I wish this could all be pinned on small-government conservatives, like she says. But you have to be a pretty far left Democrat before you start to want to decriminalize pot.
Dan's relevance is waining as the years go by, you would think he would have moved to greener ( or more challenging ) pastures. Sadly becoming a broken record on his pet issues that are the worst type of moral relativism are the best he can muster.
PITBULLS BAD
MYOPIC SHORT SIDED LIBERAL AGENDA
DRUG PROHIBITION
TALKING WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING FOR GAY RIGHTS
GETTING PAID TO BE ON TV!
@ 2 - Honestly, I can't blame you for staying in "the cannabis closet." The consequences for smoking up - safely, responsibly, when you don't have to work within a few hours, when you're not going to be sitting behind the wheel of a car - are so wildly out of proportion it's obscene. (For the record, this isn't just some self-interested sympathy for users of a drug that I enjoy. I smoked a handful of times in college, haven't smoked at all in almost two years, and honestly haven't missed it. But that's just me.)
Having worked at a federal prosecutor's office, I'll say this much - an AUSA generally won't want to go after someone for marijuana possession, unless they've got good evidence (but not beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence) that said marijuana possessor is involved in some much heavier drug trafficking and violent crime. But that's at the federal level. State prosecutors tend to be a little more aggressive.
I don't think that's how she meant it, Dan. I think she was just saying that she's not afraid of the illegal aspect because it's unlikely she'll get busted. I get the sense she would be a supporter of legalization... don't you?!
And this, in a nutshell, is why we will never, ever see real marijuana legalization or even wide-ranging decriminalization in our lifetimes. Those with power have nothing to fear from the prohibition laws, and they find them to be a convenient cudgel to use against those without power.
You will see it in our lifetimes. Hopefully you'll see it this year. Get out and vote Californians!
http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pag…
And yes, I did post a link with only a vague reference. Keep it up Dan Savage; I like the suspense. (Especially w/ the "chandelier" that one killed me)
@13: Yeah, you nailed it. Except the regionality of these statistics are critical. A lot of east coasters are stunned that California is taking this to the ballot this November - and that Oregon and Washington might too - while a lot of west coasters are thinking it's about damn time.
So I might be suggesting his universe is the east coast universe.
2 points.
First the Illegality she mentions is more likely to be that she is not bothered by the fact that SHE is doing something illegal. Probably akin to doing 70 in a 60 speed zone.
Second, excuse me lady but whoever said you had to get so drunk you had a hangover to enjoy a nice relaxing beer or glass of wine in the evening at home? Two beers or glasses of wine at home are my limit because I have kids and I don't want to be drunk or hungover.
And I don't smoke anything because I don't want junk in my lungs or in the air in my house. Besides whatever happened to happy brownies? Buzz without the cloud.
Mimi@14 (and others): I'm a CA resident, and I'll be voting "yes" as hard as I damn well can on the legalization measure. But I'm a realist: it's not going to pass, and if I were a betting man I'd put serious money down on a 4-point spread.
Enthusiasm for legalization has waxed and waned in a neatly sinusoidal pattern in this country for longer than many commenters on this thread have been alive or at least politically aware. Every generation gets to experience the optimism and disappointment firsthand.
I'm posting from the alternate universe of people who vote and hold office, not whatever fun factoids pollsters find. Washington's progressive Democratic congressional delegation, for example, overwhelmingly favors keeping pot illegal. You have to go all the way over to Jim McDermott land to find anyone who doesn't toe the line.
So there is hypocrisy enough to go around among those who say they want small government and those who say they are progressive.
oxyala@22: Libertarians are far to the irrelevant. Most self-described libertarians vote republican, a smaller number vote democratic. Either way, they swallow the major parties' stance on prohibition in the name of forwarding other parts of their agenda. The few who are pure-blood enough to vote Libertarian Party are so small in number as to be of no influence whatsoever.
@4: "But you have to be a pretty far left Democrat before you start to want to decriminalize pot."
Ummmm. William Safire? Milton Friedman? James Webb? Gary Johnson? The Libertarians? Law Enforcement Against Prohibition?
The overall point you make in 21 is correct. Run of the mill Dems and libs (cf Frank Chopp) are absolutely craven assholes when it comes to legalization. But there are some very prominent, big-name conservatives who favor legalization (and not just for pot, which is as far as most milquetoasts are willing to go).
And, I think Dan's point is really relevant. God, I wish cops would start busting large numbers of white pot smokers and club going coke snorters. If even a small fraction of white drug users felt the weight of the state the same way communities of color do, we'd have legalization in a week.
Meanwhile in Vancouver, BC, today, thousands of people turned out for the annual 4:20 event at the Art Gallery downtown, and the police ignored them as usual http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Thou…
Let legalization happen. It'll rearrange candidate competitiveness, as chronic bakers will be able to toke up anytime they want, while those who have no use for it (welcome to heterogeneous brain chemistries 101*) can just move ahead of them and get on with it.
I absolutely adore what multiple decades of daily chronic can do to one's personality and disposition. They'd explain it better than me, but they really couldn't be arsed to bother trying.
If I were a white middle-class person, I the illegality of pot wouldn't bother me either-- that is, it wouldn't stop me from smoking. Much like this mom, who, as others have said, sounds like she supports decriminalization.
I think Dan is misinterpreting the letter. He seems to interpret "the illegality of it doesn't bother me" as "I don't care if it stays illegal", but the context of the rest of the letter makes me (as some others above) think she means "it being illegal is not going to stop me".
excuse me lady but whoever said you had to get so drunk you had a hangover
Some people react to alcohol in such a way that there is no degree of "drunk" that doesn't precipitate a hangover. Personally, I've found that even one drink can trigger a splitting headache within hours. And I know I'm not the only one; in fact, upon asking around, I've discovered that a significant number of people are "in the closet" about their "drinking problem."
