URUGUAY TAKES OVER FREE MARKET FOR MARIJUANA …
In what we hope is not a precursor to marijuana decriminalization in America, the government of Uruguay has decided to legalize pot … and control every step of its production, sale and consumption.
“The value of the gram of marijuana sold at pharmacies in the regulated market will be set by the President’s office through the control agency,” a representative of Uruguayan president José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica told CNN.
Ah, “Pepe.”
According to the country’s new Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (that’s right – a pot bureaucracy), the government will dictate how many marijuana plants individuals can cultivate, how many grams of pot those plants are allowed to produce and how much pot customers are allowed to buy.
The government will also set the price for pot … and dictate who can and cannot smoke it (foreigners, for example, are still banned from consuming Uruguayan weed).
Unbelievable.
This isn’t decriminalization, people, this is government inserting itself into the free market in a very dangerous way. The price of an ounce of marijuana in Uruguay should not be up to some “pot bureaucrat” sitting in Montevideo, it should be up to individual buyers and sellers in the marketplace.
In America two states – Colorado and Washington – have legalized pot, although in both instances the government is attempting to tax the product out of the market.
Neither government control of the marijuana market (or excessive taxation of pot itself) is an acceptable solution to the decriminalization debate. In fact both approaches will likely result in the same underground black market for marijuana we see in place today.
160 comments
Legalize it and tax the bejesus out of it.
Isn’t that what the democrats said about slavery???
No, it’s what Republicans said about derivatives.
Dems and slavery.
Your USA government sold slaves. Your USA is still selling slaves, a brain you have not.
Thomas • 4 hours ago
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Hey Tom, I guess that just mean Tom Ervin is in favor of legalizing drugs???
“Legalize it. Don’t critcize it.”
– Peter Tosh
…and I will advertise it.
Tax it heavily why? Whats it ever done to you?
And anyway, SC has its own grow operation going so na na na na na.
Nikki loves us yes I know
This big fat joint just told me so
Oh, Pink Elephants, oooooooooh
Colonel
I been smoking dope every day for 20 years…and I ain t hooked…
Come to think of it, 20 years ago was the last time you had a job.
You meant Buz, right? Dressing up in girls clothes, blogging in mommy’s house 24/7 and picking up rocks in the front yard don’t count.
Kacee, where’s ya main squeeze TD these days? Hearing he’s been MIA in the drinkin’ and drivin’ olympics all up in th’ MI an’ th’ PI. Sidell told me.
The weed you smoke is clearly laced with PCP or some other real bad shit.
You should talk to your connection – he’s ripping you off!
Marijuana is not “dope”. By calling it that, you only make it that much easier for everyone to see your ignorance, along with the anger, and resentment ,you hold towards this natural plant and it’s users.
If anything, you can say that booze is the real “dope” because it makes people to the dumbest things, often become violent, and then blackout and not remember all the havoc caused by the booze, like true “dopes”
You lit yourself on fire for 20 years?
You really do need a shrink.
Some of you fuckers could benefit from a toke or five.
By skipping GT’s post I have reduced my comment reading time allocation by 30 percent.
Decriminalize and legalize are not interchangable terms.
So very true.
Don’t be fooled by “decriminalization” because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what Kevin Sabet wants.
Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also FORCE you to mandatory rehab, and if you don’t comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think they are so EAGER to “decriminalize”, instead of LEGALIZE?
Don’t Let’em Fool You!!!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
why is it ilegal to grow a plant. thats the question. any agumen that claims sciety will be furter imperiled by leagal weed is bullshit. legal prescription drugs are exponentially more dangerous and easierto get. just watch what happens when someone eats a xanax and drinks a few beers. and then drives somewhere. WAY MORE DANGEROUS and a serious threat to society . i dont care at all what they tax it or what its price control is.. if it becomes legal to buy and sell it should be legl to grow. if not, is is not even worth “LEGALIZING” it. and te political and economic history of industrial hemp (and its benefits to the US econmy, revatilizng an entire world revolution in industrial hemp) is really about prtecting the interests of petro-chemical tehnologies which hemp is far more efficint and produces vastly less pollutuion in equivalent technologies/processes/products.
Wonder if Oxycontin is an epidemic in Uruguay like it is here? Probably not. Oxycontin is a $4 billion in the United States, you really think the lobbyists are going to let marijuana infringe on that cash cow? Yeah right.
Opiates are generallly underprescribed despite the pharmacy mills and junkie malingers who over-inflate the numbers.
Underprescribed and it’s still a $4 billion a year industry? That’s shocking.
Overprescribed to Mr. and Mrs. Disabilty who game the system with an enabling pharmacy-mill doctor. Underprescribed (opiates in general, not necessarily oxycontin) to you, me, and Joe Blow, because the DEA has doctors terrified about giving out too many narcotics.
generally is a hell of a word, isn’t it?
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Consider that 1 in 13 children or 7.5% of all US children are prescribed one or more types of psychiatric drugs. Consider Medicaid boasts 9.9 percent of children taking drugs for behavioral problems, as opposed to 6.7 percent of children covered under private insurance.
In 2010, James P. Morris, Ph.D. and George Stone, LCSW showed empiracally 8 million US children take one or more psychotropic drugs. And then there is Communist Core education sub-standards in place now, even in Irmo schools. Do you really think the future of America will even be half as educated as you were? Do you think the future of America will embrace marijuana decriminalization having been on psychotropic prescriptions since the age of two?
A more free one? One in which a person has exclusive jurisdiction over his own mind and body — so long as he directly harms nobody else.
Why does it bother you if Joe Blow smokes weed in his home?
“That old-time religion” probably.
Alcohol isn’t a saint of a substance either but that’s perfectly legal. Prohibition of that was a miserable failure, too.
weed isn’t the answer – LSD is… but we’re getting there.
