Marijuana legalization no joke, guest says

The only reason the Democrats would have for legalizing drugs is so they could tax them. This is just a foolish lark on their part. I say protect the public and prosecute the users and the dealers to the full extent of the law. Of course many of the people that elected our President might have been on drugs.

Dude, think of what this would do for the sales of Doritos and Twinkies!

Find out why more and more cops, judges, and prosecutors who have fought on the front lines of the "war on drugs" are standing up and saying we need to legalize and regulate all drugs to solve our economic, crime, and public health problems: http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com

The only reason the Democrats would have for legalizing drugs is so they could tax them. This is just a foolish lark on their part. I say protect the public and prosecute the users and the dealers to the full extent of the law.
Posted by: Paul | May 4, 2009 2:35 PM
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Yeah, and nutty Republicans like Paul wonder why our prison system is bursting at the seams....

Alcohol is more addictive and destructive than Pot is - by far. By making Pot legal it would cut down on the gang activity on the border and elsewhere in this country.

Repugs are always screaming about having less gov't, so here's their chance to put their money where their big mouths are. Quit busting people for it and let the cops spend their time doing more important things.

Yeah, throwing billions of dollars away to try to stop people from using a substance that, at worst, is no more harmful than alcohol (leaving out the fact that one can eat or vaporize cannabis) is not really a reason at all, Paul.

It's better to allow gangs and drug lords to get rich at the expense of taxpayers according to your ilk's logic. That's quite sound.

Let me guess, should we keep it illegal to prevent white women from sleeping with Mexicans and jazz musicians like Harry Anslinger would have us believe?

Or maybe we should keep the status quo here it is easier for our kids to get because the black market doesn't card?

Sorry, time's up on your failed logic and rhetoric, Paul. The digital age is the worst thing to ever happen to prohibitionists.

How marijuana is illegal, a drug with no lethal
Potential, no reported deaths, and no serious addictiveness while alcohol, and cigarettes are legal?? Why are punishments necessary over a plant??? People will use it, fact, Benjamin franklin used it, fact,will the government prevent this with the law, no. It seems like the only way for this "democracy" is gonna work is if mobs make the politicians do there job correct, this is becoming ridiculous. What is the price tag, and exact what are we paying for??

Oh, geez, the Republicans have another distortion, another lie, another scare to propel upon the national political scene !! They'll have President Obama with a patch of pot, in the Rose Garden. What wonderful Americans, these Republicans are morphing into !! Where will it stop, the Nazis of Germany !!? Time will tell !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Yeah, throwing billions of dollars away to try to stop people from using a substance that, at worst, is no more harmful than alcohol (leaving out the fact that one can eat or vaporize cannabis) is not really a reason at all, Paul.

It's better to allow gangs and drug lords to get rich at the expense of taxpayers according to your ilk's logic. That's quite sound.

Let me guess, should we keep it illegal to prevent white women from sleeping with Mexicans and jazz musicians like Harry Anslinger would have us believe?

Or maybe we should keep the status quo here it is easier for our kids to get because the black market doesn't card?

Sorry, time's up on your failed logic and rhetoric, Paul. The digital age is the worst thing to ever happen to prohibitionists.

I am the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). I am also a retired detective lieutenant—26 years with the New Jersey State Police and 14 in their Narcotic Bureau, mostly undercover. I bear witness to the abject failure of the U.S. war on drugs and to the horrors produced by its unintended consequences.

LEAP is an international nonprofit educational organization created to give voice to law-enforcers who believe the US war on drugs has failed and who wish to support alternative policies that will lower the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction, without destroying generations of our young by arrest and imprisonment.

Anyone can join the 12,000 cops, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens and others who belong to LEAP. They know it is drug prohibition not drug pharmacology which cause crime.

Al Capone was not high on alcohol when he ordered the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and the cartel leaders were not high on illicit drugs when they ordered the deaths of thousands of police, solders, and innocent bystanders along the Mexican border over the last year. That is just the way business is conducted when the substance you distribute is illegal.

During the four decades of the war on drugs we have already expended well over a trillion dollars and what do we have to show for it? 39 million arrests of nonviolent drug users, while violence escalates, drugs have become cheaper but more potent, and far easier for our children to access.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Legalized regulation of drugs will reduce the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction. And according to a recent Harvard University study by economist Jeffrey Miron, ending drug prohibition would boost America's economy by 76.8 billion dollars a year— www.WeCanDoItAgain.org.

