Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

[flintlock]

A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democratic Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-i...225335489.html

[shiny!]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Legalize all drugs. Let the drug addicts kill themselves if they want to, but the War on Drugs has done nothing but enrich drug cartels, gangs and the prison industry, while turning our police into paramilitary forces. Like the War on Terror, the War on Drugs is nothing more than a convenient excuse to turn our country into a police state.

I liked Ross Perot many years ago until I heard his response to a question about the War on Drugs violating our civil rights. He said something like, "You have to understand that the War on Drugs is a war, and in war people have to be willing to give up their civil rights." Not this person.

[Ghent12]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Legalize all drugs. Let the drug addicts kill themselves if they want to, but the War on Drugs has done nothing but enrich drug cartels, gangs and the prison industry, while turning our police into paramilitary forces. Like the War on Terror, the War on Drugs is nothing more than a convenient excuse to turn our country into a police state.

I liked Ross Perot many years ago until I heard his response to a question about the War on Drugs violating our civil rights. He said something like, "You have to understand that the War on Drugs is a war, and in war people have to be willing to give up their civil rights." Not this person.

I agree completely. Drugs are bad and dangerous, but this War on Drugs situation is far worse. You don't see people committing theft just to buy alcohol and cigarettes, do you? I don't like the ominous prospect of a wrong-address SWAT raid on my house, killing my family or pets, because they think someone has a ****ing plant.

[c1ue]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

This is a ridiculous publicity stunt.

In San Francisco, marijuana was for years effectively legal.

Today it is completely legal; there are dozens, if not hundreds of 'clinics' around. You can spot them via the mirrored windows they all seem to share; there are at least 3 within 3 blocks of where I live.

For $200 or so, you get a 'prescription'.

[KGW]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Tell that to those who get raided by the overzealous agents of the DEA. . . Or, for that matter, the local police agents.

[walloon]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Legalization of drugs is a very complex issue. There are those who think that this will alleviate crime, but marijuana is only a minor component of the drug trafficking industry; people will still be murdering and stealing to satisfy their need for more powerful drugs. Legalize everything and tax/regulate it? Great, let's put the government into the drug business, they surely need the money to satisfy their own 'habit'.

Now lets think about some of the consequences.

1. There are millions of people in prison for dealing in 'harmless' marijuana. Lets let them out. Wait a minute, we already have millions of unemployed that have no hope of getting decent jobs. What do we do with them? Weigh that against the cost of incarcerating them indefinitely.

2. We have a problem with producing highly educated, productive citizens in the last 30 years. Giving them a green light to get even stupider, more drug addled, and less productive is beneficial to who? Now that you've legalized all drugs, would you not have to put a stop to employment discrimination against stoned employee? How is that going to effect the competitiveness of our work force?

3. As an employer, would you want to pay good money to a worker who is now legally stoned half of the time and who you can't fire? How will the courts deal with that?

4. No doubt, there are numerous other issues I am leaving out.

This is a simplistic answer to a hugely complicated and possibly insoluble problem, one which potentially opens up a bigger can of worms than we already have. Plus, you add a potentially huge government infrastructure to regulate and tax marijuana. And like with cigarettes and alcohol, you will encourage people to engage in criminal activity just to avoid taxes and or get marijuana into the hands of underage users or take advantage of the differences in state laws regarding drugs. People still smuggle "legal" cigarettes from state to state.

This is a typical government response to a human problem that will lead to millions of pages of regulations and more bureaucracy and not solve any problems.

[KGW]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Any more red herrings, strawmen, etc. that you would like to post?

[cmalbatros]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Won't happen, but should. Many billions of $ will be saved from prosecuting and jailing non violent users and money could be better used in improving countries infrastructure, such as education, health, job creation, energy (nuclear) power stations and much more, maybe help to pay off some of the federal debt too. And the police and judicial services may be able to go after and imprison real criminals instead i.e. banks.

Watch this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CyuBuT_7I4

[BigBagel]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

This is a ridiculous publicity stunt.

In San Francisco, marijuana was for years effectively legal.

Today it is completely legal; there are dozens, if not hundreds of 'clinics' around. You can spot them via the mirrored windows they all seem to share; there are at least 3 within 3 blocks of where I live.

For $200 or so, you get a 'prescription'.

There's other places besides San Francisco. In NYC there were 50,383 marijuana arrests in 2010.

[flintlock]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Any more red herrings, strawmen, etc. that you would like to post?

No kidding!