No, instead we should just lock up for life, anyone who dares to do anything that disturbs your personal sense of morality. Regardless of the facts that these people aren’t harming anybody, and there aren’t any victims to these “crimes”
Sound better and more like your kinda utopia?
Did you think I was being sarcastic?
With the mix of prohibitionists on this comment board, I could only hope you were euwe max.
Hopefully , you were just being sarcastic.
Because to imply that legalizing marijuana would lead to legalizing all hard-core illegal drugs is more often times than not, a marijuana prohibitionist scare tactic.
Beyond that, it’s a pretty far-fetched stretch in concept.
LSD should be legal and prescribed…. and more psychoactive drugs like it should be developed and refined as we find things that are even more useful.
Opiates are legal and prescribed.. and if we can find a non-addictive replacement, we should.
We have come a long way since civilization began… clubs turned into guns… mobs turned into courts… horses turned into cars… we are maturing and still changing from savages into men.
None of these things are even remotely related to marijuana. Legalizing marijuana is simply another of many indicators of our maturity and our collective sanity.
That’s all fine and dandy, but…
Just let’s not try to confuse and scare off the public about legalizing marijuana, by implying it will lead to the legalization of other drugs which scare the public at large already.
The topic at hand is legalizing marijuana. Which has absolutely nothing to do with legalizing LSD, cocaine, or any other illicit illegal drug.
Just let’s not try to confuse and scare off the public about legalizing marijuana, by implying it will lead to the legalization of other drugs which scare the public at large already.
——
I’ve always thought that lying about something to make it more palatable to “the public” in order not “to send the wrong message” is more harmful than simply analyzing the subject with clarity and honesty. Authority is completely without honor today because everyone knows the “truth” takes a back seat to “expediency.”
There is no doubt that legalization of marijuana is overdue, and the protections surrounding it are nothing more than a mild case of hysteria prompted by a collective schizophrenic paranoia which was whipped up by politicians and opinion whores to stir up fear for “us vs them” profits.
Authority has been lying to us for years about many things – the danger of pen knives on airplanes, shoe bombs, toothpaste… fear doesn’t go away easily, and it’s more addictive than drugs. It’s irresponsible, but it sells clappers…. and x-ray machines.
prostitution, drugs, gambling.. all need sane people to decide how to regulate them, but in the presence of fear mongers on the take, and their superstitious and hysterical followers – the truth may take generations to percolate into the public conversation of man.
I refuse to participate in the absurd out of fear of the stampede.
That is a well written and thought out response.
Fair enough,
The only thing I’d like to add is that Marijuana Legalization Advocates ARE NOT “lying about ” marijuana “to make it more palatable to “the public”
The science is on our side.
Anybody with internet access and capable of doing their own Google search can see that the large majority of information on marijuana out there that is written by scholars, doctors, and professionals back up the Marijuana Legalization Movement.
Marijuana is not the big, bad, evil drug that marijuana prohibitionists are so adamant on lying to the public about in order to grossly overstate their perceived “dangers” of marijuana use.
The only thing I’d like to add is that Marijuana Legalization Advocates ARE NOT “lying about ” marijuana “to make it more palatable to “the public”
The science is on our side.
——–
Authority has been lying – since when have marijuana advocates been considered an “authority?”
September 8, 1988
A Drug Enforcement Administration administrative law judge, Judge Francis L. Young called marijuana “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man,” recommended that the drug be made legally available for some medical purposes, including treatment of cancer patients.
Coming after a 16- year legal battle, the 69-page ruling marks the first time a government official has accepted a medical role for the country’s widely used illicit drug.
“The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision,” Young wrote. “It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”
euwe max,
Okay, I’ve obviously misread you initially. You apparently are not against marijuana legalization at all. My apologies.
Although I might not agree with everything you stated. For the most part I do, and I respect your opinions.
You have many interesting thoughts and ideas.
Thanks for sharing them with me.
Legalize marijuana and the criminal element can then focus on other drugs.
…and as we find what the needs of our civilization are, we will – and should – provide a safer, and more healthy alternative to criminal supply.
There is no reason that marijuana use should be criminalized while the much more dangerous and deadly use of alcohol is widely accepted, endlessly advertised, promoted, and glorified as an All American pastime.
Let the police have more time and resources to protect us from those really dangerous, hard-core drugs that the criminal element needs to be punished for trying to sell and push on us.
If you really want to protect families from a drug proven to destroy lives and families, then you should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze.
Alcohol is the number one cause for traffic fatalities and domestic violence by a huge landslide.
Why doesn’t that concern you even more?
Regarding “The Children”,
Let’s not use “The Children” as an excuse to prohibit and criminalize adult use of a substance far less dangerous than perfectly legal alcohol because nobody condones child use, and this is about allowing adults only to choose marijuana.
It’s our responsibility as parents by to educate our children on drug use. It’s not the government’s job to force Draconian Marijuana Laws upon every adult citizen under the guise of protecting “The Children”.
What message are we sending our children when it is easier for them to obtain marijuana now with it being illegal than it is for them to buy alcohol?
It doesn’t take the intellect of a genius to understand that stores card kids for I.D. Thugs and gang members do not. They also push the real hard drugs on children. Stores do not.
Marijuana legalization will make it harder for children to obtain it.
What message does it send our children when the President of The United States himself alongside a long list of successful people openly admit regular pot use at one time or another in their lives?
While we tell our kids how it will ruin their futures, and then insure so, by allowing our government to to jail our children and give them permanent criminal records when they get caught with a little Marijuana. Especially, if they are the wrong skin color or from the “wrong neighborhood”. Which in turn, ruins their chances of employment for life.
The Prohibition of Marijuana is the wrong message to send our children while we glorify, advertise and promote the much more dangerous use of alcohol like it’s an all American pastime.
The worst thing about marijuana and our children is what happens to them when they get caught up in the criminal justice system due to it’s prohibition.
