Hey, How Am I Driving, Man? I Think We’re Parked
Posted on May 17, 2009
It seems like every few years we have to have this debate about marijuana, and sometimes other drugs. But, in the era of hopeNchange, it is becoming louder and more open. We know that Attorney General Eric Holder has told the DEA to stop raiding “medical marijuana” dealers, er, shops. We know that El Presidente Barack H. Obama thinks pot is a joke, and that lots of folks who voted for him thought the issue of legalizing ganja was a like, ya know, really, wow, cool, man….look, a quarter!
And we know the administration is looking to do away with the phrase “war on drugs” because it might offend people who are stoned to the gills and might not even notice. Maybe it will be Operation Pizza Contingency? We can turn the war on poverty into Operation Grasshopper Contingency. But, I digress. Kids on campus want maryjane offenses to be less severe, and preferably done away with
Marijuana advocates who say pot is safer than alcohol want colleges to wade into a hazy debate over whether schools’ tough pot penalties are actually worsening their drinking woes.
They argue that stiff punishments for being caught in a campus dorm with pot steer students to booze and add to binge drinking, drunken brawls and other booze-soaked troubles.
“You know, when you get high on marijuana you don’t act violent – you just kind of sit there,” said Mason Tvert, leader of a Denver-based group stoking the pot-vs.-booze debate.
An interesting attempt, but one that fails to address the point that marijuana is, you know, kinda illegal, dude mon, per the, like, law. I will say, I really do not think marijuana is that bad of a drug, there are certainly a lot worse, particularly alcohol, which is much more addictive, mentally and physically, than pot, and much more damaging to the body than pot. Personally, I couldn’t care less if it is legalized and taxed, I’ve done it, do not care for the affects. If someone wants to get high and it doesn’t affect anyone else, hey, we want government out of our private business, right? Funny how all these folks Left who want marijuana legalized also freak out about cigarettes. I’m guessing the whole second hand dope smoke issue hasn’t been thought out. And, as most of us know, there is such a thing as a contact high.
Interestingly, Portugal has seen that drug related crimes, AIDS and even drug use are down since they decriminalized drugs eight years ago.
But, again, it is still illegal, and, as far as the “it doesn’t cause violence” meme? It does happen now and then. Sometimes for a simple $2. But, like with alcohol, people get stupid and try and drive
On marijuana, the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy says in its “Myths & Facts” report that even a moderate dose can impair driving performance, and that 15 percent of trauma patients injured while driving a car or motorcycle had been smoking pot.
And last, but not least, how to create more grasshoppers
“We just don’t have a lot of highly successful students who are potheads,” Workman said.
Dave’s not here, man.
» Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats, Healthcare, News, States Rights
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13 Responses to “Hey, How Am I Driving, Man? I Think We’re Parked”
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If a person is spaced out on marijuana or alcohol or any other drug, the fact is that they are not living life. They are existing. Life is to challenge, to endure hardship, and to celebrate living. With all of the problems this country has, we don’t have time anymore to get high. Any qualified addiction counselor will tell you that use of any drugs including alcohol shows a certain level of immaturity. People stop growing emotionally at the point where their addiction kicks in – no matter how successful or unsuccessful they may be. Just look around you every day at the countless acts of immaturity you see – America, a nation of drug addicted spoiled brats. Time to grow up !!
