Efforts To Legalize Marijuana For Recreational Use
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-10-16/efforts-legalize-marijuana-recreational-use
On November 6th, voters in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon will weigh in on whether marijuana should be legalized. 17 states currently allow marijuana for medical purposes, but initiatives in these three states make recreational use legal as well. The proposed laws directly contradict federal law which classifies marijuana as a controlled substance along with heroin and LSD. A recent Rasmussen poll suggests that more than 50% of Americans favor legalizing and regulating marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco. Please join us to discuss the debate debate over legalizing marijuana.
Guests
Allen St. Pierre
executive director, NORML.
Mark de Bernardo
executive director, Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace.
Jonathan Martin
reporter, The Seattle Times.
John Ingold
reporter, The Denver Post.
Comments
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dea and other law-enforcement types are overwhelmingly in favor of retaining laws which provide plenty of law-enforcement jobs. shocking! the taxpayers paying for it might have a different view!
I'm a Active Duty USN sailor and I have a few things to say about legalizing Marijuana. First, the health issue is a wash. The study done on Rhesus monkeys was a complete fail. Gassing monkeys with Marijuana smoke, or any smoke, without the introduction of oxygen would kill not just monkeys but any creature this was done to. Also, Marijuana, cigarettes or alcohol are substances for use by responsible adults. And how do we ensure that? We legalize and regulate it. Require ID's, put laws in place for use at the work place as well as while operating vehicles and machinery. And we keep it out of youths hands by forcing store owners and places of business to sell only to adults with photo ID. When you keep a substance illegal then you give all the power to the dealers with no regard to health and human safety. And they will continue to kill for money, drugs and power and sell to whomever they choose. Legalizing and regulating use, production and sells is the only logical way to control this. And lastly, people want this. Maybe not 100% of the populace but not a 100% smoke or consume alcoholic beverages either. The point is a large enough of our population use Marijuana and have for 1000's of years. People want it and don't want any Government that we elect, WE THE PEOPLE ELECTED, to stand in our way of allowing it to be. As a Sailor who feels a great connection to the country and I feel I must voice what I feel is the right thing to do.
I admire the way Mr de Bernardo hasn't allowed facts get in the way of his arguments.
The classification of MJ with narcotics is a legal fiction. Like calling a tomato a vegetable. (it's a fruit)
“The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people”
- Noam Chomsky
How much of this policy is driven by lobbyists that would utilize ALEC to submit model legislation to maintain or increase sentencing to funnel business to the profitized prison industry? Incarceration for profit is becoming a huge problem in many states, and most voters are not even aware of it.
I am a psychotherapist and medical herbalist. There are non-smoke forms of marijuana that do not activate the psychoactive properties of it but provide powerful anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxant, sleep aid, antidepressant, antianxiety properties that greatly assist chronic pain patients. In fact, marijuana has been wasted on the young when you consider the benefits to adults who suffer from chronic pain. The research also suggests anticancer properties. It is safer than opiates. Your guest who continues to claim that it has no medicinal properties is uninformed.
Mark sounds like an updated version of "Refer Madness" The stigma attached to this natural herb is perpetuated by those who are manipulating the facts. I am a veteran who has used marijuana for osteo arthritus, mild depression and a sleep disorder. Now that I do not live in Colorado the V.A. I am forced to use hydrocodone, wellbutrin and trazadone. No medicinal use? I tried the marinol and it was ineffective.
The notion that legalizing marijuana would cut enforcement/society costs is simply flawed. Police still have to enforce the law, even if more permissive, and now they have to carry scales with them to measure 1 oz or 2 (being sarcastic here...).
Also, does anyone take into account the cost of medical care for people who start to abuse it more because it's readily available, accidents generated by people high on pot and lost productivity?
If the tax revenue is the priority and if enforcement "doesn't work" should we legalize all the vices and see where society goes, if it's able to prosper or drive itself into a ditch?
If this recreational law passes, will the workforce drug testing disappear? If not, why would drug use increase in the workforce? To me this law doesn't sound like it would make the world a more dangerous place.
I live for the last 20 years in Holland, and find that legalizing marijuana has makes it more of a non issue. Most Dutch people don't even smoke it. It's usually the tourists.
I have been smoking Marijuana for 43 years. Only in the last 10 years, have I been using it medically ( self prescribing ), with excellent results. I have used for depression and Adult ADD with very good results. There are so many different strains that could be grown for specific medical conditions. If legalized, more research could be done and more medical conditions treated. Look at what they are doing in Colorado. Excellent program.
The guest from Normal is at one extreme one of the other guest is at the other bad bad bad drug.
