Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

if you have an MBA and work on wall street and you're caught with coke, you should get your balls cut off and shoved in your mouth. everything else should be legal for everyone else

^ winning here

uk cop humour otm

my mom just watched that documentary about the girl w/ seizures whose parents treat w/ pot (charlotte's web iirc?) and now she's super politically charged = gung ho about cannabis politics. first she wanted to start clandestinely growing but i put the kibosh on that and pushed her in the direction of norml as a more legally safe way of protesting the unjust laws that keep ppl from getting medical relief.

aw

first she wanted to start clandestinely growing but i put the kibosh on that

missed opportunity imo

http://marplenewtown.patch.com/groups/elections/p/legalize-marijuana-dem-candidate-for-pa-governor-says-marplenewtown

Legalizing marijuana is the right thing to do for Pennsylvania for reasons of justice and state finances, according to one Democratic candidate for governor.

And, according to John Hanger, it is also a key to the Democratic party’s political aspirations in the commonwealth this November.

“This issue is moving and Democrats better get on board or we’ll lose this election to Tom Corbett because people will not come out and vote,” Hanger said Wednesday night at Lehigh University in Bethlehem. “We must expand the voting population.”

he's otm i'll so get out the vote for this dude if legalization is on the menu

I think it's realistic to assume that legalization of pot will bring in its wake a different set of problems than the set caused by the war on (some) drugs, but imo at least they'll be the right set of problems, because their solutions will make 100x more sense than the present system of financing violent drug cartels, engaging in mass imprisonment, and corrupting police through property confiscations. The new problems will just be the more obvious ones caused by overuse among a limited set of people who would overuse drugs anyway.

we know that any new problems will still be on a much, much smaller scale than alcohol abuse

afaict the research indicates that in states where cannabis is semi-legalized it's replacing alcohol among a certain group of people and as a result both DUIs and disorderly / violent conduct has gone down slightly

did I get the wrong impression?

I'd be really interested in seeing how that pans out numbers-wise. I live in a small town in Washington with a disproportionate amount of college students and lots of insane drunken antics, including plenty of serious shit like people falling out of buildings, assaults, tazings, and so on. I'm curious if there will be a noticeable drop in egregious drunken problems or if those people would get drunk and do dumb shit anyway.

I kept hearing unsubstantiated rumors this fall that there were some number of students who went to the ER or otherwise freaked out after smoking concentrates and getting way too high, which everyone seems to realize is much better than drinking a bottle of everclear and dying.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/25/justice/california-teacher-pot-arrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

sigh. here's something for nancy grace to jerk off to, i guess.

Badger chose not to speak to arresting officers

on wisconsin!

one thing i'm curious to know/see is how pain contracts are managed in CO/WA now. as it is right now, patients on pain contracts have to get routine drug testing, and any illicit drugs that turn up in their u-tox are grounds for termination of the contract (ie - no more opiates). anecdotally, i know of quite a few patients that have had their contracts terminated (or been fired from suboxone/methadone clinics) for being positive for MJ. which is a bummer, since most of them were pretty obviously using MJ to self-medicate.

Giving people a psychoactive drug without telling them what you're doing is pretty nasty behavior, imo. Doesn't matter what drug we're talking about.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/01/24/the-president-forgets-to-lie-about-marijuana-and-prohibitionists-are-outraged/

http://www.mademan.com/dr-lester-grinspoon-on-david-brooks-weed-been-there-done-that/

i haven't watched this yet but it has been recommended to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3IMfIQ_K6U

not gonna bother linking Mo Dowd's column on the Colorado pot B&B that the proprietress says wants to attract "comedians and adult film entertainers." Lady, if you think those are the 'better people,' you are HIGH.

i wonder if obama is going to mention legalization (or decriminalization, or at least reclassification) tmmrw nite

He won't

state of the doobin'

i'm thinking about investing in some publicly traded mj companies

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/why-obama-should-back-drug-sentencing-reform-in-the-state-of-the-union/283302/

The most cynical part of me is whispering in my ear that the war on drugs has finished the work it was designed for, acting as a weapon against the poor and minorities, with which the authorities could crush any lingering aspirations from the social justice movements of 1950-1980. Now that things are back under control, it's time to sell society a new anodyne drug and make some eye-popping profits at the same time. Something along the lines of the British opium trade out of India into China.

Somebody slap me, ok.

I disagree w/ that analysis. But even if it were true, certainly the value of not jailing citizens for possession of marijuana is a worthwhile consequence of ending the war on drugs, even if there are ulterior motivations.