The point of legalization is this: Our government has no right to try to protect us from ourselves. If I have the right to use alcohol, tobacco, aspirin, OTC weight loss drugs, caffeine, and a myriad of other substances that are ALL proven to be more dangerous than pot (proven by the fact that all drugs listed above kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, and there has never been a single recorded overdose of marijuana EVER), then why is it OK for me to be thrown in jail and have my rights taken away for something as trivial as sparking up a joint? Is it really worth losing my freedom, right to vote, children, home, car, job, etc. JUST because I chose a safer substance than alcohol to relax with? It’s true that the bad/good health effects can be debated till doomsday, but I don’t think it should be up to the government to decide what I do with my body. What about tattoos and piercings? What about cosmetic surgery, sky diving, etc.? All of these things are unnecessary and potentially life threatening, yet we don’t put people in jail for them. The question is not whether people should smoke marijuana, it’s whether people should be thrown in PRISON for choosing to use a substance that is PROVEN to be safer than both alcohol and tobacco. Hypothetical: I grow 1 personal use marijuana plant, I don’t buy or sell, no money goes to dangerous cartels, no drugs go to children because of me. I grow, harvest, and smoke my plant by MYSELF, I don’t get high and drive, I don’t get high and go to work. It’s used solely as a relaxant at the end of the day. Several months down the rode, I’ve smoked my plant completely gone, no car accident, no work accident, nothing. Question: Who did I hurt? No one. I hurt no one in this hypothetical situation, but had this been a REAL situation, and had I been caught with my 1 plant, I go to jail for 10 years (I’m from Oregon where marijuana is decriminalized, anything under 1 oz. gets a $500-1000 fine. Anything over gets a 10 yr jail sentence and/or a $100,000 fine)… 10 years!?!? FOR WHAT!?!? This law is NOT justifiable and causes far more harm to our society than good. It’s the reason why our country, the supposed “land of the free” has the highest incarceration rate in the world. It’s the reason we have 25% of the world’s inmates, yet only 5% of the world’s population. Everyone who supports prohibition of cannabis just loves to say that all stoners are stupid, yet the stoners all have logical, rational reasons why there should be an end to prohibition, and all you people can say is, “drugs are bad, m’kay”. Anyone who follows a law JUST because it’s a law is an idiot. It’s our civic duty to question a law that we feel is cruel and unjust. You say people shouldn’t smoke marijuana because it’s against the law, well let’s put out another hypothetical situation. Let’s say the government came out today and said, “We are not only legalizing marijuana, but we are making it mandatory.” In other words, if you don’t have THC in your system, you go to jail. Pretty stupid law right? And I’m sure it’s one that you wouldn’t obey since your so adamantly opposed to the use of marijuana. So, how would you like it if you were in our shoes? If it was YOU that was fighting the government, saying, “You have no right, it’s not your choice to make.” Now how would you feel if I called you a criminal, if I said you should be locked up for breaking the law. You’d call me an idiot, right? You’d tell me, “This law is completely unjust, and the government has no right to force me into doing something I don’t want to do.” But hey, it’s the law, and according to you, the law should be blindly followed, right? Wrong. It’s not patriotic to blindly follow your government, it’s patriotic to question it. People shouldn’t follow a law JUST because it’s a law, people need to ask themselves if said law is actually justifiable. And if it isn’t then maybe it’s time for a change in the law. With that, I leave you with 3 of my favorite quotes:
“In any civilized society, it is every citizen’s responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen’s responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot long retain it.” -Abraham Lincoln (and FYI, Abraham Lincoln was adamantly opposed to prohibition of any kind.)
“When they took the 4th Amendment, I was quiet because I didn’t deal drugs. When they took the 5th Amendment, I was quiet because I wasn’t a criminal. When they took the 2nd Amendment, I was quiet because I didn’t own a gun. Now they’ve taken the 1st Amendment, and I can say nothing about it.” -author unknown
People like you say that legalizing marijuana is a slippery slope to legalizing all drugs, I say banning it is a slippery slope to banning everything else. Enjoy your freedom of speech while you can, because when they run out of stoners to arrest, they might just come for you.
Geez Warner, resorting to Daily Kos type juvenile invective when you have no argument? You can’t have it both ways pal: Is our Federal Government too big or not? For me, I’d rather err on the side of getting Gov’t OUT of peoples’ lives, in all its creeping hegemony, than worry about trying to micromanage the idiosyncracies of ALL.
Face it Warner, when you advocate for using the police power of gov’t to control the personal lives of others….that makes you a LIBERAL! You don’t want THAT on your conscience do you?
Good stuff, but please go back to grammar school and learn the difference between then and than.
Yep, you’re right, Kristen. The answer to all problems shouldn’t necessarily be a new law or any government solution – maybe education is the best alternative. It is frustrating to see so many wasted lives.