Protect “The Children” and Our Neighborhoods Through The Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana Nationwide!
The last thing a child in poverty needs is to be jailed for carrying a goddamn blunt and have a mark on their record that will make it harder for them to get a job over something really absurd.
The worst thing about my children and marijuana is what would happen to them if they were caught with a little under it’s prohibition. I’d much rather know my kid is at home using marijuana regularly than driving around bar hopping and drinking alcohol on a regular basis..
Parents who are F*#ked up, like you, are the problem…Why don’t you sell your daughters for prostitutes while you’re at it…You’d hate for them to get caught..is your logic…
But MY KIDS have to go to school with, or eventually work with the F*#king Brain-dead Dope Heads Irresponsible Skanks like you are Polluting society with…
You’re the “Cool” Mom who gets caught Boffing your son’s friends…and the poor kid has to wear the brand all his life of what a Stank you are…
You should be ashamed of what you are, and what you want to do to your children. I’ve been around long of enough to ID your type. Your @$$ ought to be locked up, before you lead your child into a lost existence, fought w/ addiction and shame, because of you…
@ Grand Tango,
Calm down there buddy. You despise marijuana and truly believe all marijuana use equates to marijuana abuse, and it is your God given duty to worry and get all bent out of shape about “saving us all” from your self-perceived “evils” of marijuana use.
We get it., but please don’t cuase yourself a stroke or heart attack over it.
Breathe. Relax. Become relaxed, happy, and content with yourself and your own life instead of worrying about what everyone else may or may not do with pot.
We can’t lock up and criminalize everyone who does things you don’t personally approve of, can we?
If you really want to protect families from a drug proven to destroy lives and families, then you should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze.
Alcohol is the number one cause for traffic fatalities and domestic violence by a huge landslide.
Why doesn’t that concern you even more?
Regarding “The Children”,
Let’s not use “The Children” as an excuse to prohibit and criminalize adult use of a substance far less dangerous than perfectly legal alcohol because nobody condones child use, and this is about allowing adults only to choose marijuana.
It’s our responsibility as parents by to educate our children on drug use. It’s not the government’s job to force Draconian Marijuana Laws upon every adult citizen under the guise of protecting “The Children”.
What message are we sending our children when it is easier for them to obtain marijuana now with it being illegal than it is for them to buy alcohol?
It doesn’t take the intellect of a genius to understand that stores card kids for I.D. Thugs and gang members do not. They also push the real hard drugs on children. Stores do not.
Marijuana legalization will make it harder for children to obtain it.
What message does it send our children when the President of The United States himself alongside a long list of successful people openly admit regular pot use at one time or another in their lives?
While we tell our kids how it will ruin their futures, and then insure so, by allowing our government to to jail our children and give them permanent criminal records when they get caught with a little Marijuana. Especially, if they are the wrong skin color or from the “wrong neighborhood”. Which in turn, ruins their chances of employment for life.
The Prohibition of Marijuana is the wrong message to send our children while we glorify, advertise and promote the much more dangerous use of alcohol like it’s an all American pastime.
The worst thing about marijuana and our children is what happens to them when they get caught up in the criminal justice system due to it’s prohibition.
Protect “The Children” and Our Neighborhoods Through The Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana Nationwide!
Speaking about Morals and Sins, Prohibitionists often ask: “How do you know Marijuana is a Gift From God?”
This is how we know:
Genesis 1:29 – And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis 9:3 – Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Genesis 1:11 – And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Genesis 1:30 – And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Proverbs 15:17 – Better [is] a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
In the Prohibitionist’s World, anybody who consumes the slightest amount of marijuana responsibly in the privacy of their own homes are stoners and dopers that need to be incarcerated to protect society.
In their world, any marijuana use equates to abuse, and it is their God given duty to worry about saving us all from the evils of marijuana use.
Who are they to tell us we can’t choose the safer choice marijuana instead of a glass of wine for relaxation after a long, hard day, in the privacy of our own homes?
Don’t try to impose your morality and “clean living” upon all of us with Draconian Marijuana Laws, and we won’t think your such prohibitionist hypocrites.
Lol…Tango’s the all day troll if you haven’t noticed. I would be impressed if he didn’t stroke out by 2016.
No, I just get sick of irresponsible Dope-Head idiots, who think getting F*#ked out of your miserable gourds, is all there is to life…
Life is best when lucid and coherent. And I hate having to deal w/ the problems of Dumb@$$#$, who have all the answers, as long as they can stay stoned…
Face it: You’re a F*#k up. Obama will not tell you that, because he needs to used fools to enhance his Greedy endeavors and steal more power…
Sober up…prosperity will NEVER be gained by selling dope to the weak and stupid…You’ll cost us much more than the pittance of tax…you’re peddling…
Thomas • 4 hours ago
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Tango do you think FITS wrote this cause Tom Ervin MAY support legalizing drugs?
Why ain’t we seen an article from FITS about what Ervin said at that speaking engagement yesterday? Is it true he said that…???.
Oh my! Campaign over!
GrandTango – Wow. Holy crap. Lay off the crack pipe man. Somebody forget to take their meds this mourning. Get this man his straight jacket pronto!
What you know bout a crack pipe? Smile and let me see if you have ALL your teeth and are the Brody gal that used to walk up and down Kings Hwy in Myrtle Beach with a 40 of King Cobra trying to sell your EBT Card for .50 on the dollar?
Dude, What were YOU doing hanging out in front of Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach? Trying to score some crack-head luvin from some hoe, just like all the other dirty, homeless, alcoholic, loud mouthed bums down there, right? You should have stuck with marijuana instead of alcohol, then you wouldn’t be a homeless dirt bag loitering out on Kings highway, trying to score some crack head love. Pathetic dude!
Typical leftwinger….
You proudly announce WHO and WHAT you are…then I reiterate what your words entail, based on what I’ve seen and reasonable experience….
