Robert Sharpe has a good letter in the Dallas News in response to Kevin Sabet.
Don’t be fooled by Sabet’s vision of a kinder, gentler drug war.
The vast majority of illicit drug users are marijuana smokers, many of whom have turned their lives around by putting down the bottle and picking up the marijuana pipe.
These former alcoholics no longer wake up with debilitating hangovers. They are no longer at risk of drinking themselves to death. Because they have chosen a safer alternative to alcohol, they now lead productive lives.
Yes, some have substance abuse problems stemming from traumatic life experiences. The last thing they need is Big Brother testing their bodily fluids and threatening jail time. Forcing pot smokers to relapse into alcoholism is not a good use of tax dollars.
The drug war is a cultural inquisition, not a public health campaign.
Interesting point.
RE: Cultural Inquisition
I agree. Those who advocate MJ prohibition under the guise of “protecting us” and keeping the children safe are being dishonest. Seriously, more children are harmed by totalitarians “just doing their jobs” than by pot, proving again and again that it’s not about our safety. It’s all about keeping the totalitarian culture of rigid obedience and authority-worship in place, and violently attacking anything which threatens that structure. I think we can all agree the greatest threat to an authoritarian culture is new/different ideas and freedom of thought and expression. Now, what causes the most new/different ideas and fosters freedom of thought and expression? Hmmmmm.
The answer to your question,
“Now, what causes the most new/different ideas and fosters freedom of thought and expression?”
consists of three things:
1. Mind expanding drug use.
2. Libertarianism.
3. Ron Paul
And you’ll note the MSM, the entrenched politicians, and corporate bosses all hate and fear all three of those things and do everything in their power to demonize each and every one of them. Funny thing, tho, their demonization is having less and less effect with each passing month.
Nobody expects the Cultural Inquisition!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAn7baRbhx4
This is the title of the article referred to:
“Obama isn’t loony to oppose drug legalization — Strategies that strike a middle ground are best” by Kevin Sabet, Monday Viewpoints.
This false “middle ground” argument pushed endlessly by sabet is the ultimate cynical drug war lie. As Sharpe says, this is not a kinder, gentler drug war. Lifetime felony convictions and consequent unemployability are not gentle or kind to those on the receiving end. There is nothing gentle or kind about SWAT team raids, or eviction from public housing for entire families. NY state is still imposing mandatory minimum sentences (5 years i believe) for possession of more than 4 ounces of cannabis.
Yet sabet continues to minimize the consequences for his victims in this insane drug war, and is no doubt happy to continue drawing his pay check for shilling for it. I wonder how he sleeps at night.
oops….think i’m wrong about ny mandatory minimums….
“Interesting point”? I disagree. I say Robert Sharpe is spot-on.
Any form of incarceration,including forced rehab,is still going to cost tax payers billions just keeping the “new” bureaucracy that will be created too oversee all the thousands of rehab centers needed too implement any kind of genuine rehab change from imprisonment too treatment.
And it basically leaves the same people going to prison,the poor and minorities that fill our prisons now,if the government does not pick up the tab on their “treatment”,,,more billions of dollars.
.
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People would be shocked if they knew just how many people are as Mr. Sharpe describes. Not just drinking alcohol either. Lots of people who have sworn off cocaine too.
Mr. Sharpe is extraordinarily perceptive. He certainly lives up to his family name.
Speaking of which Pete, have you heard of SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation – saferchoice.org) based in Colorado? Didn’t see them listed on the right side of your page with the other reform groups. They discuss this sort stuff all the time.
Taxpayers = BRAINDEADGOY….stop using the language of the eneimes of Truth.
A Plant is not the enemy of Truth loving sentient beings…it’s the currency printers/usurious “Bankers”…moneychangers and their Pharisees/stool sculpture deity cult leaders…!
http://smokingmirrors.blogspot.com/2010/10/vampire-bankers-host-invisible-siren.html
America has been hijacked by TRUTH hating terrorists…!
From the Gnostic Society Library (The Nag Hammadi Library)
The Gospel of Thomas as translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer:
28. Jesus said, “I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.
A little further down:
39. Jesus said, “The Pharisees and the scholars have taken the keys of knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so.
———————————–
Thought they sort of fit with the topic.
In my opinion, the “cultural bigotry” element of cannabis prohibition is HUGE, perhaps even dominant. That’s one reason I think the usefulness of the “lack of harm” argument is limited. You can rebut a person’s STATED reasons for supporting prohibition all day long, but you won’t make much progress if their stated reasons are not their ACTUAL reasons. Or to quote Jonathan Swift: “it is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” The ugly truth is that many people’s support for cannabis prohibition is this simple: they have a preconceived notion of the “kind of person who smokes pot,” and they don’t like that person.
Agree. But having people like Jimmy Kimmel asking the question “How many people have never used marijuana?” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and having a tremendous non response helps a lot. Killing the stereotype will be a big help.
Of course, a large part of the push for reform is premised on the idea that our laws are made based on *real* reasons, which must be stated and can be rebutted.
The tough part has been getting a venue to let the facts fight it out, and then finding a mechanism to compel the drug control establishment to take proper notice of it. The 1988 review by Judge Young fulfills the first criterion, but not the second. Same is true of the Shafer report.
Marijuana turns hopeless drunks into happy stoners!