Hash it out!
I can't believe it. This has to be a joke. Pinch me, please:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today it is "time for debate" about legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California as support grows nationwide for relaxing pot laws. Full story here
I am overjoyed at this bill introduced by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano: "a bill to regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis - all of which is barred by federal law."
Besides the age restriction and decriminalization here are some main points of the law:
I can guarnatee you this bill will FAIL. BUT the good news is the Republican Governor is somewhat behind the idea...and if not with this bill, eventually this type of thing will pass.
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today it is "time for debate" about legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California as support grows nationwide for relaxing pot laws. Full story here
I am overjoyed at this bill introduced by California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano: "a bill to regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis - all of which is barred by federal law."
Besides the age restriction and decriminalization here are some main points of the law:
- To raise funds and to discourage substance abuse by the imposition of a substantial fee on the legal sale of marijuana, the proceeds of which will support drug education and awareness.
- To impose a set of regulations and laws concerning marijuana comparable to those imposed on alcohol.
- To impose substantial fines for violations of the noncommercial regulations and laws concerning marijuana, which will be applicable until and after commercial marijuana is available by virtue of future changes in federal law.
He took the words right out of my mouth: REGULATION!
To sell it, you must be a business, apply for a license and succumb to a background check. Think liquor store locked-shelf next to the Jim Bean, not a backyard near you.
Then, we can do what we do with Alcohol and Smoking and educate ALL citizens that it is NOT a safe substance and it CAN lead to addiction, cancer and other ailments similar to smoking cigarettes.I can guarnatee you this bill will FAIL. BUT the good news is the Republican Governor is somewhat behind the idea...and if not with this bill, eventually this type of thing will pass.
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Funny, people will tell me to drink purified water, eat healthy, drive environmentally friendly vehicles, go-green, while not using my cellphone while driving, with the seatbelt on, and so on... but the very same people want to ingest toxic fumes in the form of weed-smoke into their lungs, and provide more ways for me to be killed or injured by an incapacitated driver.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a vegetarian, organic, tofu pita, with some Kangan water, to go in my Prius, oh, and a big-boy brain-buster stick and rolling papers, and a pack of Marlboros...
Which of these things is not like the other...
I do think you missed the point. Making something legal doesn't condone it's use. It's about regulation, taxing, and decriminalization and to treat it the same as alcohol, which is as dangerous if not MORE so than marijuna.
ReplyDeleteMarijuana IS dangerous, so is alcohol and cigarettes. So all three should be HIGHLY regulated (instead of illegal) to protect the non-users and the innocent. Educate the public on drug abuse and the dangerous of overuse and addiction and get these "criminals" out of over crowded jails.
You may have not read the bill, but it says it will follow the same laws as alchohol. Meaning it's illegal to use it while driving, illegal for 21 yrs and under, illegal to sell unless a proper business, illegal to resell, illegal to put it out where customers can see it, illegal NOT to lock it up, and so on.
MAJK sez: "I do think you missed the point. Making something legal doesn't condone it's use."
ReplyDeleteKingworks says: Is that like what we do with waterboarding? Maybe they should bong-board the terrorists (suspected) once pot is de-criminalized.
If Islam didn't ban getting stoned and/or drunk, I firmly believe the world would be a better place.
ReplyDeleteIslam who?
ReplyDeleteI don't see the correlation between legalizing marijuana and torturing terrorists.
ReplyDeleteMy formula and statement: "doesn't condone it's use" pertained to legalization of substances. You cannot use that same formula/statement on other problems.
Torture and legalization of substances are two separate unique problems that have separate unique techniques, statements and formulas to solve them. My statement cannot be used with torture, just as the Pythagorean Theorem can't be used on circles.
Now I will concede that my statement should have read: "doesn't condone the OVERuse" as the bill certainly condones its use.
A correlation with alcohol is what we should be discussing. As the government certainly doesn't condone it's overuse...nor does the government condone overuse of cigarettes, porn, gambling, exessive speeds, overeating....But all of those things are legal and most are highly regulated to senure public safety and are personal choices.... It's up to the individual to make the right choice, not the government. In the usage of substances or substance abuse, the government is used to inform, educate and help.
MAJK sez: "I don't see the correlation between legalizing marijuana and torturing terrorists."
ReplyDeleteKingworks sez: well, waterboaring was apparently legal or at least sanctioned (ie. condoned) at the time it was used post 911 on various enemies of the US (ie. combatants). The correlation is in the use of the concept of "condoning". No doubt that some view waterboarding as a foul and evil practice. And many citizens may believe the same about the use of pot. The idea of condoning -- really is the concept of legal or not legal. Legal is something we allow, illegal is something we do not allow.
