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Dan, is the legalization of pot just a pet interest of yours, or are you planning on deploying your intelligence, imagination, celebrity, and your loyal following to try to seriously advance this cause? You’ve done so much for LGBT and poly acceptance, maybe you can do something for the cannabis situation.
I smoked my first joint in 1965. Just think of all the money that’s been wasted since then trying to stop people from doing the same thing. Ridiculous. That would be plenty bad enough if we were not still fucking around trying to stop it. That’s just dumb.
it is very important to Liberals to get stoned to escape the pathetic reality of their miserable existence…..
Street whores and homosexuals need a lot of drugs to endure their meaningless lives
@4 – better than using religion.
zzzz…
huh?
Oh, this made me so bored I somehow ended up back in Chicagoland.
Did you dig your dinosaurs, @7?
@2, why do you think Obama is not only against the legalization of marijuana, but is also opposed to its use by sick and dying people?
@10, quite obviously. I only asked because I haven’t heard Vince criticize anything Obama’s done.
And speaking of pot, Ken, here’s my last comment from our earlier discussion.
I’m happy to concede your point that prohibition still exists in Portugal. Is it fair, then, to assume that when you spoke of prohibition in your original post, you were referring to the kinder, gentler sort as seen in Portugal?
If so, do you think a person who grows marijuana for personal use should be prohibited from doing that? And as you believe that prohibition (kinder and gentler, even) reduces addiction (not sold on that, however), do you support prohibition for alcohol, as well, considering all the people who are addicted to it? Tobacco?
@8: Yes, thanks for asking. Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, a several kinds of crocodile, possibly some deinonychids, hadrosaurs, and/or pachycephalosaurs, and a FUCK TON of ancient turtle bits.
@11 That’s because he’s so much better than the idiot Republicans. It’s like having a child that gets all A’s in school. What’s to criticize?
How long will the DEA keep trumpeting the fact that their policies are actually counterproductive in accomplishing or even making significant progress toward the goal of reducing the production and availability of cannabis and other drugs?. Increasingly large busts mean that more and more is being grown, not less. Doubling down on the same counter-productive strategy is only guaranteed to mean continued exponential growth in this market.
@14, What’s to criticize? You yourself said marijuana prohibition was “dumb.” Obama supports it. Shouldn’t he be criticized for that?
After promising to protect them, Obama has prosecuted whistle blowers at the highest rate in decades. Shouldn’t he be criticized for that?
Obama has continued policies and tactics overseas which regularly result in the violent deaths of innocent men, women, and children, for no increase in national security. Shouldn’t he be criticized for that?
Obama has supported indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo and secret prisons all over the world. Shouldn’t he be criticized for that?
Many liberal and leftist organizations have criticized Obama for these actions. Are they wrong? And do you really believe that with all these negative actions, Obama is “getting all A’s?”
@15, it seems rather inconsistent to support prohibition for a relatively safe drug and to oppose it for a demonstrably deadly one.
@19, I agree with you. But since alcohol is much more likely to make people behave violently and recklessly, why oppose prohibition of that and support prohibition of something like marijuana is much less likely to make people behave violently and recklessly?
Wow, police in Vermont pat their selves on the back for finding 95 plants, which they value at $285,000 because they’ve been sampling it. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/…
@22: A guy in my dorm once forced his way into my room and started a fight because he freaked out while high about the appearance of his hair and he thought I had his hat.
Marijuana may not be liquid courage the way alcohol is, but it is often aerosol paranoia, which can be nearly as bad for instigating violence. The bottom line is that all mind-altering substances, from caffeine to heroin, can have unpredictable behavioral results, and all should be used with caution, discretion, and moderation.
@22, not sure how you define “pot head,” but I’ve known many daily users who lead vibrant, productive lives. There’s also a long list of famous, very accomplished, regular users of the drug. I would say that regular use is fine in combination with some personalities and bad with others.
@13, good stuff. My limited experience was with late-Pleistocene mammals (dire wolf, ground sloth, short-faced bear, rodents galore, yadda yadda) in a pit cave.
On-topic, I like “aerosol paranoia.”
is prohibition a cash cow for the crooks that run things? a corner stone of the police state? can you buy heroin in prison? is it cheaper now?
@21: That comes out to $3000/plant; assuming $400-$500/oz street price, that’s 6-7.5 oz per plant. Is that unreasonable (I don’t really know anything about cannabis horticulture)? Obviously the grower isn’t going to be selling for quite as much if sie’s using intermediaries, but that doesn’t seem like an unreasonable estimate on its face.
@23: Yikes; the only paranoia I’ve ever observed in response to marijuana is paranoia rooted in the fact that it’s illegal (people were terrified they’d get caught smoking it or that others would be able to tell they were high). I did have two friends who experienced intense frightening hallucinations smoking the same batch (purple worms covering everything for one, intense persecution delusions where everyone around had “evil faces” and was menacing the other one), from which they concluded it was laced (as they didn’t have that sort of reaction on the numerous other occasions that they smoked). It’s probably a bad idea for violent or otherwise impulse-control-deficient individuals to use psychotropes that decrease inhibition or distort perception, but that’s not really a reason to ban the drug completely (some people use guns to shoot others, some people hit others with cars, some people use box-cutters to hijack airplanes, some people interpret Christianity as a call to murder people, etc.). Also, standardized cultivars under legal production would have predictable effects and regulation would protect against adulterants being added to the pot, both of which would help users make informed (and potentially better) decisions about their drug use.
@24: Right: if “pot head” is by definition a low-functioning user, then the statement is a tautology. It’s entirely possible Ken knows any number of high-functioning cannabis users whom he does not recognize as such because they’re high-functioning, while his idea of “marijuana user” is limited to unmotivated people who play Xbox and munch snacks all day.
Sadly, I am planning a trip from Portland to San Francisco. I ave never been to the Redwood Forest and I am very disappointed to hear it’s not that safe to go hiking at this time of year.