In turn: you backtrack and attack me for taking what you told me about yourself, and running with it…
If you cannot stand with it…don’t jump on here using the same old Idiot clichés.
Don’t be a coward from your OWN words, when I repeat them….
Yes, let’s hope your child is at home using marijuana regularly.
Yes, that’s better than them out with their motor vehicle, boozing it up. Much better.
Edit: Whach you talkin’ bout LittleWillis?
You wouldn’t want your child boozing it up in a motor vehicle? My point is that I would hope you would wish your child would do neither.
I’m talkin’ bout if they’re going to be doing any drugs at all whatsoever, it’s less worrisome knowing they are at home, in front of the tv or listening to music, enjoying some marijuana. Instead of them out and about, overly confident and aggressive, drunk on booze.
I’d be much more worried of the likelihood of them causing havoc and being out of control, violent and aggressive on booze, than at home, peaceful, eating, and then going to sleep due to marijuana use.
See what I’m talkin’ bout Mr. Drummond? lol
Dynomite!
Yes indeed.That tells us Tom Ervin supports legalizing drugs?
Just what America needs…MORE gov’t subsidized vice….and ignorance…
Liberals ain’t just stupid, they are F*#king Crazy…and they got Son of a B!*#ch#$ just as F*#k#d up in the head as them, in the White House, and leading the US Senate (until Nov., anyway)…..
The democrat party is in meltdown, and they still are not getting it..or they don’t care what they do to America…
Yeah, Tango, that’ll show ’em!
That was quite a plan he laid out – I didn’t think he had it in him!
I’m burning one just for you tonight Grand Mango.
Then why are you $#!**ing in your pants for the government to condone you getting F*#ked out of your simple mind???….
You got what you want so STFU…
I don’t see this as a whole lot different than my town ordinances that say I can’t have more than 2 dogs, or that I can’t have chickens or pigs, or the myriad of other stuff that I’m not allowed to do on my own land.
The gubmint has been restricting what people do on their land for a long time, and not just in some far off country. Why is this so different?
Just because the government has abused its power in the past should not be a justification for continuing to do so in the future.
Town ordinances, in theory, should at least be aimed at conduct that might cause problems for other neighbors (dogs barking, too many cars in the yard causing an eyesore, etc.). Whether it’s right or not is another issue, but at least they are designed to protect people off your property.
In any event, legalizing and tightly regulating, while not ideal, is much better than the status quo.
I don’t care one way or the other; I won’t smoke it regardless.
Its kind of like how in the late 90’s/early 2000’s how “involved” musicians were with the cure for AIDS. There are literally shit tons of stuff that kill more people than AIDs..why not care about heart disease or cancer? To me its just odd for so many to get so upset over this one issue..when so many more are much more important.
I think it’s because marijuana being illegal is one of the most visible forms of an arbitrary and unjust law. If you are for personal freedom, you are for legalization. If you are for social engineering and enforced morals, you are in favor of keeping it illegal. Either that, or you are just ignorant.
“most visible”..and most irrelevant. The NSA is reading and cataloging everything everyone in America (and other countries, too) says and types through their computer and cell phone, and probably land lines as well–nobody gives a shit. We’re 17 trillion+ in debt and flailing towards insolvency, hyperinflation, and currency meltdown. Our economy has been in the shitter for 7 years, and the only thing that is occurring are across the board wage reductions and jobs being farmed to India as fast as they can be filled.
But..you can’t smoke weed? HOLY SHIT YOU’RE AN IDIOT IF YOU DON’T THINK WEED SHOULD BE LEGAL! ITS IMPORTANT!
On the radar of things that really matter to America as a country, its barely visible.
It’s not irrelevant at all. I, and quite a number of others, also give a shit about the NSA’s illegal surveillance and data trawling.
If you care about freedom, it’s VERY important. Why dismiss the low-hanging fruit just because there are other issues to address, too?
Obviously, it’s important to you. But at least in my day to day life (and I’d wager most folks whose lives don’t revolve around getting stoned) and the things that matter to keep me and my family in food and shelter, whether or not I can legally buy a dime bag isn’t something that I can even place a low enough ranking in the “giving a shit” column.
I’m long out of high school, and I’ve never seen a pot leaf on country’s flag that symbolized “freedom”.
Let’s see you grow tobacco, or hops.
Don’t be fooled by “decriminalization” because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what Kevin Sabet wants.
Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also FORCE you to mandatory rehab, and if you don’t comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think they are so EAGER to “decriminalize”, instead of LEGALIZE?
Don’t Let’em Fool You!!!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
The “War on Marijuana” has been a complete and utter failure. It is the largest component of the broader yet equally unsuccessful “War on Drugs” that has cost our country over a trillion dollars.
Instead of The United States wasting Billions upon Billions more of our tax dollars fighting a never ending “War on Marijuana”, lets generate Billions of dollars, and improve the deficit instead. It’s a no brainer.
The Prohibition of Marijuana has also ruined the lives of many of our loved ones. In numbers greater than any other nation, our loved ones are being sent to jail and are being given permanent criminal records which ruin their chances of employment for the rest of their lives, and for what reason?
Marijuana is way safer, and healthier to consume than alcohol. Yet do we lock people up for choosing to drink?
Even The President of the United States has used marijuana. Has it hurt his chances at succeeding in life? If he had gotten caught by the police during his college years, he may have very well still been in prison today! Beyond that, he would then be fortunate to even be able to find a minimum wage job that would consider hiring him with a permanent criminal record.Let’s end this hypocrisy now!
The government should never attempt to legislate morality by creating victim-less “crimes” because it simply does not work and costs the taxpayers a fortune.
Marijuana Legalization Nationwide is an inevitable reality that’s approaching much sooner than prohibitionists think and there is nothing they can do to stop it!