The guy from Normal just said marijuana is not addictive. Can your guest please discuss the National Institute of Health's recent study on marijuana use. They have come out and said that their findings verify that marijuana is psychologically addictive and I do believe they also said found physical addiction as well.
Diane can you have the folks on who led that recent study
Is no one going to bring up that marijuana was made illegal only AFTER being used as propaganda and being associated with minorities threatening the "white race"? Or the fact that William Hearst was afraid of hemp taking over the paper industry and wanting to save his investments, so he used outlandish stories of rape to demonize how we looked at marijuana? I believe looking at how it first became illegal is a key point in this discussion.
For more information and reasoning from law enforcement who now oppose the prohibition of marijuana visit the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition website at http://www.leap.cc/
It makes a lot of sense that law enforcement organizations and the DEA would like to keep marijuana illegal. If marijuana were legalized it would be bad for the business of law enforcement. What would law enforcement do if they weren't citing or arresting drug users? How would that affect the prison industry? I believe that if marijuana was legalized either law enforcement would get back into the business of solving crimes or see their funding be cut. This isn't a conspiracy theory; it just makes sense that if law enforcement is spending a lot of time and resources on this "problem," they might find their funding reduced if there wasn't a "problem" anymore.
I'm a former Marijuana user and now a father of 4. If I forget the health and social risks, the loss of potential among our young people is still great. I read a recent study that Marijuana can reduce IQ permanently by 8 to 10 points. Our nation needs all the IQ it can get.
Using my follow the money line of thought there are three main benefactors of marijuana remaining illegal that come to mind. Organized Crime, and the Prison Industry and the Drug Companies. Wondering which group does your guest belong to?
Cannabis is not a "Gateway drug" the drug dealers are the pushers. If Cannabis was legal to grow, or legal to buy at the store, we would illiminate the drug dealers, and the gateway to hard illegal drugs.
The FDA especially today frequently let's politics trump its opinions on medical use. Look at it's decisions on Plan B. The fact is that marijuana has been shown to relieve symptoms of glaucoma and the effects of chemotherapy. It's sophistry to say that the "war on drugs" is successful. Look at how much has been spent as opposed to it's effect.
I was a federal prosecutor for 14 years, prosecuting mostly narcotics cases. I am now a criminal defense attorney, and the majority of my cases are drug violations. We are NOT winning the war on drugs. That is a false statement.
Mark. You're a hypocrite. Your comments does not correspond to the facts. Thousands of people getting a record that will make very difficult for them to succeed in life just because they smoke weed it is not funny.
The anti-legalization man is simply a propagandist and a liar. He should be constantly labeled a liar. He should be scorned wherever he speaks.
Hmm...If marijuana is so evil, then why is it that there has never been a fatal overdose with marijuana (American Scientist). Studies show that marijuana protects brain cells. Studies show that marijuana prevents some cancers (Tashkin 2006). Marijuana also does not have any physical withdrawal symptoms. Marijuana does not increase risky behaviors (statement made by the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs). Why are we wasting $9 billion in tax payer dollars every year on fighting this? I also pose the question as to why groups like the FDA and the "medical community" disagree with it because the government wants to support the war on drugs initiative and don't want to see a loss of pharmaceutical dollars.
If the potential for addiction is the sole reason for prohibition you haven't a leg to stand on. Alcohol Nicotine Caffeine... I could go on.
AMEN to impairment testing! If we test for pot, why don't we test for alcohol. That inhibits motor and brain function WAY more. So stupid....
I noticed that the comment regarding how the cigarette and alcohol industries are against legalization was completely sloughed off in the rebuttal.
The wise words of George Clinton on marijuana.... "There's more profit in pretending that we're stopping it than selling it"
This man, Mark, is an extenuation of the offensive audacity that our government takes in making a natural plant illegal. Please ask him to explain how we can justify alcohol remaining legal when it causes disease, death and violence. Alcohol is a man made substance that we advertise on television and this man has a lot of gall to say that a plant which grows naturally should remain illegal for ANY human being to consume. Furthermore, his references to the FDA are sickening. The FDA constantly approves foods and chemicals that are not healthy for human consumption. Many of which end up in the middle of class action lawsuits. To use the FDA as a defense for the continuing infringing on my human rights is not only ignorant, but shameful.
Why can't I be for a Drug Free Work Place and for Legalizing Cannabis?
HISTORY??? Alcohol prohibition worked oh so well. We looked like fools and it increased organized crime. If there's a demand, there will always be someone willing to supply. If it's illegal, then what types of people will be willing to take the risk to supply? Common sense and historical lesson....