From Esquire Magazine
The stoner community is clamoring to say it: “Yes we cannabis!” Turns out, with several drug-war veterans close to the president-elect’s ear, insiders think reform could come in Obama’s second term — or sooner
Famously, Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the United States banking system during the first seven days of his first term.
And what did he do on the eighth day? “I think this would be a good time for beer,” he said.
Congress had already repealed Prohibition, pending ratification from the states. But the people needed a lift, and legalizing beer would create a million jobs. And lo, booze was back. Two days after the bill passed, Milwaukee brewers hired six hundred people and paid their first $10 million in taxes. Soon the auto industry was tooling up the first $12 million worth of delivery trucks, and brewers were pouring tens of millions into new plants.
“Roosevelt’s move to legalize beer had the effect he intended,” says Adam Cohen, author of Nothing To Fear, a thrilling new history of FDR’s first hundred days. “It was, one journalist observed, ‘like a stick of dynamite into a log jam.’”
Many in the marijuana world are now hoping for something similar from Barack Obama. After all, the president-elect said in 2004 that the war on drugs had been “an utter failure” and that America should decriminalize pot:
This should have the Ron Paul assh*les jumping for joy.
AWB
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not to mention the libertarians
i agree with alot of what these nuts say but legalizing drugs is just such a huge turnoff it just highlights all the other nutty ideas they have
Legalize pot, then coke, then heroin, then ‘ludes, then LSD, ad nauseum.
Not all Ron Paul arseholios are for legalizing pot. Some are for legalizing the Constitution.
you cant look at one and not see the other. obama wouldnt back it it would cost him the presidency too many of us too few of you and if nothing else hes a true politician.
note- all those drugs were legal, at one time, and all have useful, medicinal purposes, and have been used in medical experiments, by the government, and responsible pharmacological researchers.
all our foreign policy problem hotspots are caused by drug prohibition/ the war on drugs.
afghanistan/taliban/al qaeda- profits from the heroin /opium/morphine trade funds their ongoing operations against the US, and the pursuit of WMD’s in Pakistan.
Tex- Mex border wars- coke/marijuana- smugglers/ warlords battling to make money from drug profits.
you name a place- and illegal drugs are funding the problem. the solution? total legalization/decriminalization, of all drugs.
keep them away from kids/minors, and penalize criminal behavior resulting from acts committed under the influence- just like alcohol- a far more deadly/dangerous/addictive substance.
George Washington was once the largest hemp grower, and whiskey peddler in America-bet you didnt know that.
so E PLURIBUS CANNIBIS! HEMP FOR VICTORY!
AND LOOK AT ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD WHERE DRUGS ARE LEGAL, – america could empty our prisons of drug offenders, and use that space for far more dangerous,violent criminals- thus saving taxpayers money, and allowing for tax cuts for the wealthy (coke heads)
Instead of calling us nuts, please enlighten us. Explain why alcohol should be legal while marijuana should be illegal. Explain why it’s ok to give a 13 year old Ritalin, but it’s not ok for an adult to use cocaine. Explain how much harm a person sitting alone in his own house can do while using drugs.
Remember when the Government allowed farmers to plant hemp in Northwest Indiana because it is great from Pheasants!! So Conservative gun-owners and hunters should be all for it!
The real problem will be the criminalization of really great hompatic drugs that us free thinking helth nuts enjoy….
Legalize assisted suicide.
Legalize chemicals that fsck up your brain.
Legalize men pleasuring other men, and institutionalize it with legal homo-marriage.
Legalize the destruction of our national borders.
I’m gonna call a spade a spade and call you a bunch of dumb a$$es. You people need to grow the fsck up before someone less tolerant than me sticks a boot up your collective a$$. (but you might enjoy that)
“Alex Hamiltion”
You have brought up three issues that have little to do with the legalization of marijuana. Alcohol is a drug that have a negative impact on a person ability to think and react. Why should it be legal and other drugs with similar effects be illegal? If I need to grow up, explaining this to me would help me in that direction.
I wasn’t building a straw man. I was building a foundation to prove how fscked up the Libertarian platform is.
And wait a second…you accuse me of building a straw man, when that is exactly what you have done with comparing alcohol to wacky weed?
I can only think of one political party which endorses legalizing drugs. i can only think of one political party which endorses suicide. I can only think of one…OK, make that 2 (unfortunately), which endorse man-love. I can only think of one political party which favors abolishing our national boundaries.
These are all self destructive behaviors which You would argue the individual has the “inalienable” right partake in if they wish. The moment a society begins to partakeembracecondone these “pleasures” its ceases to be civilized.
A baby cries when it doesn’t get the toy it wants. A teenager complains that her parents are “ruining her life” when they don’t let her stay out past curfew. It is all about self. When one grows up, heshe realizes that there are larger things than self: family, community, society.
Grow up Libertarians. Grow the FSCK up!
Bob, ET AL-Post # 5 demonstrates the type of stream of consciousness brilliance we can expect nation wide if we would just legalize all drugs. No thanks.
John Wonderly,
David Roach always types like that. Either he is doing it without any strange chemicals in his system, or once again the drug laws have failed to deter another user.
Alex Hamiltion,
You need some improvement on your debating skills.
1. I did not use the phrase “straw man” in any of my comments. Where are you getting the idea that I’m accusing you of building one?
2. My party affiliation has no relevance in this issue. Osama bin Ladin is a murderer who needs to be killed or apprehended. Do you disagree with that statement because a Libertarian said it?
3. You should stay on the issue at hand. I’m sure there is all sorts of things that we disagree about. But if we are having a discussion about drug policy, you shouldn’t start talking about gay sex.
4. Profanity and insults are not an effective way to win people over to your side.
Your strongest argument, in my opinion, is that it is simply not in society’s interests to legalize drugs. But if drugs are legalized, that eliminates a source of revenue for terrorists and other criminals. If drugs are taxed, that creates a source of revenue for the government. If drugs are regulated, we can do a far better job of keeping them out of the hands of children. America does a better job of keeping kids from drinking than it does of keeping them off drugs. This is because liquor store clerks and bartenders check ID’s, while drug dealers don’t. America will be a safer and stronger nation if drugs are legalized.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to legalize ALL drugs bc there are some really dangerous ones out there, but marijuana is probably less harmful than alcohol. When people drink, they are still active. They might get mean or rowdy, but when someone smokes mary jane, they usually just want to sit around and chill. What I don’t understand is weed is illegal, but salvia isn’t. I’ve seen people smoke salvia; they basically go insane for 5 minutes. They drool all over themselves, speak gibberish, and laugh hysterically at nothing. It really looks like theres something seriously wrong with them. So that’s legal, but I could be charged $1000 for possessing a pinch of MJ in this state. Ridiculous. Don’t even legalize it, just decriminalize it.
I’am frickin Sick of the Government locking up NON-Violent drug causes. Way to many ppl in jails and prison, I’m personly Tired of giving up so much frickin money out of my tax check for prisons use for useless excuse for filling them up with nonsence crimes!
Tax me on Pot, i’ll pay and be happy.. keep taxing me on jail/prisons bullcrap and i’ll be pissed forever along with BILLIONS of other ppl. most of us are sick of it, theres more of us that are willing to be taxed rather than you little amount of ppl that hates us. well screw you, more the merer! legalize than dang thing so we’d STOP FIGHTING