Legalize Nationwide! Support Each and Every Marijuana Legalization Initiative!
Have all these “legalize now” posts saved in your cut and paste cache do you?
@ The Colonel
I’ve read that three times, and still don’t fully understand what your question is.
So, I’ll elaborate on my posting process a little bit and see if that helps clear things up for you,..
I’ve been defending marijuana against propaganda online for years.
On a daily basis, I encounter dozens of marijuana prohibitionists, and they always use exactly the same, illogical, fear-based type of comments to explain why they are so adamantly against legalizing marijuana.
So,instead of hand-typing the same responses out dozens of times over on a daily basis to the same ignorant, scientifically and socially debunked prohibitionist anti-marijuana propagandist rhetoric, which would be a rather ineffective way to remain effective and manage time, I just carefully write out my own unique comments to the most common prohibitionist arguments and copy and paste them in response to dozens of prohibitionists using the same tired old rhetoric each day.
Makes sense?
By copying and pasting my own carefully, well thought out responses to the same prohibitionist arguments each day, I feel it in no way invalidates my rebuttals.
Is that okay with you?
Thanks for confirming my supposition.
@ The Colonel,
You’re very welcome.
I put much effort and hard work into creating my rebuttals, being active in supporting Marijuana Legalization Online, and defending marijuana against Marijuana Propaganda Online.
Therefore, I am very proud to be the author of each of my comments and I’m also proud of my time saving techniques.
They have been very effective this past year….
Marijuana Legalization Nationwide is an inevitable reality that’s approaching MUCH SOONER than prohibitionists think, and there is NOTHING they can do to stop it!
Legalize Nationwide! Support Each and Every Marijuana Legalization Imitative!
Your loved ones didn’t choose selling marijuana as their occupation, they chose crime. Legalize it and they will find another crime to profit from.
@ Bible Thumper,
You’re missing the point again. You have a habit of doing that, don’t you?
Nowhere did I mention my loved ones selling marijuana, did I?
We are discussing how unjust and inhumane it is to continue to endlessly criminalize otherwise hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens over possession and consumption of this natural, relatively benign, often healing plant which is much safer for both the individual and society than perfectly legal and widely accepted, advertised, promoted, and glorified alcohol consumption, which is treated like an All American pastime.
Let’s end this hypocrisy now!
If you really want to protect families from a drug proven to destroy lives and families, then you should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze. Alcohol is the number one cause for traffic fatalities and domestic violence by a huge landslide.
Why doesn’t that concern you even more?
Ticket simple possession of personal amounts.
Why ticket people for possession of a natural plant far safer than perfectly legal alcohol which kills millions of people a year?
Thomas • 4 hours ago
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Guess this means Tom Ervin is in favor of legalizing drugs while destroying another generation of our children and grandchildren?
FITS is supporting Ervin, correct?
Maybe because it ISN’T safer? And has an entire suite of issues both medical and practical that have yet to be addressed? The logic of legalizing pot applies equally to other drugs like cocaine and heroin.
What a joke! Marijuana IS safer than alcohol. Even the president himself got on public TV and said so! How many overdose deaths from cocaine and herion each year? No one has EVER died from an overdose of marijuana, ever! Don’t even try to put marijuana in the same league as cocaine and heroin. It makes you sound like a fool! Change your name bro, from truthmonger to FEARmonger, cause that’s exactly what you are. Full of it!
Wow. Didn’t know the president was a medical researcher. Didn’t he also say I could keep my health insurance if I liked it?
Legal weed needs to be cheap enough to make drug dealers almost entirely obsolete to acquire the damn stuff. You’ll reduce the need to imprison tons of people for minor possession, you’ll kick cartels and drug dealers right in the profits, and you’ll likely reduce crime.
The regulations seem to be annoying but at the very least it is a step in the right direction. Do you want to wait another decade or two to get a slightly more relaxed version?
Any form of Marijuana Legalization is much better than continuing the devastating failure of marijuana prohibition that criminalizes otherwise hard-working, tax-paying citizens for choosing to partake in a substance far less dangerous than alcohol is.
Also, besides marijuana prohibition being insanely unjust and inhumane, marijuana prohibition also costs the taxpayers a fortune, and hasn’t diminished supply nor demand for marijuana one single iota since it’s conception!
Drug dealers are never obsolete. If a marijuana is legalized they will just move on to another illegal drug. They not going to suddenly seek honest employment.
@ Bible Thumper,
You’re missing the point. Thbe point is that the cartels won’t just “move on” to another illegal drug to sell, because the cartles obviously already do sell those other illegal drugs, don’t they?
The point is eliminating the tons of people being criminalized for possession of marijuana. Which also alllows our police the time and resources to investigate real, serious crimes, committed by dangerous and violent criminals who actually pose a real threat to society and commit crimes with actual victims, rahter than endlessly wasting our tax dollars and their manpower chasing around and criminalizing citizens over marijuana possession.
Also, it’s about freeing up our courts, jails and prisons to make room for real dangerous criminals instead of cramming them with people convicted of marijuana possession.
Get the point?
Ticket simple possession of small amounts. But criminals who support themselves by selling marijuana will double on harder drugs to replace the income of marijuana if legalized.
Nobody was discussing people who support themselves by selling marijuana illegally.
Why ticket people for choosing a substance far less dangerous than alcohol?
Because Jesus said smoking marijuana fills a man’s soul with demons and causes them to approach oxen unnaturally.
This debate appears to have brought out the filthy drug addicts and OWS types that are supporting Democrat Tom Ervin.
Sleep well Nikki. May 7th, 2013 was the date Mark Sanford crushed socialist , abortion loving and legalizing drugs candidate , Elizabeth Colbert- Busch.
The Ervin supporters that came out tonight for legalizing drugs and destroying families just ended his campaign, in my opinion.