And all the people who had no connection to drug use whatsoever and had their doors broken down by S.W.A.T. in error. Let's face it, we live in a police state. The prison/industrial complex runs our state and federal governments.
# 9, that's exactly what I was saying. I was responding to someone's post about the illegality making me feel guilty for smoking pot. I don't feel guilty because the illegality doesn't bother me. Dan turned me into this holier-than-thou pot smoker when all I was saying is that it being illegal doesn't affect my smoking/not-smoking it.
What I want to know is how does she get it? The illegality doesn't "bother" me until I run out. Then it bothers the LIVING FUCK out of me because I have to call, wait, depend on the assholes who deal (prohibition puts distribution into the hands of people who are far from reliable upstanding citizens), drive across town, sweat bullets on the way home. All that if I'm lucky enough to find someone who isn't dry.
I'm not saying it should be stocked at the corner grocery; I just wish I could grow without risking my home & 10 years in jail.
If everyone who smokes pot would come out of the closet
we would end the war on drugs pronto.
It's like trying to have a civil rights movement for people who won't tell us who they are.
Get some balls folks and come out of the closet, then you will win.
And especially the public officials. The media out to be outing everyone one of them who ever, ever smoked pot and asking them "so why aren't you for legalization, are you ready to serve your jail term now because you smoked pot?"
Is this a scavenger hunt?
PITBULLS BAD
MYOPIC SHORT SIDED LIBERAL AGENDA
DRUG PROHIBITION
TALKING WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING FOR GAY RIGHTS
GETTING PAID TO BE ON TV!
SAVAGE MAD Grrrrrrrr!
Christopher Frizzelle, Editor: college drop-out
Dominic Holden, News Editor: high school drop-out
etc., etc.
Having worked at a federal prosecutor's office, I'll say this much - an AUSA generally won't want to go after someone for marijuana possession, unless they've got good evidence (but not beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence) that said marijuana possessor is involved in some much heavier drug trafficking and violent crime. But that's at the federal level. State prosecutors tend to be a little more aggressive.
I like you, Elenchos, but sometimes I wonder what JJ Abrams Fringe alternate universe you're posting to Slog from.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-2…
So 55% of the Western United States are "pretty far left Democrat"? Your universe is more interesting than mine, apparently.
http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pag…
And yes, I did post a link with only a vague reference. Keep it up Dan Savage; I like the suspense. (Especially w/ the "chandelier" that one killed me)
And BTW - do you even actually know any "brown" people? Besides Mudede?
So I might be suggesting his universe is the east coast universe.
First the Illegality she mentions is more likely to be that she is not bothered by the fact that SHE is doing something illegal. Probably akin to doing 70 in a 60 speed zone.
Second, excuse me lady but whoever said you had to get so drunk you had a hangover to enjoy a nice relaxing beer or glass of wine in the evening at home? Two beers or glasses of wine at home are my limit because I have kids and I don't want to be drunk or hungover.
And I don't smoke anything because I don't want junk in my lungs or in the air in my house. Besides whatever happened to happy brownies? Buzz without the cloud.
Enthusiasm for legalization has waxed and waned in a neatly sinusoidal pattern in this country for longer than many commenters on this thread have been alive or at least politically aware. Every generation gets to experience the optimism and disappointment firsthand.
Happy 4/20.
I'm posting from the alternate universe of people who vote and hold office, not whatever fun factoids pollsters find. Washington's progressive Democratic congressional delegation, for example, overwhelmingly favors keeping pot illegal. You have to go all the way over to Jim McDermott land to find anyone who doesn't toe the line.
So there is hypocrisy enough to go around among those who say they want small government and those who say they are progressive.
Ummmm. William Safire? Milton Friedman? James Webb? Gary Johnson? The Libertarians? Law Enforcement Against Prohibition?
The overall point you make in 21 is correct. Run of the mill Dems and libs (cf Frank Chopp) are absolutely craven assholes when it comes to legalization. But there are some very prominent, big-name conservatives who favor legalization (and not just for pot, which is as far as most milquetoasts are willing to go).
I absolutely adore what multiple decades of daily chronic can do to one's personality and disposition. They'd explain it better than me, but they really couldn't be arsed to bother trying.
Now get your Nanny State Morality out of my pockets, anti-capitalist GOP bitches!
Some people react to alcohol in such a way that there is no degree of "drunk" that doesn't precipitate a hangover. Personally, I've found that even one drink can trigger a splitting headache within hours. And I know I'm not the only one; in fact, upon asking around, I've discovered that a significant number of people are "in the closet" about their "drinking problem."
you're a famous privileged non-brown Pothead-
what's say you
Put Your Body on the Line
for The Cause?
Get busted for toking.
Do it in front of a police station.
Or in a City Council meeting.
Hell, get the whole Stranger staff busted...
Civil Disobedience, baby!
Pack the Jails!
any Walk behind all the Talk?
Is this Activist Cowboy all Hat and no Cattle?
How long will you be content to be
an endlessly whining hypocritical
PART Of The PROBLEM?
I'm all for legalization.
Dan, you total misinterpreted what I was saying.
I'm not saying it should be stocked at the corner grocery; I just wish I could grow without risking my home & 10 years in jail.
we would end the war on drugs pronto.
It's like trying to have a civil rights movement for people who won't tell us who they are.
Get some balls folks and come out of the closet, then you will win.
And especially the public officials. The media out to be outing everyone one of them who ever, ever smoked pot and asking them "so why aren't you for legalization, are you ready to serve your jail term now because you smoked pot?"
sensiblewashington.org