When we ended alcohol prohibition in 1933 we put Al Capone and his smuggling buddies out of business overnight—they were no longer killing each other, cops, or children caught in crossfire and drive-by shootings. We can do the same to the drug lords and terrorist who today make over 500 billion dollars a year selling illegal drugs around the world.

Legalized regulation of drugs will end the violent and property crimes that are a result of drug prohibition not of drug pharmacology. We can then treat drug abuse as a health problem instead of a crime problem and save the lives of our children, which we are now sacrificing at the altar of this terrible war, to the tune of 1.9 million arrests every year.

Taxes aren't a good enough reason to legalize drugs. There are plenty of good reasons to legalize marijuana though. Mexican organized crime makes the lion's share of their money from marijuana. Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. The black market for drugs is mainly a black market for marijuana. The cartels do supply almost all the cocaine, meth and heroin consumed here, but the total of all those drugs consumed is only in the hundreds of tons per year compared to many thousands of tons of marijuana. They just piggy back those other drug in on top of the marijuana and push them through the same people selling their marijuana.

Our last drug czar, John Walters, said that marijuana is the "bread and butter," the "center of gravity" for the Mexican cartels. The ONDCP estimated that the cartels make about 62% of their money from marijuana sales. Other estimates have put that percentage higher. It's their big money maker, and one of the best assets they have is this giant marijuana market with all these marijuana sellers and consumers of their marijuana that they can easily offer their other drugs.

Marijuana prohibition is causing every problem alcohol prohibition caused and then some. We're blowing a fortune and causing more harm than good trying in vain to keep up the ban. And still marijuana is easy to find anywhere in this country and usually on a per use basis it's going to be cheaper than beer. We aren't stopping a thing. Most everyone who wants to smoke marijuana is already smoking. We need to legalize it and regulate like alcohol. The tax revenues will pay for that regulation and probably for our fight against the other far more dangerous drugs.

It should be treated like alcohol. Plain and simple.
BTW, Alcohol is the real gateway drug. Most peoples first interaction with something that makes you loopy is alcohol. Once you feel loopy, you want more. I'm so sick of hearing pot leads to heavy drugs. It all starts with alcohol, which gets you soooo much more intoxicated. None of my friends that smoke have got into cocaine or crack. They just like to chill with some pot.

No question, the anti-marijuana hysteria has begun to wane, as the realization that it is no more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes begins to sink in.

Look for increased fear-mongering from the DEA and ONDCP in the coming months, as they realize their budgets are in serious risk, as lawmakers across the country recognize the futility and COST of this FAILED 'War on Drugs.'

Believe it or not, the Prohibiton of marijuana is FAR more detrimental to our country, than is the substance upon which the fear and hysteria is based.

The vast majority of Cannibis Afficianados are hard-working, tax-paying, home-owning, family-raising AMERICANS, who DO NOT need the government interfering in their lives, costing them jobs, prison time, employment, or losing their KIDS, because of the ridiculous assumptions surrounding marijuana, and clung to by the narco-nazi zealots and their followers.

If what I do hurts no one but myself, and I can MAINTAIN my job, bills etc, then LEAVE ME ALONE!!

Re; former republican. The reason our prisons are busting at the seams is because we have not kept up with the times, crime is at an all time high, we should have been building more prisons all along. The idea of releasing prisoners due to over crowding is simply outrageous.

The facts speak for themselves. when we arrest more cannabis users than violent criminals and we spend money on prohibition instead of making money on taxing and selling cannabis not to mention the benifits of industrail hemp. The laws do nothing to help anybody. What they do is allow for law enforcement officials to slack off and make meaningless arrest while letting real criminals walk the streets

They will never legalize drugs,there is more money, control and power over the the "sheep" in having drugs stay illegal, it would put the lawyers, judges and cops out of work,making drugs illegal helps build more and more prisons, hire more, government staff workers, lawyers, judges and cops, ATF, FBIDEA, ICE, etc...waht a great great excuse to ..the Nazis lost the war but won the ideaology war! this is Hitlers Germany 2009! ..soon enough....you will be given a Fair Trial, then shot!