Way to add depth to the conversation, “Monica”
My apologies.Just heard NBA OWNER, MICHAEL Sterling JORDAN, HATES ALL WHITE PEOPLE.In a book just published.
I need a joint. :-)
how about a nice conversation about how your belief in Jesus made you a Republican, instead?
Lol at “destroying families.” Currently, the only think about marijuana that will destroy a family is when the breadmaker is arrested and sent to jail for nothing.
Ticket simple possession of small amounts.
——-
old ideas die hard… ticket people for jay walking – eliminate the middle man.
Did you know that the problem in Colorado today is the cartels taking over the legal pot dispensaries? Or the fact that they are actually seeing pot ODs in the ERs now? Tell ALL of the truth….
Bullcrap! Nobody has EVER died from a marijuana overdose, EVER. Not even humanly possible bro!
Show us some EVIDENCE of just one, single marijuana overdose death. Bullcrap!
Otherwise, go peddle your hatred of marijuana and propoganda upon some group of naive, gullible sheep, because everyone here is too smart to fall for your blatant lies!
Mark,
Thank you for your comments tonight. Are you the spokesman for Democrat Tom Ervin in his bid for socialist gov of SC? Where do I sign up?
Thanks bro.
Regards,
dude
And all of the pseudoscience you use to show MJ as completely harmless. Quite a few studies out there by legit scientists that clearly demonstrate links between use and mental problems.
Wanna make it legal? Ok, but same insurance hits as tobacco and alcohol. Also, be willing to pay for the added expense of blood draws instead of datamasters.
What is a pot OD?
Yeah, really! Please do enlighten us all! Explain in full detail. Inquiring minds want to know.
It’s when someone gets too high and thinks “OMG I’m having a heart attack.” He then shows up at the ER, and the doc proceeds to laugh at him behind his back when he learns that he was smoking marijuana. He’s then given a placebo and sent home.
It’s when someone gets too high and thinks “OMG I’m having a heart attack.”
——
oh.. as opposed to showing up dead at the ER after an OD of alcohol.
Same as any other depressant. Stems mostly from MJ eaten, like in brownies. Since it takes longer to have an initial effect than smoked MJ, people will eat too much, and the body starts to shut down. Kinda like alcohol poisoning, only a LOT easier to have happen. ERs in Colorado are seeing quite a few of them.
Kinda like alcohol poisoning
———-
would you mind documenting the medical evidence of “like alcohol poisoning?”
thanks in advance.
Good article on either wltx or wistv website today, in fact. Feel free to read.
if this is your idea of “good articles” you need to review the meaning of “documented evidence.”
If a person has just finished a soda, and has a heart attack – you can’t claim he was killed by the soda, because all they found in his system was caffeine… but if you have a story that claims a direct correlation of cause and effect – please post the link. All I was able to find was people admitted to emergency rooms… nothing at all linking ingestion of concentrated marijuana to any specific symptom… you implied there was a definite link that was as strong as the link between alcohol and alcohol poisoning.
I apologize if I wasn’t able to find the article you read, that makes that direct link, and describes the mechanism by which the level of some chemical present in marijuana caused a medically dangerous symptom… not just an editorial opinion, or undocumented, unidentified third party.
Weed is typically an easy sell for drug dealers and worth big money. It is also a huge cash cow for cartels. Yes, there are other drugs to sell, but none quite so popular with such a wide market. If dealers lose that, what’s left? Crackheads and heroin junkies?
Won’t get rid of them, but it’ll hurt like hell.
Drug dealers are never obsolete.
—–
I’d rather combat marijuana at the edge of the overall wearing “moonshiner” envelope, than with Reagan’s machine-gun helicopters in Columbia and Peru… until today we’re fighting them in Mexico and finally California… that worked out well.
Bible Thumper – Try reading Genesis 1:29
After man’s fall, read Genesis 3:17.
Isn’t this what Howe and Richter were fighting over? A car trunk full of it?
Legalized DOPE, what could possibly go wrong? I say legalize it, regulate it and tax it at a greater rate than tobacco, let the chips fall were they may.
Marijuana is not “dope”. By calling it that, you only make it that much easier for everyone to see your ignorance, along with the anger, and resentment ,you hold towards this natural plant and it’s users.
If anything, you can say that booze is the real “dope” because it makes people to the dumbest things, often become violent, and then blackout and not remember all the havoc caused by the booze, like true “dopes”
I’ve been clean and sober for almost thirty years, I’ve had first hand experience with booze and dope. Medical marijuana is one thing, dope to get high is another. I hope your natural plant is legalized so you can get high legally just like a drunk. I also hope the taxes are so high you cry about it. I have found that I don’t need mind altering dope be it booze or Mary Jane, why do you?
BTW your ignorance comment displays a whole lot of ignorance.
@ idcydm,
I’m very proud of you and happy that you have remained sober for thirty years. Seriously, I am. That’s a great personal choice and achievement , and more power to you!
Again now, you refer to recreational marijuana as “dope” and that is really ignorant and offensive to marijuana users who know better.
Although when you say you hope our natural plant is legalized, I somehow doubt your sincerity, there really is no reason why alcohol, which has been proven to cause many more deaths and much more damage than marijuana ever could, is not only perfectly legal to consume, but also endlessly glorified, advertised, and promoted as an All American pastime, while our society continues to demonize and outlaw marijuana use, which has never lead to an overdose fatality ever in the history of mankind.
Of course you hope they tax it real high, that way self-righteous and reformed, holier-than-thou prohibitionists like yourself can declare legalization a failure because if the price remains too high under legalization due to extreme taxing, obviously that won’t eliminate the black market demand. That’s when we can expect prohibitionists to immediately and prematurely cry that legalization won’t work.
It was very unfortunate that you couldn’t handle your booze and drugs back in the day. It wasn’t marijuana’s fault though, and everybody is different.