I guess I see it as the people who make or will make money from selling weed finally out-influencing the people who make money from locking people up

i hope you're right about that, but i still get google alerts about CCA almost every day, sometimes stock reports :(

xp - I agree that ending the prohibition on mj is far, far better than keeping it in place. I do wonder how the powerful will try to bend it to their advantage, bcz maneuvering themselves into positions of advantage is what they do.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/feb/20/marijuana-high-and-low/

Hemp, Inc., (OTC:HEMP) America's first all-industrial hemp public company, applauds the U.S. House of Representatives for legalizing the cultivation of hemp. For the first time in decades, the Federal government is allowing farmers to cultivate hemp. As of Wednesday, January 29, 2014, pursuant to the passage of the farm bill, the cultivation of industrial hemp is legal on a Federal level and is clearing the way for industrial hemp pilot programs in states such as Colorado, Washington, California, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia, where growing the plant is legal.

The bill was originally introduced as an amendment by Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). The provision allows universities, and now also state departments of agriculture, to grow hemp for academic or agricultural research purposes; however, it only applies to states where industrial hemp farming is already legal under state law.

Senator Mitch McConnell, who worked to retain and strengthen the provision, was the lead negotiator in getting hemp included on the Farm Bill was quoted, "We are laying the groundwork for a new commodity market for Kentucky farmers."

Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc. said, "I said it before and I'll say it again... these are monumental steps for the industry. What we are all trying to get people to understand is that this will finally unlock a clean 'American Industrial Revolution' that will not only be economically sound, but environmentally advantageous." Soon companies like Hemp, Inc. (OTC:HEMP) will not have to import their hemp fabrics, hemp seeds, hemp hearts and hemp hurd for their hemp products.

According to the Associated Press article, written by Kristen Wyatt, "The plant's return to legitimacy could clear the way for U.S. farmers to compete in an industry currently dominated by China. Even though it hasn't been grown in the U.S., the country is one of the fastest-growing hemp markets.

"In 2011, the U.S. imported $11.5 million worth of legal hemp products, up from $1.4 million in 2000. Most of that growth was seen in hemp seed and hemp oil, which finds its way into granola bars and other products." Other estimates place the U.S. 2013 hemp sales at half a billion dollars ($500 million).

Hemp has thousands of uses. From rope and clothing, to soap and lotions and nutritional additives in everything from milk to cooking oil. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp before the Federal government banned the plant in its anti-drug efforts through the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. According to the aforementioned article, it wasn't until 1999 that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a hemp permit for an experimental plot in Hawaii on a quarter acre of land.

Now the passing of the farm bill is a big first step towards allowing American farmers to once again grow industrial hemp, and giving Hemp, Inc. enormous new economic opportunities.

"hemp hurd"???

great news, about time, etc.

http://www.vocativ.com/02-2014/grow-houses-holy-land/

lol i have some money in HEMP and it went up 4.20% today

lol

http://www.capitalgazette.com/blogs/under_the_dome/annapolis-police-chief-cites-hoax-story-in-opposition-to-marijuana/article_97c304e5-b485-5981-9197-9b5f9f5f97e7.html

*dies*

― sent from my butt (harbl), Tuesday, February 25, 2014 6:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bummer

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/02/no_rules_bar_ebt_cards_in_pot_shops_yet

"I'm prepared to defend cries of hypocrisy from now until whenever," Councilman Dave Ettl said.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Despite-banning-legal-pot-Yakima-seeks-tax-money-5280665.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/mommy-lobby-emerges-as-a-powerful-advocate-for-medical-marijuana-for-children/2014/03/02/296ad1e2-9a38-11e3-b88d-f36c07223d88_story.html

The biblical roots of Jews and marijuana
Doctor, mohel, and former IDF lieutenant Yosef Glassman finds surprising links between controversial plant and ancient Judaism.

http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/1.562450?v=A44710E3CABB5183B61385097AA3C713

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adrian-brito/momentum-builds-in-puerto_b_4914245.html

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/michelle-alexander-white-men-get-rich-legal-pot-black-men-stay-prison

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/02/americans-finally-understand-that-marijuana-is-less-harmful-than-alcohol/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/04/reefer-madness.jpg

cool. now let's wait 20+ years for the federal government to reclassify the drug.

but yea mordy that graph is something. i did not expect that, especially among 65+

65+ = boomers

I wonder how those results would compare to the question "Should marijuana be legal?"

Did I first see this here on this thread?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSxJs0WQhGk

man bill hicks is really annoying