I was trying to make the point that we should not condone things that we as a majority dislike or do not want to support.
...if we legalize pot, then we should legalize bong-boarding... it would be a friendlier more liberal method of getting people to spill their deepest secrets (but hang a bag of oreos just out of reach of the interrogatee, that would be the torture part)...
But I'm using the concept of legalization only for the purpose of condoning marijuana. I am not generalizing.
ReplyDeleteI will not say, since waterboarding was legal (i.e. condoned) that is was "okay".. I can't.. they are two different math problems.
Legalization is not black and white, there are many gray areas: saying to the effect "legal = okay to do vs. illegal = not okay to do" -- I do not subscribe to that ultimatum.
For instance, drinking bleach is legal, but certainly not "okay to do"
The point you say that “we should not condone things that we as majority dislike” I agree with. I do not condone the overuse of marijuana.. I do not condone the overuse of alcohol..I do not condone the overuse of guns. I do not condone the overuse of sex… But these things should be choices, not laws.
If we keep pot illegal, than we should make alcohol illegal, cigarettes illegal, and guns illegal.
Instead of bong-boarding how bout “booze-boarding” or perhaps making them smoke until they get cancer…
with the bong-boarding, I was attempting to inject a little bit of humor there...
ReplyDeleteguns -- well there are problems with guns since they are assocoiated with a specific ammendment to the constitution.
There was a time when alcohol WAS outlawed by ammendment to the constitution. That was changed. Maybe that would be a good way to get people tokin' up legally -- push for an ammendment allowing it...
I certainly don't think guns should be illegal for the same reason marijuana shouldn't be illegal...choice & regulation. I also know that marijuana, like alcohol was legal in this country until the prohibition amendment... The overturning of that amendment only spared alcohol and kept everything else illegal. The majority can and have been wrong many times in Americas' history. And they are wrong in this case.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that eventually marijuana and more personal rights of the individual will pass. It just takes a very long time (and should!) due to the brilliant ways the forefathers put in protection of BOTH the minority and majority in this country.
By the way, sorry for not having a good sense of humor on the subject. This subject is kinda a pet project of mine... But soon enough I'll relax a bit and not take things so personal.
ReplyDeleteJust to comment on the idea of waterboarding being "legal."
ReplyDeleteThat's far from a fact. The whole controversy is that torture is not legal, and so the debate is about whether waterboarding is or is not torture.
Yes, post-9/11, the government said it was not. Now the question is did they have the right to define it that way?
It isn't about popular opinion, but whether or not we violated international treaties that we have signed banning torture.
LYT sez concerning waterboarding: Yes, post-9/11, the government said it was not. Now the question is did they have the right to define it that way?
ReplyDeleteKingworks sez: So far, no one has been arrested for waterboarding enemy combatants at Guantanamo or elsewhere. My guess is that no one will be. So I was kind of riffing off the "condone" part. Sure I get the International thing. Its doubtful that there will be any heat sent the way of the US on that tip either...
I wonder if Islam has any sanctions against waterboarding, mutilation (like the removal of appendages), female circumcision, or decapitation.
If Islam could make the world a better place by making the small adjustment of allowing its followers to get high/drunk I'm thinking that the abject suppression of women's freedoms (including the right to a basic education) must be a good thing... or not...
Kingworks sez: So far, no one has been arrested for waterboarding enemy combatants at Guantanamo or elsewhere. My guess is that no one will be. So I was kind of riffing off the "condone" part. Sure I get the International thing. Its doubtful that there will be any heat sent the way of the US on that tip either...If anyone is arrested, recent events suggest it will be the legal scholars who interpreted waterboarding as not being torture, rather than those who carried it out.
ReplyDeleteIf Islam could make the world a better place by making the small adjustment of allowing its followers to get high/drunk I'm thinking that the abject suppression of women's freedoms (including the right to a basic education) must be a good thing... or not...That's a really silly argument. Islam the religion does not suppress a woman's right to an education, but rather fanatical Islamic theocracies do.
My suggestion is that if Islam the religion did not absolutely forbid booze, some of the more tense Muslims might chill the frak out. How you turn that around to imply I would somehow support suppression of women's rights is just ridiculous.
...sorry LYT, I misinterpreted the comment about Islam. Was reading it as an advocation for the propogation of the same... Now I see that the comment was an advocation for substance abuse instead... sorry to get the two concepts confused...
ReplyDeleteStill, Islam is a religion that its easy to lose ones head over...