Vote for Pot!

I am all for the legalization of this plant. It has been shown to have a usefulness and versatility that is unrivaled in the plant kingdom.

I know it can be misused and even abused, but so can a spork in the hands of an idiot. The biggest problem I can see in trying to get this plant legalized is this. In all of my research, I cannot find one candidate that supports legalization that I would vote for. It is an important cause for me, as I am tired of seeing lives ruined, not by the plant, but the Prohibitionist system. But there are many important causes that are being fought for in this country.

I can't see myself voting for a thinly veiled socialist who happens to support legal cannabis, but will further erode the rights and freedoms I was supposed to have all along. Sad state of affairs really, but we must fight for what is most important first and work our way down from there. I cannot tell anybody what is most important.

Just my opinion.

Boba

That's mostly my fault. Another time, another place.

S,

The only thing a cannabis user is a severe threat to is 'Cake' :-)

As mentioned earlier in the thread(thanks), as a good edition to the topic vid, here's the info:

Pot at the Polls: Oregon, Alaska Cast Pivotal Votes on Legal Marijuana

Residents of Oregon and Alaska will decide whether to follow Colorado and Washington, which in 2012 approved the world’s only regulated markets in the drug. The vote could double the number of states where adults can buy, sell, and consume cannabis—which includes marijuana in all its forms—and set the table for 2016, when at least six more states are expected to decide whether to tax and regulate what President Nixon once called “the scourge of youth.”

Hopefully this time, they voted when Wash. and Co did voted it in, can pass it this time. I figure it will pass in Alaska for sure.

Tuesday is also a big day for marijuana in the District of Columbia and Florida. Residents of the capital are expected to pass a measure that would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to two ounces of marijuana, and grow up to six plants in their homes. Floridians, meanwhile, are expected to vote down a measure that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Source

Wow, sad, maybe they can turn it around. Gotta P off Fl's Police State hold.

Guam has passed the medical marijuana initiative. Seems to have gotten at least 56% of the vote. What, 44% are against improved medicine?

THE PERPETUATION OF WAR

Have you noticed in the past few years how getting your doctor to prescribe pain killers for legitimate pain has become a more and more painful process? Some of you might have even experienced feeling like you were being criminalized when asking your doctor or medical staff for a refill? Let me tell you why this is happening.

If a patient has legitimate pain that is documented by their doctor they are usually prescribed an opiate pain killer such as codeine, Vicodin, norco, codone, or for high pain levels Oxycontin. The trend seems to be that a doctor will place a patient on these opiate based meds for some time but then later seems to be required to some how get you off of the pain killers even though the pain hasn't changed. Many doctors claim that their senior staff have come down upon them urging them to lighten up on the opiate prescriptions and in doing so the patient is then required to taper off the pain meds or just quit cold turkey. Why is this?

If you notice on the written prescription you get from the doctor there's what's called a DEA number, which is a number issued by the Drug Enforcement Agency that is then monitored by the DEA. We have reason to believe that it is this agency that has been pressuring doctors for the past few years and in many cases even threatening the doctors with taking away their license to practice should they not lighten up on the opiate prescriptions. There are a multitude of cases now in which this heat has come down to the patient level and culminated in the patient leaving their doctor all together (I have left my doctor of 18 years and the VA entirely and have no medical as a combat disabled warrior). The problem is that the patient will seek out another doctor and in a few months be in the same situation again. As this cycle perpetuates the patient gets to a point where they begin to seek out their medicine from other sources, including family, friends, accomplices and in many cases the streets. What a horrible thing you might say but it gets worse.

When a person spends money on the streets to get their pain killers do you know who they are funding? They are funding the cartels, the terrorists and the ISIS's. As more and more heat comes down upon doctors by the DEA more and more patients are forced to look elsewhere and in the process, unbeknownst to the patient, they are now funding the very thing they are fighting. We have coined this process and cycle, "The Perpetuation of War".