The pot debate is a legitimate debate, pot should be legal. Mexico just legalized possession of small amounts of all drugs. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and their experience has been positive. Now if you are caught with a 10 day supply of your drug or less you face an administrative court, not a criminal court, but in practice they are just not arresting people. A group of 10,000 very serious policemen, prosecutors, attorneys and citizens have formed a group to legalize ALL drugs, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://leap.cc ) They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? Mark Montgomery boboberg@nyc.rr.com

Paul, seriously, do you have any evidence to support your claim that crime is at an all time high? Actually, I am sure crime is near an all time low. Quit romanticizing about the past and get out of your basement.

On topic, I believe the war on drugs is failed. I also think there is a huge hypocracy when putting pot up against alchohol and cigs. I think it is time for a different strategy.

The point I would like to make is that for thousands of years humans have wanted to be intoxicated or buzzed its human nature kinda like spinning around in circles,,so what I would like to say is by legalizing Marijuana which is safer and less problematic than alcohol we could help stop the dangers of our kids doing very harmful substances such as inhaling glues and paints and presciption drugs that are very dangerous compared to marijuana,no one has ever died from a overdose of marijuana it is not possible to do so can we say the same for alcohol or prescription drugs NO we cant!! Its time to take the money out of the hands of GANGS and DRUG CARTELS,and we can make huge strides in doing so by legalizing marijuana!

The point I would like to make is that for thousands of years humans have wanted to be intoxicated or buzzed its human nature kinda like spinning around in circles,,so what I would like to say is by legalizing Marijuana which is safer and less problematic than alcohol we could help stop the dangers of our kids doing very harmful substances such as inhaling glues and paints and presciption drugs that are very dangerous compared to marijuana,no one has ever died from a overdose of marijuana it is not possible to do so can we say the same for alcohol or prescription drugs NO we cant!! Its time to take the money out of the hands of GANGS and DRUG CARTELS,and we can make huge strides in doing so by legalizing marijuana!

Did we not learn anything from alcohol prohibition?
Marijuana prohibition has been an indisputable failure. Legalize it and take the money out of the black market. Marijuana is less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco yet both of those substances are legal (and should be). Every year our prison system releases violent offenders to make room for non-violent pot smokers. That is just plain insanity. Think of how better society would be served if our law enforcement efforts were directed more towards dealing with violent individuals. We would also save BILLIONS of dollars on prosecution costs and jail expenses every year.
There is also substantial evidence indicating marijuana has numerous medical uses as well.
This is a plant, legalize it and regulate it. We need to look at this issue using nothing more than basic common sense. Isn't it time to drop the "Reefer Madness" stupidity?

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA TODAY!!!!

I think obama should legalize marijuana and do the oppsite with tabacco products,because pot is not addicting,its all natural.you cant overdose on pot and it wont kill you.and go ahead and put taxes on it,there some of us out there that do not care,we juat wanna be able to smoke and not worrie about going to jail or get put on probation for having like a dime on us.i also think it will help stop the over populated jails if we took all the minor pot heads out of that system.then we would have more room to put all the sirous trouble makers where they belong.

I think obama should legalize marijuana and do the oppsite with tabacco products,because pot is not addicting,its all natural.you cant overdose on pot and it wont kill you.and go ahead and put taxes on it,there some of us out there that do not care,we juat wanna be able to smoke and not worrie about going to jail or get put on probation for having like a dime on us.i also think it will help stop the over populated jails if we took all the minor pot heads out of that system.then we would have more room to put all the sirous trouble makers where they belong.

Im in a tough sit.Im on P.O. n need my weed.Making marijuana legal has always been a dream of mine.I would have never got i trouble if this was the case legal marijuana.Im asking the help from who ever.If its in your power make weed legal.

I'm in California right now reasearching the subject. They have distribution centers here where you walk in, and walk out with you'r marijuan. It's off the hook. No decriminalization, or civil, or criminal, or any of that bullshit. I could go on and on but, I'm going on tour, and you should contact me to hear it straight from the horses mouth. Jay.

mr. Prez should most deffinately legalize weeeed. :) i bet more than half of the population of america smokes it anyway. i bet if i was legalized, the jails would be less crowded.