That certainly doesn’t automatically imply that every other adult can not use marijuana responsibly, and should be forced by law to either abstain from marijuana use or be endlessly criminalized for choosing marijuana use.
If you don’t like marijuana, then by all means, avoid using it. Plain and simple. Problem solved.
Just don’t try to enforce Draconian Marijuana Laws which criminalize otherwise hard-working, tax-paying citizens for choosing to consume a natural, relatively benign, often healing plant which is far safer than perfectly legal and widely accepted alcohol.
What we certainly don’t need is anymore people who feel justified appointing themselves to be self-deputized morality police.
We can’t lock up everyone who does things you don’t personally approve of.
If you really want to protect families from a drug proven to destroy lives and families, then you should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze. Alcohol is the number one cause for traffic fatalities and domestic violence by a huge landslide.
Why doesn’t that concern you even more?
Legalize it, regulate it and tax it, what more can I say.
As far as whether you think I am sincere, I Don’t Care You Don’t Matter.
BTW I didn’t read past you sincerity comment.
In response to idcym,
For someone who supports legalization and doesn’t care what I think, you sure seem very upset and certainly have a lot to say now, don’t you? lol
Marijuana prohibitionists are going out the way of the dinosaur. They are the ever-shrinking minority viewpoint in America that truly do not matter.
BTW Yes, it’s quite obvious you did.
Ignorance must be bliss, huh?
.
You’re not even close to the obvious.
I see you have many minion followers.
It is fun to push your buttons, take another toke or two and have a good night.
idcydm,
Lmao @ “push my buttons”
You couldn’t upset me no matter what you say.
Believe me, I’ve heard it all many times before.
I find your rhetoric amusing at best.
Have another shot or two, and a few more beers, puke your guts out, black out, and then you’ll forget our conversation by the time you wake up in the late afternoon with a lovely hangover, missing work again, with a mysteriously smashed and broken computer, and a wet, smelly, pee stained floor
Have fun.
LAMO, it’s working you keep responding, kinda like eatin Doritos.
What does “LAMO” stand for, anyways? Did you mean “LMAO” which is what I’m doing right now?
Time for a beer run now, isn’t it? Run to that liquor store, run! lol
You don’t know, let me explain, jump one trick pony, jump.
Name calling and stereotyping. It’s all that prohibitionists have left to offer society since virtually every piece of marijuana propaganda out there has been thoroughly debunked, and completely dismissed by a smarter than prohibitionists thought public.
Nobody can provide a real reason to continue the “War on Marijuana” because there isn’t one.
You know, a little live and let live goes a real long way in insuring a long, stress and anger free life. If you don’t like marijuana, then by all means don’t use it. Allow others to make their own choices about marijuana.
The government has no business attempting to legislate morality by creating victim-less “crimes” because it simply doesn’t work and has already cost the taxpayers over a trillion dollars.
Jump, Jump.
Chris cross will make ya….
Idiotic prohibitionists will make ya….
Uh huh, uh huh ….
IDCYDM
Great! You know how to spell your tag name, Impressive.
Next week, we’ll learn how to go potty in the toilet.
We’ll, not a chance but I knew you were to young to know how to go to the toilet by yourself.
Brian Kelly B Bizzle…Google…About 68,200 results(0.49 seconds)
Got hand it to you man, hope you’re making some money off it.
Thanks man.
I do this all Non-profit like. Just a man, standing up for a cause he truly believes in.
Defending marijuana, and Marijuana Legalization Nationwide from what sometimes seems like an endless avalanche of Marijuana Propaganda Online.
See, and they say those who like marijuana are supposedly lazy?
What non-sense!
Helping to dispel all marijuana myths and stereotypes online.
At your service, for free.
Brian Kelly B Bizzle
guns in bars? What could go wrong? But pot in bars? OMG! Everyone will dieeeee!
What do bars and guns have to do with it?
people have hysteria concerning allowing people to carry guns into bars… and gun owners wonder why… a parallel to hysteria concerning allowing people to smoke dope in bars.
I don’t go to bars so I don’t care, guns, dope have at it, but just like a drunk they better have good insurance,
I and I really do think it should be legalized, regulated and taxed.
I don’t have an addictive personality… I can enjoy myself in a bar.. but I really don’t like bars much… the only re3ason to go to a bar is so you don’t have to clean up after having company over… I enjoy a few beers with friends, but I don’t really like the buzz of beer much… if I want to get drunk I go for el Patron, or Gentleman Jack… getting drunk isn’t that much fun for me, so I don’t get drunk very often…. usually it starts as a bad idea.. a lark.. luckily I don’t get hangovers… so there’s that. Alcohol is a crude, messy, confusing, really lousy way to get high, in my opinion.
Like I said earlier, it’s been almost 30 years for me but if I hadn’t spelled so much it might be 40.
I don’t have a problem with people drinking, if it starts to bother me I always leave. As far as dope, it’s up them but you won’t find me being there when it’s going on, it’s still illegal most places.
trading one insanity for another? alcoholism for fits? :)
lol
No, I’m still an alcoholic but if anyone would know about fitsism that would be you. ;)
touche!
In the prohibitionist’s world, anybody who consumes the slightest amount of marijuana responsibly in the privacy of their own homes are “stoners” and “dopers” that need to be incarcerated in order to to protect society.
In their world, any marijuana use equates to marijuana abuse, and it is their God given duty to worry about “saving us all” from the evils of marijuana use.
Who are they to tell us we can’t choose marijuana, the safer choice instead alcohol for relaxation, after a long, hard day, in the privacy of our own homes?
People who use marijuana are smart, honest, hard working, educated, and successful people too, who “follow the law” also.(except for their marijuana consumption under it’s current prohibition of course) .
Not the stereotypical live at home losers prohibitionists make us out to be. We are doctors, lawyers, professors, movie stars, and politicians too.