At this point it isn't difficult to view this cycle as a funding model; of job security for those at the DEA, and in fact other agencies. When its all added up one need no longer wonder as to why we do war whether it be the hugely FAILED, "War on Drugs" or the wars in Iraq/Afghan; the picture is lucid clear that WE, America, perpetuate our own wars. If you get creative with this model example you will begin to see that similar modeled cycles are happening throughout the entire US system. It is time to put a halt to such models, cycles and practices. It is time for America to WTF up and realize the sheer truth of the matter, and I am talking about YOU, every single one of you American citizens are accountable for this! It is no longer just your tax dollars funding these wars, nor is it your whore appetite for consumption and material funding these wars. Ask ANY marine or soldier RECENTLY returning from AFGHAN and they will tell you, THE war in Afghanistan IS AN OPIUM WAR!

You are ALL being worked in every which way possible, and more. It is high time to wake up and begin to starve for all things TRUE, and become the executioner of ALL THINGS GOOD. It's either this or continue being the punked people, the nation that allowed their own agencies to feed off their own until their national ass was ate up and spent completely.

A multi-war combat disabled US Army Veterana reply to: JesseVentura

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
I am all for the legalization of this plant. It has been shown to have a usefulness and versatility that is unrivaled in the plant kingdom.

I know it can be misused and even abused, but so can a spork in the hands of an idiot. The biggest problem I can see in trying to get this plant legalized is this. In all of my research, I cannot find one candidate that supports legalization that I would vote for. It is an important cause for me, as I am tired of seeing lives ruined, not by the plant, but the Prohibitionist system. But there are many important causes that are being fought for in this country.

I can't see myself voting for a thinly veiled socialist who happens to support legal cannabis, but will further erode the rights and freedoms I was supposed to have all along. Sad state of affairs really, but we must fight for what is most important first and work our way down from there. I cannot tell anybody what is most important.

Just my opinion.

Boba

But if the other guys return to full power, they will likely go after the 'legal', medical dispensers on federal grounds......when they decry the 'socialist' who doesn't enforce the laws, have you noticed they don't all specify which laws they are referring to, while they seem to be talking about immigration law in some cases, I personally don't think they'll be able to resist the windfall they could get from using those other federal laws that are 'still on the books' to go after a bigger cash cow...............

I know it can be misused and even abused, but so can a spork in the hands of an idiot

Well said.

The idea of criminalizing a plant is just ridiculous. Heck, you can grow poppies perfectly legal...and yet you could make OPIUM from these... So, why the disconnect? It's a bit silly.

It'll be interesting to see the long term statistics in states where it is legal, effect on crime, drug use, etc.

I'm going to sound a bit radical here ......IMO A person's position on whether or not cannabis/hemp should be legal is the perfect litmus test to show whether that person is an unreasonable/irrational person or one with a not so neighborly agenda. Because anyone that thinks a government should have the right to limit/prohibit access to ANY naturally occurring plant ( One that by assumption was here before we were ). Especially a plant that has demonstrated the usefulness of cannabis/hemp. It can be assumed that this person is not a reasonable/rational person or they have an agenda.

I want to make it clear that I do not mean in any way that a person who chooses not to use cannabis/hemp is irrational, only those who would prohibit others from using it.

a reply to: IAM13

Do you know how to grow Poppies ? If so you can take care of youself. The better fight is to legalize access to ALL plants.

Specifically, this particular plant combats the nausea which is an awful side effect of my wife's many pain medications. Because of these meds, she can get up and go to work each day, and be productive, but the downside is she isn't able to eat without nausea.

This silly little herb relieves this problem. Yet, the law says that even though less addictive than alcohol or cigarettes, she can't use it legally.

a reply to: IAM13

I agree. The DEA has no business having access to personal medical records.

The doctors who negligently prescribe pain killers are out there, but very few. Now that all the pill mills have been shut down, the DEA seem to feel like they need to investigate everyone for possible drug abuse. The NSA has a goal of total collection of information and they have been sharing intel with the DEA.

I feel like drugs and drug abuse has been turned into a strawman argument geared at shifting the blame from the real problems that are causing unrest around the nation such as the growing inequality of wealth and loss of decent paying jobs.