Leading pot decrim pol visits town
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Until Virginia’s own senior senator, Jim Webb, announced an effort a year ago to study it, perhaps the nation’s boldest exponent of decriminalization of marijuana— something that’s now the law of the land in Portugal— was former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson. Richard Sincere reports on Johnson’s Monday visit to Charlottesville.
Like WOW! MAN
It’s about time. It’s ridiculous that it is still classified as Schedule 1 in this time and place.
Sadly, drugs will not be legalized for a long time. I wonder how many more people will have their lives ruined before they realize the war on drugs has failed. Drugs are cheaper, more widely used, of better quality, in higher demand and easier to purchase since the war on drugs began. So what does the war on drugs accomplish besides increasing gang power and violence? I’m glad Webb is apparently looking into the facts.
Republicans for marijuana decriminalization!
WTF a republican for a liberal idea. Michael your 1 in a million
:-) Thanks!
likes this
And further, crozetette, I don’t smoke it now, haven’t in the past, nor have any real desire to in the future.
So put that in your pipe, and… well, you know the rest.
MIKEY MIKEY MIKEY Try it you’ll like it !!!!!!
was the writer of this article high when it was written?
Here’s another conservative vote for legalization.
Why would a Republican conservative, opposed to abuse of government power, government intrusion into personal behavior and restriction of commerce, be opposed to marijuana legalization? We can either continue the failed war on drugs and guarantee the opportunity for profit to organized crime, or we can legalize and tax it. Expansion of commerce is a Republican standard, do we want the profits to go to organized crime and foreign criminal organizations or to struggling farmers and families in the U.S.A.?
There’s really only one problem with legalization, the stuff these days is dangerously strong.
When’s the last time you heard about someone getting stoned and then beating their wife or girlfriend or making an ass out of themselves in public and not remembering it? Doesn’t happen. This stuff is definitely no worse for you than booze. Legalize it. Tax it. Move on.
“the stuff these days is dangerously strong.”
More potent…yes. Dangerously strong…give me a break! Please, sir, enlighten us all on how dangerously strong the stuff is these days. Are people ODing off of marijuana? Are people smoking it and getting so messed up that they harm others? I think that statement is absurd.
Legalize it, don’t criticize it! End this ridiculous drug war! Save our economy by legalizing the plant which causes no harm.
“Why would a Republican conservative, opposed to abuse of government power, government intrusion into personal behavior and restriction of commerce, be opposed to marijuana legalization?”
Republicans pay lip service to notions like individual liberty and self-determination. But it’s the Party’s social conservatives who are really calling the square dance, and they have no problem using the boot of government to enforce their puritanical values.
Don’t be so defensive, it is a fact, the pot these days is dangerously strong.
durtburglar - I agree with you, and that is why I posted my argument as a question. There is a lot of “speaking with forked tongue” by republicans, I was always incensed by W’s purely rhetorical use of the word “freedom”. I, as a conservative, would like to see the Republican party move toward a more honest enactment of their principals of limited government, personal responsibility, and free enterprise, and in my opinion a realistic analysis of the “war on drugs” is in order.
ken, hashish has been made for a very long time. it was very easy to obtain back in the 70’s and 80’s when its importation helped to fund “freedom fighters” in afghanistan as we called them back then.
it would take a lot of today’s weed, the stuff you call “dangerously potent” to add up to the power of a moderately sized chunk of halfway decent hashish from back then. no one was overdosing from that when it was readily available, and no one is overdosing from today’s weed either.
people smoke until they get the buzz they’re comfortable with. all that powerful smoke means is that instead of smoking 3 or 4 joints of low grade mexican weed like we did in jr. high, today’s pothead saves his lungs by smoking a single bong hit of a high quality and professionally grown agricultural product which in many cases comes from his hometown or at least somewhere not far away.