[lektrode]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

There's other places besides San Francisco. In NYC there were 50,383 marijuana arrests in 2010.

even steamboat is puffin up to a full head (of not necessarily steam)...
eye thot people were lookin a little more bleary-eyed/bushy-faced than normal there in april...
tho it figgers, that CO, being out there on the bleeding edge of this, gets all dazed and confuzed just as the action starts to get good and _now_ they having 2nd thots? shur - just as promising new source of cashflow gets steamin along, ya can count on the TPTB to want to change the rules (tho i suspect its got something to do with the local chapter of the FIREmen, intrawest, getting their knickers all up in a bunch, worried about what this might do to their plans to blanket every hillside with condos...)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...077022496.html

By STEPHANIE SIMON

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.—Kevin Fisher, a bartender in this laid-back ski town, thought he had hit upon the next gold rush

He and a buddy sank all their savings into opening a medical-marijuana dispensary in the summer of 2009. As the cash rolled in, they kept investing: By the owners' tally, they pumped $1.5 million into a business that now has 36 employees, a greenhouse full of cannabis and a busy pot pharmacy selling a dozen strains of weed.
The voters of Steamboat Springs could order Mr. Fisher to give it all up.
In a furious backlash against the booming medical-marijuana industry, scores of cities and counties across Colorado have banned new pot shops and cannabis greenhouses or moved to oust established businesses. The Steamboat Springs city council just put a measure on the November ballot that would shut down existing operations and ban new ones. Commissioners in surrounding Routt County on Tuesday banned new businesses affiliated with medical marijuana and will ask voters this fall whether to shut an existing dispensary.
"That's un-American," Mr. Fisher said.
Elected officials and voters say the bans reflect widespread anger at, and disillusionment with, the industry, as well as concerns about an increase in impaired driving. Similar local protests have sprung up in some of the other 15 states that permit medical marijuana, including Montana, Michigan and California.
But the backlash appears to be particularly intense in Colorado, where the industry has grown more rapidly than in any state except California.
That is partly because state officials signaled early on that they would accept the industry and work with patients, growers and sellers to develop regulations. That spurred a remarkable boom in pot-related businesses. About 1,200 pot farms, 800 dispensaries and 300 businesses that infuse candy, cookies, pizza and other edibles with marijuana have applied for state licenses.
Routt County, which includes Steamboat Springs, had just 12 medical-marijuana patients in January 2009. There are now 1,143 patients, or 6% of the adult population, state health records show. Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger said many constituents had told him they supported the right of truly ill patients to use cannabis and voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2000.
"But now, reality checks in, and it's like, 'Is that really what we thought we were voting for?' " Mr. Monger said. "It's very divisive."
On a recent afternoon, patients coming into dispensaries for strains such as "Chem Dawg" (marketed as a "very spacey, classic strain that goes straight to your head") or "Ice Cream" (described as producing a "wide-awake, functional high") said they needed the drug for ailments such as tension headaches, back pain and an arthritic hip.
Those claims infuriate critics who say the medical-marijuana industry is a smokescreen for recreational drug use. They point with disgust to pot-shop advertisements that entice customers—and, they fear, appeal to teens—with cannabis strains labeled "Kotton Kandy" and special deals such as free joints on Wednesdays.
"If you want to have a debate about legalization, fine, let's do it," said Kelly Victory, a physician and health-care consultant in Routt County. She said she would probably favor true legalization but in the meantime is pushing to oust existing pot shops because they're "making a mockery of the legal system."
Local law-enforcement authorities are also pushing for a ban, warning that increased marijuana use endangers public safety. Steamboat Springs police arrested 17 drivers suspected of being high on cannabis last year, up from 9 in 2009.
The state as a whole is on pace for more than 1,600 positive cannabis tests this year from drivers pulled over for showing signs of impairment. That's the same as last year but double the 2009 numbers.
Medical-marijuana advocates say a jump in positive tests doesn't mean the roads are more dangerous and that police may simply be pulling over more drivers. While they acknowledge some abuses, they contend that the vast majority of patients have legitimate ailments.
"These people are very sick and broken," said Dan Pullen, who owns a physician-referral service that has recommended marijuana to hundreds of patients in Steamboat Springs and other cities.
Colorado has permitted patients with certain debilitating conditions, including chronic pain, to use marijuana since 2000, but the industry changed dramatically in late 2009, when the state began to permit commercial pot shops instead of requiring patients or their caregivers to grow their own marijuana. A few months later, the U.S. Justice Department ordered its prosecutors to respect state medical-marijuana laws, freeing many state-authorized growers, sellers and buyers from the threat of criminal charges.
Ease of access has met—and spurred—demand. Two and a half years ago, before the dispensaries, Colorado had just 5,000 medical marijuana patients. Today there are nearly 125,000.
Related