Education is a great alternative. Unfortunately, the “education” that our government has chosen consists of telling outright BS lies that most people see for what they are. I was a teen not too long ago (I’m only 22 now) so I remember what it was like having my head filled with propaganda that I KNEW was false. Our government needs to stop lying to teens and start telling them the truth: Marijuana isn’t going to kill you, it’s NOTHING like heroine, and as far as drugs go, it’s definitely the least harmful. However, these things being said, it’s also a fact that ANY drugs have a detrimental effect on a developing adolescent brain, THIS is the reason why we have age limits on certain drugs, THIS is why you shouldn’t use marijuana until you are an adult and your brain is fully developed. If someone had told me this when I was a teen, I would’ve had much more respect for them then if they had told me marijuana is no different from heroine. I may have been a teen, but I wasn’t a complete idiot. Lying to our kids is NOT going to keep them off drugs. Neither is allowing the coke addict down the street to sell drugs on the corner of the road. This is what happens with prohibition. You can’t control a drug that you refuse to touch. If the government wants to stop kids from getting their hands on drugs, they need to legalize and regulate. Put it behind a counter in a store that minors aren’t allowed in and threaten the guy selling it with losing his business license, shop, house, car, etc. if he sells to a minor. That license should be hard to get and easy to lose. THIS is what will lessen the use of marijuana by underage teens. Prohibition just doesn’t make sense, it’s totally counterproductive. One of the biggest reasons that it’s still illegal (or at least one of the biggest reasons that our government gives us) is that it’s “not the gentle marijuana of the 60’s”. First of all, I find it hard to believe that we have improved on a product that has been around for 5000 (recorded) years. The “potent” weed of today that is regularly used is no more potent the marijuana we had in the 60’s, it’s just that it was much harder to find and more expensive to buy it back then, so most people smoked the less potent Mexican brick weed. Today, the marijuana counter-culture has grown so big, that the big growers have long since passed on their growing tips to other people, making the potent weed much more common. But here’s the thing: It’s no different than liquor. Anyone who drinks knows that you drink less hard liquor to get drunk than you do beer. Same with marijuana, people adjust their intake to suit the substance that they’re using. If you think about it, it’s actually HEALTHIER to smoke the potent weed, it’s not the THC that hurts you, it’s the carcinogens that you take into your lungs that causes the problem. And if you can smoke less marijuana to get the same high, then your lungs spend less time in contact with the carcinogens. Anyways, my point being, if you think more potent pot is a problem, it’s all the more reason to legalize. If it were legal and regulated, we could control the amount of THC in the buds (just like we control the amount of alcohol in beer and liquor) and list it on the package, that way people always know what their getting. Yet another reason why prohibition is counterproductive. For any thinking person, regulating it is just more effective then prohibition. And don’t let the government tell you it’s impossible to regulate, we did a well enough job of it when we shortly legalized it in order to fund our efforts in WWII. If we did it then, we can do it now.
Such a fair and balanced article! Next time try to be more one sided and badly informed. Medical Marijuana is about compassion and legalizing is about rights.
Great points Kristin and Wayne Reed!
The study that the government released is somewhat misleading. Read Page 12 of the full report for marijuana THC samples and it says that for domestic samples the potency in 2007 was 4.8% with 800+ samples, then in 2008 the THC potency was 10%+ but there were only 10 samples of DOMESTIC product.
Go read the FULL government report.
The media misconstrues the evidence.
If prohibitionists like the system currently in place then by all means continue to allow the drug gangs to distribute drugs to all and to receive all profits. The only other option is to
LEGALIZE, REGULATE, AND TAX.
Currently children can access drugs because there is no regulation. The government has taken a hands off approach. They only step in to arrest and eradicate which doesn’t seem to be working. The Tucson Sector of the Border Patrol captures nearly 4,500 lbs a DAY. And they readily admit that they only get 5 – 10 %. That’s not what I call winning the drug war.
Stop the ACLU? Why not just stop invading people’s lives for no good reason? Marijuana is safer than Tylenol, and it grows naturally like tomatoes. In fact, the only way you could kill yourself with marijuana is by choking on it.
This isn’t a dangerous substance that needs to be controlled. It’s a substance that needs to be legalized and taxed.
“But wait, the government says it’s more potent than ever! 10% in fact!” Notice that still doesn’t make it more dangerous than Tylenol, and in reality it just means people need to use less.
It has a plethora of medical uses. It’s natural. It’s God’s gift to mankind. Stop abusing the citizenry. Legalize. Tax. Be happy.
Trusting the ONDCP for reliable information on drugs is like trusting the ACLU on the constitution.
College kids should receive the same rough treatment any kid in the hood would. One of the most unjust aspects of the drug war is it’s uneven enforcement. Maybe when young college kids are having guns shoved in their face and their lives ruined for “recreational” drug use the injustice will be seen.
As far as 15% of auto injuries from marijuana… Is that really significant? How many drivers (in an accident or not) have used marijuana. I would guess it’s somewhere around 15% or higher.
I bet the number of trauma patients injured while driving a car or motorcycle that have heard a Britney Spears song is about 95%. Does not mean that Britney Spears songs increase the likelihood of accidents.
I call BS on that driving figure, no matter what you come up with, number of deaths cause by marijuana throughout its 5000 years of recorded use. ZERO. You have nothing on that, oh those 15% trauma patients? They were drinking too, but they won’t say that they’ll say they had pot in their system, not that their BAC was .12 Grow up, it’s completely harmless and you all know it. Here’s a statistics, percent of studies commissioned by the federal government on marijuana that came back recommending either decriminalization or legalization? 100% Stop listening to politicians and listen to science.