Several Presidents of The United States themselves, along with Justin Trudeau, Bill Gates, and Carl Sagan have all confessed to their marijuana use. As have a long and extensive list of successful people throughout history at one point or other in their lives.
Although, that doesn’t mean a damned thing to people who will make comments like “dopers” and “stoners” about anybody who uses the slightest amount of Marijuana although it is way safer than alcohol.
To these people any use equals abuse, and that is really ignorant and full of hypocrisy. While our society promotes, glorifies, and advertises alcohol consumption like it’s an All American pastime.
There is nothing worse about relaxing with a little marijuana after a long, hard day, than having a drink or two of alcohol.
So come off those high horses of yours. Who are you to dictate to the rest of society that we can’t enjoy Marijuana, the safer choice over alcohol, in the privacy of our own homes?
We’ve worked real hard our whole lives to provide for our loved ones. We don’t appreciate prohibitionists trying to impose their will and morals upon us all.
Has a marijuana user ever tried to force you to use it? Probably not. So nobody has the right to force us not to either.
Don’t try to impose your morality and “clean living” upon all of us with Draconian Marijuana Laws, and we won’t think you’re such prohibitionist hypocrites.
Legalize Nationwide! Support Each and Every Marijuana Legalization Initiative!
Red meat, smoke, mari, porn, freedom, LSD, hash, well , who do you vote for ?
Cannabis has nothing to do with any of the others except freedom. I’ll vote for freedom, and to legalize cannabis!
Porn.
‘The price of an ounce of marijuana in Uruguay should not be up to some “pot bureaucrat” sitting in Montevideo, it should be up to individual buyers and sellers in the marketplace.’
It is exactly that LOW price (less than 90 cents a gram they plan on selling it for.. in the US it can run as high as 2025 bucks a gram) that will help destroy the black market. I certainly can’t imagine any ‘buyers’ complaining.
I can already see this one coming. Guess what…there’s a little thing called the commerce clause which would allow the Feds regulate weed on a national level. End of story.
Thomas • 4 hours ago
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Guess this means Tom Ervin favors legalizing drugs?
Of course, but it’s not politically wise to be cracking down on state-supported marijuana initiatives. Times are a changing. The feds will get in line once they figure out how to get sufficient tax revenue from the states that have legalized it.
Benghazi, benghazi, Have fun worthless people.
it’s like some kind of virus.
the greatest plant in the universe is almost free, LET FREEDOM RING! 13
10 grams? that’s not freedom, that’s nazi…i use twice that a day and can buy 1000 times that in cali, the real nobel peace prize fighter…..20 years behind us Uruguay, took you long enough
“any doctor against marijuana is a doctor of death” – cali secret 420
from 0 states to half the country, from low 20% approval to almost 70%, cali runs this planet by 2 decades, time to tie marijuana to the 2014, 2016 elections, out with the old, in with the new
20 years behind us southern states, sad and scary….nobody denies freedoms like the south, nobody…the top ten incarcerators on the planet are southern states…even if marijuana reforms did pass the republiCANTS in charge would deny you all your freedoms, centuries of practice…no matter though, we never planned on getting your backwards brethren from day one, half the country already but not one southern state, lol…not 1….the new generations are taking over in the south and they are nothing like their freedom denying parents, let’s ride…
Deaths by Alcohol and Tobacco: Millions
Deaths by Prescription Drugs: Quadrupled in last decade
Deaths by Guns: Millions
Deaths by the food we are fed: Millions
Deaths by Marijuana: 0, ever…they are killing my American family while denying freedom
love and freedom forever
AMERICA’S WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON AMERICANS! 33
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all plants are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, marijuana strains of all types will wave in the Southern breeze, and liberals and conservatives will be able to sit down and smoke together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the depth and horizons of their imagination but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama black men and women will be able to get stoned with white men and women as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
In Santa Cruz County California here are some stats on how much a person who has a medical marijuana license can grow, LOTS.
http://www.canorml.org/medical-marijuana/local-growing-limits-in-california#SantaCruz
I can’t believe Fits News wrote this story.
Here is a thumbnail sketch describing how drug abusers deceive themselves:
Drunkenness is a deliberate excess in the use of intoxicating drink or drugs to the point of forcibly depriving oneself of the use of reason for the sake of gratifying an inordinate desire for such drink and not for the sake of promoting health. This is contrary to, specifically, sobriety. Sobriety regulates your desire and use of intoxicants, and is vitally necessary for a productive life. The crime of intoxication lies in the violence committed against your nature by depriving it of the use of reason. You deprive yourself of that which makes you human – your cognitive ability to think. The drunk and in this case the pot smoker, desires this loss of reason because of the feeling of liberation which accompanies it precisely from this lack of control of the will over the reason.
Now let’s look at what is the real problem. The government is pushing psychotropic drugs on children depriving them of vital cognitive development thus creating a permanent inability to think and reason!
Consider that 1 in 13 children or 7.5% of all US children are prescribed one or more types of psychiatric drugs. Consider Medicaid boasts 9.9 percent of children taking drugs for behavioral problems, as opposed to 6.7 percent of children covered under private insurance.
In 2010, James P. Morris, Ph.D. and George Stone, LCSW showed empirically 8 million US children take one or more psychotropic drugs. We need to get kids off drugs.
Getting kids off of these drugs is the only battle we need to wage not getting government out of taxing dope.
Look at the train of thought from most commentators on your blog. Do you really think weed is their answer? The years of substance abuse in their formative years, seven to 18, has given our society unthinking, unproductive idiots. Adults do not need dope at 7-11’s and kids do not need dope in their lockers. Weed would no doubt be in elementary schools if it were legal. See Denver. WTF kind of society are you clammering for anyways?
Medical marijuana is something I can support. Prescription only that is.
To recap: Those who abuse drugs are screwing themselves up. Government that pushes psychotropic drugs on children must be taken down with extreme prejudice.