• House to Unveil Bill Ending Marijuana Prohibition
• Washington Wire: Barney Frank, Ron Paul Team Up on Marijuana Bill

But the public backlash may soon begin to crimp access, patient advocates say. At least 34 of Colorado's 64 counties have enacted bans, as have cities large and small, urban, suburban and rural.
Some of the jurisdictions that still permit pot shops have imposed tight restrictions, on top of the nearly 200 pages of regulations imposed by the state. In Denver, the city council this year enacted licensing laws requiring medical-marijuana dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet from schools, day-care centers and other marijuana dispensaries.
More than a dozen pot entrepreneurs have sued the city to block those rules from being applied to them or to win compensation for being forced to shut down. They have lost every time. Judges elsewhere have upheld other cities' rights to oust existing cannabis greenhouses and dispensaries without paying them compensation.
Legal challenges by growers and sellers are still pending in several jurisdictions. But Denver attorney Warren Edson, who represents many clients in the medical-marijuana industry, isn't optimistic.
"If you think about it," Mr. Edson said, "how weird would it be for a district judge to say that a city has to pay you $40,000 for taking away your right to sell weed?"
Write to Stephanie Simon at stephanie.simon@wsj.com

[c1ue]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

Medical-marijuana advocates say a jump in positive tests doesn't mean the roads are more dangerous and that police may simply be pulling over more drivers. While they acknowledge some abuses, they contend that the vast majority of patients have legitimate ailments.

On Venice Beach, I walked by a "medical" marijuana clinic with a steerer. A person standing at the door trying to get people to come in for 'examinations'.

In San Francisco, I've gotten flyers on my car for a pot clinic in San Jose - 45 miles away.

There is zero doubt in my mind that - while certainly there are some people who benefit from marijuana medically - the vast majority are simply using this as a fig leaf for recreational use.

There have been discussions on iTulip before on legalization; I have yet to see a counter to the point made that tobacco is fundamentally cheap but cigarettes are anything but.

For that matter - just exactly how much difference is there between tobacco cigarette tar and marijuana joint tar?

[lektrode]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

On Venice Beach, I walked by a "medical" marijuana clinic with a steerer. A person standing at the door trying to get people to come in for 'examinations'.

In San Francisco, I've gotten flyers on my car for a pot clinic in San Jose - 45 miles away.

There is zero doubt in my mind that - while certainly there are some people who benefit from marijuana medically - the vast majority are simply using this as a fig leaf for recreational use......

the most hilarious thing in CO is the people that one sees hanging around the 'dispensaries' = mostly 20something males, which i suspect make up the majority of the 'patients'

[bpwoods]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

"Legalization of drugs is a very complex issue."

Such as? Alcoholic beverages? Tobacco products? Firearms and ammo? Explosives? Transport fuels? Medicinal drugs?

Please do not confuse 'legalization' with 'regulation'. Regulate the manufacture, the wholesale supply, the retail sale in a form that is fit for human consumption. Leave it up to the individual to decide what they want to do.

True, there will be consequences, but I reckon they will be less problematic than the existing mess. We may have the same number of addicted persons, but hey, they will just be that. Addicted folk, not criminals.

Will the 'state' collect zillions in taxes. Definitely not, since the economic objective will be to drive out all criminal activity. Hence, prices are likely to be low - in same range as alcohol and tobacco products.

Humans have evolved to the sophisticated (I know!) state we have due to evolution providing us with our addictive centres. Gives us that 'edge'.

Brian

[Ghent12]

Re: Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana

This is a ridiculous publicity stunt.

In San Francisco, marijuana was for years effectively legal.

Today it is completely legal; there are dozens, if not hundreds of 'clinics' around. You can spot them via the mirrored windows they all seem to share; there are at least 3 within 3 blocks of where I live.

For $200 or so, you get a 'prescription'.

I don't think you've read much on this issue. The legality of Marijuana is far from complete. In the states where it is legal, it is also illegal federally. This bill is designed to give the states the power to legislate whether marijuana is legal or not; a pressing issue and a far cry from a "ridiculous publicity stunt." You really should do more research about things before you dismiss them out of hand.