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Pot Is Political: And It’s Big Business Too

This is my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, smoking marijuana. This is not the only video of him getting stoned on marijuana.

Our president has smoked pot, and our past president snorted cocaine. Yet, today this came over the PR Newswire:

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Gil Kerlikowske spoke about the need to expand the capacity of Drug Courts as well as create new ones. “Drug Court embodies the Obama Administration’s approach to drug control, effectively combining treatment and sanctions.

Make no mistake the National Association of Drug Court Professionals is a large and well organized group. Drug Court is not free and the only reason it exists is because the sale of drugs is illegal.

If you’re afraid to travel to Mexico because of the violence, it’s probably because of the illegal drug trade. If your prisons are overcrowded, it’s probably because of the illegal drug trade. If the courts are overrun it’s because of the illegal drug trade. Neighborhood falling to shit? Drug trafficking.

Just imagine city hall being deluged with work and forms because new businesses are popping up everywhere. Imagine tax revenue increasing because marijuana is now part of a buiness model instead of a cash deal.

Imagine your child buying marijuana, because I promise you they will,  would you like it to be from behind a counter, or from a criminal?

There’s no part of our drug policy that makes sense, fiscally for the sake or public health or otherwise.

12 thoughts on “Pot Is Political: And It’s Big Business Too”

  1. I’m with you when it comes to mj, but I’m curious, do you feel the same way about the harder stuff? I don’t think I could get comfortable with coke or acid being widely available at a store near me!

  2. This is a complicated issue, IMO. I’m not against legalizing pot exactly, but I don’t think it’ll eliminate the drug lords. They’ll just move on to harder stuff and pimp that to our kids. Growing up, my friends did pot, coke, hash, opium, mesc, mushrooms and crack, and some other pill type things. (I was too big a chicken for drugs.) If they could get it that easily then, they might get it even easier if/when pot gets legalized.

    Of course I could be wrong. Complicated issue.

  3. Hear hear. I’d personally rather have it all legalized, but lets at least start with marijuana. I think my grandma might have actually tried it after her doctor suggested it for chemo if it had been legal, and I really don’t think it’ll make it that much easier for kids to get…it can be treated like alcohol, which is not that hard to get, but neither is pot, now.

  4. I think that whether or not an individual uses marijuana, if you research it for 5 minutes it’s clear that its being illegal is ridiculous. The only reason it was made illegal had everything to do with profit margins and nothing at all to do with health. It’s funny how no one in the government now acknowledges this fact… Yes, it’s a drug, but so is alcohol, so are so many of the over the counter drugs that we all buy, and it is definitely less harmful than some of them, and some not even considered drugs (hello phen-fen…) It’s by now undergone so many smear campaigns that who knows if it’ll ever be legalized, but common-sense doesn’t have much to do with politics these days, if it even ever did.

  5. As a physician who has prescribed other “mind altering” drugs, the fact that pot is illegal is ridiculous. Alcohol is far more harmful to health and can lead to potentially fatal detox. Even assuming pot is a “gateway drug,” (which is one of the rationalizations given for criminalizing it) I resent the fact that many patients who could benefit from it, (not to mention people who could use it responsibly and recreationally) can’t get it because a small percentage might have a problem with it. For them, we need better treatment, rather than continuing with the “drug war” which has been a total failure.

  6. I’ve long thought that pot should be legal, and I’m amazed that the puritan branch of the country has so much power as to continue this horrible and failing war on drugs, built as it is on lies and misdirection.

    Beyond the fun of getting stoned pot is helpful for a number of maladies, and no amount of tinkering by pharm companies seems able to produce a pill version that is even close to equal what is possible using just plain ol’ pot.

    Also, I’m amazed at the hypocrisy of our country that is so fueled by drugs. How is pot worse than a sleeping pill that causes people to drive while asleep? How is pot with it negligible side effects worse than some that cause liver damage and can cause heart attacks?

  7. Also, one of my brothers is a cop, and we’ve discussed pot and people smoking or high on pot. He’s told me something that I’ve heard from other cops, that they would always rather deal with someone high on pot than someone drunk.

  8. Re cops would rather deal with people high on pot vs. drunk: I’ve often thought that violent felons on parole should be mandated to smoke pot. Can you imagine? A buddy comes over and suggests, “Hey, let’s go rob that grocery store.” The stoned parolee would likely reply, “Nah, man. Maybe later.”

  9. Re Queen of the Road: You just had me laughing out loud. Imagine how non-violent the world on pot would be. There is a good chance war would not even exist. If not for the peace lovers for the lack of ambition.

  10. I was actually looking to see if your mom had a comment on this one Jessica…

    I was watching yet another drug documentary the other day…it was interesting how much scapegoating of drugs the govt got away with in their quest to make things illegal and with so little scientific evidence. It’s also interesting that in this area (and a few others), that the fed has essentially stolen the right of the states to decide these things for themselves. I also find it interesting that most people I have heard from regarding keeping drugs illegal seem to have no first hand knowledge and very little research. “Drugs are bad”…really? Caffeine is a drug, so is sugar. WHen was the last time you heard of someone overdosing on pot? Or that a riot broke out amongst a group of stoners. Maybe legal pot would also help that pedophile problem in your neighborhood?

    I think it’s a serious problem that the gov’t has classified MJ as a schedule 1, meaning that even scientists are not supposed to be able to have any to do the flippin research on! And people apparently can get vicodin from their kids backpacks…

    what is this world coming to anyway?

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