<< For a double standard to actually exist, non-politicians would have to be arrested for admitting PAST drug use. Since that isn't the case, there is NO double standard.

Russ, NCNE >>




exactly what i was going to say... if said "i smoked pot ten years ago" and some cop happened to overhear, they probably wouldn't do a damn thing... well unless they hated you or something.

 

[Russ]

<< if said "i smoked pot ten years ago" >>



Gopunk,

If you smoked weed ten years ago, the dealer should be executed for selling to third graders.

Russ, NCNE

 

LMAO! Russ, you are hilarious.

On a serious note though, I really don't care about the individuals, politician or not. Double standard simply ticks me off. I don't give a damn who you are, what party you are, etc.

If you practiced the same thing, then you are not in a position to make laws that will affect other people's lives. Marijuana affects the individuals. If they want to die such death as the anti-druhs folks preach it, let them die it. Have not we liberty (borrowing from John Stuart Mill's principle of harm) to do what we please as long as it does not harm other individuals?

See, it's all good if the politicians themselves practiced the laws they enact and that which existed before they came into power. If however they fail to practice it, then they have no moral grounds for locking human beings in a confinement.

Hubris, there's morality and there's just mere law. The grounds those who support drug criminalisation give is its moral decay. And on such basis they enact laws that would punish people on such grounds. Since this law is founded upon moral grounds, it is only fair and logical that those who will enforce such laws or sign them meet the same moral plateau, whether they are caught or not. Last I checked, moral authority was not based upon whether one was caught or not by law enforcement during the course of their violation of the law.